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Which is the better project management for Mac in 2026?
We compared Height and Linear across 5 key factors including price, open-source status, and community adoption. Both Height and Linear are excellent project management. Read our full breakdown below.
All-in-one project management tool
Modern issue tracking and project management
Both Height and Linear are excellent project management. Height is better for users who prefer polished experiences, while Linear excels for those who value established ecosystems.
| Feature | Height | Linear |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Open Source | No | No |
| Monthly Installs | N/A | N/A |
| GitHub Stars | N/A | N/A |
| Category | Productivity | Productivity |
brew install --cask heightbrew install --cask linear-linearHeight was an autonomous project management and collaboration tool that utilized AI to streamline workflows, primarily for product teams. Its core purpose was to automate repetitive tasks like bug triage, backlog pruning, and spec updates, aiming to free up teams to focus on core product development. Designed for software development teams, product managers, and even cross-functional departments like marketing and HR, Height offered a centralized workspace with flexible tasks, multiple views (Spreadsheet, Kanban, Gantt, Calendar), and extensive customization. The platform launched a significant 'Height 2.0' update at the end of 2024, which introduced more AI automations. However, the company announced its shutdown, with operations ceasing on September 24, 2025. This critical information means Height is no longer a viable option for new or ongoing projects, and existing users must plan for data migration.
Height offered flexible tasks and sub-tasks, allowing users to define custom attributes and create tasks directly from chat messages. This enabled a highly adaptable system for categorizing, prioritizing, and assigning work. Users could set due dates and assign tasks to team members, providing a comprehensive yet fluid approach to managing individual and team responsibilities. The system was designed to integrate seamlessly with communication flows, ensuring context was maintained from discussion to action item. Its structure allowed for broad applicability across different team functions, not just development.
Verdict: Linear wins for its unparalleled speed and developer-centric efficiency in task management, though Height offered more flexible, chat-integrated task creation.
Height championed 'autonomous project management,' leveraging an AI engine to automate routine tasks. This included bug triage, backlog pruning, and spec updates, aiming to reduce manual overhead. The platform also provided built-in automation capabilities for custom workflows and triggers, allowing teams to define rules for task progression and notifications. Its AI was designed to learn and adapt, theoretically improving over time to handle more complex scenarios. This focus on intelligent automation was a key differentiator, aiming to free up team members for more strategic work.
Verdict: Linear's predictable and development-optimized automated workflows provide a more reliable experience, especially given Height's reported issues with its AI update.
Height provided a versatile array of views to visualize projects and tasks, including Spreadsheet, Kanban, Gantt, and Calendar views. This flexibility allowed users to adapt the tool to their preferred working style, whether they needed a detailed list, a visual board for progress tracking, a timeline for dependencies, or a calendar for scheduling. The ability to switch between these views offered a comprehensive understanding of project status and resource allocation, catering to different roles and planning needs within a team. Its adaptability was a strong point for diverse teams.
Verdict: Height offered a broader range of traditional project views, while Linear excels in its streamlined, development-focused visualization, making it a tie depending on specific needs.
Height featured a robust chat function deeply integrated with tasks and projects, facilitating real-time discussions directly within the context of the work. This integration provided immediate context for team conversations, including visibility into AI activity and its reasoning. It aimed to centralize communication around work items, reducing the need to switch between separate communication platforms. The system was designed to foster transparency and ensure that all team members had access to relevant discussions and decisions related to tasks and projects, promoting a unified collaborative environment.
Verdict: Linear's real-time updates and seamless external integrations make it highly effective for collaborative development, surpassing Height's internal chat for many teams.
Height connected to common productivity and design apps such as Slack and Figma, allowing for streamlined workflows and contextual information sharing. For engineering teams, it offered integrations with popular version control systems like GitHub and GitLab, enabling a connection between code repositories and project tasks. These integrations aimed to centralize information and reduce context switching, ensuring that updates from external tools could flow into Height, and vice-versa, providing a more unified workspace for various team functions.
Verdict: Linear's deeper, more automated integrations with core development tools make it superior for engineering teams, streamlining workflows more effectively than Height.
Height allowed for organizing tasks into 'lists' which could represent projects or clients, providing a flexible way to group related work. It also supported the creation of 'projects' for managing larger, more strategic initiatives, enabling teams to define scope and track progress at a higher level. While it offered various views, its approach to roadmapping was more focused on flexible organization rather than opinionated sprint management. This allowed for adaptability across different planning methodologies, from agile sprints to more traditional project timelines.
Verdict: Linear's structured 'Projects' and 'Cycles' are perfectly tailored for agile development roadmapping, offering a more robust and streamlined planning experience than Height.
Height offered extensive customization options, allowing users to tailor the platform to their specific preferences and workflows. This included highly customizable keyboard shortcuts, various themes for visual personalization, the ability to define custom attributes for tasks, and flexible status groups. This level of customization meant that teams could truly make Height their own, adapting its interface and functionality to match existing processes and individual working styles, reducing friction and enhancing user comfort. It was a key aspect of its user-centric design.
Verdict: Height historically offered more extensive and free-form customization options, especially for UI and attributes, while Linear provides sufficient but more constrained customization within its opinionated framework.
Height enabled users to efficiently filter tasks and projects to collect specific items into simple, custom views. Its search functionality allowed for quick retrieval of information across the workspace, helping users to organize and focus on relevant work. The filtering system was intuitive, supporting various criteria to narrow down results and create dynamic lists based on assignee, status, due date, or custom attributes. This capability was crucial for managing large volumes of tasks and ensuring that team members could quickly find what they needed.
Verdict: Linear's blazing-fast, keyboard-driven search and advanced filtering capabilities make it superior for quickly finding and organizing work, especially in large development environments.
For a startup founder, Linear is the clear choice. Its free plan supports up to 25 users, offering all core features without cost, which is ideal for early-stage companies. Linear's focus on speed, streamlined development workflows, and tight integrations with developer tools means engineering teams can hit the ground running, maximizing efficiency from day one. Its scalability to paid plans is smooth, and its active development ensures it will grow with the company, unlike Height's impending shutdown.
An Agile Development Team Lead migrating from Height will find Linear to be an excellent fit. Linear's 'Cycles' and 'Projects' are perfectly aligned with agile methodologies, providing structured sprint planning and roadmap visualization. Its emphasis on speed and keyboard-driven navigation will appeal to developers, and its automated workflows can replace some of Height's AI features with predictable, reliable processes. While some customization might differ, the core benefits of efficiency and developer-centric design make it a strong successor for agile teams.
While Height aimed for broader cross-functional use, its shutdown makes it impossible. For a cross-functional team, Linear, despite its developer-centric focus, can still be a strong contender. Its clarity, robust search, and shared views allow marketing, sales, or operations teams to track progress and collaborate on tasks related to product development. While it may require some adaptation for non-engineering workflows, its speed and integration capabilities ensure all teams stay informed and connected to the core product work, leveraging its strengths for transparency.
A product manager who valued Height's AI automation will need to adjust expectations. While Linear doesn't offer 'autonomous project management' AI, its robust automated workflows, custom issue templates, and automated status updates provide reliable, predictable automation for many routine tasks. The focus is on streamlining the development process through intelligent system design rather than generative AI. This ensures efficiency without the potential for disruptive or buggy AI interventions reported with Height's 2.0 update, offering a more stable and controlled automation experience.
For a budget-conscious team seeking a long-term solution, Linear is the only viable option. Its free plan is highly generous, supporting up to 25 users with unlimited core features, making it an excellent starting point. As the team grows, the Standard plan offers unlimited users at a competitive price point, providing scalability without breaking the bank. Height's historical free plan was attractive, but its impending shutdown means any investment of time or effort into it would be wasted, making Linear a financially sound and sustainable choice.
Migrating from Height to Linear is a necessary step for all Height users before September 24, 2025. The process typically involves exporting your data from Height, likely in CSV or JSON format. Once exported, you would then import this data into Linear. Linear supports CSV imports for issues, which is the most common method. You'll need to map your Height fields (e.g., task name, description, assignee, status) to Linear's issue fields. For more complex data or custom attributes, Linear's robust API can be utilized for a more tailored migration script. It's crucial to plan this process well in advance to ensure data integrity and minimize disruption.
Migrating from Linear to Height is not a feasible or recommended path due to Height's impending shutdown on September 24, 2025. Any effort to transfer data to Height would result in a temporary solution at best, followed by another forced migration. If a user needs to move data out of Linear to another platform, Linear offers comprehensive export functionalities. Workspace administrators can export all issues, projects, and related data as a CSV file from the 'Settings > Administration > Import/Export' section. This exported data can then be used to import into a different, actively maintained project management tool.
When switching, prioritize critical data like tasks, descriptions, and assignees. Clean up old or irrelevant data before export. Map fields carefully between tools to avoid data loss. Utilize API options for complex migrations if CSV isn't sufficient. Test the migration with a small subset of data first to ensure accuracy before a full transfer.
Winner
Runner-up
The comparison between Height and Linear is definitively skewed by Height's impending shutdown. While Height once offered an innovative, AI-driven approach with extensive customization, its discontinuation makes it an unviable choice. Linear, in contrast, stands as an exemplary project management tool, particularly for software development teams. It wins across virtually all critical criteria, from future viability and performance to developer-centric workflows and reliable automation. Its consistent updates, robust community, and transparent pricing further solidify its position. For any team seeking a sustainable, high-performance solution, Linear is the unequivocal recommendation, serving as a powerful replacement for those forced to migrate from Height.
Bottom Line: For any team needing a reliable project management solution today, Linear is the clear and only choice; Height's impending shutdown renders it obsolete.
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Last verified: Feb 15, 2026
Accessed Feb 15, 2026
Accessed Feb 15, 2026
Accessed Feb 15, 2026
Accessed Feb 15, 2026
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