head to head · open source
cognee vs neo4j
cognee has 33,012 GitHub stars, 3,448 forks, 495 open issues and last shipped yesterday. neo4j has 17,386 stars, 2,835 forks, 252 open issues and last shipped 11 days ago. cognee leads on adoption by 90% (33,012 vs 17,386 stars). cognee is written in Python under Apache-2.0; neo4j is written in Java under GPL-3.0. cognee has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, neo4j 16%. cognee was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (graph-database), 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
| cognee | neo4j | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 33K | ★ 17K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Python | Java |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-23 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.4K | ⑂ 2.8K |
| 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 neo4j if
- You want the neo4j feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and neo4j 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 neo4j
= Neo4j: Graphs for Everyone = is the world's leading Graph Database. It is a high performance graph store with all the features expected of a mature and robust database, like a friendly query language and ACID transactions. The programmer works with a flexible network structure of nodes and relationships rather than static tables yet enjoys all the benefits of enterprise quality database. For many applications, Neo4j offers orders of magnitude performance benefits compared to relational DBs. Learn more on the website]. users]] == Using Neo4j == Neo4j is available as a fully managed solution where you can get…
read the full neo4j overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is cognee or neo4j more popular?
cognee has 33,012 GitHub stars and neo4j has 17,386. cognee has the larger community by that measure.
Are cognee and neo4j free?
Both are open source. cognee is licensed under Apache-2.0 and neo4j under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between cognee and neo4j?
cognee is written in Python and neo4j in Java. 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 neo4j?
Choose cognee if you want the larger community (33,012 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose neo4j if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.