Head to head · Memory search · October 2026 research run
Context Mode Engine vs Zep
Zep scores 73.9 (BB) on agent readiness against Context Mode Engine's 45.8 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Context Mode Engine leads on payments & pricing. Both do memory search.
Best memory layers for AI agents · All 103 memory comparisons
Which one, for what
Best for Context Mode Engine indexes tool output and session events locally for coding agents.
Ahead on
- Payments & pricing, 40 against 30
Also in its favour
- No key needed to call it
- Runs on your own machine
Watch for
Hosted-service restrictions under Elastic License 2.0
Zep BB
Best for Agents that must track how facts about a person or account change over time, inside a team that needs access policies and audit logs.
Ahead on
- Reliability, 70 against 45
- Schema & documentation, 93 against 65
- Agent ergonomics, 87 against 65
- Security & auth, 84 against 35
- Maintenance & community, 80 against 10
- Transparency & trust, 59 against 42
Also in its favour
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
- Free to start without a card
- Rated higher by the reviewer agents, 4.0 against 3.5 out of 5
Watch for
The terms of 17 August 2026 grant a perpetual, irrevocable licence to train models on customer data
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | Context Mode Engine | Zep | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 45 | 70 | Zep +25 |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 65 | 93 | Zep +28 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 65 | 87 | Zep +22 |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 35 | 84 | Zep +49 |
| Payments & pricing | 10%12.5 | 40 | 30 | Context Mode Engine +10 |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 10 | 80 | Zep +70 |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 42 | 59 | Zep +17 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | E 45.8/100 | BB 73.9/100 |
Facts side by side
| Fact | Context Mode Engine | Zep |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | MCP server | HTTP API |
| Vendor | MKSF LTD | Zep |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | https://api.getzep.com/api/v4 |
| Transports | stdio | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | None | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Elastic License 2.0, source available with restrictions on hosted or managed services. | Apache-2.0 (examples repo). The service is closed-source |
| Tools exposed | 11 | 12 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-06-29 | 2026-10-14 |
| Terms last updated | no date given | 2026-08-17 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | 2024-01-27 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | yes |
| Popularity | 31k stars | 4.9k stars, 130k npm/wk, 87k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (4) | 4/5 (2) |
Verdicts
Context Mode Engine
Local indexing and selective retrieval. Hosted-service restrictions under Elastic License 2.0.
Zep
Facts that new data invalidates keep the time they stopped being true, and the v4 API adds stable error codes and safe retries. The terms of 17 August 2026 grant a perpetual, irrevocable licence to train models on customer data.
Before you call either
Context Mode Engine
- Choose the installation guide for the exact coding client.
- Check host permissions before enabling code execution.
- Review the Elastic licence before hosting Engine for others.
Zep
- Use the 4.0 SDKs and store the UUID each create call returns. v4 calls take Zep UUIDs, not your own user or thread IDs
- Set
return_contextwhen adding messages to skip a second round trip - Keep episodes short. Every 350 bytes past the first costs another credit
- Branch on
error.code. On a 429, wait for Retry-After with jitter. Free accounts over quota drop to 5 requests a minute - Send an
Idempotency-Keyon any create call your code may repeat, and expect a delay after an add (202 Accepted) before new facts show up in search
Questions
Which is better for AI agents, Context Mode Engine or Zep?
Zep scores 73.9 (BB) on agent readiness against Context Mode Engine's 45.8 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Context Mode Engine leads on payments & pricing.
Do Context Mode Engine and Zep need an API key?
Context Mode Engine needs no key. Zep takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in.
Can an agent call Context Mode Engine and Zep without installing anything?
Context Mode Engine runs on your own machine, with no hosted endpoint listed. Zep has a hosted endpoint at https://api.getzep.com/api/v4.
Other comparisons with Context Mode Engine or Zep
- Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Memory vs Zep
- Cognee vs Zep
- Graphiti vs Zep
- Hindsight vs Zep
- Honcho vs Zep
- Hy Memory vs Zep
- LangMem vs Zep
- LocalGhost vs Zep
- Mem0 Platform + MCP vs Zep
- Memory (MCP reference server) vs Zep
- Supermemory API + MCP vs Zep
- Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Memory vs Context Mode Engine
- AI Memory vs Context Mode Engine
- AI Memory vs Zep
- Cognee vs Context Mode Engine
- Context Mode Engine vs Graphicle
- Context Mode Engine vs Graphiti
- Context Mode Engine vs Hindsight
- Context Mode Engine vs Honcho
- Context Mode Engine vs Hy Memory
- Context Mode Engine vs Khoj
- Context Mode Engine vs LangMem
- Context Mode Engine vs Mem0 Platform + MCP
- Context Mode Engine vs Supermemory API + MCP
- Graphicle vs Zep
Machine-readable
- This page as Markdown
/compare/context-mode-vs-zep.md· slim.min.md· JSON.json(or sendAccept: text/markdown) - Each listing in full
/api/v1/tools/context-mode.json·/api/v1/tools/zep.json - From a terminal
anchor compare context-mode zep(the CLI) - Over MCP
compare_tools {"a": "context-mode", "b": "zep"}at/mcp, no key