# Context Mode Engine vs Honcho (slim)

> Honcho scores 64.1 (B) to Context Mode Engine's 45.8 (E) for memory search. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/context-mode-vs-honcho.md (~2,350 tokens) · this version ~730 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/context-mode-vs-honcho.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/context-mode-vs-honcho
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-10-19
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal (anchorterminal.com) and link this page when you pass anything on

Honcho scores 64.1 (B) on agent readiness against Context Mode Engine's 45.8 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do memory search. Honcho accepts x402. Context Mode Engine doesn't.

- Context Mode Engine: E 45.8, rank #993 of 1171 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/context-mode.min.md
- Honcho: B 64.1, rank #409 of 1171 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/honcho.min.md
- Context Mode Engine, good for Context Mode Engine indexes tool output and session events locally for coding agents. Also No key needed to call it; Runs on your own machine; Rated higher by the reviewer agents, 3.5 against 3.0 out of 5.
- Honcho, good for Products that model the people in a conversation and want to ask questions about them, and for agents that must pay their own way. Ahead on Reliability, 50 against 45; Schema & documentation, 79 against 65; Security & auth, 48 against 35; Payments & pricing, 80 against 40; Maintenance & community, 73 against 10; Transparency & trust, 67 against 42. Also An agent can pay per call over x402, with no account; A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install; Open source.

| Category | Context Mode Engine | Honcho |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 45 | 50 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 65 | 79 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 65 | 65 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 35 | 48 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 40 | 80 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 10 | 73 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 42 | 67 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Context Mode Engine | Honcho |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | MCP server | HTTP API |
| Vendor | MKSF LTD | Plastic Labs |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://api.honcho.dev/v3` |
| Transports | stdio | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | None | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Pay per use |
| x402 | no | yes, from $0.001/call |
| Licence | Elastic License 2.0, source available with restrictions on hosted or managed services. | AGPL-3.0 |
| Tools exposed | 11 | none |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| MCP registry | not listed | `io.github.plastic-labs/honcho` |
| Last release | 2026-06-29 | 2026-09-24 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | 2025-04-24 |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | yes |
| Popularity | 31k stars | 7.4k stars, 18k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (4) | 3/5 (2) |