head to head · open source
cognee vs Helicone
cognee has 33,036 GitHub stars, 3,456 forks, 495 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Helicone has 6,259 stars, 702 forks, 156 open issues and last shipped 8 days ago. cognee leads on adoption by 428% (33,036 vs 6,259 stars). cognee is written in Python under Apache-2.0; Helicone is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. cognee has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, Helicone 11%. cognee was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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
| cognee | Helicone | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 33K | ★ 6.3K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2026-10-28 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.5K | ⑂ 702 |
| 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 Helicone if
- You want the Helicone feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Helicone 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 Helicone
Docs • Changelog • Bug reports • See Helicone in Action! (Free) Helicone is an AI Gateway & LLM Observability Platform for AI Engineers 🌐 AI Gateway : Access 100+ AI models with 1 API key through the OpenAI API with intelligent routing and automatic fallbacks. Get started in 2 minutes. 🔌 Quick integration : One line of code to log all your requests from OpenAI, Anthropic, LangChain, Gemini, Vercel AI SDK, and more. 📊 Observe : Inspect and debug traces & sessions for agents, chatbots, document processing pipelines, and more 📈 Analyze : Track metrics like cost, latency, quality, and more. Export to PostHog in…
read the full Helicone overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is cognee or Helicone more popular?
cognee has 33,036 GitHub stars and Helicone has 6,259. cognee has the larger community by that measure.
Are cognee and Helicone free?
Both are open source. cognee is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Helicone under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between cognee and Helicone?
cognee is written in Python and Helicone in TypeScript. 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 Helicone?
Choose cognee if you want the larger community (33,036 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Helicone if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.