Open Source Alternatives to Linear 2026

TL;DR

Linear is beloved for its speed and clean UX — $8/user/month for the Pro plan. Three strong open source alternatives: Plane (AGPL 3.0, ~31K GitHub stars) is the closest in UX with issues, cycles, modules, and roadmaps. Focalboard (MIT, ~22K stars) is Mattermost's Trello-like board tool. Leantime (GPL 2.0, ~4K stars) adds strategic project management with goals and lean methodology. All three are self-hostable via Docker.

Key Takeaways

Plane: AGPL 3.0, ~31K stars — closest to Linear, full issue tracker + roadmaps + cycles
Focalboard: MIT, ~22K stars — board/table/calendar views, Notion-like, Mattermost integration
Leantime: GPL 2.0, ~4K stars — strategic PM with OKRs, lean/agile, time tracking
GitLab Issues: Already in your GitLab install if you're self-hosting — no extra cost
Linear cost: $8/user/month Pro; a 10-person team saves $960/year self-hosting
Best pick: Plane for developers wanting Linear-like UX; Focalboard for board-centric teams

Comparison Table

Feature	Plane	Focalboard	Leantime	Linear Pro
License	AGPL 3.0	MIT	GPL 2.0	Proprietary
GitHub Stars	~31K	~22K	~4K	—
Cost (10 users)	Free	Free	Free	$80/month
Issues / Tasks	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Roadmaps	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Sprints / Cycles	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Modules	Yes	No	No	Yes
Views	List/Board/Gantt/Spreadsheet	Board/Table/Gallery/Calendar	Board/List/Gantt	List/Board/Roadmap
Sub-issues	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
GitHub integration	Yes	No	Limited	Yes
Time tracking	No	No	Yes	No (plugin)
OKR / Goals	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
REST API	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Tech stack	Python + React	Go + React	PHP + MySQL	Proprietary

Option 1: Plane — Linear-Like Issue Tracker

Plane is purpose-built as a Linear alternative. It has the same core concepts: Issues, Cycles (sprints), Modules (features), and Roadmaps.

Plane Docker Setup

# docker-compose.yml
services:
  plane-web:
    image: makeplane/plane-frontend:stable
    container_name: plane-web
    restart: unless-stopped
    command: node web/server.js web
    depends_on:
      - plane-api
      - plane-worker

  plane-api:
    image: makeplane/plane-backend:stable
    container_name: plane-api
    restart: unless-stopped
    command: ./bin/beat &>/dev/null & ./bin/django-server
    env_file: .env
    depends_on:
      - plane-db
      - plane-redis
      - plane-minio

  plane-worker:
    image: makeplane/plane-backend:stable
    container_name: plane-worker
    restart: unless-stopped
    command: ./bin/worker
    env_file: .env
    depends_on:
      - plane-api

  plane-db:
    image: postgres:15-alpine
    restart: unless-stopped
    volumes:
      - plane_db:/var/lib/postgresql/data
    environment:
      POSTGRES_DB: plane
      POSTGRES_USER: plane
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: "${POSTGRES_PASSWORD}"

  plane-redis:
    image: redis:7-alpine
    restart: unless-stopped
    volumes:
      - plane_redis:/data

  plane-minio:
    image: minio/minio:latest
    restart: unless-stopped
    command: server /export --console-address ":9090"
    volumes:
      - plane_minio:/export
    environment:
      MINIO_ROOT_USER: "${AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID}"
      MINIO_ROOT_PASSWORD: "${AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY}"

  plane-nginx:
    image: makeplane/plane-proxy:stable
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "80:80"
    environment:
      FILE_SIZE_LIMIT: 5242880     # 5MB
      BUCKET_NAME: uploads
    depends_on:
      - plane-web
      - plane-api
      - plane-minio

volumes:
  plane_db:
  plane_redis:
  plane_minio:

# Plane provides a setup script for .env generation:
git clone https://github.com/makeplane/plane.git
cd plane
cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env: set POSTGRES_PASSWORD, SECRET_KEY, AWS credentials for MinIO

docker compose up -d

Visit http://your-server → create workspace → create project.

HTTPS with Caddy

plane.yourdomain.com {
    reverse_proxy localhost:80
}

Plane Core Concepts

Workspace: Top-level org (like a GitHub org)
Projects: Individual repos or product areas
Issues: Tasks with states, priority, assignee, labels, due dates
Cycles: Time-boxed sprints — drag issues into a cycle, track velocity
Modules: Feature groupings that span across cycles
Views: Saved filter+sort combinations (e.g., "My P0 issues this week")
Pages: Notion-like docs attached to a project

Option 2: Focalboard — Board-Centric Task Management

Focalboard is Mattermost's open source Trello/Notion alternative. Strong views: Kanban board, table, gallery, calendar. Built-in to Mattermost but also runs standalone.

Focalboard Docker Setup

# docker-compose.yml
services:
  focalboard:
    image: mattermost/focalboard:latest
    container_name: focalboard
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "8000:8000"
    volumes:
      - focalboard_data:/data
      - ./config.json:/opt/focalboard/config.json:ro

volumes:
  focalboard_data:

// config.json
{
    "serverRoot": "https://board.yourdomain.com",
    "port": 8000,
    "dbtype": "sqlite3",
    "dbconfig": "/data/focalboard.db",
    "postgres_dbconfig": "",
    "useSSL": false,
    "webpath": "./pack",
    "filespath": "/data/files",
    "telemetry": false,
    "session_expire_time": 2592000,
    "session_refresh_time": 18000,
    "localOnly": false,
    "enableLocalMode": true
}

docker compose up -d

Visit http://your-server:8000 → create account → create board.

HTTPS with Caddy

board.yourdomain.com {
    reverse_proxy localhost:8000
}

PostgreSQL for Production

{
    "dbtype": "postgres",
    "dbconfig": "postgres://focalboard:password@postgres:5432/focalboard?sslmode=disable"
}

Focalboard Views

Board: Kanban columns (group by Status, Assignee, Priority, or any property)
Table: Spreadsheet with all cards as rows
Gallery: Card grid with cover images — great for design projects
Calendar: Cards on a date grid

Templates included: Project Tasks, Sprint Planning, User Research, Bug Tracking, Content Calendar.

Option 3: Leantime — Strategic Project Management

Leantime goes beyond issue tracking into strategic PM — OKRs, lean canvas, retrospectives, time tracking. Good for product teams who need goal alignment.

Leantime Docker Setup

# docker-compose.yml
services:
  leantime:
    image: leantime/leantime:latest
    container_name: leantime
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "8080:80"
    depends_on:
      - mysql
    environment:
      LEAN_DB_HOST: mysql
      LEAN_DB_USER: leantime
      LEAN_DB_PASSWORD: "${MYSQL_PASSWORD}"
      LEAN_DB_DATABASE: leantime
      LEAN_APP_URL: "https://pm.yourdomain.com"
      LEAN_SESSION_PASSWORD: "${SESSION_SECRET}"
      LEAN_EMAIL_USE_SMTP: "true"
      LEAN_EMAIL_SMTP_HOSTS: "smtp.yourdomain.com"
      LEAN_EMAIL_SMTP_PORT: 587
      LEAN_EMAIL_SMTP_USERNAME: "noreply@yourdomain.com"
      LEAN_EMAIL_SMTP_PASSWORD: "${SMTP_PASSWORD}"
    volumes:
      - leantime_userfiles:/var/www/html/userfiles
      - leantime_public:/var/www/html/public/userfiles

  mysql:
    image: mysql:8.0
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      MYSQL_DATABASE: leantime
      MYSQL_USER: leantime
      MYSQL_PASSWORD: "${MYSQL_PASSWORD}"
      MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: "${MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD}"
    volumes:
      - mysql_data:/var/lib/mysql

volumes:
  leantime_userfiles:
  leantime_public:
  mysql_data:

docker compose up -d
# Visit http://your-server:8080/install to complete setup

HTTPS with Caddy

pm.yourdomain.com {
    reverse_proxy localhost:8080
}

Decision Guide

Choose Plane if:

You want the closest open source equivalent to Linear
Developer team managing software issues + sprints + roadmaps
You need GitHub/GitLab integration for linking commits to issues
API-first workflow automation

Choose Focalboard if:

Team is already using Mattermost (built-in integration)
You prefer board/Trello-style visual task management
Non-dev team (marketing, design, content) managing projects
Simple setup, no sprint/cycle concepts needed

Choose Leantime if:

Product strategy matters — OKRs, goal alignment, lean canvas
You need time tracking and project budget tracking
Agile/Scrum ceremonies (retrospectives, sprint planning docs)
Small agency or consulting team managing client projects

Stick with GitLab Issues if:

You're already self-hosting GitLab
Team is developer-focused and lives in GitLab MRs
You don't need roadmaps or OKRs

See all open source project management tools at OSSAlt.com/categories/project-management.

See open source alternatives to Linear on OSSAlt.

Why Internal Process Matters More Than Feature Parity

When teams compare project management, ERP, wiki, or CRM tools, they often overvalue surface-level feature parity and undervalue process fit. A self-hosted replacement succeeds when it matches the team's review cycle, approval flow, naming conventions, and ownership model. If the new platform forces everyone to relearn basic operations without a clear operational gain, adoption stalls. The better lens is to ask how the tool supports the cadence of the business: weekly planning, handoffs, customer follow-up, documentation updates, and cross-functional visibility.

That is why adjacent services are part of the evaluation. Outline guide matters because documentation quality strongly affects the success of any internal system rollout. Authentik guide becomes relevant as soon as there are multiple internal apps and a need for centralized onboarding or offboarding. n8n guide is often the practical glue for notifications, approvals, and record synchronization across tools. In other words, the application should be judged as part of a workflow, not a standalone purchase substitute.

How to Introduce a New Internal Tool Without Fragmentation

The safest adoption pattern is to migrate one process end to end. Pick a real workflow such as lead intake, incident triage, project planning, or inventory review. Run it fully in the new system for a month. Capture where people create duplicates, fall back to spreadsheets, or lose context. Those frictions tell you more than a checkbox comparison ever will. They also expose whether the tool's data model fits how the team actually works.

Articles in this category are more useful when they explain operational boundaries: which teams should own configuration, which fields should be standardized early, and which integrations are optional until the core process is stable. The goal is not to recreate every enterprise feature on day one. It is to build an internal platform that reduces chaos instead of relocating it.

Decision Framework for Picking the Right Fit

The simplest way to make a durable decision is to score the options against the constraints you cannot change: who will operate the system, how often it will be upgraded, whether the workload is business critical, and what kinds of failures are tolerable. That sounds obvious, but many migrations still start with screenshots and end with painful surprises around permissions, backup windows, or missing audit trails. A short written scorecard forces the trade-offs into the open. It also keeps the project grounded when stakeholders ask for new requirements halfway through rollout.

One more practical rule helps: optimize for reversibility. A good self-hosted choice preserves export paths, avoids proprietary lock-in inside the replacement itself, and can be documented well enough that another engineer could take over without archaeology. The teams that get the most value from self-hosting are not necessarily the teams with the fanciest infrastructure. They are the teams that keep their systems legible, replaceable, and easy to reason about.

Open Source Alternatives to Linear 2026

TL;DR

Key Takeaways

Comparison Table

Option 1: Plane — Linear-Like Issue Tracker

Plane Docker Setup

HTTPS with Caddy

Plane Core Concepts

Option 2: Focalboard — Board-Centric Task Management

Focalboard Docker Setup

HTTPS with Caddy

PostgreSQL for Production

Focalboard Views

Option 3: Leantime — Strategic Project Management

Leantime Docker Setup

HTTPS with Caddy

Decision Guide

Why Internal Process Matters More Than Feature Parity

How to Introduce a New Internal Tool Without Fragmentation

Decision Framework for Picking the Right Fit

Why Internal Process Matters More Than Feature Parity

How to Introduce a New Internal Tool Without Fragmentation

Change Management Notes

Why Internal Process Matters More Than Feature Parity

How to Introduce a New Internal Tool Without Fragmentation

Why Internal Process Matters More Than Feature Parity

How to Introduce a New Internal Tool Without Fragmentation

The SaaS-to-Self-Hosted Migration Guide (Free PDF)