Tool profile
Plane: cost, fit and limits
Plane is a project and issue tracking platform made by Plane Software, Inc. that manages work items, cycles and initiatives for software teams, with built-in AI agents, an MCP server and a self-hosted edition described as open source.
What to know first
Plane has a Free plan for up to 12 users, Pro at $6 per user per month billed annually, Business at $13 on the same terms, and an Enterprise Grid tier with no published price. AI usage is metered in credits per seat on the cloud plans. The company is a Delaware corporation. Security certifications are claimed on the homepage, but the trust centre was not readable.
Plane at a glance
| Maker | Plane Software, Inc., United States |
|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes |
| Entry price | Free for up to 12 users; Pro $6 per user per month billed annually |
| API access | No |
| Category | Best AI Bug Tracking Software in 2026, rank 12 of 12 |
| Website | plane.so |
Who Plane is best for
Startups leaving Jira or Linear
The homepage lists importers for Jira, Linear, Asana, ClickUp and Monday that carry attachments, comments and automations, so a small team can move its backlog without retyping tickets.
Teams that must self-host
Plane describes a self-hosted deployment on the customer's own infrastructure, which suits organizations that cannot place defect reports, often containing customer data, in a vendor cloud.
Agile teams working in sprints
Cycles carry velocity tracking and burndown charts, and the same work items switch between Board, List, Spreadsheet and Gantt views.
Plane plans and pricing
| Plan | Price | What it includes |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Free | Projects and work items, cycles, modules, layouts and views, in-app intake, estimates and project pages for up to 12 users. |
| Pro | $8 per user per month, $6 billed annually | 500 AI credits per seat on cloud, custom work item types and properties, wiki, time tracking, templates, dashboards, initiatives and 5 guests per paid member. |
| Business | $15 per user per month, $13 billed annually | 1,000 AI credits per seat on cloud, recurring work items, email and form intake, nested pages, a single workflow, customer profiles and SAML or OIDC. |
| Enterprise Grid | Custom quote, listed as coming soon | Flexible AI credits, private or managed deployments, multiple workflows with approvals, LDAP, audit logs through the API, custom SLAs and migration services. |
Checked November 2026.
What Plane does
- Agent-assignable work items
- A work item can be assigned to a person or an agent and moved through states to Done. The vendor's example flow adds a review step before closing, so a human still signs off.
- Plane AI and MCP server
- Plane AI reads across projects, cycles, docs and threads in the workspace, and an MCP server lets outside AI tools create and manage work items inside Plane.
- Intake channels
- Free includes in-app intake, while Business adds email and form intake. A support address or a public form can therefore feed bug reports straight into a project queue.
- Workflows and approvals
- Handoffs, reviews and stage gates can be automated without plugins. Business allows a single workflow per workspace plan, while Enterprise Grid allows several workflows with approvals built in.
- Cycles and initiatives
- Cycles give time-boxed sprints with velocity tracking and burndown charts, and initiatives and epics roll team-level work up into organization-level goals that managers can follow.
How Plane handles your data
Section 9 of the privacy policy, last updated April 9, 2026, says Plane does not use Customer Data to train, fine-tune or improve general-purpose AI models, and that its AI sub-processors are contractually barred from doing so. Billing records are typically kept 7 years and raw usage logs up to 12 months. No cloud hosting region is stated. The homepage claims SOC 2, ISO 27001, GDPR and CCPA, but the trust centre returned HTTP 403, so those claims rest on the homepage alone.
Where Plane falls short in practice
- Free plan ceiling. Free stops at 12 users and leaves out the wiki, time tracking, dashboards and integrations that start on Pro, so a growing team hits the paid tier quickly.
- Metered AI credits. Cloud plans cap AI at 500 credits per seat on Pro and 1,000 on Business. Enterprise Grid credits are only called flexible, so heavy agent use is hard to budget in advance.
- SSO availability differs by deployment. The pricing table lists SAML and OIDC for Pro self-hosted users but not Pro cloud users, so a cloud team needing single sign-on must move to Business.
- Enterprise tier not yet priced. Enterprise Grid is marked coming soon with custom pricing, so large buyers cannot compare its audit logs, LDAP and approval workflows against any published number.
Works with
Alternatives to Plane
Plane: common questions
Does Plane train AI models on my bug reports?
The privacy policy, last updated April 9, 2026, states that Plane does not use Customer Data to train, fine-tune or improve general-purpose AI models, and that AI sub-processors are contractually barred from training on it. That is the vendor's statement. The terms section on data after cancellation was not read.
Does Plane have SOC 2 and ISO 27001 certification?
The homepage says Plane is certified across SOC 2, ISO 27001, GDPR and CCPA. We could not verify it, because the trust centre at trust.plane.so returned HTTP 403 and the privacy policy names no certifications. Ask the vendor for the reports before relying on the claim.
Can I self-host Plane to keep bug data in-house?
The vendor describes a self-hosted deployment that runs on your own infrastructure and calls it open source. The pricing page states no self-hosted price. SAML and OIDC are listed for Pro self-hosted users, so check the feature table for the exact plan you need.
Can Plane import tickets from Jira?
The homepage says issues can be imported with attachments, comments and automations from Jira, Linear, Asana, ClickUp and Monday. We did not run an import, so test a sample project first and check that custom fields and workflow states map the way your team expects.
How many users can use Plane for free?
The Free plan allows up to 12 users with no per-seat charge. It includes projects, work items, cycles, modules, views, in-app intake and estimates. Wiki, time tracking, dashboards and integrations require Pro, which costs $6 per user per month billed annually.