Linear vs Routine

Linear is in an interesting category. It's in one way a product tool (e.g. focusing on bugs, feature requests, and sprints/cycles), and another part project management (for managing the tasks around the cycles).

The thing is, Linear is very much built for your engineering and product team to tie in all of this information together. You'd be hard-pressed to use Linear as a replacement for the company's general project management tool.

If you're heavily a product-focused company, and most of your employees are engineers and product people though, you can probably get away with just using Linear as your team's project manager.

While some people may say that Asana is a main competitor, we'd probably say that your product/engineering team is trying to fit into the more general project management needs of the rest of the organization.

It's not uncommon for much larger companies to use a general project management tool like Motion or Asana, along with Linear. Heck, even the engineering/product team at Motion uses Linear internally (alongside Motion of course).

The main competitor in this area is really the Atlassian suite (mainly Jira), and, well... Linear is just better and more modern in just about every way. Teams that use Linear often greatly enjoy using it, and have an appreciation for it (hugely advocating it). Whereas teams that use Jira when asked what they think would typically respond with an "it's fine, I guess".

Linear also integrates quite well with modern software like Slack via Dispatch. Their API is a joy to work with, and we're actually starting to see modern teams integrate their software with Linear before even that of Jira. That said, most any enterprise tool will integrate with Jira more likely than Linear. So it really depends on the size of your team and the accompanying stack that you're using.

The last time we checked out Routine, we went in thinking it was was a lightweight daily planner. Fifteen minutes later, we were scared we'd just deleted their entire task database...😂 Search Routine Review Gone Wrong on YouTube and you'll see what we mean.

Routine is a daily planner with lots of features like task scheduling, label creation, and, of course, a calendar, but with so much happening, a lot of the features don't work fully like you'd want them to. The glaring problem is that their execution makes it hard to understand what it actually wants to be 🫠

Routine is says its for busy professionals and modern teams, but we feel like a student or busy parent is a more appropriate audience based on the limited way many of the features work. Maybe someone who wants a free tool to drag tasks onto a calendar, loosely organize their day, or experiment with time blocking, but gosh, as a business, it will not do what it needs for you. It has a free tier (which is rare in this category), but we can definitely see why, so if you decide to try it, lower your expectations.

• Has a free tier (rare in this category)
• Drag-and-drop task scheduling onto calendar
• Tasks can contain detailed notes

• Not a ton of integrations
• Not intuitive (basic actions require trial and error)
• Labels system adds complexity without clear payoff
• Feels unstable (easy access to database-level settings)
• Too basic for a primary business calendar
• Identity crisis: calendar vs. daily planner vs. knowledge management tool

Routine allows you to create tasks and drag them directly onto your calendar. You can adjust time blocks and rearrange your day visually. The time-blocked task planning works, but it feels basic.

They even tried integrating natural language, but even that has its hang-ups. For example, when creating a task, typing "3 days" schedules it for December 3rd instead of three days from now. To get the result you're looking for, you have to type "in 3 days." A small detail that shows good intention, but poor execution.

Routine introduces a labels system that acts almost like a relational database. You can assign labels to tasks and events and view counts across categories.

In theory, this would allow for deeper organization, but in practice, it feels like an added mental load. You can see numbers, but you won't extract any valuable insight.

Again, we have some clarity issues. Routine has tasks that function as full notes, so you have the option to expand well beyond a simple checklist item. This leans into their "all-in-one" ambition, and looks like they were attempting to blend planning with knowledge management.

However, the separation between tasks and notes is confusing, and it's not always clear where things live or how they relate.

• Free: Best for individuals & students looking to become more productive.
• Professional: $10/mo. Best for professionals who want AI notes and time tracking capabilities.
• Business: $15/mo per user. Best for teams who want workspaces and access control.
• Enterprise: Contact for more details. Best for large teams in need of extra security.