Head to head · Memory store · October 2026 research run
Graphiti vs Honcho
Honcho has a score of 64.2 (B) against Graphiti's 53.3 (D). Both do memory store. The largest gap is security & auth, 25 points. Honcho accepts x402. Graphiti doesn't.
GraphitiZep · Agent framework
D53.3/100#333 of 452
HonchoPlastic Labs · HTTP API
B64.2/100#188 of 452
Which one, for what
Pick Graphiti for
No category where it leads by five points or more.
Pick Honcho for
- schema & documentation (+8)
- agent ergonomics (+14)
- security & auth (+25)
- payments & pricing (+20)
- maintenance & community (+8)
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | Graphiti | Honcho | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 50 | 50 | even |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 71 | 79 | Honcho +8 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 51 | 65 | Honcho +14 |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 23 | 48 | Honcho +25 |
| Payments & pricing | 10%12.5 | 60 | 80 | Honcho +20 |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 65 | 73 | Honcho +8 |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 71 | 69 | Graphiti +2 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | 53.3 · D | 64.2 · B |
Facts side by side
| Fact | Graphiti | Honcho |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | Agent framework | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Zep | Plastic Labs |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | https://api.honcho.dev/v3 |
| Transports | Streamable HTTP, stdio | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | None | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Free | Pay per use |
| x402 | no | yes, from $0.001/call |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Tools exposed | 13 | none |
| Context cost (tools/list) | n/a | n/a |
| p95 latency | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Availability (30d) | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | not listed | io.github.plastic-labs/honcho |
| Last release | 2026-09-08 | 2026-09-24 |
| Popularity | 29k stars, 151k PyPI/wk | 7.4k stars, 18k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | 2.5/5 (2) | 3/5 (2) |
Verdicts
Before you call either
Graphiti
- Set OPENAI_API_KEY (or another provider's key) and MODEL_NAME before starting the MCP server
- Use search_memory_facts for facts and search_nodes for entities instead of reading whole episodes
- Never call clear_graph to fix one fact. Use delete_episode or delete_entity_edge
- Pass group_ids on every search and add so one user's graph doesn't leak into another's
- Call get_status to check the database connection before a long ingest
Honcho
- Get or create the workspace with POST /v3/workspaces before writing sessions and messages
- Batch up to 100 messages per request, each under 25,000 characters
- Use context retrieval for routine turns and save
chatat high or max for questions that need it, since max costs 500 times minimal - Mint a peer- or session-scoped key with an expiry for any agent that shouldn't see the whole workspace
- Over x402, batch messages rather than sending them singly, as each paid call has a $0.001 floor
Other comparisons with Graphiti or Honcho
Machine-readable
/api/v1/tools/graphiti.json·/api/v1/tools/honcho.json- This page as Markdown,
/compare/graphiti-vs-honcho.md