Mewboard vs Linear: which one fits a small team?
Linear is a polished, fast tracker for software teams, and it has been the reference for a long time. Mewboard is a smaller, free tracker for studios, freelancers and small teams who also work with an AI assistant. This page says where each is stronger. Facts about Linear were checked on 15 October 2026.
The short version. Choose Linear if you run a software team that wants cycles, roadmaps, GitHub and Slack integrations and is happy to pay per seat. Choose Mewboard if you are a small team or studio that wants a simple tracker that costs nothing, takes requests from clients by Telegram and email, and shares one board with Claude.
At a glance
| Mewboard | Linear | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | 5 people and 5 projects per workspace, 500 MB of files, no limit on issues | Free: 250 issues, 2 teams, unlimited members |
| Paid plans | None yet. We will tell you before anything changes. | Basic $10 and Business $16 per user per month, billed yearly |
| AI agents and MCP | Remote MCP server, sign-in with OAuth, works with Claude, Claude Code and any MCP client. Agents can have their own named account. | Official remote MCP server (OAuth) for Claude, Cursor, Codex and others, plus its own agent platform |
| Requests from clients | Every project can have a Telegram bot link and its own email address: messages become issues, with the files | Integrations such as Zendesk and Intercom on the Business plan |
| Views | Board, list, timeline, calendar and milestones, all included | Board, list and timeline views, plus cycles and roadmaps |
| Several clients | A separate workspace per client, invitation links, a viewer role for the client | Teams inside one company workspace |
| Your data | Hosted in the EU. One ZIP with everything and all files, any time. | Hosted service with export options |
Linear: linear.app/pricing and linear.app/docs/mcp, 15 October 2026. Check the vendor pages for current prices.
Where Mewboard is the better fit
- It is free for a small team, with no issue cap. A studio of three can keep every project, every old issue and every file without watching a counter or choosing a plan.
- Clients can write to the board without an account. A forwarded Telegram message or an email to the project address becomes an issue. A reply with the issue number in the subject becomes a comment. Nothing is copied by hand.
- One workspace per client. Invite the client as a viewer, give a freelancer access to one project only, and keep everyone else out.
- The AI is a colleague, not a feature. Claude connects by URL with its own sign-in, reads a whole issue with its comments and pictures in one call, and writes under its own name. Everything it does appears live for the team.
- Your language. The interface, the emails and the Telegram bot speak 13 languages.
Where Linear is better
We would rather you choose well than choose us. Linear is stronger today in:
- Planning for software teams: cycles, roadmaps and initiatives, sub-issues and relations between issues. Mewboard has none of these yet.
- Integrations: GitHub, GitLab, Slack and many more. Mewboard has a REST API and MCP, but no ready-made integrations or webhooks.
- Enterprise needs: single sign-on, audit logs, advanced permissions and analytics.
- Polish and ecosystem: years of work on speed, keyboard control, native apps and a large community.
Who should pick which
Pick Linear if
- you are a product or engineering team that plans in cycles
- your issues must link to pull requests and Slack threads
- you need SSO and audit logs
- paying per seat is fine
Pick Mewboard if
- you are a studio, a freelancer or a team of up to five
- clients send you work by Telegram or email
- you work with Claude and want it on the same board
- you want to pay nothing and keep your data portable
Moving over
There is no importer yet. For a small backlog the fastest way is to ask Claude: connect both, and let it read the issues from one and create them in the other. We will build a proper importer if enough people ask for it.
Try it on one real project.
It takes a minute to sign up, and it is free for up to five people.