head to head · open source
cognee vs vearch
cognee has 33,036 GitHub stars, 3,456 forks, 495 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. vearch has 2,333 stars, 366 forks, 170 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. cognee leads on adoption by 1,316% (33,036 vs 2,333 stars). cognee is written in Python under Apache-2.0; vearch is written in Python under Apache-2.0. cognee has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, vearch 16%. 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 | vearch | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 33K | ★ 2.3K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2026-07-27 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.5K | ⑂ 366 |
| 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 vearch if
- You want the vearch 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 vearch 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 vearch
简体中文 English Overview Vearch is a cloud native distributed vector database for efficient similarity search of embedding vectors in your AI applications. Key features Hybrid search : Both vector search and scalar filtering. Performance : Fast vector retrieval search from millions of objects in milliseconds. Scalability & Reliability : Replication and elastic scaling out. Document Restful APIs Tutorial 参考文档 OpenAPIs API Documentation SDK Usage Cases Use Vearch as a Memory Backend Vearch integrates with popular AI frameworks: Real world Demos VisualSearch : Vearch can be leveraged to build a complete visual search…
read the full vearch overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is cognee or vearch more popular?
cognee has 33,036 GitHub stars and vearch has 2,333. cognee has the larger community by that measure.
Are cognee and vearch free?
Both are open source. cognee is licensed under Apache-2.0 and vearch under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between cognee and vearch?
cognee is written in Python and vearch 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 vearch?
Choose cognee if you want the larger community (33,036 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose vearch if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.