Mainline vs Linear

Linear is the best sprint tool on the market. Mainline is for teams that have decided not to run sprints.

	Mainline	Linear
Primary unit of work	User story on a story map	Issue on a sprint board
Estimation model	Lead-time distributions from your team's actual history	Story points (optional but encouraged)
Backlog	None. A backlog is a landfill.	First-class concept
People per story	As many as are working on it. Solo, pair, or ensemble.	One assignee. You cannot put a second person on an issue.
What "done" means	Released to users	Configurable, usually "merged" or "deployed to staging"
Deploy / release lifecycle	Deploy and release are separate events. A story cannot be released until it has been deployed.	No native distinction
Who can see what	Every view is the same view, including the manager's	Configurable views, manager dashboards available
Per-developer metrics	None. Surveillance is not a feature.	Available via the analytics surface
WIP enforcement	One active story per person - enforced, not suggested	Suggested via WIP limits in board settings
Pricing model	Flat. Free for one person. $99 / 8 people. $179 / 16 people.	Per seat. $8-$16 / user / month.
What happens if your team grows past the price band	Start a second Mainline	Per-seat cost grows with headcount
Data export	Full JSON export including complete event history	CSV and JSON export
Worldview encoded in the data model	Continuous flow with paired delivery	Sprint-based execution with high polish

When to choose Mainline

You have chosen continuous flow over sprints. You pair, and you measure lead time instead of velocity.

You run sprints and want the best implementation of them, or your org is bigger than 16 people and growing. Then Linear is the right answer.

We also have comparisons against Jira, Asana, and Miro. If you'd like to see Mainline compared to a tool we haven't covered, email us.

Free for one person. Team trials run 14 days, no card.

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