head to head · open source
cognee vs Compartment
cognee has 33,036 GitHub stars, 3,456 forks, 495 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Compartment has 580 stars, 8 forks, 1 open issues and last shipped 16 days ago. cognee leads on adoption by 5,596% (33,036 vs 580 stars). cognee is written in Python under Apache-2.0; Compartment is written in Python under Apache-2.0. cognee has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, Compartment 1%. cognee was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (agent-memory, ai-agents, ai-memory), 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
| cognee | Compartment | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 33K | ★ 580 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2026-10-20 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.5K | ⑂ 8 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick cognee if
- You weight community size — 33K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Compartment if
- You want the Compartment 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 Compartment fits your workflow better
About cognee
Cognee The Open Source AI Memory Platform for Agents Demo . Docs . Learn More · Join Discord · Join r/AIMemory . Community Plugins & Add ons Cognee is the open source AI memory platform that gives AI agents persistent long term memory across sessions. Ingest data in any format, build a self hosted knowledge graph, and let every agent recall, connect, and act with full context 🌐 This README is also available in: Deutsch Español Français 日本語 한국어 Português Русский 中文 📄 Read the research paper: Optimizing the Interface Between Knowledge Graphs and LLMs for Complex Reasoning — Markovic et al., 2025 When to use…
read the full cognee overview →
About Compartment
Compartment Encrypted, fully offline memory for AI agents. One vault on your own computer, read and written by Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Hermes Agent, OpenClaw, Cursor, Codex and any other MCP client. No API key, no account, no network, no telemetry. One click install (after pip install compartment && compartment init ): Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Hermes Agent and OpenClaw are wired by one command instead: compartment integrate claude , hermes or openclaw . Compartment is persistent memory for AI agents, stored on your own computer. What an agent learns in one session is available in every later session, in…
read the full Compartment overview →
More in AI & Machine Learning
Related comparisons
More Machine Learning Infrastructure projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Machine Learning Infrastructure field.
Frequently asked questions
Is cognee or Compartment more popular?
cognee has 33,036 GitHub stars and Compartment has 580. cognee has the larger community by that measure.
Are cognee and Compartment free?
Both are open source. cognee is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Compartment under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between cognee and Compartment?
cognee is written in Python and Compartment 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, cognee or Compartment?
Choose cognee if you want the larger community (33,036 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Compartment if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.