# Comparison Deep Dive

**Detailed comparison with Mem0, Zep, Personal.AI, and other memory systems** - Feature matrix, pricing analysis, use case scenarios, and migration guides for developers evaluating memory solutions.

---

## Executive Summary

| Solution | Best For | Pricing | Privacy | Setup Time |
|----------|----------|---------|---------|------------|
| **SuperLocalMemory** | Developers who want full control | **Free forever** | **100% local** | **5 min** |
| **Mem0** | Teams needing managed service | $99-999/mo | Cloud-only | 10 min |
| **Zep** | Enterprise with budget | $50-500/mo | Cloud-only | 15 min |
| **Personal.AI** | Non-technical users | $33/mo | Cloud-only | 5 min |
| **Khoj** | Self-hosters comfortable with complex setup | Self-hosted | Partial | 30-60 min |
| **Letta/MemGPT** | Researchers | Self-hosted | Local | 60+ min |

---

## Feature Comparison Matrix

### Core Features

| Feature | SuperLocalMemory | Mem0 | Zep | Khoj | Letta | Personal.AI |
|---------|---------------------|------|-----|------|-------|-------------|
| **Semantic Search** | ✅ Local | ✅ Cloud embeddings | ✅ Cloud embeddings | ✅ Cloud embeddings | ✅ | ✅ |
| **Full-Text Search** | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
| **Knowledge Graph** | ✅ | ✅ Basic | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| **Pattern Learning** | ✅ Peer-reviewed approach (see paper) | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ Basic |
| **Multi-Profile** | ✅ Unlimited | ⚠️ Per-user only | ⚠️ Per-user only | ✅ | ⚠️ Limited | ❌ |
| **Hierarchical Memory** | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| **Compression** | ✅ 3-tier | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |

> For the research foundation behind SuperLocalMemory's architecture, see our published paper: https://zenodo.org/records/18709670

### Integration & Access

| Feature | SuperLocalMemory | Mem0 | Zep | Khoj | Letta | Personal.AI |
|---------|---------------------|------|-----|------|-------|-------------|
| **Cursor** | ✅ MCP native | ⚠️ API only | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| **Windsurf** | ✅ MCP native | ⚠️ API only | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| **Claude Desktop** | ✅ MCP native | ⚠️ API only | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| **VS Code** | ✅ MCP + Skills | ⚠️ Extension | ❌ | ✅ Extension | ❌ | ❌ |
| **ChatGPT** | ✅ MCP | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| **Aider CLI** | ✅ Smart wrapper | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| **Universal CLI** | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ⚠️ Limited | ❌ | ❌ |
| **Python API** | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
| **REST API** | ⚠️ Planned v2.2 | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |

### Privacy & Security

| Feature | SuperLocalMemory | Mem0 | Zep | Khoj | Letta | Personal.AI |
|---------|---------------------|------|-----|------|-------|-------------|
| **100% Local** | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ⚠️ Partial | ✅ | ❌ |
| **No External API** | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ⚠️ Optional | ✅ | ❌ |
| **No Telemetry** | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
| **Self-Hosted** | ✅ | ⚠️ Enterprise only | ⚠️ Enterprise only | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
| **GDPR Compliant** | ✅ Inherent | ⚠️ Requires config | ⚠️ Requires config | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
| **HIPAA Ready** | ✅ | ⚠️ Enterprise only | ⚠️ Enterprise only | ⚠️ DIY | ⚠️ DIY | ❌ |
| **Air-Gap Capable** | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ⚠️ Partial | ✅ | ❌ |

### Performance

| Metric | SuperLocalMemory | Mem0 | Zep | Khoj | Letta |
|--------|---------------------|------|-----|------|-------|
| **Search Latency** | Sub-100ms (typical use) | Cloud-dependent | Cloud-dependent | Cloud-dependent | Local |
| **Offline Capable** | **✅ Yes** | ❌ No | ❌ No | ⚠️ Partial | ✅ Yes |
| **Scalability** | Up to 10K memories (local) | Unlimited (cloud) | Unlimited (cloud) | 10K+ | 5K+ |

Performance measurements are based on peer-reviewed research. See our published paper: https://zenodo.org/records/18709670

---

## Pricing Deep Dive

### SuperLocalMemory

**Cost:** **$0 forever**

**Included:**
- Unlimited memories
- Unlimited profiles
- All features (graph, patterns, compression)
- MCP integration
- CLI access
- Python API
- No usage limits
- No quotas
- No credit cards required

**Hidden costs:** None

**Total 5-year cost:** **$0**

---

### Mem0

**Free Tier:**
- 10,000 memories
- Limited API calls (1000/month)
- Basic features only
- No knowledge graph
- No pattern learning

**Paid Tiers:**
- **Developer:** $99/month ($1,188/year)
  - 100,000 memories
  - 10,000 API calls/month
  - Knowledge graph
  - Email support

- **Team:** $299/month ($3,588/year)
  - 500,000 memories
  - 50,000 API calls/month
  - Priority support
  - Team collaboration

- **Enterprise:** $999+/month ($11,988+/year)
  - Unlimited memories
  - Unlimited API calls
  - Self-hosted option
  - Dedicated support

**Total 5-year cost:**
- Developer: **$5,940**
- Team: **$17,940**
- Enterprise: **$59,940+**

**SuperLocalMemory saves:** $5,940 - $59,940 over 5 years

---

### Zep

**Free Tier:**
- 1,000 credits
- Expires after 30 days
- Limited features

**Paid Tiers:**
- **Starter:** $50/month ($600/year)
- **Pro:** $200/month ($2,400/year)
- **Enterprise:** $500+/month ($6,000+/year)

**Total 5-year cost:**
- Starter: **$3,000**
- Pro: **$12,000**
- Enterprise: **$30,000+**

**SuperLocalMemory saves:** $3,000 - $30,000+ over 5 years

---

### Personal.AI

**Pricing:**
- **Free:** ❌ No free tier
- **Personal:** $33/month ($396/year)
- **Professional:** $99/month ($1,188/year)

**Total 5-year cost:**
- Personal: **$1,980**
- Professional: **$5,940**

**SuperLocalMemory saves:** $1,980 - $5,940 over 5 years

---

### Khoj

**Cost:** **Free (self-hosted)**

**But:**
- Complex setup (30-60 min)
- Requires Docker/Kubernetes
- Requires maintenance
- Partial cloud dependencies (embeddings)
- ~$10-20/month cloud costs (if using cloud embeddings)

**Total 5-year cost:** **$600-1,200** (cloud costs)

---

### Letta/MemGPT

**Cost:** **Free (self-hosted)**

**But:**
- Very complex setup (60+ min)
- Research-grade (not production-ready)
- Requires significant ML knowledge
- Limited documentation
- No IDE integrations

**SuperLocalMemory advantage:** Production-ready, 5-min setup, 11+ IDE integrations

---

## Use Case Scenarios

### Scenario 1: Solo Developer

**Requirements:**
- Daily coding with AI assistants
- Personal projects + side hustles
- Privacy-conscious
- Budget-conscious

**Best choice: SuperLocalMemory**

**Why:**
- Free forever (no budget impact)
- 100% private (all data local)
- Works with all IDEs (Cursor, VS Code, Claude)
- 5-minute setup

**Alternatives:**
- Mem0 Free: Limited to 10K memories, may hit limits
- Zep: Too expensive for solo use
- Personal.AI: No API access, closed ecosystem

---

### Scenario 2: Startup Team (5 engineers)

**Requirements:**
- Team collaboration
- Shared knowledge base
- Cost-sensitive (pre-revenue)
- Need API access

**Best choice: SuperLocalMemory + Git**

**Why:**
- $0/month (critical for early stage)
- Git-based sharing (already familiar)
- Each engineer full control
- Unlimited memories

**Alternatives:**
- Mem0 Team: $299/month ($3,588/year) - expensive for startup
- Zep Pro: $200/month ($2,400/year) - still expensive
- Khoj: Free but complex setup for entire team

**Savings: $2,400-3,588/year**

---

### Scenario 3: Consultant with 10 Clients

**Requirements:**
- Client separation (no data leaks)
- Project-specific contexts
- Privacy guarantees
- Offline capable

**Best choice: SuperLocalMemory**

**Why:**
- Unlimited profiles (one per client)
- Perfect isolation guarantees
- 100% private (client trust)
- Offline capable (no internet required)

---

### Scenario 4: Enterprise with Compliance

**Requirements:**
- HIPAA/GDPR compliance
- No cloud data storage
- Air-gap capable
- Audit trail

**Best choice: SuperLocalMemory**

**Why:**
- 100% on-premise
- Zero external data transfer
- Air-gap capable
- Full audit control

---

### Scenario 5: Large Team (50+ engineers)

**Requirements:**
- Scalability
- Managed service
- SLA guarantees
- 24/7 support

**Best choice: Mem0 or Zep Enterprise**

**Why:**
- Managed service (no ops burden)
- Dedicated support
- SLA guarantees
- Better for large-scale cloud deployments

**SuperLocalMemory alternative:**
- Deploy per-engineer (works well)
- Team profiles via git
- Self-managed but $0 cost
- Consider if: $50K+/year budget for memory service seems excessive

---

## Migration Guides

### From Mem0 to SuperLocalMemory

**Step 1: Export from Mem0**
```python
# Using Mem0 API
import mem0

client = mem0.Client(api_key="YOUR_API_KEY")
memories = client.memories.list(limit=10000)

# Export to JSON
import json
with open('mem0_export.json', 'w') as f:
    json.dump(memories, f)
```

**Step 2: Import to SuperLocalMemory**
```python
import sys, json
sys.path.append('/Users/YOUR_USERNAME/.claude-memory/')
from memory_store_v2 import MemoryStoreV2

store = MemoryStoreV2()

with open('mem0_export.json') as f:
    memories = json.load(f)

for mem in memories:
    store.save_memory(
        content=mem['content'],
        tags=mem.get('tags', []),
        importance=mem.get('importance', 5)
    )

print(f"Imported {len(memories)} memories")
```

**Step 3: Build graph**
```bash
slm build-graph --clustering
```

---

### From Zep to SuperLocalMemory

**Step 1: Export from Zep**
```python
from zep_python import ZepClient

client = ZepClient(api_key="YOUR_API_KEY")
sessions = client.memory.list_sessions()

memories = []
for session in sessions:
    session_memories = client.memory.get_session(session.id).messages
    memories.extend(session_memories)

# Export
import json
with open('zep_export.json', 'w') as f:
    json.dump([m.dict() for m in memories], f)
```

**Step 2: Import to SuperLocalMemory**
```python
import sys, json
sys.path.append('/Users/YOUR_USERNAME/.claude-memory/')
from memory_store_v2 import MemoryStoreV2

store = MemoryStoreV2()

with open('zep_export.json') as f:
    memories = json.load(f)

for mem in memories:
    store.save_memory(
        content=mem['content'],
        tags=mem.get('metadata', {}).get('tags', []),
        importance=5
    )
```

---

## Feature Gaps & Workarounds

### What SuperLocalMemory Lacks (vs Cloud Solutions)

#### 1. Advanced Embeddings

**Cloud solutions:** Use OpenAI/Anthropic embeddings (expensive but high-quality)

**SuperLocalMemory:** Uses local vector search (free, fast, good-enough for most cases)

**Workaround:** Planned v2.3.0 - optional enhanced embeddings integration

#### 2. Real-Time Collaboration

**Cloud solutions:** Multiple users update same memory store in real-time

**SuperLocalMemory:** Git-based collaboration (async)

**Workaround:** Use profiles + git push/pull

#### 3. Managed Service

**Cloud solutions:** Zero ops, always available

**SuperLocalMemory:** Self-managed (but also zero ops for single user)

**Workaround:** Docker container (planned v2.2.0)

---

## When to Choose Each Solution

### Choose SuperLocalMemory if:

✅ You want **100% privacy** (no cloud)
✅ You want **$0 cost** (forever)
✅ You use **multiple IDEs** (Cursor, VS Code, Claude)
✅ You need **offline capability**
✅ You're a **solo developer or small team**
✅ You value **control and ownership**

### Choose Mem0 if:

✅ You need **advanced embeddings** (OpenAI)
✅ You want **managed service** (no ops)
✅ You have **large team** (50+ engineers)
✅ You have **budget** ($100+/month)
✅ You need **SLA guarantees**

### Choose Zep if:

✅ You need **graph database** integration
✅ You want **enterprise support**
✅ You have **compliance requirements** (but can use cloud)
✅ You have **budget** ($50-500/month)

### Choose Khoj if:

✅ You want **local AI models** (LLaMA, Mistral)
✅ You're comfortable with **complex setup**
✅ You need **document indexing** (PDFs, etc.)
✅ You want **free self-hosted**

### Choose Letta/MemGPT if:

✅ You're a **researcher**
✅ You need **long-term memory for LLMs**
✅ You're comfortable with **research-grade code**
✅ You want **cutting-edge features**

---

## Related Pages

- [Quick Start Tutorial](Quick-Start-Tutorial) - Get started with SuperLocalMemory
- [Why Local Matters](Why-Local-Matters) - Privacy benefits
- [Roadmap](Roadmap) - Upcoming features
- [CLI Cheatsheet](CLI-Cheatsheet) - Command reference

---

**Created by Varun Pratap Bhardwaj**
*Solution Architect • SuperLocalMemory*

[GitHub](https://github.com/qualixar/superlocalmemory) • [Issues](https://github.com/qualixar/superlocalmemory/issues) • [Wiki](https://github.com/qualixar/superlocalmemory/wiki)
