Cognee vs Weaviate
Agent-native side-by-side. Scores are curated estimates on a 0–10 scale. Lock-in: higher = worse. Prefer JTBD picks via /api/decide when choosing for a job.
| Dimension | Cognee | Weaviate |
|---|---|---|
| Overall | 8.1 | 8.2 |
| Capability fit | 8.4 | 8.8 |
| Price / performance | 8.8 | 7.5 |
| Latency / reliability | 7.6 | 8.4 |
| Developer & agent DX | 8.2 | 8.2 |
| Privacy / data retention | 8.5 | 8.2 |
| Lock-in risk (higher = worse) | 3.0 | 3.5 |
| Maturity / track record | 7.0 | 8.8 |
| Pricing | As of 2026-09-14 (cognee.ai/pricing): Free $0 (1 workspace, 1M tokens). Standard $1.00/1M tokens + $5/extra workspace/mo. Enterprise BYOC engagement (6–24 mo packages, startup discount). Apache-2.0 OSS with SQLite/LanceD… | Open-source + Weaviate Cloud; modular vectorizers; hybrid search; usage/cluster pricing on cloud. |
| Tagline | Graph memory when documents→ontology matter. Zep for temporal bipartite graphs; Mem0 for simplest hosted… | Best when hybrid search and modularity matter. Cloud for convenience; self-host when lock-in anxiety spikes. |
Cognee
Graph memory when documents→ontology matter. Zep for temporal bipartite graphs; Mem0 for simplest hosted memory; Letta for stateful runtime (ex-MemGPT). Strengths: Graph-native ECL memory; Generous free + cheap token meter; EU company + OSS self-host.
Strengths
- Graph-native ECL memory
- Generous free + cheap token meter
- EU company + OSS self-host
Weaknesses
- Enterprise is services-heavy BYOC
- Not a drop-in Mem0 API clone
- Young commercial cloud
Weaviate
Best when hybrid search and modularity matter. Cloud for convenience; self-host when lock-in anxiety spikes. Strengths: Hybrid search + modules; Open-source escape hatch; Strong RAG feature set.
Strengths
- Hybrid search + modules
- Open-source escape hatch
- Strong RAG feature set
Weaknesses
- Ops complexity self-hosted
- Cloud pricing needs care
- Performance tuning required at scale
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