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Milestones vs Linear

A native Apple planner for personal projects vs a polished issue tracker for software teams. Both are beautiful, opinionated tools — for very different jobs.

Download on the App Store Free · Works on iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

Linear is, for a lot of indie developers, the most beautiful issue tracker ever built. Cycles, projects, issues, sub-issues, triage — all wrapped in keyboard-first UI and tight Slack/GitHub integration. It's designed for software teams that ship continuously.

Milestones is built for the *single* person planning their own work. Project → Milestone → Task, no cycles, no triage queues, no team admin. It's native iOS, iPadOS, and macOS, and it sync privately through iCloud.

If you're running a small team building a product, Linear is probably the right tool. If you're a solo person who keeps copy-pasting Linear's free tier into yet another team workspace just to track your own things, Milestones is closer to the shape of your problem.

Feature comparison

Milestones vs Linear

  • Built for

    Milestones

    Single users planning their own projects

    Linear

    Software teams shipping continuously

  • Platforms

    Milestones

    iOS, iPadOS, macOS — all native SwiftUI

    Linear

    Web, macOS, iOS, Android (web/Electron-derived)

  • Planning model

    Milestones

    Project → Milestone → Task

    Linear

    Project / Cycle → Issue → Sub-issue

  • Cycles / sprints

    Milestones

    No — milestones with deadlines instead

    Linear

    First-class cycles with auto-rollover

  • Account required

    Milestones

    No account, no signup

    Linear

    Linear account + workspace required

  • Sync

    Milestones

    Private iCloud sync (your iCloud)

    Linear

    Linear servers

  • Offline

    Milestones

    Local-first; full offline editing

    Linear

    Mostly online; offline mode possible

  • Keyboard shortcuts

    Milestones

    Standard Apple shortcuts

    Linear

    Industry-leading keyboard-first UX

  • GitHub / GitLab / Slack integration

    Milestones

    None (by design)

    Linear

    Deep, two-way integrations

  • Public roadmaps

    Milestones

    Planned

    Linear

    Yes — public roadmap pages

  • Team collaboration

    Milestones

    Personal use only, Team-collaboration planned

    Linear

    Built around teams

  • Pricing

    Milestones

    Free; optional Pro upgrade

    Linear

    Free for ~10 users; Standard/Plus paid per user

Pick Milestones if

  • You're solo. The 'who's it assigned to' field is always you.
  • You want planning data on your iPhone first, not on a desktop browser.
  • You don't want your personal side projects sitting on a third-party SaaS.
  • You don't ship in two-week cycles — you ship when the milestone is done.
  • You'd rather use a real native Apple app than a beautiful web app.

Pick Linear if

  • You have a team — even just two people. Linear is built for that, Milestones isn't.
  • Your work is genuinely cycle-driven and you live and die by sprint planning.
  • Linear's GitHub / GitLab / Slack / Sentry / Front integrations are core to your workflow.
  • You need a public-facing roadmap or changelog tool tied to issues.
  • Cross-platform access (Windows / Linux teammates) is non-negotiable.

Bottom line

Linear is the gold standard for software-team issue tracking. Milestones is for the single person planning their own projects. If you're using Linear's free tier alone and feeling silly about it, Milestones is what you actually want. If your team is more than one person, stay with Linear.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Can Milestones replace Linear for my team?

No — and it shouldn't. Milestones is intentionally single-user. If two or more people need to coordinate on the same backlog, Linear (or Jira, GitHub Projects) is the right tool. Milestones is for the planning *next to* your team's tracker — your personal commitments, your side projects, your own quarter.

Does Milestones integrate with GitHub / Sentry / Slack like Linear does?

No, on purpose. Integrations are noise when you're the only person looking at the planner. Most indie developers we talk to want a calm, separate place to think about what to build — not another inbox of webhooks.

What about cycles? I'm used to working in two-week cycles.

Milestones doesn't have cycles. The closest concept is the active milestone with a target date — pick a two-week window, set the date, mark it active. The model is deadline-first rather than cadence-first.

Is Milestones as fast as Linear?

On Apple devices, faster — Milestones is a real native SwiftUI app, Linear's desktop is a web app in Electron. On the web, Linear has no peer; Milestones doesn't have a web app at all.

I'm an indie developer who already uses Linear — can both work together?

Yes. Plenty of indie devs keep Linear for issues / engineering work and use Milestones for higher-level planning ('Q3 priorities', 'launch checklist') that doesn't deserve a workspace of its own.

Plan your own work without setting up a workspace.

Free, native, private. Built for one person — you.

Download on the App Store

Free · No account required · Private iCloud sync