Project Management & Collaboration

Linear

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Panel rating · 6 judges · How to read the stars

Category median

Sovereignty: 2 of 4 dimensions proven

0–5 in half steps. 5 means the rubric's top anchor is met on the evidence.

by Linear Orbit, Inc. · linear.app

An AI-assisted analysis of public evidence — not a hands-on test.

Every score, rationale and verdict on this page is AI-generated. Every claim cites the source it was read from. Nothing here is a human star review — and no score can be bought. How scores are made →

Method and versions

The Data Protection Officer v1.0 · The Bootstrapper v1.2 · The Enterprise Architect v1.0 · The UX Purist v1.0 · The Integrator v1.0 · The Skeptic v1.2 · rubric v1 · evaluated 15 Sep 2026

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Read this page as one judge. Each weighs the same scores by what they care about.

The Skeptic

Weighted verdict

Assumes the marketing is lying until the evidence says otherwise. Hunts lock-in, dark patterns, hidden cost and dead changelogs. Exists to keep the rest of the panel honest.

Same scores as the panel view — this lens weights them the way this judge cares.

Scored by The Skeptic

Collaboration depth

How this is scored

How much real multi-person project work the tool carries: shared planning, assignments, dependencies, workload, comments, guest access.

0 — A personal task list; a second user has no defined place in it.

3 — Tasks can be shared and assigned, but planning stays per-person — no shared timeline, workload or dependency view.

5 — Solid shared projects with assignments, comments and at least one team-level planning view; gaps appear in cross-project or capacity planning.

8 — Team-level planning is first-class: cross-project views, workload/capacity, dependencies, guest or client access with sane permissions.

10 — Handles the full span from two freelancers to a structured department in one model — planning, capacity, permissions and client involvement all without workarounds.

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The Skeptic

Shared planning is genuinely evidenced — initiatives, roadmaps, cycles, teams assigned to lead initiatives, guest accounts with limited access, private teams — but the evidence is silent on workload/capacity views and on explicit dependency management, so the anchor-8 requirements are half-met on faith, not evidence. 4 1

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Reporting

How this is scored

Whether the tool can answer questions about the work: progress, time, budgets, utilization — and export the answer.

0 — No reporting beyond looking at the board.

3 — Fixed per-project status views only; nothing aggregates across projects and nothing exports cleanly.

5 — Useful standard reports (progress, tracked time) with basic filters and CSV export, but limited customization and no budget/utilization depth.

8 — Configurable cross-project reporting incl. time, budgets and utilization, with dashboards and reliable exports.

10 — Reporting is a product in itself: custom report builder, scheduled delivery, API access to every metric the UI shows.

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The Skeptic

Zero reporting facts anywhere in the evidence: no progress, time, budget, utilization, dashboard or export capability is evidenced — the only analytics-adjacent item is a 3-month audit log of admin events, which answers security questions, not questions about the work. 4 1

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Integrations

How this is scored

How well the tool connects to the rest of the stack: native integrations, calendar/comms hooks, API and webhooks, import/export paths.

0 — A closed box — no API, no integrations, CSV out if anything.

3 — A handful of marquee integrations, no public API or an API that covers a fraction of the product.

5 — The common set (calendar, Slack/Teams, file storage) plus a documented public API; automation platforms partially covered.

8 — Broad native catalogue, well-documented API and webhooks, first-class automation-platform support and real import paths from competitors.

10 — Ecosystem-grade: everything in 8 plus the tool is itself extensible (apps/plugins, AI/MCP surfaces) and exit via API export is complete.

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The Skeptic

API and webhooks are stated, MCP access exists, and Slack automation is real — but the native catalogue evidenced is two names (Slack, and Salesforce as a paid add-on, a hidden-cost flag), with no calendar, no automation-platform coverage and no import/export paths from competitors shown. 2 1

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Onboarding effort

How this is scored

Time and friction from signup to first real value for a small team, without paid services.

0 — No self-serve path — onboarding starts with a sales call and an implementation project.

3 — Self-serve exists but the first project requires configuration a newcomer cannot judge yet (workflows, custom fields, permissions) before anything works.

5 — A team gets a first project running within a day; trial requires payment details or key steps live behind docs.

8 — Signup to working project inside an hour: guided setup, sensible defaults, templates, trial without payment details.

10 — Minutes to value even for non-tool-people, importers pull existing work in, and the tool teaches its own advanced features as the team grows into them.

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The Skeptic

A genuinely self-serve free tier with unlimited members and no card is the right start, but nothing evidences templates, guided setup or importers to pull existing work in, and the free caps (250 issues, 2 teams, 10MB uploads) mean the honeymoon is short before paid tiers enter the picture. 2

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European sovereignty

How this is scored

Where the company and the data actually sit: legal entity, ownership control, data residency, and subprocessor exposure to non-EU jurisdictions.

0 — Non-European vendor, data on US infrastructure under US law, no DPA worth the name.

3 — DPA and GDPR language present, but hosting defaults to the US or ownership sits outside Europe — compliance paperwork over substance.

5 — EU data residency is available and contractually fixed, but the vendor or its controlling owner is non-European, or core subprocessors put data within CLOUD Act reach.

8 — European company under European control with EU-resident data and a public DPA; remaining exposure is limited to identifiable subprocessors (e.g. a US hyperscaler's EU region) and is documented.

10 — European company, European control, EU-only data residency on European infrastructure, subprocessor list free of extraterritorial reach — verifiable, not asserted.

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The Skeptic

San Francisco entity, privacy policy stating the service is 'hosted and operated in the United States', EU residency offered only as an optional checkbox at workspace creation, and SCCs doing the transfer work — this is compliance paperwork over substance, with a US controller whose own CLOUD Act exposure is never addressed and the subprocessor list unconfirmed. 3 4

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Support & documentation

How this is scored

Whether a stuck user gets unstuck: docs quality, support channels and their availability per plan, and the health of the learning surface.

0 — No docs beyond marketing pages; support is a contact form that may answer.

3 — Docs exist but are thin or stale; support on entry plans is effectively email-only with slow turnaround.

5 — Searchable help center covering the core product; chat or email support on all plans with reasonable response times.

8 — Deep, current docs incl. onboarding guides and templates; fast chat support not gated to top tiers; visible changelog.

10 — Docs, academy, community and support so good they are a reason to buy; SLAs published, support quality independent of plan.

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The Skeptic

No help center, academy or changelog appears anywhere in the captured evidence — the only support artifact is a generic hello@linear.app mailbox — and the pricing page reserving 'Priority support' and 'Account management' for Enterprise tells you exactly what the lower tiers don't get. 2 3

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Pricing transparency

How this is scored

Can a buyer determine the real, payable cost of the tool for their team before talking to anyone?

0 — No public pricing at all — every number sits behind "contact sales".

3 — Some tiers are public, but a deciding factor (seat minimums, mandatory add-ons, billing-period surcharge, tax treatment) only surfaces at checkout or in fine print.

5 — Self-serve tiers are publicly priced and the billing-period difference is stated, but the headline number still needs qualifying — e.g. annual-only headline, taxes excluded without saying so, or an opaque enterprise tier doing real work.

8 — Every self-serve tier is fully priced with billing periods and tax treatment plain on the page; only genuinely custom enterprise work lacks a number.

10 — Every tier including enterprise has a public price or published price formula, and the headline number is the number on the invoice.

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The Skeptic

A public pricing page exists with a fully detailed free tier, but the evidence captures no actual dollar figures for the Basic and Business tiers, the Enterprise tier is custom and annual-only, and the Salesforce integration is an add-on with no price shown — so a buyer still cannot determine the real payable cost before talking to sales. 2

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European sovereignty — proven facts

2 of 4 dimensions proven

Built only from facts shown on the vendor's own pages. A dimension we could not prove is left open, not scored as zero.

Legal entity	Not determined ⚠ unverified	—	uncited Report an error
Ownership	Not determined	—	uncited Report an error
Data residency	EU optional ⚠ unverified	1/3 pts	4 Report an error
Subprocessors	US CLOUD Act reach ⚠ unverified	0/2 pts	3 Report an error

Where this could be wrong

Evidence ages. The oldest capture behind this page is from 20 Aug 2026. Vendors change pricing and policies without notice; every fact reflects its source as of the capture date shown in the registry.
Weak sourcing — Legal entity. Not confirmed on the vendor’s own pages as captured.
Weak sourcing — Data residency. The privacy policy separately states the Services are "hosted and operated in the United States", and the region is only selectable when creating a workspace, so EU residency is an opt-in rather than the stated default.
Weak sourcing — Subprocessors. Stripe is named only for payment processing, not workspace content, and the DPA's Exhibit B subprocessor list is elided from the excerpt, so other data-processing providers are not visible.
AI can misread a source. Extraction and judgement are automated; a citation guarantees traceability, not infallibility. If something here is wrong, say so — no account needed, every report is decided within 5 business days, and accepted corrections are published.

What we left out

A claim that does not survive our checks costs us the claim, not the page. This is what was taken off this one.

48 product facts could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and were left out of this page and of the panel’s material. Know more? Tell us
20 compliance facts could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and were left out of this page and of the panel’s material. Know more? Tell us
9 support facts could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and were left out of this page and of the panel’s material. Know more? Tell us
6 pricing facts could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and were left out of this page and of the panel’s material. Know more? Tell us
5 integrations facts could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and were left out of this page and of the panel’s material. Know more? Tell us
5 legal facts could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and were left out of this page and of the panel’s material. Know more? Tell us
4 subprocessors facts could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and were left out of this page and of the panel’s material. Know more? Tell us
2 hosting facts could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and were left out of this page and of the panel’s material. Know more? Tell us
1 sovereignty dimension could not be confirmed on the vendor’s own pages and is shown as unknown. Know more? Tell us
6 of the readings below were written against an earlier fact sheet — a fact has been corrected, added or pulled since. Until the panel next runs on this product you are reading the older judgement. Know more? Tell us
The panel’s written verdict is withheld: our own re-read found claims in it that the evidence does not carry, and a second synthesis did not fix them. The scores and the material below are unaffected. Know more? Tell us

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Sources (15)

The pages every claim on this page was read from — each one checked, dated, and kept verifiable.

1 Vendor homepage linear.app Checked 15 Sep 2026 +3 earlier captures: 15 Sep 2026, 11 Sep 2026, 20 Aug 2026 Details →
2 Vendor pricing page linear.app Checked 15 Sep 2026 Details →
3 Privacy policy linear.app Checked 15 Sep 2026 Details →
4 Security page linear.app Checked 15 Sep 2026 Details →
5 Data processing agreement (dpa) linear.app Checked 30 Sep 2026 Details →
6 Collaboration depth — found from sitemap linear.app Checked 1 Oct 2026 Details →
7 Collaboration depth — found from sitemap linear.app Checked 1 Oct 2026 Details →
8 Reporting — found from sitemap linear.app Checked 1 Oct 2026 Details →
9 Reporting — found from sitemap linear.app Checked 1 Oct 2026 Details →
10 Integrations — found from sitemap linear.app Checked 1 Oct 2026 Details →
11 Integrations — found from sitemap linear.app Checked 1 Oct 2026 Details →
12 Onboarding effort — found from sitemap linear.app Checked 1 Oct 2026 Details →
13 Onboarding effort — found from sitemap linear.app Checked 1 Oct 2026 Details →
14 Support & documentation — found from sitemap linear.app Checked 1 Oct 2026 Details →
15 Support & documentation — found from sitemap linear.app Checked 1 Oct 2026 Details →