# Basic Memory vs Cognee (slim)

> Basic Memory scores 76.9 (BB) to Cognee's 47.7 (D) for agent memory. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/basic-memory-vs-cognee.md (~5,500 tokens) · this version ~3,080 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/basic-memory-vs-cognee.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/basic-memory-vs-cognee
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-11-07
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Basic Memory scores 76.9 (BB) on agent readiness against Cognee's 47.7 (D), and leads in every scored category. Both do agent memory.

- Basic Memory: BB 76.9, rank #38 of 1486 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/basic-memory.min.md
- Cognee: D 47.7, rank #1133 of 1486 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/cognee.min.md
- Basic Memory, good for Memory for coding agents and assistants kept as Markdown the user owns, with search and a graph. Ahead on Reliability, 83 against 43; Agent ergonomics, 85 against 59; Security & auth, 61 against 39; Payments & pricing, 50 against 35; Maintenance & community, 91 against 82; Transparency & trust, 82 against 72. Also Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better; No key needed to call it; No incidents deducted, where Cognee loses 9 points for them.
- Cognee, good for Agents whose memory has to include documents, wikis and chat tools as well as conversation, and for teams happy to self-host. Also A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install; Free to start without a card.

| Category | Basic Memory | Cognee |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 83 | 43 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 89 | 85 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 85 | 59 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 61 | 39 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 50 | 35 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 91 | 82 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 82 | 72 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Basic Memory | Cognee |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | MCP server | Platform |
| Vendor | Basic Memory LLC | Cognee |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://<tenant>.aws.cognee.ai/api/v1` |
| Transports | stdio | HTTP, stdio, SSE (legacy) |
| Auth | None | OAuth or key |
| Licence | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Tools exposed | 13 | 7 |
| MCP registry | `io.github.basicmachines-co/basic-memory` | not listed |
| Terms last updated | 2026-10-27 | 2026-03-27 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-10-27 | no date given |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 4.5k stars, 20k PyPI/wk | 31k stars |
| Agent reviews | none | 3/5 (2) |

Why the edge:
- Reliability, Basic Memory +40: Basic Memory 83 (Local-software lines, as a stdio MCP server the owner runs. `basic-memory` on PyPI with Python 3.12 or newer stated, installed with uv (20). Test, SQLite lifecycle and Docker workflows run on the repository, but GitHub's API answered with a rate limit, so run results were unread (15 of 25, unchecked). 74 open issues and pull requests against 200 commits in the 90 days, with recent bug reports answered by a maintainer within days and one flaky-CI issue open (18 of 25). The changelog calls out breaking changes in their own sections (15). v1.0.0 on 29 October 2026 (15). Total 83.); Cognee 43 (We departed from the checklist here. The listing covers Cognee Cloud and a library and MCP server you run yourself, so we scored both and took the mean. For Cloud, no status page found on 4 November (0), no incident history to read (5), no rate limits in the REST reference, whose introduction says "Usage-based" for Cloud and "None" for a local server (0), no 429 guidance (0), Enterprise lists a "Support SLA" on the pricing page with no figure or SLA document (0, where 1 October gave 5 of 10), generally available (10), 15 in all. For the local package, cognee on PyPI with Python 3.10 to 3.14 stated in SECURITY.md and pyproject.toml (20). 64 GitHub Actions workflows, and test_suites.yml runs on every push to main and dev, but GitHub's run pages are closed to our reader on 4 November, so the result is unread (15 of 25, where 2 October read ten passing runs). Open regressions not counted, per the 2 October check (10 of 25). The changelog flags breaking changes under an "Upgrading" heading in each release, though patch releases such as 1.6.3, 1.6.5 and 1.6.6 carry them and 11 MCP tools went in May without a version bump (10 of 15). Version 1.6.6 (15). 70 in all. Mean 42.5, rounded half up to 43.)
- Agent ergonomics, Basic Memory +26: Basic Memory 85 (13 tools, one hidden unless enabled, so the 11 to 30 band (15), with 6 back for the manual tool and the progressive-discovery tags (21 of 25). Search narrows by mode, filters, note types, items, `since`, `path` and line context (18 of 20). Refusals are tool errors with typed codes an agent can act on (17 of 20). Every tool has readOnly, destructive and idempotent hints, and edits take an expected checksum that refuses a stale write (19 of 20). Most arguments are optional and the server starts with one command, but there is one language and no SDK beyond the CLI (10 of 15). Total 85.); Cognee 59 (The tools reference lists 7 MCP tools, remember, recall, forget, code_search, search_tools, call_tool and cognify_status, with search_tools and call_tool reaching further tools on demand and COGNEE_MCP_TOOL_MODE=minimal cutting the list to the memory tools (25). recall takes top_k from 1 to 100 and dataset filters, and we found no pagination on other calls (12 of 20). MCP tool failures end in a "Fix:" line naming the setting to change, per the server source, and the billing docs say a low balance is rejected with HTTP 402. In August 2026 an empty balance produced no error at all for over two days, and the reporter's later note that search returned HTTP 200 with the wrong content has no maintainer reply (9 of 20). No idempotency keys or tool annotations in the server source, but remember can run in the background and cognify_status lets an agent check ingestion before querying (5 of 20). Python only, and the MCP server starts with one docker run (8 of 15). On 4 November the tools reference and cognee-mcp 0.5.7 source still register the same seven tools, with no tool annotations.)
- Security & auth, Basic Memory +22: Basic Memory 61 (Local stdio server with no credential, and cloud OAuth 2.1 through WorkOS with read-only or project-scoped keys on Pro (22 of 30). Paths are validated against the project root, project deletion is off by default and destructive tools are annotated (15 of 20). SECURITY.md has a threat model that warns about third-party MCP servers and copied commands, but nothing on note text as untrusted input (8 of 15). A local log file, and cloud audit logs only on Business (8 of 15). SECURITY.md gives an email and a 72-hour response aim but lists only 0.x.x as supported; no security.txt, bounty or own SOC 2, and an open issue reports an unmaintained dependency with a CVE (8 of 20). Total 61.); Cognee 39 (Cloud takes an `X-Api-Key` per tenant, which the security page says can be rotated, and the API reference lists endpoints to create and delete keys. A self-hosted REST server now defaults to authentication required with a Bearer token (security docs, 4 November), with no scopes on either credential (15 of 30, held). Each Cloud tenant gets its own Postgres database and Kubernetes namespace, and with access control on, dataset names resolve only to the caller's own datasets. forget needs a named dataset or data ID, or an explicit everything=true to wipe all of a user's memory, but there's no read-only key and no confirmation step (8 of 20). Cognee ingests documents and synced Slack, Notion, Linear and Google Drive content and returns it to the model, and we found no prompt-injection guidance (0). Self-hosted, every MCP tool and API call is logged with its parameters, result, timing and user to Redis when that's configured. We found no audit log for Cloud (6 of 15). SECURITY.md asks for reports to security@cognee.ai, and an OpenSSF Scorecard workflow runs in CI. The security page, updated 22 July 2026, says Cognee holds no SOC 2, ISO 27001 or equivalent audit, and there's no security.txt (10 of 20). On 4 November SECURITY.md (13 October) and the Security and Privacy page say reports are acknowledged within 2 business days, with fix windows by severity, so the programme line keeps 10 of 20.)
- Payments & pricing, Basic Memory +15: Basic Memory 50 (Self-hosted rule, with the price lines read for the cloud. No x402, MPP or L402 (0 of 40). Cloud plans are public, and credits are $0.01 each, but what a credit buys isn't priced per unit (10). The open-source server is free with no card (20). An agent can install it from PyPI and run it with no account (20). Total 50.); Cognee 35 (No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Standard is $1 per million tokens processed and $5 a month per extra workspace, published without a login. The billing docs, re-read on 4 November, now give the same rates but say the free workspace includes 10 million tokens where the pricing page says 1 million (15 of 20). Free includes a workspace, "no card required" (20). A person signs up for a Cloud tenant in the browser (0). Self-hosting is free, and runs local models with no LLM key, but the rubric scores the hosted option.)
- Transparency & trust, Basic Memory +10: Basic Memory 82 (AGPL-3.0, an OSI licence (30). The terms and privacy policy of 27 October 2026 agree on 30-day retention after cancellation, backups up to 90 days and no training on or sale of content, and name the infrastructure providers (26 of 30). The 1.0 release ships a migration guide mapping every removed tool and command, without a written deprecation period (14 of 20). Telemetry is disclosed in the README with what is and isn't sent and one opt-out, but it is on by default (16 of 20). Total 86.); Cognee 72 (The library, REST server and MCP server are Apache-2.0, and Cloud is closed (25 of 30). The privacy notice of 20 September 2026 gives retention by data type (account data deleted 30 days after termination, product usage 24 months, technical logs 30 days to 12 months, billing 10 years for the EU entity and 7 for the US one), and the security page names a data protection officer and deletes a tenant's whole database when it goes (22 of 30, per 2 October and re-read on 4 November). Deprecations now come as dated changelog notices. v1.6.5 (16 October) deprecates `cognee.memify()` and `POST /api/v1/memify` with a FutureWarning "for one release", and the REST reference marks memify deprecated. No written policy with a notice period, so 15 of 20 (6 on 1 October). The privacy notice names Cloud processors (AWS, Neon, Auth0, Stripe, Dash0, Segment) and says Cloud runs in AWS us-east-1, operated by Cognee Inc., with no EU region today. The library's telemetry is on by default and disclosed, with TELEMETRY_DISABLED as the opt-out, in the privacy notice and the Security and Privacy page (16 of 20). The "anonymous" wording is charged once as a negative event, not here. 25 + 22 + 15 + 16 = 78.)
- Maintenance & community, Basic Memory +9: Basic Memory 91 (v1.0.0 on 29 October 2026 (30). v0.24.0 and v0.24.1 on 22 October and v1.0.0, three releases in 90 days (20). Recent issues from outside users got maintainer replies within a few days (20 of 25). Verified namespace io.github.basicmachines-co/basic-memory in the official MCP registry, published by a workflow (15). uv.lock and CI, with an open report of an unmaintained dependency (6 of 10). Total 91.); Cognee 82 (cognee v1.6.6 tagged on 29 October 2026 (30). Stable tags from 6 August are v1.4.2 (8 August), v1.5.0 to v1.5.4, v1.6.0 to v1.6.6 and cognee-mcp-v0.5.7 (8 October), well over three (20); dev and rc tags not counted. Responsiveness per the 2 October check, not re-read on 4 November since GitHub's issue pages are closed to our reader. A maintainer replied within a day on #4673, but the reporter's follow-up from 30 August had no answer (12 of 25). The official Python package is current. The 2 October reading of the official MCP registry came from its JSON API, which this run doesn't use, so it is struck and the registry is unread; it earned nothing either way (10 of 15). Dependabot, uv.lock and dependency floors raised in 1.6.5 and 1.6.6, with CI configured but its results unread (10). 30 + 20 + 12 + 10 + 10 = 82.)