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OpenSourceAlternatives

Linear alternatives

4 projects to consider for your Linear workflows.

3 open source · 1 custom license

Explore Plane, Erxes and Kaneo. Each takes a different approach to your Linear workflows. Read its capabilities and limitations to find the right fit.

Catalogue facts checked August 31, 2026

Plane

Issue tracking and planning without per-seat pricing

Open sourceAGPL-3.0Self-hosted

Product and engineering teams that want Linear-class planning without per-seat plan gates benefit most from Plane. One workspace covers custom work items with formulas, auto-scheduled cycles, milestone modules, five views, typed dependencies, Intake triage, wikis, and self-managed git apps. The constraint is operational maturity: advanced Intake, SSO, approvals, and audit sit on paid tiers, and self-hosting needs technical operators. Teams that can own either Cloud seats or self-hosted operations should default to Plane; teams embedded in Atlassian governance and marketplace depth should stay on Jira.[1][2][3]

Good fit. Product and engineering teams wanting Linear-class planning without per-seat plan gates: the full feature set ships on every tier and the free tier covers up to 12 users.[1][2]

Keep in mind. Non-technical teams wanting turnkey simplicity: workflows, formulas, automations, and self-hosted operation assume technical operators who own configuration and infrastructure.[1][2]

Repository review signals: unknown status, very stale · Observed August 31, 2026.

Read project review Official website
Sources and editorial review

Source research. Reviewed on October 9, 2026. Written by Sanjib Sah. AI assisted; reviewed by a human editor.

We have not run or tested this product.

  1. Open Source Project Management Software | Plane

    official · Observed October 9, 2026

    Official open-source page: full project-management suite free for unlimited contributors with no paid-tier feature gates; Cycles, Modules, views incl. Gantt, Pages, Plane AI, self-hosted Community edition free forever, AGPL-style open-source code positioning.

  2. Plane Pricing | Simple per-seat plans for teams that ship

    official · Observed October 9, 2026

    Official pricing page: Free up to 12 users; Pro $6/seat/mo annual ($7 monthly); Business $12/seat/mo annual ($14 monthly); Enterprise Grid custom; Intake email/SAML/OIDC/SCIM on Business+; SSO everywhere; AI credits included everywhere.

  3. Plane vs Jira | Agents, Wiki, and Intake in one workspace

    official · Observed October 9, 2026

    Official Plane-vs-Jira comparison: work-item customization incl. formula fields, five views, cycles with burndown/auto-scheduler, dependencies incl. finish-to-start with date shifting, timeline, wiki grids, Intake on every plan, customer/self-managed git apps, Jira importer, open REST API, AI-first search/drafting, Enterprise airgapped parity, 50k+ teams claim.

Erxes

Open-source experience platform for marketing, sales, and support

Open sourceAGPL-3.0Self-hostedManaged hosting

Erxes fits small to mid-sized teams that want marketing, sales, and support in one self-hosted workspace instead of paying for HubSpot plus Zendesk plus Linear. Its plugin-based Experience Operating System covers a shared team inbox, tiered sales pipelines, marketing automation, and task tracking, with a free hosted tier for up to 1,000 contacts. The material constraint is operational maturity: self-hosting needs in-house effort and the independent user-report record is thin at 7 short launch reviews. If you have DevOps capacity and want data ownership, choose the Community Edition; if you need a managed service with minimal setup, choose the hosted Growth plan.[1][2][3][4]

Good fit. Teams currently paying for HubSpot plus Zendesk plus Linear that have someone able to run a self-hosted service gain the most, since one system covers all three workflows.[1][2]

Keep in mind. Teams with nobody to operate a self-hosted service should avoid the Community Edition path, since the vendor itself sells assisted onboarding as a 499 dollar service.[1][2]

Repository review signals: unknown status, very stale · Observed October 5, 2026.

Read project review Official website
Sources and editorial review

Source research. Reviewed on October 9, 2026. Written by Sanjib Sah. AI assisted; reviewed by a human editor.

We have not run or tested this product.

Product Hunt launch page for erxes observed October 2026: 7 short user reviews and maker comments, plus the maker's Retroky skeptics paragraph. Very thin public record: one launch announcement with 7 short reviews and no inspected Reddit or G2 firsthand deployment reports. No prevalence or satisfaction conclusions can be drawn; the section below summarizes only the inspected sample.

  1. erxes/erxes GitHub repository

    official · Observed October 9, 2026

    Official monorepo for the Experience Operating System: tagline unifying marketing, sales, operations, and support; AGPL-3.0 license; about 3,500 stars and 800 forks observed; positions against HubSpot, Zendesk, Linear, and Wix; enterprise plugins under separate license.

  2. erxes official product introduction

    official · Observed October 9, 2026

    Official product introduction: XOS definition, Marketing/Sales/Support/Operations module descriptions, plugin catalogue of 20 plus modules, 25,000-plus company claim (vendor-reported, unverified), and self-hosting documentation path.

  3. erxes official pricing

    official · Observed October 9, 2026

    Official hosted pricing checked October 2026: free tier (1,000 contacts, 2 seats), Growth 19 dollars monthly or 15 dollars annual per seat, Scale from 12,500 dollars per year, 300 dollar credit footnote, 499 dollar onboarding and integration services.

  4. erxes Product Hunt launch page

    community · Observed October 9, 2026

    Launch announcement page: team-inbox positioning, one-team-experience framing, 7 short user reviews praising the open-source approach, maker Retroky skeptics paragraph, 17,500 follower claim (maker-claimed, unverified). Used only as an aggregate interest signal, not a testimonial source.

Kaneo

Open-source, self-hosted project management with boards, Gantt, and GitHub sync

Open sourceMITSelf-hostedManaged hosting

Small software teams frustrated by heavyweight trackers will get the most from Kaneo. Its boards, Gantt timelines, subtasks, dependencies, and two-way GitHub sync cover the core planning workflow with single sign-on included even when self-hosted. The price of that independence is operational responsibility, so teams with no server capacity who also need advanced reporting or sprint analytics should look at a managed incumbent instead. If you can run one container plus PostgreSQL, or pay a few dollars a month for Kaneo Cloud, choose Kaneo; if you need hands-off enterprise process control, stay with Jira.[1][2][3]

Good fit. Small software teams escaping heavyweight trackers: boards, backlogs, and GitHub sync cover the daily workflow without per-project configuration overhead.[1][2]

Keep in mind. Teams with zero server capacity and no cloud budget: self-hosting needs Docker, PostgreSQL, HTTPS, and backup discipline; without that, only the paid Cloud plans fit.[1][2]

Repository review signals: unknown status, stale · Observed October 11, 2026.

Read project review Official website
Sources and editorial review

Source research. Reviewed on October 11, 2026. Written by Sanjib Sah. AI assisted; reviewed by a human editor.

We have not run or tested this product.

  1. Kaneo: Open-source, self-hosted project management

    official · Observed October 11, 2026

    Official homepage; positioning, views, GitHub sync, subtasks, dependencies, SSO, self-host and cloud options, release v2.37.0

  2. Kaneo pricing

    official · Observed October 11, 2026

    Official pricing; free self-host, Cloud Personal $40/yr, Cloud Team $50/user/yr, managed instance, trial terms, support tiers

  3. Self-host Kaneo

    official · Observed October 11, 2026

    Self-hosting docs; container plus PostgreSQL, deployment paths, resource minimums, pre-launch checklist

Sayr

Project management and customer feedback portal in one self-hosted tool

Custom licenseSustainable Use License 1.0Self-hostedManaged hosting

One tool for issues and user feedback, best for small teams Sayr suits a solo founder or small team that wants Linear-style issue tracking and a Canny-style feedback portal without running two products. It is source-available under the Sustainable Use License with Docker Compose self-hosting and a Sayr Cloud that is free up to 5 projects and 10 seats. The tradeoff is youth: the project is pre-1.0, community track record is thin, and workspace SSO and offline support are undocumented.[1][2][3][4]

Good fit. Solo founders and small product teams that currently split work between an issue tracker and a separate feedback tool would consolidate the most value here.[1][2]

Keep in mind. Sayr is pre-1.0 with releases such as v0.7.0 in September 2026; expect breaking changes and a short operational track record.[1]

Repository review signals: unknown status, stale · Observed October 12, 2026.

Read project review Official website
Sources and editorial review

Source research. Reviewed on October 12, 2026. Written by Sanjib Sah. AI assisted; reviewed by a human editor.

We have not run or tested this product.

  1. Sayr official homepage

    official · Observed October 10, 2026

    Positions Sayr as an alternative to Linear, Notion, Jira, and GitHub Projects; lists Free, Pro, and Enterprise plans with self-hosting and cloud options.

  2. Sayr pricing

    official · Observed October 10, 2026

    Lists Free limits, Pro per-seat pricing with MAU quotas, and Enterprise SSO, SLA, onboarding, and EU region select.

  3. Sayr Sustainable Use License

    official · Observed October 10, 2026

    License text grants free use, modification, and self-hosting without seat limits; commercial license required for resale or competing use.

  4. Sayr v0.7.0 release notes

    official · Observed October 10, 2026

    Release notes for v0.7.0 show active pre-1.0 development with board system and public portal work.

Compare Linear alternatives

Known catalogue facts at a glance. Columns with no reviewed values are omitted. “Not reviewed” means unknown, not that a capability is absent.

Known facts for Linear alternatives
ProjectLicense policyHostingDeploymentEnterprise supportBest fit
PlaneAGPL-3.0 · OSI-approvedSelf-hostedNot reviewedNot reviewedNot reviewed
ErxesAGPL-3.0 · OSI-approvedSelf-hosted + ManagedmoderateYesTeams consolidating marketing, sales, and support on one self-hosted platform; Organizations replacing HubSpot or Zendesk with source-available software
KaneoMIT · OSI-approvedSelf-hosted + ManagedmoderateYesSmall software teams wanting simpler project tracking than Jira; Teams required to keep project data on their own infrastructure
SayrSustainable Use License 1.0 · customSelf-hosted + ManagedmoderateYesSolo founders shipping a product with public feedback; Small teams wanting issues and portal in one tool

Before you switch

  • Check that the project covers the workflows and data you need to move.
  • Confirm that the license terms fit how you plan to run, modify, and distribute it.
  • Choose between self-hosting responsibility and a reviewed managed option.
  • Open the project page for repository freshness, review dates, and any unresolved requirements.
About Linear

Linear is fast in a way that changes behaviour. Keyboard navigation, instant sync, and a deliberately narrow feature set mean issues actually get filed, which is the hard part of any tracker.

The opinions are the product. Cycles, triage, and project structure work one way, and teams that want to model something else will fight it. For teams willing to adopt the opinions, it removes an enormous amount of process overhead.

Linear · Free for small teams, paid from $8/user/month · Checked August 31, 2026

Official website
How this list is ordered

Recommended · Organic catalogue order.

A deterministic editorial score using relationship confidence, category fit, logarithmic popularity, as-of maintenance and freshness, with bounded anomaly quarantine and known-data penalties. Payment is fixed at zero.

Payment does not affect organic ranking. Order is a starting point, not a universal recommendation.

OpenAlternative organic alternatives v4 · version 4

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