# Basic Memory vs Supermemory API + MCP (slim)

> Basic Memory scores 76.9 (BB) to Supermemory's 59.6 (C) for agent memory. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/basic-memory-vs-supermemory.md (~4,850 tokens) · this version ~2,330 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/basic-memory-vs-supermemory.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/basic-memory-vs-supermemory
- 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 Supermemory API + MCP's 59.6 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do agent memory.

- Basic Memory: BB 76.9, rank #38 of 1486 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/basic-memory.min.md
- Supermemory API + MCP: C 59.6, rank #692 of 1486 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/supermemory.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 55; Agent ergonomics, 85 against 76; Payments & pricing, 50 against 30; Maintenance & community, 91 against 85; Transparency & trust, 82 against 52. Also Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better; No key needed to call it; Runs on your own machine; No incidents deducted, where Supermemory API + MCP loses 5 points for them.
- Supermemory API + MCP, good for Apps that need user memory and document search over the same data, and for multi-tenant products that want a key per user. Also A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install.

| Category | Basic Memory | Supermemory API + MCP |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 83 | 55 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 89 | 88 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 85 | 76 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 61 | 64 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 50 | 30 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 91 | 85 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 82 | 52 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Basic Memory | Supermemory API + MCP |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | MCP server | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Basic Memory LLC | Supermemory |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://api.supermemory.ai` |
| Transports | stdio | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | None | OAuth or key |
| Licence | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Tools exposed | 13 | 17 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | yes |
| MCP registry | `io.github.basicmachines-co/basic-memory` | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-10-29 | 2026-10-26 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-10-27 | 2025-06-02 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-10-27 | 2026-09-29 |
| Popularity | 4.5k stars, 20k PyPI/wk | 31k stars, 121k npm/wk, 45k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 3.5/5 (2) |

Why the edge:
- Transparency & trust, Basic Memory +30: 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.); Supermemory API + MCP 52 (The SDKs, the hosted MCP and the tools in the public repository are MIT, but since 3 October the docs say the self-hosted server binary is built from a separate, non-public codebase and is free within a lite licence limit, so the hosted service and the engine are closed with clear terms. The 1 October reading of an MIT engine is corrected (15 of 30). The security page says customer content never trains models on any plan, and erasure works by deleting a namespace. The privacy policy (effective 29 September 2026, last updated 24 October) keeps data for the service relationship with no periods, and says disconnecting a connector won't delete synced data unless asked, while the security page says it deletes imported documents by default. The terms (2 June 2025) and privacy policy name no company (15 of 30). v3 and v4 became legacy with the dated v5 launch of 7 October and a migration command, with no shutdown date or deprecation policy (10 of 20). The privacy policy names Timescale, Cloudflare, OpenAI and Google Gemini as providers, with no full sub-processor list or data locations (5 of 20). 15 + 15 + 10 + 5 = 45.)
- Reliability, Basic Memory +28: 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.); Supermemory API + MCP 55 (incident.io status page at status.supermemory.ai tracking the API and the Console, with incident pages and a feed (20). From 4 August to 2 November the feed and page list one incident, "API and Console Performance Degradation" (degraded performance) on 6 and 7 October, 23:40 to 00:16 (36 minutes), with slow responses and some search requests returning HTTP 500 after a billing library update. A short degradation reads as minor (20). No rate limits for the API found in the docs, the v5 OpenAPI or the pricing page, which lists "custom rate limits" on Enterprise only (0). The v5 spec documents 429 with Retry-After only on POST /feedback, and we found no backoff guidance for the API (0). Enterprise lists an "Uptime SLA" with no figure (5 of 10). v5 is described as the stable API (10). 20 + 20 + 0 + 0 + 5 + 10 = 55.)
- Payments & pricing, Basic Memory +20: 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.); Supermemory API + MCP 30 (No x402, MPP or L402. An empty balance returns 402 with no payment payload (0). Per-unit prices without a login, re-read on 2 November, $5 per million SM tokens for plain-text memory, $10 for rich content, $5 per million searches, $100 per million operations (20). Free has $5 of credit renewed monthly, and the pricing page doesn't say whether a card is needed (10 of 20). A person signs up in the console, and the MCP signs in through a browser (0). 0 + 20 + 10 + 0 = 30.)
- Agent ergonomics, Basic Memory +9: 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.); Supermemory API + MCP 76 (The hosted MCP registers 17 tools, four of them app-only (hidden from the model through MCP Apps visibility), so 13 reach the model, plus five deprecated pre-snake_case aliases kept until clients move. 11 to 30 tools (15). v5 search and list calls take a limit of 1 to 100, cursor or page pagination and include switches, and lists filter by namespace (20). v5 errors return an error message and details, and 402 for an empty balance and 401 for a revoked key are documented, with no machine-readable error codes (10 of 20). Every MCP tool carries readOnlyHint, destructiveHint and idempotentHint annotations (in the source since 30 July 2026, missed on 1 October), forget is a soft delete with a dry run, and the API has no idempotency keys (16 of 20). TypeScript and Python SDKs, and an add needs only content (15). 15 + 20 + 10 + 16 + 15 = 76.)
- Maintenance & community, Basic Memory +6: 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.); Supermemory API + MCP 85 (API v5 launched on 7 October 2026, python-sdk v5.0.1 is tagged 26 October and the TypeScript SDK's repository records 5.1.0 and 5.1.1 on 30 October and 1 November (30). Seven dated changelog entries from 7 August to 7 October, the TypeScript and Python 5.0 majors (6 October) and Python 3.57.0 to 3.62.0, well over three (20). The repository's issues and pull requests weren't readable (github.com answers 403 in this session), so the 1 October reading stands (12 of 25). Current TypeScript and Python SDKs (15). The hosted MCP isn't in the official registry. GitHub Actions workflows in the repo, with status unchecked (8 of 10). 30 + 20 + 12 + 15 + 8 = 85.)