Last updated: 2026-11-06
Founded in 2018, LinearB is an engineering intelligence platform from Ori Keren and Dan Lines. It turns Git, ticket and CI/CD data into DORA metrics, automates pull request policy with gitStream, and measures the impact of AI coding tools. Its benchmark set draws on more than 6 million pull requests, according to the vendor's pricing page.
About LinearB
Ori Keren and Dan Lines started LinearB in 2018 after running large engineering teams. The platform pulls commit, pull request, ticket, build and AI coding tool data into one model and turns it into delivery metrics: the four DORA measures, cycle time, review time and project progress. LinearB's homepage frames this as a context layer that serves both people and AI agents, and says the company is a Leader in the 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Developer Productivity Insight Platforms.
Where it differs from a dashboard-only product is that it also acts on the data. gitStream workflow automation routes, labels and approves pull requests by policy, AI code reviews and automatic PR descriptions run inside the Git workflow (dedicated tools such as CodeRabbit also do this job), an AI assistant answers questions about your engineering data, and an MCP server lets coding agents such as Claude Code, built by Anthropic, query the same numbers. LinearB's homepage demo, which runs on sample data, shows the AI view comparing assistants such as GitHub Copilot on cost per pull request, and the pricing page lists AI impact measurement on both plans. Teams that run Cursor or Windsurf alongside Copilot are the natural buyer for that view.
The buyer is usually a VP or director of engineering, a platform engineering team or a developer experience lead who has to show the board what AI tooling is returning. The Enterprise plan adds the finance-facing layer: Monte Carlo project forecasting, resource allocation and investment profile reports, on-prem agents, capitalization of R&D cost for finance, and developer automations in Slack and Microsoft Teams. LinearB runs as a web platform with no desktop or mobile app, and connects to GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket and Azure DevOps for code and to Jira and Azure Boards for tickets, with more than 40 further integrations listed on its site.
Pricing is public, which is unusual in this category. Both plans charge by seat with yearly billing, and the AI features draw on monthly credits that grow with the plan. Essentials supports GitHub Cloud only and is aimed at mid-size teams; Enterprise is for larger organisations and adds custom plans for large deployments. Essentials starts with a free trial that needs no credit card. By contrast, Waydev quotes every plan through sales. The exact prices sit in the plan table on this page.
LinearB suits neither a very small team nor a shop whose code is not on GitHub Cloud and wants the cheaper plan, and it will disappoint anyone after a lasting free tier. On security, the vendor lists SOC attestations on its pricing page, and its security page says it takes a shallow clone only to read Git metadata and deletes it once processed, so no code is stored. LinearB closed a Series B round in 2022 led by Tribe Capital, per VentureBeat. If the open question is which assistants deserve a seat at all, read Hokai's guides to the best AI coding assistants and the best AI code review tools first, or weigh Cursor against Claude Code directly, and note that GitHub publishes its own Copilot usage reporting.
Pricing
Essentials: $29 per user per month, billed annually. Includes 1,000 AI credits per user each month, extra credits from $0.015, GitHub Cloud only, built for teams of 50+ developers, 45-day trial with no credit card. Enterprise: $59 a seat each month on yearly billing, with an allowance of 1,500 AI credits per user, built for 100+ developers, custom plans for large deployments, sold through a sales conversation.
Only users assigned to at least one team count as billable. Prices read from linearb.io/pricing on 2026-11-06. For comparison, Waydev quotes every plan by sales.
| Tier | Monthly price | What it includes |
|---|---|---|
| Essentials | $29/mo | Entry plan for GitHub Cloud teams. Programmable workflows, developer surveys, auto-PR descriptions, AI impact measurement, AI code reviews and the MCP server. |
| Enterprise | $59/mo | Larger-organisation plan. Everything in Essentials plus the finance, forecasting and on-prem additions detailed in the comparison table. |
Feature Comparison by Tier
| Feature | Essentials | Enterprise |
|---|---|---|
| Price per user per month (annual billing) | $29 | $59 |
| AI credits per user each month | 1,000 | 1,500 |
| Built for | 50+ developers | 100+ developers |
| Developer productivity insights module | — | ✓ |
| Project tracking and forecasting | — | ✓ |
| Resource allocation and investment profile | — | ✓ |
| R&D cost capitalization reporting | — | ✓ |
| On-prem agents | — | ✓ |
| Slack and Teams developer automations | — | ✓ |
Key Features
- DORA and delivery metrics: Tracks deployment frequency, lead time, change failure rate and time to restore from Git, ticket and CI/CD data, with benchmarks drawn from more than 6 million pull requests per LinearB's pricing page.
- gitStream workflow automation: Applies policy to pull requests in Git: routing, labels, approvals and test runs follow rules the team writes, so a review standard is enforced instead of reported afterward.
- AI impact measurement and AI code review: Shows AI-driven and human-driven code delivery in one dashboard and reviews code changes automatically, metered by monthly AI credits.
- MCP server and AI assistant: Exposes engineering data to coding agents through an MCP server and answers questions about delivery in natural language.
- Forecasting and cost reporting (Enterprise): Monte Carlo project forecasting, resource allocation, investment profile and R&D cost capitalization reports, all listed as Enterprise additions.
- Developer surveys: Runs developer experience surveys inside the platform so sentiment sits next to the delivery numbers.
Pros
- Both paid plans carry a public per-user price on annual billing, where Waydev quotes every plan through sales.
- Essentials can be trialed without a credit card, so a team sees its own sprint data before any purchase order.
- Enterprise adds finance-facing reports, including R&D cost capitalization and an investment profile, listed as Enterprise additions.
- The pricing page lists SOC 1 Type II and SOC 2 Type II attestations for the platform.
- LinearB's homepage says Gartner named it a Leader in the 2026 Magic Quadrant for Developer Productivity Insight Platforms.
Cons
- Essentials supports GitHub Cloud only and is built for teams of 50 or more developers; Enterprise assumes 100 or more.
- AI features run on monthly credits, and usage beyond the plan allowance is billed extra.
- Billable seats include every user assigned to a team, so the bill grows with engineering headcount.
- LinearB has no always-free tier, and the trial limits are not published on the pricing page.
- A 2023 G2 reviewer asked for summary scorecards for senior leadership and more actionable insights, and said the first rollout view that compared individuals caused friction.
Data Handling
- Compliance
- SOC 1 Type II · SOC 2 Type II
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does LinearB cost in 2026?
Essentials is $29 per user per month on annual billing, and each user gets 1,000 AI credits a month; it supports GitHub Cloud only. Enterprise is $59 per user per month on annual billing with an allowance of 1,500 credits, and LinearB offers custom plans for large deployments. Extra AI credits start at $0.015 each. Seats are counted for people placed on a team, so users outside any team do not add to the bill.
Does LinearB have a free plan?
Nothing stays free after the trial. The pricing page offers a free trial of Essentials with no credit card required, and Enterprise starts with a conversation with sales. The page does not publish the trial limits, so confirm the credit allowance when you sign up.
What should you use instead of LinearB?
LinearB's own comparison pages set it against Jellyfish, DX and Swarmia, so read those vendors' pricing pages before you shortlist. The closest comparison on Hokai is Waydev: it quotes every plan by sales and puts its AI ROI modules on the Premium plan, where LinearB prints per-user prices and includes AI impact measurement on both plans.
What separates LinearB from Waydev?
Price transparency and automation. LinearB prints its per-user prices; Waydev quotes every plan per active contributor. LinearB adds gitStream pull request automation, AI code reviews and an MCP server, which Waydev's plan list does not mention. Waydev reads more code hosts on its entry plans, including Gerrit and Azure DevOps, whereas LinearB's Essentials plan is GitHub Cloud only, so a team outside GitHub Cloud should price Waydev first.
How do you set up LinearB?
Start the 45-day Essentials trial from the pricing page, then connect GitHub Cloud and a ticket source such as Jira (cloud or on-prem) or Azure Boards. LinearB organizes users into teams through its onboarding APIs and takes a shallow clone of each repository only to read Git metadata, which it deletes after processing, per its security page. Essentials is aimed at mid-size teams, so a very small team will find the trial oversized.
Top Alternatives
- Waydev: Pick LinearB if you want public per-user prices and pull request automation; pick Waydev if your code lives outside GitHub Cloud.