Vilix AI vs Zep: Which Memory Layer Fits Your AI Agents?

The short answer: Vilix AI and Zep both give AI agents a memory, but they sell to different people. Zep is a temporal knowledge-graph memory you wire into agent software you build, with best-in-class "what was true when" reasoning, starting at $125/mo for production. Vilix AI is a hosted shared memory layer you attach to tools you didn't build (Claude, Codex, n8n agents, headless runners), one memory across all of them, with full conversation history and zero infrastructure. The honest tradeoff: Vilix AI is cloud-only; Zep gives you SOC 2, HIPAA, and bring-your-own-cloud.

What are Vilix AI and Zep?

Zep calls itself "the memory layer for production AI agents," and the engine behind it is a temporal knowledge graph built on Graphiti, its open-source project (Apache-2.0, actively maintained). The core idea is that facts change over time: your client moved their launch from Q2 to Q4, and an agent asking "what's the launch date?" needs the current answer while still being able to ask "what was it in Q2?" Zep's bi-temporal model tracks every fact with when it was true in the world and when the system learned it, so contradictions don't overwrite history, they close a validity window.

Vilix AI is a cloud-hosted shared memory and work-state layer across MCP clients, tied to one Vilix AI account. Connect each AI tool once (OAuth, or an API key as Bearer token to https://api.vilix.ai/mcp for headless agents like Hermes or OpenClaw), enable the memory tools, and the same memory follows you across tools: Claude, Codex, Cursor, OpenClaw, Hermes, Grok, Manus AI, GitHub Copilot, Windsurf, Lovable, Muse, any MCP-compatible AI. It stores full conversation exchanges with source metadata, derived memories, projects, tasks, rules, reusable agent skills, and an agent inbox, all editable from any connected tool or the dashboard at app.vilix.ai.

The real question is: are you building agents, or are you operating them? Zep is wired into the agent software you build. Vilix AI is a layer attached to tools you didn't build.

How do Vilix AI and Zep compare head to head?

Zep facts: getzep.com and help.getzep.com, plus the Graphiti open-source README, read September 2026. Vilix AI facts: product truth sheet. Prices change; verify both pricing pages.

Where does Zep win?

1. Temporal reasoning. This is the real differentiator, not marketing. "What was true in Q2 vs what's true now," client facts that evolve, contradictions that preserve history instead of silently overwriting it. Zep's bi-temporal model is genuinely best-in-class for this, and self-reported benchmark numbers are strong (94.8% on DMR, accuracy gains on LongMemEval). If your agents make decisions on facts that change, this is the feature to beat.
2. Enterprise compliance. SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA BAA, bring-your-own-keys, bring-your-own-cloud on Enterprise. Regulated industries don't shop on price, and Zep is positioned for them.
3. The open-source escape hatch. Graphiti is Apache-2.0 and actively maintained (~25-30K GitHub stars). If you can run a graph database (Neo4j, FalkorDB, or Neptune), an LLM key, and Docker Compose, you can self-host the engine for free. But be honest with yourself about the parity gap: users report that reaching Zep Cloud-level performance with self-hosted Graphiti takes real integration effort.

Where does Vilix AI win?

1. One memory across every tool, not per-app wiring. Zep is integrated via SDK calls inside each app's code, per project. The operator pain is the opposite: one scheduled agent in n8n, a coding agent in Claude Code, planning on your phone, each waking up with amnesia. Vilix AI is a single shared memory over MCP that follows you across tools you didn't build. You brief one tool once; the rest pull from the same memory.
2. Full conversations, not extracted facts. Zep runs your exchanges through an LLM on the write path and retrieves assembled context blocks of entities and facts. That is efficient, but it is lossy: the reasoning and dead ends behind a decision don't survive. Vilix AI stores the actual full exchanges with source metadata, so you can revisit the real conversation anytime. When an operator needs to know what their agent actually did on last night's scheduled run, not just what an extraction pass decided was worth keeping, full history is more faithful.
3. Zero infrastructure. Self-hosting Zep's engine means a graph database, LLM keys, Docker ops. Vilix AI is cloud-hosted: you manage nothing. That is the stated pitch up front, because operators always ask "local or cloud?" and the answer here is cloud.
4. Pricing built for operators. Zep's production entry is $125/mo with credit metering: every memory operation consumes credits, overages auto-top-up at $25 per 10,000. For a scheduled agent that fires hundreds of times a day, the credit math compounds fast. Vilix AI is flat: Starter $10/mo, Pro $20/mo, Power $49/mo, with a free plan and a 7-day Pro trial that needs no credit card.

The honest tradeoff

Vilix AI is cloud-only: no self-host option, no open-source server. If data residency, self-hosting, or SOC 2/HIPAA compliance is a hard requirement, Zep wins outright and the comparison ends there.

The counterweight: your data is portable. Export everything in a portable format anytime, delete individual memories or wipe the account instantly, with per-user isolation and no training of third-party models on your memory. Portability is not the same as self-hosting, so weigh it accordingly.

And a concession the other way: if what you need is temporal fact-tracking across a product's users, Zep's validity windows are the better model, and Graphiti OSS is free for those who can self-host. Vilix AI stores full conversations with recency-aware retrieval (last write wins), which is simpler and covers most operator needs, but it is not a knowledge graph.

Which should you pick?

• Pick Zep if you are building an agent product where facts evolve over time and you need "what was true when" reasoning, if you need SOC 2/HIPAA/BYOC compliance, or if you want the open-source Graphiti engine and can run it yourself.
• Pick Vilix AI if you operate agents across tools you didn't build (scheduled n8n runs, Claude Code sessions, headless agents), want full conversation history instead of extracted facts, and would rather manage zero infrastructure.

If you want to try the shared-memory model, Vilix AI starts with a free plan and a 7-day Pro trial with no credit card. Leave with your data whenever you want: export everything or delete it anytime in a portable format.