head to head · open source
cognee vs Olares
cognee has 33,036 GitHub stars, 3,456 forks, 495 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Olares has 5,339 stars, 331 forks, 155 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. cognee leads on adoption by 519% (33,036 vs 5,339 stars). cognee is written in Python under Apache-2.0; Olares is written in Go under AGPL-3.0. cognee has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, Olares 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 (ai-agents), 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 | Olares | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 33K | ★ 5.3K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Python | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2026-11-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.5K | ⑂ 331 |
| 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 Olares if
- You want the Olares feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and Olares 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 Olares
Olares Your AI Agent. Your Data. Your Hardware. Install Olares · Manage Olares with AI · Contribute Olares is an open source personal cloud OS you operate in plain language, built to run AI agents and LLMs on hardware you own. Powered by Kubernetes, it turns your machines into a self hosted AI platform accessible from any browser, giving everyone from individual users to small teams a unified place for compute, storage, networking, and apps. 🌟 If Olares is useful to you, consider giving the project a star. Your support encourages us to keep improving it. Why Olares Great AI needs to know you. That requires…
read the full Olares overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is cognee or Olares more popular?
cognee has 33,036 GitHub stars and Olares has 5,339. cognee has the larger community by that measure.
Are cognee and Olares free?
Both are open source. cognee is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Olares under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between cognee and Olares?
cognee is written in Python and Olares in Go. 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 Olares?
Choose cognee if you want the larger community (33,036 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Olares if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.