Compare: Memory for one app, or knowledge every agent can trust

ContextNest vs Zep

Zep is strong at automatically built, time-aware agent context. ContextNest is for knowledge a person has approved.

vsZep

ZepWhat it is

Zep

A context platform for agents built on a temporal knowledge graph (its open-source engine is called Graphiti).

Pricing: Flex $125 and Flex Plus $375 per month. Enterprise is custom. Zep's pricing page lists BYOC deployment, audit logs, SOC 2 and HIPAA compliance for Enterprise.

ContextNest is the company's approved knowledge, owned by people and read by every agent.

Sources

Zep website

Choose Zep when an agent needs a fast, time-aware picture built from conversations and business data.

Where Zep wins

Facts tracked over time
It records how facts change, with the history kept.
Context built automatically
It builds agent context from conversations and business data without manual curation.
Fast relationship retrieval
Retrieval is quick for agents that need relationships between facts.

Where Zep strains

Each one shows up when the same knowledge has to serve many people, many agents and more than one model.

Facts are extracted by a model
As of October 2026, Zep's public documentation does not describe a named owner approving facts before agents use them.
Built for one application
The graph serves an application. Departments owning and approving their own area of knowledge is left to you.
Signed-off decisions need an owner
Zep captures what happened. A decision a department has signed off on needs a person who approves it.

Side by side

ContextNest and Zep, on the questions that decide it.

The question	Zep	ContextNest
Every agent reads itCan Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and your own agents all read the same knowledge?	YesAPI based and model agnostic.	YesClaude, Cursor, PromptOwl agents and any MCP client read the same knowledge.
A person approves firstDoes a named owner approve knowledge before an AI may use it?	NoFacts are extracted automatically.	YesTurn on stewardship and named owners approve every change before agents can use it.
Who sees what, enforcedIs access decided before the AI retrieves anything?	PartlyScoped per user and group inside your app.	YesAccess keys are scoped to a nest, and restricted documents reach only the people named on them. Give each agent a nest that matches its job.
Record of reads and versionsCan you see who read what, and rebuild what it said on a past date?	PartlyTracks when facts changed, with audit logs on Enterprise. Facts aren't approved versions.	YesEvery read is recorded: which person or API key, which document, and when. Every approved version is kept.
Survives a switchDoes the knowledge stay when you change models, vendors or people?	PartlySurvives a model switch. Tied to the platform's graph.	YesPlain-text export, always. Your knowledge stays readable without us.
Self-hosted optionCan it run on infrastructure you control?	YesEnterprise can deploy inside your own cloud (BYOC). The Graphiti engine is open source.	YesThe governed knowledge layer runs on your infrastructure, or we host it.

Scroll the table sideways. The first column stays put.

Last reviewed October 2026. Based on each vendor's public website and documentation, and prices show the month we checked them. Products change quickly, so check the vendor's current documentation before you decide. See something out of date? Tell us and we'll fix it.Product names and logos are trademarks of their owners; used for identification only; no endorsement or affiliation implied.

Use both

How they work together

Use Zep where an agent needs a fast, changing picture of a customer conversation. Use ContextNest for the approved knowledge that every agent must treat as the truth.