head to head · open source

llama.cpp vs cognee

llama.cpp has 133,181 GitHub stars, 25,063 forks, 2,464 open issues and last shipped yesterday. cognee has 33,012 stars, 3,448 forks, 495 open issues and last shipped yesterday. llama.cpp leads on adoption by 303% (133,181 vs 33,012 stars). llama.cpp is written in C++ under MIT; cognee is written in Python under Apache-2.0. llama.cpp has attracted 19% as many forks as stars, cognee 10%. llama.cpp 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.

llama.cpp ★ 133K cognee ★ 33K category AI & Machine Learning

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Side by side

	llama.cpp	cognee
GitHub stars	★ 133K	★ 33K
License	MIT	Apache-2.0
Written in	C++	Python
Last push	2026-11-02	2026-11-02
Forks	⑂ 25K	⑂ 3.4K
Self-hosting	Yes	Yes
Data ownership	Your server	Your server

pick llama.cpp if

You weight community size — 133K stars and counting
You want the MIT license terms
Your stack matches C++
You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance

full llama.cpp profile →

pick cognee if

You want the cognee 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 cognee fits your workflow better

full cognee profile →

About llama.cpp

llama.cpp LLM inference in C/C++ ggml / ops / maintainer PRs%20sort%3Aupdated desc) / dev stats / lib llama API / llama server REST API Quick start A few options to get llama.cpp installed on your machine: Visit and follow the instructions Run with Docker see our Docker documentation Download pre built binaries from the releases page Build from source by cloning this repository check out our build guide Once installed: VLM session with llama cli Built in web UI against llama serve Description The main goal of llama.cpp is to enable LLM (and VLM) inference with minimal setup and state of the art performance on a…

read the full llama.cpp overview →

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 →

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Frequently asked questions

Is llama.cpp or cognee more popular?

llama.cpp has 133,181 GitHub stars and cognee has 33,012. llama.cpp has the larger community by that measure.

Are llama.cpp and cognee free?

Both are open source. llama.cpp is licensed under MIT and cognee under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.

What is the difference between llama.cpp and cognee?

llama.cpp is written in C++ and cognee 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, llama.cpp or cognee?

Choose llama.cpp if you want the larger community (133,181 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose cognee if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.