Best 8 Alternatives to LinearB for Engineering Leaders in 2025

These are the best alternatives to LinearB this year:

• Pensero

• Jellyfish

• Swarmia

• Waydev

• Bilanc

• Snapshot Reviews

• Entelligence

• Taito.ai

Engineering leaders often turn to LinearB for its strong DORA metrics and workflow automation capabilities. The platform has built a solid reputation in the DevOps space, particularly for teams focused on delivery velocity and cycle time optimization.

However, LinearB's heavy emphasis on delivery metrics can feel limiting when you need deeper insights into team dynamics, daily work patterns, or qualitative aspects of engineering productivity. The platform targets organizations with 50+ engineers, and its pricing structure reflects this enterprise focus, starting at $49/month for business features.

Many teams find they need more than just velocity measurements. They want to understand the actual substance of their team's work, communicate progress in language that resonates with non-technical stakeholders, and reduce the administrative burden of tracking productivity.

This guide examines eight compelling alternatives to LinearB, starting with platforms that deliver clarity alongside comprehensive metrics.

Why Teams Look Beyond LinearB

LinearB excels at what it was built for: DORA metrics, SPACE framework implementation, and workflow automation for DevOps-focused teams. The platform provides real-time dashboards that track cycle time, deployment frequency, and change failure rates with precision.

But this strength can also be a limitation. Engineering leadership isn't just about optimizing delivery pipelines. It's about understanding what your team is building, how they're collaborating, and whether they're working on the right things.

Teams often look beyond LinearB when they need:

• Human-readable insights instead of technical dashboards. Not every stakeholder understands what "cycle time reduction" means for business outcomes.

• Qualitative understanding of engineering work beyond velocity metrics. Some of the most important work—refactoring, architectural improvements, knowledge sharing—doesn't show up clearly in DORA metrics.

• Flexible pricing that works for smaller teams or growing startups. LinearB's focus on 50+ engineer organizations leaves many teams looking for more accessible options.

• Less complexity in their daily workflow. When you need quick visibility into what happened yesterday or last sprint, navigating comprehensive dashboards can feel like overkill.

The Best Alternatives to LinearB

1. Pensero

Pensero represents a fundamental shift in how engineering intelligence platforms communicate value. Instead of presenting leaders with more dashboards to interpret, it delivers insights in plain language that everyone understands immediately.

Built by a team with over 20 years of average experience in the tech industry, the platform transforms complex engineering data into executive-ready summaries without sacrificing depth or accuracy.

What makes Pensero different

While LinearB focuses on optimizing delivery metrics, Pensero focuses on understanding and communicating the actual work your team accomplishes. The platform's Executive Summaries turn engineering data into simple, human TLDRs every leader understands.

This matters when you're updating stakeholders who don't speak Git, running retrospectives with distributed teams, or simply trying to stay connected to your team's daily progress without micromanaging.

Key capabilities

• "What Happened Yesterday" provides instant visibility into daily team activity that LinearB's sprint-focused dashboards miss.

• Body of Work Analysis assesses actual engineering output over time, going beyond velocity and commit counts to understand the substance and quality of work.

• Executive Summaries automatically generate iteration and sprint summaries in plain language.

• AI Cycle Analysis delivers understanding of how AI coding tools impact your team's workflow.

• Industry Benchmarks provide context for your metrics by comparing performance against relevant peers.

What you need to know

• Integrations: GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, Jira, Linear, GitHub Issues, Slack, Notion, Confluence, Google Calendar, Cursor, Claude Code

• Pricing: Free tier for up to 10 engineers and 1 repository; $50/month premium; custom enterprise pricing

• Notable customers: Travelperk, Elfie.co, Caravelo

Why Pensero should be your first choice

LinearB excels at delivery optimization for DevOps teams. But if your primary need is understanding your team's work clearly enough to lead effectively, communicate confidently with stakeholders, and make informed decisions quickly, Pensero addresses challenges that pure metrics platforms don't.

The platform doesn't replace delivery metrics — it complements them with the qualitative understanding and clear communication that engineering leadership actually requires day-to-day.

2. Jellyfish

Jellyfish represents the enterprise end of engineering intelligence platforms, offering comprehensive capabilities that extend far beyond LinearB's delivery focus.

With 252 employees and substantial backing, the platform provides Software Engineering Intelligence that unifies development, business, and financial data for R&D organizations.

What it does well

Jellyfish excels at capabilities LinearB doesn't attempt. The platform combines engineering metrics with financial reporting, resource allocation tracking, and software capitalization automation.

The platform's DevFinOps module automatically generates finance-ready reports showing which engineering efforts qualify as capital expenditures.
Engineering Management features combine Jira and source control data with calendars and finance information to surface team performance and alignment insights.

What you need to know

• Best for: Larger organizations (100+ engineers) needing comprehensive financial reporting alongside engineering metrics

• Integrations: GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, Jira, Azure Boards, Azure Repos, Jenkins, CircleCI, PagerDuty, OpsGenie, Slack, MS Teams, Google Calendar, Office 365

• Pricing: Estimated $30–$62.50 per seat per month on annual contracts; $15,000 minimum annual commitment

• Notable customers: Five9, PagerDuty, GoodRx, DraftKings, Priceline, Clari, Genesys

Worth noting: Jellyfish's comprehensiveness comes with complexity. Teams wanting straightforward insights without extensive configuration may find the platform overwhelming.

3. Swarmia

Swarmia takes a developer-first approach that contrasts sharply with LinearB's management-focused dashboards.

The Helsinki and New York-based company built a platform emphasizing transparency and team ownership, making engineering data accessible to individual contributors, not just their managers.

What makes it different

While LinearB provides dashboards for managers, Swarmia gives developers insights into their own work patterns — fostering ownership rather than surveillance.

For engineering leaders, the platform still provides DORA metrics and delivery insights, but the framing encourages using data to support teams rather than simply measure them.

What you need to know

• Best for: Organizations prioritizing developer autonomy, transparency, and sustainable team health

• Worth noting: Less detailed financial reporting than Jellyfish and less workflow automation than LinearB.

4. Waydev

Waydev specializes in DORA and SPACE framework implementation through customizable dashboards designed for engineering managers.

What it offers

The platform combines quantitative delivery metrics with qualitative team health insights. Its Engagement Module uses developer experience surveys and workload analysis to detect burnout risks.

Deployment flexibility

Waydev offers both SaaS and self-hosted versions.

What you need to know

• Best for: Data-oriented engineering managers wanting established frameworks without extensive automation

• Pricing: $45.75 per developer/month (SaaS); $70.75 per developer/month (self-hosted); annual payment required

5. Bilanc

Emerging from Y Combinator's Winter 2024 batch, Bilanc tackles what LinearB doesn’t: performance reviews.

Key strength

Bilanc uses AI to synthesize technical contributions into coherent performance narratives.
Complexity scoring (0–10 scale) provides nuanced understanding beyond commit counts.

Complementary approach

Bilanc complements delivery metrics by addressing the human side of engineering management.

What you need to know

• Best for: Leaders needing performance insights and automated review generation

• Pricing: ~€20 per engineer per month

• Customer highlight: MoonPay

6. Snapshot Reviews

Snapshot Reviews emphasizes code quality analysis alongside performance metrics.

Unique angle

The built-in AI feature analyzes code line-by-line, helping teams maintain quality while meeting deadlines.

What you need to know

• Best for: Teams emphasizing code quality

• Pricing:

  • Free: Up to 5 users

  • Basic: $15/user/month

  • AI Enhanced: $40/user/month

Worth noting: Limited market traction suggests evaluating long-term stability.

7. Entelligence

Founded by Aiswarya Sankar (ex-Uber), Entelligence combines AI-driven code review, documentation, and insights.

Key features

• AI Code Review with context-aware feedback

• Automated Documentation generated directly from codebase

• Codebase Chat for natural language queries

• Team Insights with repository-focused analytics

What you need to know

• Best for: Teams seeking AI-powered code review and documentation

• Pricing: Freemium; $20/user/month for paid tier

• Integrations: GitHub, GitLab, Slack, Notion, Jira, etc.

• Customers: DigiBee, Chegg, Composio, Citizen Health

8. Taito.ai

Taito.ai focuses on continuous feedback and performance enablement rather than delivery metrics.

Core approach

Taito.ai uses AI to assist with goal setting, aligning personal and organizational objectives.
Its aggregated feedback view captures ongoing feedback throughout the year.

Integration philosophy

Works within Slack, Google Calendar, and HRIS systems without requiring workflow changes.

What you need to know

• Best for: Organizations wanting ongoing performance enablement

• Pricing: €10 per employee per month

• Customers: Supermetrics, Faculty.AI

Worth noting: Still in beta; evaluating fit is key.

Making the Right Choice

LinearB built its reputation on delivery optimization and DORA metrics — and for DevOps teams, those are invaluable.

But engineering leadership requires more than delivery metrics. You need clarity on the substance of your team's work, communication that resonates across departments, and visibility without extra administrative burden.

Pensero stands out by addressing what delivery metrics miss — the qualitative understanding of engineering work that enables effective leadership.

Each alternative brings unique strengths:

• Jellyfish: Enterprise-grade financial reporting

• Swarmia: Developer autonomy and team health

• Waydev: Comprehensive DORA + SPACE metrics

• Bilanc: Automated performance reviews

• Snapshot Reviews: Code quality analysis

• Entelligence: Repository intelligence + AI documentation

• Taito.ai: Continuous performance feedback

But if you’re moving beyond LinearB because you need clearer insights, better stakeholder communication, or reduced overhead, Pensero deserves your first look.

Start with Pensero’s free tier to experience engineering intelligence that works with your leadership style — not against it.