Canny vs pick a feature: Honest Comparison for Indie Devs

I spent a weekend swapping Canny out of one of my Flutter apps and dropping in pick a feature. Both tools collect feature requests. Both let users vote and comment. The differences only become obvious once you look at where the feedback lives, what it costs, and who the tool is built for.

This comparison covers pricing, mobile integration, the Jira-and-Linear question, and the situations where Canny is genuinely the better choice. If you're an indie dev or a small SaaS team weighing the two, you'll get a clear answer by the end. If you're at a 50-person product org, the answer is probably Canny — I'll explain why.

Canny vs pick a feature in one line: Canny is the polished, web-hosted feedback portal built for teams that already use Jira, Linear, or Salesforce. pick a feature is a Flutter SDK plus a stripped-down dashboard built for indie devs who want feedback collected inside the app for under $15 a month.

Canny vs pick a feature at a glance

Here's the side-by-side. Numbers are from each company's public pricing page as of May 2026.

Feature	Canny	pick a feature
Free tier	Yes — 25 tracked users	Yes — 1 project, 10 requests
Starting paid tier	Core: $19/mo (annual)	Starter: $5/mo
Mid tier	Pro: $79/mo (annual)	Unlimited: $15/mo
Top tier	Business: custom pricing	Unlimited is the top tier
Mobile SDK	No (web portal embed only)	Flutter SDK on pub.dev
Drop-in mobile widgets	None	Full screen, dialog, bottom sheet
Voting	Yes	Yes
Comments	Yes (all tiers)	Yes (Starter and up)
Jira / Linear / ClickUp sync	Pro tier and up	None
Slack / email notifications	Yes	Email only
SSO	Business tier	None
Custom domain	Core tier and up	None
Self-host option	No	Backend URL override (apiBaseUrl)
Best fit	Mid-market SaaS teams using PM tools	Indie Flutter devs, bootstrappers

If you don't already pay for Jira or Linear, the integrations row probably doesn't move you. If you do, that row is the whole article — skip to the "when Canny wins" section.

Canny has run the feature-request category since 2017. They built the playbook most teams now follow: public portal, voting, status tags, changelog, roadmap. The dashboard is genuinely well-designed. The trade-off is that the cheapest plan with PM integrations is Pro at $79 a month — which is 16x what pick a feature charges for unlimited projects on Starter. For a one-person SaaS doing $2k MRR, that gap is the difference between "tool I forget I pay for" and "monthly invoice I'm grumpy about." Both tools handle voting and comments fine; the choice comes down to where the feedback gets collected (web vs in-app), which integrations matter to you, and how much you're willing to spend per month on a tool that, honestly, you'll check three times a week.

Pricing — where the gap is real

Canny's free tier caps you at 25 tracked users. For most indie apps in their first six months, that's enough. Once you cross 25 active users who've ever submitted or voted, you're on Core at $19/mo (annual) or $23.75/mo (monthly).

Core gets you a custom domain and translations. It does not get you Jira, Linear, ClickUp, GitHub, or Asana sync. Those live on Pro at $79/mo annual ($98.75/mo monthly).

pick a feature's free tier caps at 10 feature requests across 1 project. Starter at $5/mo lifts that to 3 projects with unlimited requests. Unlimited at $15/mo lifts the project count to unlimited.

A rough rule of thumb:

Building one or two Flutter apps, no PM tool: pick a feature Starter at $5/mo
Running a web SaaS with a Jira workspace: Canny Pro at $79/mo
Five-plus apps under one indie portfolio: pick a feature Unlimited at $15/mo
50-person org with Salesforce + Okta: Canny Business (call sales)

The pricing matters because feedback tools are a category where you don't switch often. Whatever you pick in month two of a product, you're probably running for two years. A $74/month difference compounds to $1,776 over that span.

In-app vs web-hosted feedback

This is the real difference, and pricing aside, it's the one I'd actually argue about with another founder.

Canny is a hosted web portal. You get a URL like feedback.yourapp.com. Users click out of your app or your dashboard and land on Canny's domain (or your custom domain on Core+). They submit a request, vote, comment. The whole experience is web.

pick a feature is a Flutter SDK. You drop the package in, call PickAFeature.show(), and your users see a native bottom sheet — or full-screen widget, or dialog — without leaving your app. The feedback gets collected in-context. No browser tab, no auth handoff, no "wait did the link open in Safari View Controller."

For mobile-first apps, in-app collection consistently captures more feedback than redirecting users out. The drop-off on "tap here to open our feedback portal" is real. Anyone who's tracked the funnel from an in-app link to a third-party page knows this. The same user who'd tap a built-in feedback button will not tap-then-load-then-sign-in on a stranger's domain.

For web SaaS, the trade-off flips. A web portal is the natural place for web users. Canny's polish at this is the reason the category exists.

If your product is a Flutter app, pick a feature wins this round on UX alone. If your product is a web app, the answer flips to Canny.

Integrations — Canny's real advantage

This is where Canny earns its price.

On Pro at $79/mo you get sync to Jira, Linear, ClickUp, Asana, GitHub Issues, and Azure DevOps. A feature request moves through Canny's status workflow (open → planned → in progress → complete) and the linked ticket in your PM tool updates automatically. For a product team that already runs sprints in Jira, this matters more than anything else in the comparison.

pick a feature has no Jira sync. No Linear sync. No webhooks. No Zapier. The feedback lives in pick a feature's dashboard and stays there. You move requests through the status workflow (pending → under review → approved → in progress → planned → completed) manually in our dashboard, the same way you would move tickets in a project board.

If your roadmap lives in Jira, this is a deal-breaker for pick a feature. If your roadmap lives in your head and a Notion doc, you won't miss it.

Honest take: integrations are on the pick a feature roadmap (per the public FAQ) but not shipped. If you need Linear sync today, get Canny.

When Canny is the better choice

I'm not going to pretend pick a feature wins every comparison. Here's where Canny is genuinely the right pick:

You already run sprints in Jira or Linear. The integration ROI alone justifies Pro.
Your product is a web SaaS, not a mobile app. A web feedback portal fits web users.
You need SSO, custom admin roles, or HubSpot/Salesforce sync. That's Canny Business.
You want a public roadmap page on a custom domain. Canny does this on Core ($19/mo). pick a feature doesn't.
You have a team of 5+ moderating feedback. Canny's permissions and admin tools are deeper.
You're at a 50+ person org. Canny has the compliance story (SOC 2, SSO, audit logs). pick a feature does not.

If two or more of these apply, stop reading and pay Canny. Genuinely.

When pick a feature wins

The flip side:

You ship a Flutter app and want feedback collected in-app. Canny can't do this; pick a feature was built for it.
You're an indie dev paying out of pocket. $5/mo vs $79/mo is the entire game.
You run two or three side projects. Starter covers 3, Unlimited covers everything.
You don't want to host a separate feedback domain. No DNS to set up, no custom domain to maintain.
You want to theme the widget to match your app. pick a feature exposes primary/secondary/background/text colors and border radius as one config object.
You want a feedback flow that works for users who never sign in. Anonymous device-UUID fallback handles them out of the box.

The Flutter SDK angle is the wedge. If you're shipping a Flutter app, pick a feature is the only tool in this comparison that runs natively inside it.

How to switch from Canny to pick a feature (and back)

I'm not going to gloss over migration. Switching feedback tools is real work because the votes don't transfer.

If you're moving off Canny: export your posts via Canny's CSV export (Pro tier and up). Import the post titles and descriptions as new pick a feature requests via our dashboard. Voter accounts and individual vote attributions don't carry over — the request will start at zero votes. Pin a banner in your portal directing users to the new feedback location for 30 days, then sunset.

If you're moving to Canny from pick a feature: pick a feature's dashboard exports requests as CSV. Canny imports CSV on Core tier and up. Same caveat about vote counts.

The honest read: don't switch unless the tool you're moving to fixes something painful. Pick once, stay for a year.

Frequently asked questions

Is Canny better than pick a feature?

For web SaaS teams with Jira or Linear, yes. Canny's polish, integration depth, and admin tooling justify the $79/mo. For indie Flutter devs or bootstrapped teams under $5k MRR, pick a feature usually wins on price and in-app UX. The right tool depends on your stack, not the comparison.

Does Canny have a Flutter SDK?

No. Canny is a web portal. You can embed Canny's widget in a webview inside a Flutter app, but it loads as a web page — not native widgets. pick a feature ships a native Flutter package on pub.dev.

Is pick a feature a Canny alternative?

For mobile-first products, yes. The feature set overlaps on voting, comments, status workflow, and moderation. pick a feature is missing Canny's PM integrations and SSO. If those don't matter to you, pick a feature works as a direct replacement at roughly 1/15th the cost.

Can I self-host Canny?

No. Canny is SaaS-only. pick a feature is also SaaS, but the Flutter SDK accepts an apiBaseUrl config — you can point it at your own backend if you ever build one. Most indies won't, but the escape hatch is there.

What about Featurebase, UserVoice, Frill, or Fider?

Each fills a different niche. Featurebase blends feedback with AI customer support. UserVoice is enterprise-only at $16k/year. Frill targets the same indie segment as pick a feature with web-portal pricing starting at $25/mo. Fider is open-source self-hosted. We've compared each separately: Featurebase vs pick a feature and UserVoice vs pick a feature.

Bottom line

Canny built the feedback category. They're great at being Canny: a polished web portal with deep PM-tool integrations for teams that already pay for those tools. If that describes you, the $79/mo is reasonable.

pick a feature is the answer for a different reader — the indie Flutter dev who wants feedback collected inside their app, paid for in dollars instead of dozens, with three projects instead of one. If that's you, start free at pickafeature.com and drop the SDK into your Flutter app this afternoon.