Linear vs Notion: Which Should You Choose in 2026?
Choosing between Linear and Notion? We analyzed both tools using our proprietary 100-point scoring methodology. Here's what we found.
🏆 Quick Verdict
Winner: Tie
Both tools scored equally at 88/100.
📊 Score Comparison
Linear
Notion
📈 Detailed Score Breakdown
| Category | Linear | Notion | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Value/Price (30pts) | 25/30 | 25/30 | Tie |
| Competitive Moat (25pts) | 22/25 | 22/25 | Tie |
| Transparency (20pts) | 18/20 | 18/20 | Tie |
| UI/UX (15pts) | 14/15 | 14/15 | Tie |
| Tech Maturity (10pts) | 9/10 | 9/10 | Tie |
✅ Pros & Cons
Linear
Strengths
- Linear provides a generous free tier that supports unlimited members and essential features for small teams.
- The pricing structure for Basic and Business tiers is clear and transparent, detailing per-user monthly costs with annual billing.
- The product includes extensive AI-powered features designed to enhance productivity and provide insights.
- Linear offers robust integrations with popular development, communication, and support platforms.
- Enterprise-grade security features, including SAML, SCIM, and audit logs, are available for larger organizations.
Weaknesses
- The pricing for the Enterprise tier is not publicly disclosed, requiring direct contact with sales.
- Key analytical and organizational features like Dashboards and Sub-initiatives are exclusively available in the Enterprise plan.
- Premium support options such as an Account Manager and Uptime SLA are restricted to the Enterprise tier.
Notion
Strengths
- Notion provides a comprehensive all-in-one platform for various company needs.
- A generous free tier is available for individuals to manage personal projects and life.
- AI capabilities are integrated across all paid plans, including a trial for the free tier.
- Enterprise plans offer robust security and compliance features, including SAML SSO, SCIM, and audit logs.
- Pricing is clearly structured with a discount for annual payments.
Weaknesses
- The free plan has limitations on blocks for teams, restricting collaborative use.
- Automations are basic and limited to buttons only in lower tiers.
- Notion Mail AI is only available as a limited trial for Plus and Business plans.
- Custom domains and branding incur an additional 'Pay per domain' cost across all paid plans, including Enterprise.
🏰 Competitive Moat Analysis
Linear
Linear establishes a strong moat through several key differentiators. Its focus on speed and a highly refined user experience, particularly for product and engineering teams, creates high switching costs once workflows are established. The integration of advanced AI features like 'Triage Intelligence,' 'Linear Asks,' and 'Issue discussion summaries' provides a significant competitive edge by automating and enhancing common project management tasks, which is not universally offered by competitors. Furthermore, comprehensive enterprise-grade security features (SAML, SCIM, Audit logs, HIPAA compliance) and extensive integrations with critical tools like Slack, GitHub, Zendesk, Intercom, and Salesforce ensure deep embedding into organizational tech stacks. The generous free tier also acts as an effective top-of-funnel acquisition strategy, allowing teams to experience the product's core value before committing to paid plans.
Notion
Notion's primary moat is its comprehensive, all-in-one platform approach, integrating notes, project management, databases, AI, and communication tools (Mail, Calendar) into a single workspace. This creates significant switching costs for users and teams who have built their workflows within Notion. The advanced AI capabilities, particularly the 'Zero data retention with LLM providers' for Enterprise, offer a strong competitive edge in data privacy and security for AI-powered features. The extensibility through a public API and webhooks further solidifies its position by allowing deep integration into existing tech stacks. Its strong brand recognition and adoption by major tech companies also contribute to a network effect.
🎯 Our Recommendation
Choose Linear if: Linear offers a highly polished, feature-rich issue tracking and project management solution with strong AI capabilities, comprehensive integrations, and enterprise-grade security, all presented with ...
Choose Notion if: Notion offers a highly comprehensive and integrated workspace solution with strong AI capabilities, clear pricing, and robust enterprise features, providing significant value across individual, small ...
Our Methodology
This audit uses Onyx Protocol's standardized evaluation methodology, scoring products across 5 categories: Value/Price (30pts), Competitive Moat (25pts), Transparency (20pts), UI/UX (15pts), and Technical Maturity (10pts). Each category is assessed based on publicly available information.
- This analysis is based on publicly available information at time of audit
- Pricing and features are subject to change
- Individual use cases may have different requirements
- Not a substitute for hands-on evaluation or free trial
Last updated: January 03, 2026. Scores may change as products evolve.