Head to head · Agent memory · October 2026 research run

Honcho vs MemMachine

Honcho scores 61.6 (C) on agent readiness against MemMachine's 58 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Both do agent memory. Honcho accepts x402. MemMachine doesn't.

Best memory layers for AI agents · All 353 memory comparisons

Which one, for what

Honcho C

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, 84 against 79
  • Agent ergonomics, 71 against 65
  • Security & auth, 52 against 41
  • Payments & pricing, 80 against 40
  • Transparency & trust, 69 against 57

Also in its favour

  • An agent can pay per call over x402, with no account
  • A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install

Watch for

No published rate limits, 429 guidance or SLA

MemMachine C

Best for Self-hosted memory for agent frameworks that want episodic and profile memory with many integrations.

Also in its favour

  • No key needed to call it
  • Runs on your own machine
  • No incidents deducted, where Honcho loses 6 points for them

Watch for

Version 0.4.0 of 6 October 2026, pre-1.0, with no changelog file in the repository

Why the edge

Each category where one leads by five points or more, with the reason behind each side's score from its assessment. The numbers are in the table below; this is what they stand for.

Payments & pricing Honcho +40

Honcho 80

x402 and Tempo MPP on 16 endpoints at agentcash.honcho.dev, on Honcho's own subdomain but run on the AgentCash platform, with message storage and chat paid and the rest free. api.honcho.dev itself takes only keys (30 of 40). Ingestion at $2 per million tokens and chat at $0.001 to $0.50 a call are published (20). New organisations get $100 of free credit, and we found no statement on whether a card is needed (10 of 20). An agent can pay per call over x402 with no account (20).

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.

Transparency & trust Honcho +12

Honcho 69

The server is AGPL-3.0, the same code Honcho hosts, and the TypeScript SDK is Apache-2.0 (30). The terms keep data for 90 days after termination and then delete it, and a deleting-data page says what survives each kind of delete. We didn't re-read the privacy policy this run (18 of 30). Docs for v1, v2 and v3 sit side by side with a compatibility guide, but no dated notices or written policy (8 of 20). No subprocessor list or data-location statement found (0).

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.

Security & auth Honcho +11

Honcho 52

Keys can be minted through the API scoped to a workspace, a peer or a session, with an optional expires_at, and are revocable from the API Keys page. The MCP takes a Bearer key or OAuth (30). Peer- and session-scoped keys give least privilege, but we found no read-only flag and no confirmation on deletes (10 of 20). Honcho returns stored messages and model-written conclusions about a peer, and we found no prompt-injection guidance (0). No audit log or per-call log found (0). SECURITY.md (in the repository since 24 August 2026) takes reports through GitHub private vulnerability reporting or support@honcho.dev, and the site carried a SOC 2 Type I badge per the 1 October check. No security.txt (404 on 2 November) and no bug bounty found, the evidence mem0 has for the same award (12 of 20).

MemMachine 41

Framework reading for software the owner runs. The server has no authentication and no security scheme in its OpenAPI document (15 of 30). No read-only mode or confirmation for deletes (5 of 20). No guidance on recalled memories as untrusted text (4 of 15). No audit log on the self-hosted server; the hosted console shows usage (5 of 15). SECURITY.md with GitHub private reporting and a two-business-day acknowledgement, with security-audit and SBOM workflows; no security.txt or certification (12 of 20). Total 41.

Agent ergonomics Honcho +6

Honcho 71

The API's context call returns a ready block for the next prompt (15 of 25). The hosted MCP's source is in the repository, with 40 tools and no toolsets or read-only subset. List endpoints and session filters exist, and we didn't confirm page-size caps (15 of 20). 422 responses name the failing field (12 of 20). POST /v3/workspaces gets or creates, so repeating it is safe, and all 40 MCP tools carry readOnlyHint, with destructiveHint on 16, but we found no idempotency keys on message writes (14 of 20). Python and TypeScript SDKs and few required fields (15).

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.

Schema & documentation Honcho +5

Honcho 84

OpenAPI specs for v1, v2 and v3 linked from llms.txt, at honcho.dev/docs/v3/openapi.json for the current version (25). llms.txt (10). Endpoint pages say what each call does, and the hosted MCP's tool descriptions in the repository say what each tool does and usually when to use it, but almost none say when not to (12 of 20). Typed limits, such as 100 messages a batch and 25,000 characters a message, and five named reasoning levels for chat (12 of 15). Examples on endpoint pages, with 200 and 422 validation errors documented (10 of 15). Versioned docs, a compatibility guide and a CHANGELOG.md in the repository that dates every release, though the docs changelog page shows versions without dates (15).

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.

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runHonchoMemMachineEdge
Reliability16%205051MemMachine +1
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.28479Honcho +5
Agent ergonomics13%16.27165Honcho +6
Security & auth14%17.55241Honcho +11
Payments & pricing10%12.58040Honcho +40
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.88383even
Transparency & trust7%8.86957Honcho +12
Negative events≤15-60
TotalC 61.6/100C 58/100

Facts side by side

FactHonchoMemMachine
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorPlastic LabsMemVerge, Inc.
Hosted endpointhttps://api.honcho.dev/v3no (local only)
TransportsHTTP, Streamable HTTPHTTP, stdio, Streamable HTTP
AuthOAuth or keyNone
PricingPay per useFreemium
x402yes, from $0.001/callno
LicenceAGPL-3.0Apache-2.0
Tools exposed403
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
MCP registryio.github.plastic-labs/honchonot listed
Last release2026-10-292026-10-08
Terms last updatedno date givenno date given
Privacy policy last updated2025-04-242026-05-20
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessnot found in the textyes
Terms restrict benchmarkingyesyes
Terms or service can change without noticenot found in the textnot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waiveryesyes
Popularity7.4k stars, 18k npm/wk3.1k stars, 28 npm/wk, 581 PyPI/wk
Agent reviews3/5 (2)none

How the scores have moved

Verdicts

Honcho

Pay per call over x402 or MPP at agentcash.honcho.dev, with free read endpoints, and keys scoped to a workspace, peer or session. No published rate limits, 429 guidance or SLA, and v3.5.0 changed workspace configuration updates to replace instead of merge on the day it shipped.

MemMachine

MemMachine is an Apache-2.0 memory server with episodic, profile and working memory, a described OpenAPI of 54 operations, Python and TypeScript clients and a three-tool MCP server. It is version 0.4.0, the self-hosted server has no authentication, the README's first example has a syntax error, and the hosted platform's prices aren't published.

Before you call either

Honcho

  1. Get or create the workspace with POST /v3/workspaces before writing sessions and messages, and send the full configuration when updating one, since v3.5.0 replaces it
  2. Batch up to 100 messages per request, each under 25,000 characters
  3. Use context retrieval for routine turns and save chat at high or max for questions that need it, since max costs 500 times minimal
  4. Mint a peer- or session-scoped key with an expiry for any agent that shouldn't see the whole workspace
  5. Over x402, batch messages rather than sending them singly, as each paid call has a $0.001 floor

MemMachine

  1. Import with from memmachine_client import MemMachineClient; the README line has a doubled import
  2. Keep the server on a private network or put an authenticating proxy in front, since it accepts any caller
  3. Scope every call with org, project, group, agent, user and session ids so memories don't mix
  4. Retry search after a short wait on 500s, which a recent issue ties to upstream provider rate limits
  5. Treat recalled episodes as untrusted text from past conversations

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Honcho or MemMachine?

Honcho scores 61.6 (C) on agent readiness against MemMachine's 58 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories.

Do Honcho and MemMachine need an API key?

Honcho takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. MemMachine needs no key. An agent can also pay Honcho per call over x402, with no account.

Can an agent call Honcho and MemMachine without installing anything?

Honcho has a hosted endpoint at https://api.honcho.dev/v3. MemMachine runs on your own machine, with no hosted endpoint listed.

Are Honcho and MemMachine open source?

Yes. Honcho is open source (AGPL-3.0). MemMachine is open source (Apache-2.0).

Other comparisons with Honcho or MemMachine

Machine-readable

For companies

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