Honcho vs Zep
A side-by-side comparison of Honcho and Zep, two Memory tools, drawn from Ignaite's continuously-verified listings.
Compared from listings verified as of
At a glance
| Attribute | Honcho | Zep |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Memory | Memory |
| Pricing | FREEMIUM | FREEMIUM |
| License (differs) | Open core | Proprietary |
| Deployment (differs) | Hybrid | Cloud |
| Platforms (differs) | API, CLI | API |
| Model support (differs) | Model-agnostic | Multi-model |
| Vendor (differs) | Plastic Labs | Zep |
| Capabilities (differs) |
|
|
The honest brief
Honcho
Peer-centric memory models what any party knows about another, extracting conclusions rather than raw chunks.
- Open-source memory infrastructure
- Peer model for human/agent/idea memory
- Reasoning-first, derives durable facts
- Strong long-memory benchmark scores
- Managed API or self-hosted FastAPI
- Young, evolving ecosystem
- Self-host stack (Postgres/Redis) to run
- Background inference adds LLM cost
- Smaller community than incumbents
Zep
Stores a temporal knowledge graph (via OSS Graphiti) that versions how facts change over time, not flat snapshots.
- Open-source Graphiti engine (Apache-2.0)
- Managed Zep Cloud option
- Pulls in chat + business data
- Long-term context for agents
- Graph approach has learning curve
- Cloud is credit-based pricing
- Heavier than simple vector memory
- Newer ecosystem
When to pick which
Both cover Agent memory.
Pick Zep if you need Knowledge graph.
- Knowledge graph (secondary capability)
They also differ on:
- License
- Open core · Proprietary
- Deployment
- Hybrid · Cloud
- Platforms
- API, CLI · API