Zep alternative: Streamient vs Zep and Graphiti
Choose Zep or Graphiti when a custom agent application needs temporal graph context. Choose Streamient when people and several AI clients need a ready, human-editable memory layer.
First, separate Zep from Graphiti
Zep is a managed platform for agent context. Graphiti is its open-source framework for building temporally aware knowledge graphs. The vendor’s Zep versus Graphiti guide explains that the managed service includes operational capabilities around the open-source graph framework.
Streamient is a different product category: open-source memory infrastructure for humans and AI, with notes, memories, saved URLs, email records, Git synchronization, projects, graph links, search, a web interface, API, and MCP server. It includes a graph, but its center is a shared memory workspace rather than a graph framework.
| Area | Streamient | Zep / Graphiti |
|---|---|---|
| Primary use | Shared, inspectable memory for people and AI tools | Agent context built around temporal knowledge graphs |
| Human workspace | Core web application | Application team builds or uses managed platform surfaces |
| Graph role | Inspectable relationships among knowledge objects | Temporal entity and event graph is central |
| Deployment | Streamient Cloud or self-hosted repository | Managed Zep or open-source Graphiti |
| Pricing | Free; $49/month introductory Unlimited | Managed usage and credits; Graphiti software is open source |
| Best buyer | Technical/product team seeking a finished workspace | Developers building an agent application |
When Zep or Graphiti is the better fit
- Your agent needs to reason about entities and relationships that change over time.
- Your development team will build the user experience and domain data model.
- Temporal graph ingestion and retrieval are more important than an off-the-shelf team knowledge workspace.
- You want Zep to operate the platform or Graphiti as an open-source framework.
A temporal graph can represent that a person changed roles, a service replaced another, or a preference applied during a specific period. This is more expressive than an undated list of facts. It also requires careful entity resolution, source trust, permissions, and lifecycle design.
When Streamient is the better fit
- People need to capture, browse, edit, and connect the same context agents use.
- The source set spans notes, URLs, email, Git, project memory, and research.
- Several MCP clients need one workspace without a custom application build.
- A hosted flat team plan and self-hosting path are both valuable.
Streamient supports graph relationships, but it should not be presented as a drop-in replacement for every temporal graph architecture. Its advantage is the surrounding AI knowledge-base workflow.
Pricing and operations
Zep’s managed pricing page uses credits and usage. Exact included capacity and enterprise terms can change, so model the expected entity, episode, retrieval, and request volume. Graphiti removes the managed service fee but requires infrastructure, database, upgrades, monitoring, security, and application engineering.
Streamient lists a $0 Free plan and a $49/month introductory Unlimited plan, with $99 clearly identified as the later regular price. Self-hosters carry their own infrastructure and operational costs. Compare total cost for the complete application, not only the memory database.
Security and data governance
Graph memory can create powerful inferences. Verify tenant and user isolation, property-level sensitivity, source provenance, entity merging, history, deletion, and whether a relationship inferred from private data becomes visible elsewhere. Managed and self-hosted deployments have different control and operations responsibilities.
Streamient teams should test the same concerns for notes, memory, email, URL, and graph records. In both systems, retrieval authorization must precede model input, and untrusted source content must not become instruction. Use the persistent-memory security checklist.
Export and portability
Graph migrations are harder than document exports. Preserve entity IDs, relation types, direction, validity intervals, source events, timestamps, and confidence or status fields. A text export can destroy the temporal relationships that made Graphiti useful.
For Streamient, test exports of notes, memories, URLs, projects, links, and Git-backed material. Its API, Git synchronization, and public repository provide portability paths, but buyers should verify exact coverage for their record types. For Zep, confirm managed export formats and service terms. For Graphiti, inspect the open-source schema and your chosen backend.
Migration from Zep or Graphiti to Streamient
- Inventory entity classes, episodes, edges, temporal fields, sources, and permissions.
- Decide which graph data represents human-maintained knowledge versus application runtime context.
- Map durable decisions and facts to Streamient memories or notes.
- Map source pages, URLs, and project ownership without discarding provenance.
- Preserve essential graph relationships as typed links and archive unsupported temporal detail.
- Import one bounded domain and compare answers against known test questions.
- Validate access, deletion, and current-versus-superseded behavior before cutover.
If the temporal graph is central to the application, migration may be the wrong goal. Streamient can instead serve human-maintained team knowledge while the application retains Zep or Graphiti for runtime context.
Migration from Streamient to Graphiti
Define the entities and temporal events before exporting. Notes and memories should not all become equivalent graph nodes. Use Streamient IDs and source links as provenance, translate project and permission scope explicitly, and decide which edits create new episodes versus updates. Build a review path for automated entity merges.
Methodology and limitations
This comparison uses Zep and Graphiti’s public platform, help, and pricing pages plus Streamient’s public product, docs, pricing, and source repository, reviewed August 12, 2026. It does not benchmark graph extraction or retrieval quality. Streamient publishes it; there are no affiliate links.
Bottom line
Zep and Graphiti are stronger candidates for developers building temporal graph memory into agent applications. Streamient is a stronger candidate for teams that want finished, inspectable memory infrastructure across people and AI tools. Some organizations may use both because they solve different layers.
Continue with the MCP memory server roundup, the comparison hub, or the AI memory architecture guide.