Basic Memory vs Zep

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.

Zep 84

Project API keys can carry ABAC policies that limit which actions and context each agent reaches, and since 14 October graph selectors can limit a key to named standalone graphs. The MCP server uses OAuth 2.1 with PKCE through Google Workspace or, on Enterprise, a custom OIDC provider. We found no key expiry or rotation documentation (27 of 30). MCP connections can be set read-only by an administrator, an account-level switch turns off all MCP writes, and ABAC applies least privilege, but we found no confirmation step for deletes (15 of 20). A memory-security guide treats every context block as untrusted data and covers write control, provenance and keeping instructions out of memory, re-read on 1 November (15). Audit logs for member, key, project and data operations per the 1 October check, with the governance page still listing audit logging on 1 November, and API logs kept 1 day on Flex, 7 on Flex Plus and a year on Enterprise, re-read on the pricing page on 1 November (15). SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA BAA on Enterprise and BYOK, but no security.txt (404 on 1 November), disclosure policy or bug bounty found (12 of 20).

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.

Zep 61

Closed service under clear terms, with Apache-2.0 examples and SDKs (15). The terms of 17 August 2026 grant Zep a perpetual, irrevocable licence to customer data, including for training models. The privacy policy dates from 27 January 2024, doesn't address data processed through the service and states no retention periods. Both dates were unchanged on 1 November. The two don't conflict, but together they say little (10 of 30). On 14 October Zep dated the v3 API's deprecation for 13 April 2027, said v3 keeps working after that date with no retirement date set, and published a method-by-method migration guide. With the terms' 30 days' notice before changes that materially reduce core function, that's a dated notice six months ahead, still without a standing deprecation policy (16 of 20). No subprocessor list or data-location statement found. The trust centre returned only a script shell on 17 October, and the only location evidence is a status note naming AWS us-west-2 (3 of 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.

Zep 30

No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Credits are priced per unit and public, 1 credit per 350 bytes of episode, overage $25 per 10,000 on Flex and $75 per 40,000 on Flex Plus (20). Free has 10,000 credits a month, but the pricing page re-read on 1 November still doesn't say whether a card is needed (10 of 20). A person signs up in the browser and creates a project key, and the MCP server needs a human identity-provider sign-in (0).

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.

Zep 70

Atlassian Statuspage at status.getzep.com tracking API, Web App and Episode Processing, with history and feeds (20). The 90 days from 3 August to 1 November hold six incidents. Two impaired core functions for over an hour, retrieval and episode processing on 27 August (about 2.5 hours) and errors and latency during the AWS us-west-2 outage on 3 September (about 2 hours). Two were search latency on 10 and 15 September (2.5 and 3.5 hours). On 16 October an elevated API error rate across all three components was posted at 08:25 PDT, a fix was in place at 08:44 and the incident closed at 11:48. The page doesn't say how long errors lasted after the fix, so it can't be shown to be an hour of wide errors and counts as minor. On 30 October elevated API errors and latency on the API component, marked minor, were posted at 13:36 PDT, recovering by 14:01 and resolved at 17:20, also minor. We count two majors as 5, between the rubric's 10 for one and 0 for several. Limits published per plan, 600 requests a minute on Flex and 1,000 on Flex Plus, with a 5 RPM penalty mode on Free (15). 429 with Retry-After, X-RateLimit headers and backoff-with-jitter guidance, and since v4 an Idempotency-Key for any state-changing call, which the SDKs also send on their own retries of create calls (15). Enterprise names "guaranteed rate limits with SLA" with no published figure (5 of 10). The v4 API is generally available since 14 October (10).

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.

Zep 80

SDKs 4.0.1 for Python, TypeScript and Go on 2026-10-20, adding task filters, after 4.0.0 on 14 October, the release that made v4 generally available (30). Seven stable TypeScript SDK releases in the 90 days from 3 August, 3.26.0 to 3.30.0 and 4.0.0 per npm on 17 October and 4.0.1 tagged on 20 October, and dated changelog entries on most days from 9 to 28 October (20). Closed service, scored on the 15-point scale. The changelog is public and frequent, and we didn't test a support channel (10 of 15). Current official SDKs for Python, TypeScript and Go at 4.0.1 (15). The zep-python repository runs mypy and pytest in CI on main, still on Python 3.9, and now carries v4.0.0 and v4.0.1 tags, but we couldn't read CI results or PyPI (5 of 10). Zep's own servers aren't in the official MCP registry.