The fast, focused Linear alternative
Linear is fast and beautifully focused, but it's closed-source and cloud-only. Kaneo gives you a clean, focused workflow on Kaneo Cloud, and you can run it yourself whenever you want.
Short answer: is Kaneo a good Linear alternative?
Kaneo is a fast, uncluttered Linear alternative, and Kaneo Cloud runs it for you from $4 a month, or $5 per user for teams. It keeps keyboard-friendly boards, backlog, and workflows, and it does not try to reproduce Linear's cycles, triage, or insights. Unlike Linear, it is MIT-licensed open source, so you can also run it on your own Docker host.
- License
- MIT, versus a proprietary licence for Linear
- Hosting
- EU-hosted Kaneo Cloud, or self-host anywhere. Linear is cloud only
- Single sign-on
- Free on every Kaneo build, paid plans on Linear
- Pricing
- Cloud from $4 / month, or $0 self-hosted
| Feature | Kaneo | Linear |
|---|---|---|
| Open source (MIT) | Yes | No |
| Self-hostable | Yes | No |
| Own your data | Yes | No |
| Fast, focused UI | Yes | Yes |
| Free to self-host | Yes | No |
| SSO included | Free | Paid plans |
| Cloud pricing | From $4/mo | Per user |
Linear details checked on 19 August 2026. Linear pricing, Kaneo pricing.
Why teams choose Kaneo
Clean and focused
Kaneo is built around the same idea Linear popularized: a fast, uncluttered way to plan and execute, without the SaaS lock-in.
Open and self-hostable
Run Kaneo on your own infrastructure under the MIT license, keep your data in-house, and never depend on a vendor staying online.
Honest pricing
Free forever to self-host with every feature, including SSO. Managed cloud from $4/month, with no seats-gated features.
Kaneo imports Linear teams from the app with a personal API key: workflow states, issues with their numbers, priorities, labels, assignees, comments, and relations. Linear is only read, never changed. Read the import guide.
When Linear is the better choice
Linear sets the bar for polish, speed, and deep product-team features like cycles and triage. If you're committed to cloud SaaS and want that specific, highly-refined workflow, it's excellent. Kaneo is for teams who want a clean experience they can actually own.
Kaneo vs Linear, answered
Can Linear be self-hosted?
No. Linear is a closed-source SaaS product with no self-hosted or on-premise edition. If running the tracker on your own infrastructure is a requirement, you need an open-source tool such as Kaneo, Plane, or Huly.
What is the best open-source Linear alternative?
Kaneo, Plane, and Huly are the three usually named. Kaneo is MIT licensed and the smallest of the three to run and understand. Plane is AGPL and larger. Huly is EPL-2.0 and bundles chat, documents, and HR alongside tracking.
Does Kaneo have keyboard shortcuts and a fast UI?
Yes. Kaneo is built as a single-page React app with realtime updates over WebSockets, so boards stay in sync without reloads. It is deliberately smaller in scope than Linear, which is what keeps it quick.
How does Kaneo pricing compare to Linear?
Kaneo is free to self-host with every feature including SSO, and its cloud is $4 a month for one user or $5 per user a month for teams. Linear is priced per user with a free tier capped by issue count, and SSO on its paid plans.