Cognee vs Milvus
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted apps from related categories — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Not the right match-up?
Cognee
Memory and knowledge graph engine for AI agents
VS
Milvus
Open-source vector database built for scalable similarity search
| Feature | Cognee | Milvus |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Self-Hosted AI | Search Engines |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Python | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 2,048 MB | 4,096 MB |
| Deployment | docker, source | docker, kubernetes, helm |
| GitHub stars | ★ 29,850 | ★ 45,556 |
| First released | 2023 | 2019 |
| Replaces | Mem0, Pinecone | Pinecone, Elasticsearch |
Why pick each one
Choose Cognee if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 29.9k GitHub stars
- Written in Python
Frequently asked questions
Is Cognee or Milvus better?
Neither is universally better. Milvus has the larger community, while Cognee is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Cognee and Milvus free and open-source?
Yes. Cognee is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Milvus under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Cognee and Milvus with Docker?
Cognee: yes. Milvus: yes.