Zep vs Cognee
Detailed side-by-side comparison to help you choose the right tool
Zep
🔴DeveloperAI Knowledge Tools
Enterprise agent memory built on temporal Context Graphs (Graphiti) with millisecond retrieval, SOC 2 Type II, and HIPAA BAA.
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FreeCognee
🔴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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FreeFeature Comparison
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Zep - Pros & Cons
Pros
- ✓Temporal knowledge graph captures when facts changed — better than "last-message wins" vector memory
- ✓~200ms retrieval keeps memory viable in latency-sensitive agent flows
- ✓Credit-based pricing makes storage and retrieval free — predictable for read-heavy agents
- ✓SOC 2 Type II + HIPAA BAA + DPA make procurement realistic at regulated enterprises
- ✓First-class MCP server integrates with Claude Desktop, Cursor, and OpenAI Agents SDK out of the box
Cons
- ✗Credit math (1 credit per 350 bytes per Episode) is hard to forecast until you measure real payloads
- ✗Free tier (1,000 credits/mo, no rollover) is tight even for evaluation
- ✗Webhooks, analytics, and custom extraction live only on Flex Plus ($375/mo) and above
- ✗Most compliance value (audit retention, BYOK/BYOC) is gated behind Enterprise pricing
- ✗Temporal graph modeling adds upfront design work vs throwing chat history into a vector DB
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
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