head to head · open source
claude-mem vs contextgem
claude-mem has 94,125 GitHub stars, 8,305 forks, 186 open issues and last shipped yesterday. contextgem has 2,003 stars, 186 forks, 0 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. claude-mem leads on adoption by 4,599% (94,125 vs 2,003 stars). claude-mem is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; contextgem is written in Python under Apache-2.0. claude-mem has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, contextgem 9%. claude-mem was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (ai), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| claude-mem | contextgem | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 94K | ★ 2.0K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-08-13 |
| Forks | ⑂ 8.3K | ⑂ 186 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick claude-mem if
- You weight community size — 94K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick contextgem if
- You want the contextgem feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and contextgem fits your workflow better
About claude-mem
claude mem is an Apache 2.0 TypeScript memory layer for AI coding agents that captures what an agent did during a session, compresses it with AI, and injects the relevant parts back into future sessions, built for developers running Claude Code, OpenClaw, Codex, Gemini, Hermes, Copilot, OpenCode and similar tools.
read the full claude-mem overview →
About contextgem
ContextGem is a Python project in the AI and machine learning category, specifically for AI development platforms. Its tagline and GitHub description present it as a framework for extracting information from documents with large language models. The project is distributed as the contextgem package on PyPI, supports Python 3.10 through 3.14, and is licensed under Apache 2.0.
read the full contextgem overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is claude-mem or contextgem more popular?
claude-mem has 94,125 GitHub stars and contextgem has 2,003. claude-mem has the larger community by that measure.
Are claude-mem and contextgem free?
Both are open source. claude-mem is licensed under Apache-2.0 and contextgem under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between claude-mem and contextgem?
claude-mem is written in TypeScript and contextgem in Python. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, claude-mem or contextgem?
Choose claude-mem if you want the larger community (94,125 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose contextgem if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.