Linear vs DigitalOcean
The issue tracking tool built for modern software teams
vs. The developer cloud — Droplets, Kubernetes, Managed DBs, App Platform
Pricing tiers
Linear
Free
$0. Unlimited members. 250 issues. Unlimited file uploads. 2 teams. Slack/GitHub integration.
Free
Basic
$8/user/mo annual ($10/mo monthly). Unlimited issues, 5 teams, admin roles, API access.
$8/mo
Business
$14/user/mo annual. Unlimited teams, Linear Insights, private teams, SSO (SAML, OIDC).
$14/mo
Enterprise
Custom. SAML, SCIM, audit logs, advanced security, HIPAA-eligible, dedicated CSM.
Custom
DigitalOcean
Functions (Serverless)
Free 90k GB-sec/month. $0.0000185 per GB-sec after.
$0 base (usage-based)
App Platform — Free
Static sites free forever. 3 static sites per account.
Free
Droplet — Basic 512MB
Shared CPU, 512 MB RAM, 10 GB SSD, 500 GiB transfer. Cheapest starting tier.
$4/mo
Spaces Object Storage
$5/month — 250 GB storage + 1 TB outbound. S3-compatible.
$5/mo
App Platform — Basic
$5/month per app. 512 MB RAM, 1 vCPU, 1 GB bandwidth.
$5/mo
Droplet — Basic 1GB
Shared CPU, 1 GB RAM, 25 GB SSD.
$6/mo
Kubernetes (DOKS)
Starts at $12/month (1 node). Control plane free.
$12/mo
Droplet — Basic 2GB
1 vCPU, 2 GB RAM, 50 GB SSD, 2 TB transfer.
$12/mo
Load Balancer
$12/month. Supports HTTP/3 + Let's Encrypt.
$12/mo
Managed Postgres — Basic
1 GB RAM, 1 vCPU, 10 GB SSD. Single node.
$15/mo
Droplet — CPU Optimized
2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM dedicated. Best for CPU-bound workloads.
$42/mo
Enterprise
Custom. Volume discounts, dedicated support.
Custom
Free-tier quotas head-to-head
Comparing free on Linear vs functions on DigitalOcean.
| Metric | Linear | DigitalOcean |
|---|---|---|
| No overlapping quota metrics for these tiers. | ||
Features
Linear · 16 features
- Asks — Slack → Linear issue from messages.
- Cycles — Auto-recurring sprints.
- Desktop App — Native macOS, Windows, Linux.
- Documents — Markdown-style shared docs.
- GitHub Sync — Auto-link PRs/commits to issues.
- GraphQL API — Full-featured public API.
- Initiatives — Multi-project strategic groupings.
- iOS + Android Apps — Native mobile clients.
- Issues — Fast CRUD + keyboard shortcuts.
- Labels + Custom Views — Filter + save views.
- Linear Insights — Built-in analytics.
- Parent + Subissues — Hierarchical task breakdown.
- Projects — Milestones + docs + updates.
- Roadmaps — Timeline view with dependencies.
- Triage — Inbox for unassigned issues.
- TypeScript SDK — @linear/sdk generated from GraphQL.
DigitalOcean · 14 features
- App Platform — Heroku-style PaaS. Deploy from Git. Auto-HTTPS, auto-scale, zero-downtime deploy…
- Backups — Weekly automated backups (20% of Droplet cost). Manual snapshots.
- Block Storage Volumes — SSD block storage attachable to Droplets. Snapshot support.
- DigitalOcean GenAI Platform — Managed AI agents, model-as-a-service (Llama, Mistral), knowledge bases.
- DNS — Free DNS hosting for your domains.
- DOKS (Kubernetes) — Managed Kubernetes. Free control plane. Node auto-repair.
- Droplets — Virtual machines with shared or dedicated CPU. 20+ one-click Marketplace images.
- Functions — Serverless functions. Node, Python, Go, PHP, Ruby. Pay-per-execution.
- Load Balancers — Layer 4/7 load balancing with HTTP/3 + Let's Encrypt.
- Managed Databases — Postgres, MySQL, MongoDB, Redis, Kafka, OpenSearch, Valkey. Automated backups + …
- Marketplace — 300+ one-click Droplet + Kubernetes apps.
- Monitoring — Built-in metrics + alerts for Droplets, DBs, Load Balancers.
- Spaces — S3-compatible object storage with built-in CDN.
- VPC — Private networking. Free. Automatic default VPC per region.
Developer interfaces
| Kind | Linear | DigitalOcean |
|---|---|---|
| CLI | — | doctl CLI |
| SDK | @linear/sdk | godo (Go), pydo (official py), python-digitalocean |
| REST | — | DigitalOcean REST API |
| GRAPHQL | Linear GraphQL API | — |
| MCP | Linear MCP | DigitalOcean MCP |
| OTHER | Linear Desktop App, Linear Webhooks, OAuth 2.0 | — |
Staxly is an independent catalog of developer platforms. Some links to Linear and DigitalOcean may be affiliate links — Staxly may earn a commission if you sign up through them, at no extra cost to you. Pricing is verified against vendor pages at publication time — reconfirm before buying.
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