Both sit in the memory layer with similar commercial terms, so the practical split is language: Zep targets Python and Cognee targets Python.
Temporal knowledge graph memory — facts with validity windows, not just embeddings.
Builds a graph + vector memory layer over your agent's history and documents.
| Zep | Cognee | |
|---|---|---|
| Licence | Open source | Open source |
| Pricing | freemium | open source |
| Self-hostable | Yes | Yes |
| Languages | Python, TypeScript | Python |
| Install | — | pip install cognee |
| Keys required | ZEP_API_KEY | None |
Both sit in the memory layer with similar commercial terms, so the practical split is language: Zep targets Python and Cognee targets Python. Zep: Temporal knowledge graph memory — facts with validity windows, not just embeddings. Cognee: Builds a graph + vector memory layer over your agent's history and documents.
Zep can run on your own infrastructure. Cognee can run on your own infrastructure.
Zep is open source (freemium). Cognee is open source (open source).
Every page here answers to Accept: text/markdown and returns the same content at roughly a tenth the tokens. No separate site, no toggle — same URL.
curl -s -H "Accept: text/markdown" https://newagent.build/compare/zep-vs-cognee