Timely vs Linear
A detailed comparison to help you choose between Timely and Linear.
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Verdict: Linear wins
Linear scores 4.5/5, edging out Timely at 4.0/5. Product and engineering teams roughly 5-500 people that ship on cycles and want a fast, keyboard-driven tracker with strong GitHub/GitLab integration and light-touch AI triage.
Timely AI automatic time tracking | Linear Fast issue tracking built for software teams | |
|---|---|---|
| Rating | 4.0 (1 review) | 4.5 (1 review) |
| Pricing Model | paid | freemium |
| Starting Price | From $11/mo | Free tier available |
| Best For | Freelancers, consultants and professional-services teams whose billing depends on accurate time records and who will never reliably run a manual timer. | Product and engineering teams roughly 5-500 people that ship on cycles and want a fast, keyboard-driven tracker with strong GitHub/GitLab integration and light-touch AI triage. |
| Free Tier | ||
| API Access | ||
| Team Features | ||
| Open Source | ||
| Tags | mobile app | free tierteam featuresapi access |
| Visit Timely → | Visit Linear → |
Timely
Pros
- + Draft timesheets came out 85-90% accurate after two days of capture in my testing, cutting weekly review to about ten minutes
- + The correction loop learns: three manual re-tags and later drafts routed those document types correctly on their own
- + Privacy by default — raw activity stays in the employee's private timeline; managers see logged time, not activity streams
- + API access is included even on the $9/user Starter plan (timely.com/pricing)
- + Automatic tracking, idle detection, billable rates and budgets are on every plan — no core-feature paywalling
Cons
- - No free plan at all: Starter is $11/user monthly ($9 yearly) capped at 5 users and 20 projects
- - Requires the desktop Memory tracker installed — friction in locked-down IT environments and no browser-only mode
- - Draft accuracy depends on how identifiable your work is; heavy generic browser work means more manual cleanup
- - Team planning, accounting/PM integrations and cost management are Premium-and-up only
- - Deploying 'records everything on your computer' software still needs an explicit workplace policy, defaults notwithstanding
Linear
Pros
- + Speed is real and measurable: ~5.4s issue creation vs 47s for Jira Cloud in GAX's May 2026 benchmark, and the keyboard-first flow matched that direction in my own use
- + Triage Intelligence does useful work — 73/81/84% assignee/project/label accuracy in one third-party test, and duplicate bug detection cut clutter in my runs
- + GitHub/GitLab integration auto-closes issues on PR merge (94% auto-link success in the same benchmark) so board state stays honest without manual updates
- + Free plan allows unlimited members, so the whole company can watch the board at $0, and paid entry (Basic $10/user/month yearly) removes the 250-issue cap
- + Structured discounts are real: 75% off for nonprofits and university staff, a free year for students, up to 6 months of Business free for partner-affiliated startups
Cons
- - Opinionated constraints bite at scale: one project and one assignee per issue, no multi-step approval gates, limited custom field types
- - No issue-level Gantt and no native release/fix-version management — teams approximate releases with labels, a common complaint in reviews
- - Reporting is thin below Business (Insights is $16/user tier) — no custom dashboards or multi-project rollups without BI export via API
- - Guests are billed as full members and there is no read-only viewer role, which inflates cost when stakeholders need visibility
- - Cloud-only with no self-hosting, no Linux desktop app, a thinner mobile app, and 2026 forum reports of slow first loads and sync bugs on rapid edits
Frequently Asked Questions
Which is better, Timely or Linear?▼
Linear scores higher at 4.5/5 vs 4.0/5 for Timely, making it the better-rated option in our comparison.
What is the difference between Timely and Linear?▼
Timely: Timely records what you work on in the background and drafts timesheets from that activity, rather than asking you to start and stop timers. Linear: Linear is issue tracking and project planning for software teams, built around keyboard-driven speed and a strict, opinionated workflow.
Is Timely or Linear more affordable?▼
Timely starts at €11/mo, Linear starts at €0/mo. Check the comparison table above for current pricing.
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