Zep vs Graphiti | Zep Documentation

Graphiti is the open-source temporal knowledge graph framework — the engine that turns your data into a temporal Context Graph. It builds one Context Graph per subject (a user, customer, team, or topic) and runs locally.

Zep is agent memory at enterprise scale. It runs Graphiti inside a managed system — extraction, retrieval, storage, and governance on the proprietary Context Graph Engine — and serves millions of governed Context Graphs as one Context Lake.

In short: Graphiti builds the graph; Zep operates it at scale.

Aspect	Graphiti (open source)	Zep (managed, enterprise scale)
What it is	Temporal knowledge graph framework — one Context Graph per subject, run locally	Agent memory at enterprise scale — a governed Context Lake of millions of Context Graphs
Extraction & graph	Entity and edge extraction, bi-temporal model, fact invalidation	Adds Observations, graph analysis, and proprietary extraction LLMs, reranker, and embedding models
Graph storage	Pluggable backends — Neo4j, FalkorDB, Amazon Neptune	Proprietary, highly scalable Context Graph Engine graph database and managed runtime
Retrieval	Hybrid retrieval (vector, full-text, graph); performance depends on your setup	Token-optimized smart retrieval and context assembly, sub-200ms at scale
Users & storage	Build your own	Managed users, threads, and message storage
Developer tools	Build your own; MCP server for Claude, Cursor, and other clients	Dashboard with graph visualization, debug logs, and API logs; SDKs for Python, TypeScript, and Go
Governance	Self-managed	RBAC, ABAC, audit, retention, multi-tenant isolation, customer-key encryption
Compliance	Self-managed	SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA
Deployment	Self-hosted	Cloud / BYOK / BYOC

When to choose which

Choose Graphiti if you want a flexible OSS core and you are comfortable building and operating the surrounding system.

Choose Zep if you want turnkey agent memory at enterprise scale — a managed Context Lake with governance, performance, and support baked in.