Maximem Synapvs Zep
Zep pioneered temporal knowledge graphs for agent memory with Graphiti. Maximem Synap is the agentic context management system that scored 90.2% on LongMemEval where Zep scored 63.8%, with retrieval at 15ms.
Head-to-Head Comparison
Last updated: April 2026. Benchmarks sourced from Synap's open-source LongMemEval harness and vendor documentation. Feature availability may change.
Why Teams Choose Maximem Synap Over Zep
Different strengths, different design centers.
Zep and Synap are architecturally distinct. Zep is built around Graphiti, a temporal knowledge graph. Synap is built around a multi-stage ingestion pipeline with per-agent customization. Both systems take extraction seriously, but they optimize for different things.
Synap's accuracy advantage holds on standardized evaluation.
On LongMemEval, Synap scored 90.2%. Zep's reported score is 63.8% from third-party evaluation (not yet verified on Synap's harness). The gap likely stems from how each system handles retrieval at scale. Synap's per-agent pipeline customization means retrieval logic adapts to what matters for a given domain. Zep's universal graph pipeline applies the same traversal strategy regardless of agent type.
Per-agent customization changes production outcomes.
Every agent in Zep uses the same Graphiti pipeline. In Synap, each agent gets a custom context architecture via YAML: storage, extraction, retrieval, and retention settings are tuned per domain. A customer support agent and a voice concierge get different pipelines because they have different context needs.
Latency is published and verifiable.
Synap runs at 15ms P50. Zep does not publish latency numbers. For latency-sensitive use cases, published and verifiable latency is a production requirement.
Where Zep has the edge.
Zep's temporal knowledge graph and bitemporal model are mature. Both Synap and Zep support bitemporal awareness, but Zep's implementation through Graphiti (temporal validity windows, fact invalidation with audit trail) has been in production longer. Zep also offers VPC deployment for teams that need their data in a private cloud environment.
Benchmark note: Zep's LongMemEval score of 63.8% is from third-party reporting. It has not been verified on Synap's standardized harness. We will update this page when independent verification is available.
Compare Synap against other alternatives
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Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. Both systems take extraction seriously and both support bitemporal awareness, but Synap adds per-agent pipeline customization, published 15ms P50 latency, and a higher independently measured LongMemEval score (90.2% vs 63.8% third-party).
Synap uses a multi-stage extract-first pipeline with entity resolution and temporal awareness, not a single unified knowledge graph. The retrieval logic is customized per agent via YAML configuration rather than applied uniformly across all agents.
Pick Zep if you need a mature temporal knowledge graph with a longer production track record, or if VPC deployment in a specific private cloud environment is a hard requirement today.