head to head · open source
claude-mem vs Octop
claude-mem has 94,286 GitHub stars, 8,321 forks, 186 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Octop has 4,235 stars, 459 forks, 234 open issues and last shipped today. claude-mem leads on adoption by 2,126% (94,286 vs 4,235 stars). claude-mem is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; Octop is written in Python under MIT. claude-mem has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, Octop 11%. Octop was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (ai, ai-agents), 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| claude-mem | Octop | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 94K | ★ 4.2K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-19 | 2026-09-20 |
| Forks | ⑂ 8.3K | ⑂ 459 |
| 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 Octop if
- You want the Octop feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and Octop 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 Octop
Octop is an MIT licensed, self hosted AI assistant platform in Python that gives households and small teams a multi user, multi agent environment running entirely on their own machine.
read the full Octop overview →
More in AI & Machine Learning
Related comparisons
More AI Development Platforms projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the AI Development Platforms field.
Frequently asked questions
Is claude-mem or Octop more popular?
claude-mem has 94,286 GitHub stars and Octop has 4,235. claude-mem has the larger community by that measure.
Are claude-mem and Octop free?
Both are open source. claude-mem is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Octop under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between claude-mem and Octop?
claude-mem is written in TypeScript and Octop 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 Octop?
Choose claude-mem if you want the larger community (94,286 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Octop if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.