OpenHelm vs Linear
Choose Linear to plan and track product development: it is excellent at issues, projects and cycles, and its Agent and Loops now automate parts of that work. Choose OpenHelm for the growth and upkeep of a live product (content, SEO, bug fixes from Sentry, customer email), and expect many teams to use both.
Facts checked . OpenHelm wins 4 rows, Linear wins 3.
| OpenHelm | Linear | Better at it | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free; Basic $9 per seat a month billed yearly ($11 monthly); Business $14 yearly ($17 monthly) | Free; Basic $10 and Business $16 per user a month billed yearly; Enterprise custom | Tie |
| Issue tracking and planning | Has tasks and goals, but it is not an issue tracker | Fast, well designed issues, projects, cycles and roadmaps | Linear |
| Recurring agent work | Jobs run once, on an interval, on cron, after another job, on inbound email or on a webhook | Loops run Linear Agent on a schedule or on workspace events (Business and Enterprise, using AI credits) | Tie |
| What the agents work on | The live product: its site, repository, Search Console, analytics and inbox | Your Linear workspace: triage, issues, documents and updates, with context from code and MCP servers | Tie |
| Content and SEO | Keyword plan, posts published to your repo, indexing checks, GEO audits, weekly reporting | Not in scope | OpenHelm |
| Production bugs | A Sentry issue or customer bug email wakes a job that fixes, deploys and verifies in production | Linear Agent can triage bug reports and run coding sessions (AI credits) | OpenHelm |
| Customer email | A real inbox per product; replies held for approval, sent with a notification, or sent automatically | Linear Asks brings requests into Linear as issues (Business plan) | OpenHelm |
| AI costs | Runs on your own Claude Code or Codex subscription or a local model use no credits | AI credits pay for Loops and coding sessions | OpenHelm |
| Team collaboration | Owner, Admin, Member and Viewer roles; viewers are free | Built for whole product teams, with GitHub and Slack integrations | Linear |
| Enterprise controls | Row-level security per organisation; no SOC 2 or ISO certification | SAML and SCIM on Enterprise | Linear |
| Free tier | 50 AI credits a month for the workspace | Unlimited members, 250 issues and 2 teams | Tie |
Choose Linear if
- You need to plan and track engineering work: issues, projects, cycles and roadmaps.
- You're moving off Jira and want something faster.
- You want agents that triage bug reports and keep documents and release plans up to date inside your tracker.
- You need SAML and SCIM for a larger organisation.
Choose OpenHelm if
- Your product is live and nobody is doing the growth work: content, SEO and AI visibility.
- You want production bugs from Sentry or customer email fixed, deployed and verified, not just triaged.
- You want customer email answered from a real product inbox, with approvals by risk.
- You want agents to run on your own Claude Code or Codex subscription.
Price. As published on the day we checked.
- OpenHelm
- Free, then from $9 per seat a month billed yearly ($11 monthly). Runs on your own Claude Code or Codex subscription use no credits. Live prices
- Linear
- Free with 250 issues and 2 teams. Basic $10 and Business $16 per user a month billed yearly. Enterprise is custom and billed yearly. Loops need Business or Enterprise and use AI credits.
Questions
Can I use Linear and OpenHelm together?
Yes, and many teams would. Linear is where you plan and track the product; OpenHelm runs the recurring growth and upkeep work on the live product. They answer different questions.
Is OpenHelm a Linear alternative?
Not for issue tracking. OpenHelm has tasks and goals so agents can ask for your decisions, but if you need a tracker for engineering work, Linear is the better tool.
How do Linear Loops compare with OpenHelm jobs?
Both are recurring agent work run on a schedule or an event. Loops act on your Linear workspace. OpenHelm jobs act on the product itself: publishing posts, checking Search Console, fixing bugs through to production and replying to customers.
Which is cheaper?
Per seat, OpenHelm is slightly cheaper: Basic is $9 against Linear's $10, and Business $14 against $16, both billed yearly. Linear's free tier suits a small team tracking issues; OpenHelm's includes 50 AI credits a month.
Give your product a team that never clocks off.
Start free in the browser, or run it on your Mac with your own Claude Code or Codex plan.