Linear email helpdesk
and ticketing system
An email helpdesk and ticketing system built on Linear, for agencies that bill by the hour. A client email becomes a ticket, the ticket becomes a Linear issue, the hours land on the retainer, and the work reaches a Xero invoice.
$12 per seat per month, with Linear included. Productlane's entry tier is $35 billed monthly.
Hi team, pulling a whole quarter out of the reports page spins for a minute and then errors. A single month comes out fine. We need the quarterly one for the board pack next Thursday.
Hi Dana, reproduced it here. It is the quarterly query timing out rather than the export itself, so it is with the dev team now and you will have it well before Thursday.
Deflection is the wrong goal for an agency
Most support tools built around Linear sell deflection: an AI agent that absorbs the volume, and a help centre that answers before a human has to. For a software company with thousands of users that makes sense, and it is the job those tools are built for.
An agency has the opposite problem. These are the clients paying you a retainer, and the hours you spend answering them need to reach the invoice.
That is why the retainer meter sits next to the reply box.
A software product company
Thousands of users, most of the volume answerable from a help centre. Every conversation an agent absorbs is a saving.
Wants fewer conversationsAn agency on retainers
A handful of named clients. Each conversation costs an hour of somebody's afternoon, and that hour is either billed or written off.
Wants every hour on the invoiceUsing Linear as a ticketing system
The request arrives in Hour Cap, the work happens in Linear, and the time comes back to Hour Cap to be invoiced.
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Receive
A client emails your support address
Forward the address you already publish. The sender is matched against the contacts synced from your Xero organisation, so the conversation arrives filed to the right client.
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Route
It becomes an issue on the right team
One click raises a Linear issue with a link card pointing back at the conversation and the client who asked. Set a Linear team per client and their requests route themselves.
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Bill
The hours reach a Xero invoice
Time logged on the conversation, and time logged against the project the issue belongs to, land on the same timesheet. At month end they push to Xero as a draft invoice with your descriptions as the line items.
What the integration does
Everything below is included in the add-on at no extra cost.
What happens to the hour it took
Any tool in this category will turn a customer message into an issue. Hour Cap also tracks what answering it cost and carries that through to the invoice.
- The retainer cap, while you are answering. The person deciding how much effort a request deserves can see how much of the client's month is left before they decide, not in a report afterwards.
- A timer on the conversation. Start it from the thread, prefilled with the client and project it is already linked to, and the time lands on the same timesheet as the rest of the work.
- A Xero invoice at the end of it. Approved hours push to Xero as a draft invoice with your descriptions as the line item text.
Hour Cap and Productlane on Linear
Productlane is also built around Linear, which makes it the closest comparison. It sells to software product companies. Here is how the two compare.
| Feature | Hour Cap | Productlane |
|---|---|---|
| Shared inbox for client email | ||
| Linear issue from a conversation | One click | One click |
| Conversation reopens when the issue ships | With a drafted reply | AI-drafted |
| Two-way Linear comment mirroring | ||
| Track billable time on a conversation | ||
| Retainer cap visible while replying | ||
| Draft an invoice from the work | Into Xero | |
| AI support agent | ||
| Per-seat price, billed monthly | $12 add-on | $35 and up |
Compiled August 2026 from Productlane's own site and documentation. Vendors change, so check current pricing and features before deciding.
What the others are built for
If your support volume is large enough that an AI agent would meaningfully reduce it, Productlane is the tool for that. The same goes if you need a help centre that maintains itself, a changelog generated from completed Linear work, or a public roadmap your users can vote on.
Their Linear integration mirrors comments in both directions, so a teammate can answer the customer from inside a Linear issue without opening the inbox. Hour Cap's Linear work runs the other way: the issue carries the client who asked, and the hours spent on it come back to the retainer and the invoice.
What they do not do is track time. If you need to know what a month of client requests cost you and which retainer absorbed it, that is the reason to use Hour Cap.
$12 per seat per month
The Linear integration is part of Customer Support Inbox, which is an add-on on top of a Team or Business plan. No separate charge for connecting a workspace and no per-issue fee. Here is a six-person agency with everyone on the inbox.
Hour Cap
Inbox + time trackingIncludes the time tracking, retainer budgets and Xero invoicing. Inbox seats are given out per person, so you only buy them for the people who answer client mail.
Productlane
Productlane's published pricing, August 2026, before any AI resolution usage. The headline rates are the annual-billing prices. Re-check before relying on it.
$102 a month less for 6 people, with the time tracking and Xero invoicing included rather than bought separately.
Frequently asked questions
How does the Linear integration work?
You connect a Linear workspace with OAuth, and any conversation in your Customer Support Inbox becomes an issue in one click. The issue carries a link card back to the conversation and the client who asked for it, so whoever picks the work up can see where it came from.
Can different clients go to different Linear teams?
Yes. Set a Linear team on a client and their requests raise issues on that team, and everything else falls back to your default team. Agencies running one Linear team per client get the right routing without configuring anything further.
What happens when the issue is finished?
The conversation reopens in your queue with a reply to the client already drafted. You read it, change what you want, and send. Nothing sends automatically, since telling a client their request shipped is worth reading first. You can also have the conversation close quietly instead, or do nothing at all.
Can issues be raised automatically?
Yes. You can leave it manual, raise an issue for every new conversation, or raise one only when the email came from a client you already have a record for. Most agencies pick the last of those, so mail from a known client raises an issue and mail from a stranger waits for a person.
Does it mirror Linear comments back to the customer?
No. Productlane does, including letting a teammate answer the customer from inside a Linear issue. Hour Cap does not mirror comments today. If that is the deciding feature for you, Productlane is the tool for it.
Is there an AI agent that answers customers?
No, and it is not planned. Agency support volume is a few conversations a day from named clients, and each one is worth billing rather than deflecting. Hour Cap does draft a reply when a linked issue completes, but it never sends without somebody reading it.
What does it cost?
Customer Support Inbox is $12 per seat per month on top of a Team or Business plan, and the Linear integration is included in it at no extra cost. Productlane's entry tier is $35 per user billed monthly, or $29 if you commit annually, with AI resolutions charged on top. Comparing month to month, a six-person agency with all six on the inbox pays around $108 with Hour Cap against $210 on Productlane, and the Hour Cap figure also covers the time tracking, retainer budgets and Xero invoicing. Inbox seats are given out per person, so you only buy them for the people who answer client mail.
Do I need Linear to use Customer Support Inbox?
No. Linear is optional. Plenty of agencies run the inbox on its own, log time against conversations, and never connect a workspace. The integration is there for the teams whose work already lives in a backlog.
Get the support hours onto the invoice
Connect a Linear workspace, forward one address, and see a fortnight of client requests land where they can be billed.