Cognee vs MemMachine

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.

MemMachine 57

Apache-2.0 (30). The terms say hosted customer data is destroyed on termination, with no period, and use usage data only in aggregate; the privacy policy wasn't read (12 of 30). No deprecation policy or notices found (3 of 20). No telemetry calls found in the server or client source, and the docs don't address it (10 of 20). Total 55.

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.

MemMachine 51

Local-software lines, as a server the owner runs. memmachine-server and memmachine-client on PyPI with Python versions stated, a Docker image and a compose script (20). pytest, integration and installation-test workflows exist, but GitHub's API answered with a rate limit, so run results were unread (15 of 25, unchecked). 292 open issues and pull requests; the newest bug reports, including a 429 from a provider surfacing as a 500 and a 0.4.0 configuration that no longer starts, have zero to two replies (10 of 25). No changelog file, release notes only on GitHub, which weren't read, and pre-1.0 tags (6 of 15). Version 0.4.0 (0). Total 51.

Cognee 85

Each REST reference page publishes its OpenAPI 3.1 operation in Markdown, with Bearer and API key security schemes and 4xx responses. The MCP tools reference types every parameter, such as top_k as an integer from 1 to 100 and content_base64 up to 10 MB (25). llms.txt plus separate llms-mcp.md and llms-api.md indexes (10). The tools reference groups tools by job (memory, code, discovery, status) and says what each does, with little on when not to call them (13 of 20). Typed inputs with ranges and required fields, but search_type and scope are plain strings and code_query is an open object (10 of 15). Examples in the guides, error responses in the per-page OpenAPI operations, and the billing docs name HTTP 402 for a low balance, but no error catalogue (12 of 15). Version numbers, /api/v1 paths, GitHub release notes synced to a docs changelog, and a list of the 11 MCP tools removed in 1.x (15). Re-read on 4 November, the reference lists 144 pages. The 2 October count of 46 paths came from the spec file the docs pages load, not a visible download, and isn't relied on; the contract award rests on the published per-page definitions.

MemMachine 79

OpenAPI documents for the server (54 operations) and the hosted platform (12) (25). llms.txt on docs.memmachine.ai with Markdown pages (10). Every operation has a description, and the docs explain memory types and scoping (15 of 20). Typed request models generated from the server, with search options for limits and filters (12 of 15). Examples for each client and the MCP tools, but only 422 is documented on the server and the README's first example doesn't run (8 of 15). /api/v2 paths and tagged releases, no changelog (9 of 15). Total 79.

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.

MemMachine 65

Searches take limit and filter options for episodic and semantic results (20 of 25). Memories can be listed and filtered by scope (15 of 20). Validation errors are typed; other failures are less clear, as the 429-to-500 issue shows (10 of 20). No idempotency keys or safe-retry guidance found (5 of 20). Python and TypeScript clients and a five-line quick start, once the import is fixed (15). Total 65.

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.

MemMachine 40

Self-hosted rule, with the price lines read for the hosted platform. No x402, MPP or L402 (0 of 40). No hosted prices found on the site or docs (0). Free to self-host with no card (20). An agent can install it from PyPI with no account (20). Total 40.