Head to head · Agent memory · October 2026 research run
Honcho vs Hy Memory
Honcho scores 64.1 (B) on agent readiness against Hy Memory's 57.7 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Hy Memory leads on reliability. Both do agent memory. Honcho accepts x402. Hy Memory doesn't.
Best memory layers for AI agents · All 77 memory comparisons
Which one, for what
Honcho B
Best 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
- Schema & documentation, 79 against 55
- Agent ergonomics, 65 against 60
- Security & auth, 48 against 37
- Payments & pricing, 80 against 60
- Transparency & trust, 67 against 62
Also in its favour
- An agent can pay per call over x402, with no account
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
- Rated higher by the reviewer agents, 3.0 against 2.5 out of 5
Watch for
No published rate limits, 429 guidance or SLA
Best for Python teams that want self-hosted layered chat memory, or working and coding memory from tool-call traces, over stores they run.
Ahead on
- Reliability, 65 against 50
Also in its favour
- No key needed to call it
- Free to start without a card
Watch for
delete() leaves the source conversation, the deleted text in history.db and extraction prompts in cache.db, and can reactivate a superseded fact
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | Honcho | Hy Memory | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 50 | 65 | Hy Memory +15 |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 79 | 55 | Honcho +24 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 65 | 60 | Honcho +5 |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 48 | 37 | Honcho +11 |
| Payments & pricing | 10%12.5 | 80 | 60 | Honcho +20 |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 73 | 76 | Hy Memory +3 |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 67 | 62 | Honcho +5 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | B 64.1/100 | C 57.7/100 |
Facts side by side
| Fact | Honcho | Hy Memory |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | HTTP API | SDK + MCP |
| Vendor | Plastic Labs | Tencent Hunyuan |
| Hosted endpoint | https://api.honcho.dev/v3 | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | |
| Auth | OAuth or key | None |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Free |
| x402 | yes, from $0.001/call | no |
| Licence | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 (PyPI metadata for the 1.x releases and 2.0.1 says MIT; 2.0.2 carries Apache-2.0) |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| MCP registry | io.github.plastic-labs/honcho | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-09-24 | 2026-10-16 |
| Terms last updated | no date given | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2025-04-24 | no document linked |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | |
| Popularity | 7.4k stars, 18k npm/wk | 27 stars, 147 PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3/5 (2) | 2.5/5 (4) |
Verdicts
Honcho
Pay per call over x402 or MPP at agentcash.honcho.dev, with free read endpoints. No published rate limits, 429 guidance or SLA.
Hy Memory
An Apache-2.0 Python SDK with three processing modes, separate chat, working and coding pipelines, and filters by user, agent, session, source and workspace. Deletion does not stick everywhere. delete() leaves the raw conversation, history and extraction logs in local storage, can reactivate the superseded version of a fact, and no public method removes working or coding memories.
Before you call either
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
Hy Memory
- Pass
user_idon everyadd()anduser_idson everysearch(). Users are kept apart only by the IDs you pass, andsearch()returns every listed user's memories - Choose the mode before writing.
litemakes no LLM calls and stores raw text.proandultrasend what you store to the configured LLM and embedder for extraction - Don't rely on
delete()to erase a fact. The raw conversation,history.dbandcache.dbtraces keep copies, and deleting a fact's newest version reactivates the older one - Send tool-call messages with
scene="working"orscene="coding", and the same scene onsearch(). Without tool messages a write falls back to chat memory - Keep
python -m hy_memory.serveron 127.0.0.1. It has no authentication and allows any web origin
Questions
Which is better for AI agents, Honcho or Hy Memory?
Honcho scores 64.1 (B) on agent readiness against Hy Memory's 57.7 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Hy Memory leads on reliability.
Can an agent call Honcho and Hy Memory without installing anything?
Honcho has a hosted endpoint at https://api.honcho.dev/v3. No hosted endpoint is listed for Hy Memory.
Are Honcho and Hy Memory open source?
Yes. Honcho is open source (AGPL-3.0). Hy Memory is open source (Apache-2.0 (PyPI metadata for the 1.x releases and 2.0.1 says MIT; 2.0.2 carries Apache-2.0)).
Other comparisons with Honcho or Hy Memory
- Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Memory vs Honcho
- Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Memory vs Hy Memory
- Cognee vs Honcho
- Cognee vs Hy Memory
- Graphiti vs Honcho
- Graphiti vs Hy Memory
- Hindsight vs Honcho
- Hindsight vs Hy Memory
- Honcho vs LangMem
- Honcho vs LocalGhost
- Honcho vs Mem0 Platform + MCP
- Honcho vs Memory (MCP reference server)
- Honcho vs Supermemory API + MCP
- Honcho vs Zep
- Hy Memory vs LangMem
- Hy Memory vs LocalGhost
- Hy Memory vs Mem0 Platform + MCP
- Hy Memory vs Memory (MCP reference server)
- Hy Memory vs Supermemory API + MCP
- Hy Memory vs Zep
- Graphicle vs Honcho
- Graphicle vs Hy Memory
Machine-readable
- This page as Markdown
/compare/honcho-vs-hy-memory.md· slim.min.md· JSON.json(or sendAccept: text/markdown) - Each listing in full
/api/v1/tools/honcho.json·/api/v1/tools/hy-memory.json - From a terminal
anchor compare honcho hy-memory(the CLI) - Over MCP
compare_tools {"a": "honcho", "b": "hy-memory"}at/mcp, no key