Cognee vs Zep
Detailed side-by-side comparison to help you choose the right tool
Cognee
🔴DeveloperAI Knowledge Tools
Cognee is an open-source agent memory platform that builds a hybrid knowledge graph and vector index from your data so LLM agents recall structured facts, not just nearest-neighbour text chunks. Free Hobby, usage-based Growth, custom Enterprise.
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FreeZep
🔴DeveloperAgent memory
Zep provides agent memory capabilities for teams building and operating AI applications. It supports the MCP ecosystem.
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FreeFeature Comparison
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Cognee - Pros & Cons
Pros
- ✓Graph + vector hybrid beats vector-only RAG on multi-hop questions
- ✓Pluggable storage — bring your existing Neo4j, pgvector, or Qdrant
- ✓Official MCP server makes Cognee a drop-in memory layer for Claude, Cursor, Goose
- ✓Open-source core means you can self-host and audit the pipeline
- ✓Integrates with LangChain, LlamaIndex, Mastra, and Vercel AI SDK out of the box
Cons
- ✗Graph extraction quality depends on the LLM you run the pipeline with
- ✗Self-host setup is a real ops project vs. dropping in a vector DB
- ✗Overkill for simple FAQ or single-document retrieval
- ✗Managed cloud middle tier ($35–$100/mo) tight for very heavy workloads
Zep - Pros & Cons
Pros
- ✓tracks when facts change
- ✓ingestion-centered pricing suits read-heavy agents
- ✓several SDK and deployment options
Cons
- ✗credit consumption needs real payload testing
- ✗free allowance is small
- ✗webhooks and analytics require a higher tier
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