head to head · open source
cognee vs zvec
cognee has 33,036 GitHub stars, 3,456 forks, 495 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. zvec has 16,181 stars, 1,017 forks, 56 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. cognee leads on adoption by 104% (33,036 vs 16,181 stars). cognee is written in Python under Apache-2.0; zvec is written in C++ under Apache-2.0. cognee has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, zvec 6%. cognee was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (agent-skills), 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 | zvec | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 33K | ★ 16K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2026-11-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.5K | ⑂ 1.0K |
| 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 zvec if
- You want the zvec feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You evaluated both and zvec 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 zvec
English 中文 🚀 Quickstart 🏠 Home 📚 Docs 📊 Benchmarks 🔎 DeepWiki 🎮 Discord 🐦 X (Twitter) Zvec is an open source, in process vector database — lightweight, lightning fast, and designed to embed directly into applications. Battle tested within Alibaba Group, it delivers production grade, low latency and scalable similarity search with minimal setup. [!Important] 🚀 v0.7.0 (August 24, 2026) zvec grep ( zg ) : Local first workspace search that unifies ripgrep, BM25, and vector search behind one CLI — built for humans and AI agents. ReMe integration : zvec is now a file store backend in ReMe, the memory…
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 zvec more popular?
cognee has 33,036 GitHub stars and zvec has 16,181. cognee has the larger community by that measure.
Are cognee and zvec free?
Both are open source. cognee is licensed under Apache-2.0 and zvec under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between cognee and zvec?
cognee is written in Python and zvec in C++. 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 zvec?
Choose cognee if you want the larger community (33,036 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose zvec if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.