Linear vs Notion vs Motion for project management
Which of the three fits the work you ship, what each costs, and where client-facing work needs something else.
On this page
Linear is the right pick for client engineering work, Notion for documents and light project structure, and Motion for a solo person who wants software to schedule their own day. None of the three handles quotes, contracts, deposits or invoices, so most people who use them still need a second system for the client side.
What each tool is for
Linear started as an issue tracker for software teams, and its defaults still show it: issues, projects, cycles, a keyboard-first interface and tight links to GitHub. If your client has a codebase and sprints, Linear fits without effort. If your client sells brand strategy, it will feel like wearing someone else's shoes.
Notion is pages and databases. You build the structure yourself, which is its strength and its cost. A content calendar, a client wiki, a simple task board and meeting notes can all live in one workspace. Notion says it passed 100 million users in 2024, so most clients have seen it before.
Motion is a different category. It takes your tasks, deadlines and calendar and places the work into your day automatically. The pitch is that you stop dragging tasks around when a meeting moves. It is built for one busy person, not for a team shipping a product.
The funding and growth numbers say these are not hobby tools. Linear raised $82M at a $1.25B valuation in June 2025, and CNBC reported that Notion passed $500 million in annual revenue in September 2025. That matters less than it sounds, but it does mean the tools will probably still exist when your retainer ends.
What they cost
Prices change, so treat this as a snapshot and check the pages before you buy.
Linear's pricing page lists a free plan with unlimited members, 2 teams, 250 issues and a 10 MB upload limit. Basic is $10 per user per month and Business is $16, both billed yearly.
Notion's pricing page lists Free, Plus at $10 per member per month and Business at $20. The free plan caps file uploads at 5 MB each and keeps 7 days of page history. Paid plans allow uploads up to 5 GB.
Motion's pricing page lists Pro AI at $19 per seat per month and Business AI at $29, with a free trial. Motion is the only one of the three with no free plan.
For a solo person, Linear and Notion can both cost nothing, which makes the decision about fit, not price. Motion is the one you pay for from day one.
When Linear is the right call
Choose Linear when the work is software and the client already lives in GitHub. The pull request to issue link is the main reason. A branch name carries the issue number, the status updates when the code merges, and you stop writing status emails by hand.
It also suits sprint retainers. A two-week cycle maps directly onto a monthly engineering retainer with a predictable cadence. And if you lead two or three subcontractors, assignment and review are easier than in a flexible database that you have to build rules for yourself.
The weak side is plain. If your client is a marketing team or a clinic, they will not log in to Linear, and you will end up copying updates into an email anyway.
When Notion is the right call
Choose Notion when the work is mostly words and decisions. A monthly content programme is the clean example: briefs, drafts, edits and approvals flow through one database, and the client can comment on a page without learning a tool. Strategy and advisory work fits too, since the engagement produces notes and decisions that need to be findable later.
The cost of Notion's flexibility is that you maintain the system. Two months in, a workspace that nobody tidies becomes a graveyard of half-used templates. If you pick Notion, give yourself one template for new projects and stick to it. Our piece on when Notion stops being enough for client work covers the point where it is time to move on.
When Motion is the right call
Choose Motion when your problem is your own calendar. If you run six small engagements at once and spend a Monday morning rearranging deadlines by hand, an auto-scheduler can pay for itself. It does one job, planning your hours, and it does not give your clients anything to look at.
That last point is why Motion is a poor primary tool for client-facing work. A client cannot follow your progress in it, approve a file in it or pay through it. Use it as a personal layer under whichever tool you share with clients.
A quick way to choose
Answer four questions in order and stop at the first one that gives you a clear answer.
Does your client have a code repository and want issues linked to pull requests? Use Linear. Does the work produce documents, briefs and decisions that the client wants to read and comment on? Use Notion. Are you the only person doing the work, with too many deadlines to track by hand? Add Motion on top of whichever of the first two you chose. Is your client someone who will not log in to any of them? Then the tool you pick matters less than how you share progress, and a simple portal link beats a shared workspace.
Do not run all three at once. The usual failure is a person who adopts Linear for tickets, Notion for notes and Motion for the calendar, then spends the first hour of every week copying between them. One tracker for the work, one place for the client, and one calendar is plenty.
Before you commit to anything for a client engagement, run a two-week trial on a real project and count the minutes you spend maintaining the tool. If setup and upkeep add up to more than an hour a week, it is the wrong tool for a small business, however good it looks in a demo.
What none of them does
All three tools organise tasks. None of them sends a quote, collects a signature, takes a deposit, issues a numbered invoice or hands over final files with an approval on record. If you pick one of them, you are choosing the work-tracking half of your stack, and you still need an answer for the client half.
Many people patch the gap with a form tool, an e-signature service, an invoicing app and a file-sharing link. That works, and it also means a client's details live in four places. Our comparison of a CRM, project management and a portal walks through how to decide what you need in each category.
How Delivvo handles project work for client jobs
Delivvo is not a replacement for Linear's engineering workflow, and it is not a calendar scheduler. It covers the client cycle around the work, and it has its own light task layer for small teams.
- A prospect fills in your inquiry form and lands on the lead board, which has columns for New, Contacted, Quote sent, Won and Lost.
- You send a quote from your packages and add-ons. The client picks, signs and pays the deposit on one page, and Delivvo creates the client, project, contract and invoice.
- Inside the project, the team workspace holds tasks with an assignee, a brief, a due date and files. Each person gets a "Waiting for me" list, so they see only what needs them.
- The client opens the portal with a one-time code and sees the files, versions, approvals and messages for their project. They never see your internal task list.
- When you finish, the client approves in the portal and pays the balance through your own gateway. Delivvo takes 0%.
One detail worth noting: the client sees only the file you approve for them, shown under your business name. Internal drafts and task chatter stay internal, which is a boundary you would have to build by hand in Notion.
If you also use Linear for engineering, keep it. Your developers stay in the issue tracker they like, and the client stays in a portal that shows them progress in plain language. A common pattern is to post the milestone summary into the portal once a cycle ends, instead of forwarding issue lists that a non-technical client cannot read.
For solo work, the lead board and the "Waiting for me" list replace the status page you would otherwise build in Notion. Payment schedules go up to 12 payments, so a milestone project can bill itself on the dates you set, and late reminders go out at 7, 14 and 30 days until the invoice is paid.
Delivvo is a CRM and client portal for service businesses. See how Delivvo compares with Notion.
FAQ
Is Linear or Notion better for client work?
Linear is better when the work is software and the client uses GitHub. Notion is better for content, strategy and any work built from documents. Neither handles quotes or invoices.
Is Motion worth paying for as a solo person?
If you juggle many small tasks and meetings, auto-scheduling can save real time. Motion lists Pro AI at $19 per seat per month. If your calendar is simple, a free tool is enough.
Can I use Notion as a client portal?
You can share a page with a client, and many people do. It lacks a clean approval flow, versioned file delivery and a payment step, and it is easy to expose more than you meant to. See the comparison linked above before you commit.
Does Delivvo replace a project management tool?
It replaces the client-facing parts: inquiry, quote, contract, deposit, portal, approvals and invoice. It has tasks for small teams, but large engineering teams will still want something like Linear for sprints.
Delivvo runs the whole client cycle for service businesses, from the first inquiry to the quote, contract, deposit, invoice and delivery, so your task tool only has to track the work and not the paperwork. Clients pay you directly through your own gateway, and Delivvo takes 0%. Start free