Linear vs piecewiselinear
Self-hosted for $4/mo on hetzner CAX11, versus $8-$16/user/mo on Linear.
Side-by-side
| Linear | piecewiselinear (self-hosted) | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | $8-$16/user/mo | $4.13/mo flat (any team size) |
| Hosting | Linear's servers | Your VPS (hetzner CAX11) |
| Data ownership | Linear controls the data | Your disk, your encryption |
| Source code | Closed | Open (MIT) |
| Customization | API + integrations only | Full source access; modify freely |
| Maintenance burden | Zero | Backups + updates (manual) |
| Health score (ossreplace) | — | 51 / 100 |
Why teams leave Linear
- Cloud-only with no self-hosting option
- Per-seat pricing for teams >10
- Data export is limited; vendor lock-in risk
- Cannot integrate deeply with on-prem tooling
piecewiselinear answers this by: Plane gives the same fast keyboard-driven issue tracking with sprints + roadmaps, fully self-hosted.
The cost math
Assumes 5-person team using Linear at the midpoint price ($12/user/mo).
| Period | Linear | piecewiselinear on hetzner | You save |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly | $60 | $4.13 | $55.87 |
| Yearly | $720 | $49.56 | $670.44 |
| 3 years | $2,160 | $149 | $2,011 |
Deploy piecewiselinear now
One-click deploys at the cheapest provider for this workload:
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Common questions
Is piecewiselinear a good alternative to Linear?
piecewiselinear is an open-source, self-hostable alternative to Linear with an ossreplace health score of 51/100 — a composite of project activity, maturity, community, security, and adoption. It runs on your own hetzner VPS from $4.13/mo with full source access under the MIT license, versus Linear's $8–16/user/mo hosted plans.
How much cheaper is piecewiselinear than Linear?
A 5-person team pays about $60/mo on Linear. Self-hosting piecewiselinear on hetzner CAX11 costs a flat $4.13/mo regardless of team size — roughly $2,011 less over three years (93% lower).
Is piecewiselinear hard to self-host?
piecewiselinear self-hosts on your own VPS. You handle the install, backups, and updates yourself in exchange for full data ownership and no per-seat fees.
Do you keep control of your data with piecewiselinear vs Linear?
Yes. Because piecewiselinear runs on your own server, the data lives on your disk under your encryption. With Linear, Linear controls the hosting, storage, and access.