Khoros

What is khoros

Khoros is an enterprise customer engagement platform that combines social media management, digital customer service, and hosted community software into a single suite. The platform is built for large organizations that handle high volumes of customer conversations across social channels, messaging apps, and owned community properties. Khoros supports content moderation, case routing, automated responses, analytics, and integrations with CRM and contact center systems.

Khoros packages its functions as modules (community, care, and marketing/insights) that can be deployed independently or together as a consolidated solution. Implementation typically involves configuration, data migration, and optional services such as training, managed moderation, or custom integrations. The vendor positions the product for enterprises that need centralized control over brand conversations and a single source of truth for digital engagement metrics.

Large B2C brands, telcos, retail chains, financial services, and healthcare organizations commonly use Khoros to reduce response times, host product or support communities, and aggregate social listening signals into operational workflows. The platform is designed for teams that require security, compliance controls, and the ability to scale moderating and support operations across many channels.

Khoros features

Khoros groups core capabilities into modules and platform services that together support end-to-end customer engagement and online community management.

• Unified Inbox and Routing: Centralized queue that consolidates social, messaging, email, and community posts with rules-based routing to agents or teams, SLA tracking, and escalation paths.
• Hosted Communities: Moderated community spaces with forums, Q&A, reputation systems, searchable knowledge bases, and content curation tools for product support and customer advocacy.
• Automation and Bots: Workflow automation for tagging, routing, and auto-responses; conversational bot frameworks for common support scenarios and hand-off to agents.
• Social Media Management: Publishing, scheduling, and approval workflows across major social networks; attribution and campaign-level reporting for organic and paid activity.
• Analytics and Reporting: Cross-channel dashboards for engagement, sentiment, resolution time, and business metrics; customizable reports for contact centers and marketing teams.
• Integrations and API Layer: Prebuilt connectors and APIs to integrate with CRM, contact center software, single sign-on (SSO), analytics platforms, and data warehouses.
• Security and Compliance: Role-based access control, audit logs, data retention controls, and enterprise security certifications and contracts available for regulated industries.

Khoros also provides professional services for implementation, strategy, and managed moderation, plus an admin console for tenant configuration, user management, and channel connections. For module-level details and recent feature additions, see the Khoros product modules and platform overview at the Khoros product modules documentation (https://khoros.com/platform).

What does khoros do?

Khoros centralizes inbound digital conversations and customer-facing community content in one environment so teams can triage, respond, and measure engagement from a single interface. Agents and moderators use the platform to see conversation history, apply tags and case information, and route items to subject-matter experts or workflow queues.

For community managers, Khoros hosts forums and knowledge resources that enable peer-to-peer support, structured Q&A, and product feedback capture. Communities can be configured for public product support, spouse networks, developer forums, or private customer portals.

For marketing and social teams, Khoros schedules and publishes content across networks, coordinates approvals, and provides measurement for reach, engagement, and campaign performance. The analytics combine social listening with operational KPIs so organizations can correlate marketing activity with service demand and customer sentiment.

Khoros pricing

Khoros offers these pricing plans:

• Community Management: Pricing available on request; enterprise engagements typically use annual contracts and are priced per-tenant and by community scale
• Digital Care (Customer Service): Pricing available on request; includes unified inbox, routing, and contact-center integrations
• Social Marketing and Insights: Pricing available on request; includes publishing, listening, and analytics modules
• Enterprise Suite: Pricing available on request; bundles multiple modules with enterprise SLAs, advanced security, and services

Khoros does not display simple per-user public plans; pricing is customized by module, usage volume (number of conversations, number of community users, or message throughput), and implementation services. For accurate figures and to compare module combinations, review Khoros' product and licensing pages on the official site at Khoros product modules and licensing (https://khoros.com/platform) and request a quote from the vendor.

How much is khoros per month

Khoros typically starts with custom monthly pricing rather than a public per-user/month rate. Enterprise module implementations are commonly negotiated as annual contracts and invoiced monthly or annually. Small-scale proof-of-concept or pilot engagements can sometimes be quoted with short-term monthly rates, but production deployments are usually structured as yearly agreements.

How much is khoros per year

Khoros contract values commonly start in the low five figures per year and scale to mid-six or seven figures for full-suite enterprise deployments. Annual pricing depends on the mix of modules (Communities, Care, Marketing), expected conversation volume, degree of customization, and required professional services. Ask Khoros for a tailored estimate via their enterprise sales channel: request an enterprise quote from Khoros (https://khoros.com/contact).

How much is khoros in general

Khoros pricing ranges from custom pilot/packages to large enterprise contracts between roughly $30,000/year and $500,000+/year depending on scope. The wide range reflects how module selection (community hosting vs. full care + marketing suite), support SLAs, and required integrations affect cost. Organizations should plan budget for initial setup, ongoing subscription/license fees, and optional managed services such as content moderation or analytics consulting.

What is khoros used for

Khoros is used to manage customer-facing digital channels at scale. Common uses include:

• Customer service across social and messaging channels, where the unified inbox reduces channel switching and aggregates conversation history for faster resolution.
• Building and hosting online communities that surface peer answers, reduce support cost per case, and create spaces for product feedback and advocacy.
• Social listening and marketing orchestration to monitor brand sentiment, coordinate campaigns, and report performance against KPIs.

Teams use Khoros to route conversations to the right agents, apply SLA tracking for service-level compliance, and to automate routine tasks via bots and rules. Organizations in regulated industries use Khoros to centralize audit trails and meet compliance requirements through configurable retention, access controls, and reporting.

Pros and cons of khoros

Khoros has strengths and trade-offs that buyers should weigh against their operational needs.

• Strengths:

  • Enterprise-grade consolidation of community, care, and marketing features into a single platform.
  • Robust moderation and routing capabilities suitable for high-volume contact centers.
  • Strong analytics that combine operational KPIs and social listening signals for cross-team reporting.
  • Professional services and managed moderation options for brands that need outsourced operations.

• Limitations:

  • Pricing and contracts are enterprise-focused, which can be cost-prohibitive for very small teams or early-stage companies.
  • Implementation can require significant configuration, integration work, and change management for teams migrating from point tools.
  • Some users report a steeper learning curve versus lighter-weight social management tools, especially when many modules are enabled.

When evaluating Khoros, plan for implementation timelines, internal resource commitments for integration and configuration, and review SLAs and support models carefully. A pilot or staged rollout is a common approach to reduce risk and demonstrate value before full rollout.

Khoros free trial

Khoros does not typically offer a public self-serve free trial for the full enterprise suite. Instead, Khoros commonly provides pilot programs, proof-of-concept engagements, or time-limited demo environments arranged through sales or professional services.

Pilot programs are useful when evaluating community adoption, moderation workflows, or agent routing before signing a full contract. These pilots are usually scoped with limited channels or community seats and may be offered at a short-term rate or as part of an enterprise negotiation.

For trial availability and the current approach to pilots, contact Khoros directly to discuss a proof-of-concept or demo tailored to your use case: request a demo from Khoros (https://khoros.com/contact).

Is khoros free

No, Khoros is not offered as a free product for enterprise use. The platform is marketed and sold as a paid enterprise solution with custom pricing and contractual terms. Some vendors and partners occasionally provide limited trial environments or pilot projects, but there is no ongoing free tier comparable to consumer SaaS free plans.

Khoros API

Khoros exposes APIs and integration points that allow developers to automate workflows, extract analytics, and extend platform functionality. Core API capabilities typically include:

• Conversation APIs for reading and writing messages, updating status and tags, and programmatically creating or closing cases.
• Community content APIs for managing posts, comments, user profiles, reputation points, and moderation actions.
• Webhooks to push real-time events into external systems when posts are created, cases change state, or users are updated.
• Reporting and analytics APIs to pull engagement metrics, resolution times, sentiment trends, and custom dashboards.

Khoros also provides SDKs, developer documentation, and prebuilt integrations with common CRM and contact center platforms. Development work commonly connects Khoros to Salesforce, ServiceNow, Zendesk, or data warehouses for BI ingestion. For the latest developer resources and API reference, consult the Khoros developer documentation and API reference at Khoros developer documentation (https://developer.khoros.com).

10 Khoros alternatives

Paid alternatives to Khoros

• Sprinklr — Enterprise social experience management that combines listening, engagement, and paid media management for large brands; strong in global deployments and ad management.
• Salesforce Service Cloud — Customer service and social engagement via Salesforce with deep CRM integration and case management inside the Salesforce ecosystem.
• Zendesk — Customer service platform with social channel integrations and community product (Zendesk Guide); known for ease of deployment and strong ticketing features.
• Sprout Social — Social media management focused on publishing, analytics, and social inbox for mid-market and enterprise brands with simpler onboarding.
• Hootsuite — Publishing and social media management tool with team workflows and listening; suitable for organizations seeking a lighter-weight social desk.
• Adobe Experience Manager Communities — Part of Adobe Experience Cloud, targeted at enterprise content-driven communities with strong CMS capabilities.
• Oracle Social Cloud — Social listening and engagement for enterprise customers with deep analytics and integration into Oracle CX products.
• Freshdesk (Freshworks) — Customer service platform with multichannel support and community forum functionality for growing teams.
• HubSpot Service Hub — Integrated CRM and service tools with conversation inbox, knowledge base, and reporting for inbound-focused teams.
• Clarabridge — Focused on customer experience analytics and text analytics; used where deep sentiment and emotion analysis are required.

Open source alternatives to Khoros

• Discourse — Open-source discussion platform ideal for building community forums and Q&A sites; supports plugins, SSO, and extensive moderation tools.
• NodeBB — Modern forum platform with real-time notifications and a plugin architecture; suitable for developer communities and product forums.
• Vanilla Forums (Open Source) — Community forum software with modular extensions, paid hosted options, and a focus on customer communities.
• phpBB — Mature open-source forum software for classic discussion boards, large user bases, and full control over hosting and customization.
• Flarum — Lightweight open-source forum with a modern UI and extension system; suitable for smaller communities and fast deployments.

Frequently asked questions about Khoros

What is Khoros used for?

Khoros is used for enterprise customer engagement, online communities, and social media management. Organizations use it to consolidate digital conversations, host moderated community support, and measure engagement across channels. The platform supports unified inbox workflows, community content management, and analytics to help teams manage and improve customer interactions.

Does Khoros integrate with Salesforce?

Yes, Khoros integrates with Salesforce. Integration patterns include syncing conversation and case data between Khoros and Salesforce Service Cloud, mapping Khoros cases to Salesforce records, and surfacing social interactions inside the Salesforce UI for agents and reporting.

How much does Khoros cost per user?

Khoros uses custom enterprise pricing rather than a simple per-user list price. Contract values are based on module selection, conversation volume, and service-level needs; organizations should request a quote to get per-user or per-conversation estimates for their use case.

Is there a free version of Khoros?

No, Khoros does not offer a free tier for production use. The company typically provides demos, pilot programs, or proof-of-concept engagements but sells the product as a paid enterprise subscription with professional services as needed.

Can Khoros be used for community support?

Yes, Khoros includes hosted community functionality for support and customer engagement. Features include forums, Q&A, reputation systems, moderation tools, and search-driven knowledge resources that help reduce support load and surface peer-to-peer solutions.

What channels does Khoros support for customer care?

Khoros supports social channels, messaging apps, email, and community posts. The unified inbox aggregates content from platforms like Facebook, Twitter/X, Instagram, WhatsApp, and other connected channels, with routing and SLA controls for care teams.

Does Khoros provide analytics and reporting?

Yes, Khoros provides analytics that combine engagement metrics and operational KPIs. Dashboards track volume, response times, sentiment, and campaign performance, and the platform offers exportable reports and API access for BI integration.

Is Khoros secure and compliant for regulated industries?

Khoros offers enterprise security controls and compliance support. The platform includes role-based access, audit logs, data retention settings, and contractual terms that can address regulatory needs; customers should verify certifications and required controls with Khoros directly.

Can I automate responses in Khoros?

Yes, automation and bots are part of Khoros capabilities. You can use rule-based automations, bot frameworks, and scripted workflows to handle routine inquiries, tag conversations, and escalate complex items to human agents.

How do I get started with Khoros?

Start by contacting Khoros for a demo and scoping session. The vendor typically scopes pilot programs or full deployments, discusses module selection, and outlines implementation timelines and services; see Khoros sales and demo request options at Khoros contact and demo (https://khoros.com/contact).

khoros careers

Khoros hires across product, engineering, services, and customer success roles to support enterprise deployments. Common openings include software engineers focused on API and integration work, product managers for community and care modules, and consultants who specialize in community strategy and moderation operations. The company also staffs professional services and implementation teams for customer onboarding.

For job seekers, review the Khoros careers page for current openings and details about their teams, benefits, and remote/hybrid work policies. Technical roles often require experience with web technologies, APIs, and enterprise SaaS integrations; services roles value background in community management, digital customer service, or contact center operations.

khoros affiliate

Khoros runs partner and reseller programs that enable agencies, systems integrators, and technology partners to implement Khoros solutions and resell subscriptions. Partner tiers typically include training, access to specialist resources, and incentives for customer referrals or managed-service agreements.

If you are an agency or consultant, contact Khoros partner relations to understand certification requirements, referral commissions, and co-selling opportunities. Partners are commonly involved in implementation, customization, and ongoing moderation services for enterprise clients.

Where to find khoros reviews

Independent reviews and customer testimonials for Khoros are available on analyst sites, review platforms, and in case studies published by Khoros customers. For third-party perspectives, search product-review sites and analyst reports for customer ratings on functionality, support, and ROI. You can also find customer case studies and testimonials on the official Khoros customer stories and case studies pages (https://khoros.com/customers).

Collect both peer reviews and analyst commentary to evaluate implementation complexity, support responsiveness, and long-term costs. When possible, ask for reference calls with customers in similar industries and with comparable scale to validate fit and performance.