Khoros Communities Review, Pricing & Features

Khoros Communities is an enterprise online community platform for customer support and engagement. See features, pricing model, and top alternatives.

Category
Community Platforms
Pricing
Enterprise / Custom, from Custom pricing
Verified
Not yet
Last updated
July 18, 2026
Founded
2019
Headquarters
Austin, Texas, USA
Web AppAPIAI

Overview

Khoros Communities is an enterprise online community platform used by large brands to build branded discussion forums, support communities, and product-feedback hubs. It descends from Lithium Technologies, one of the earliest dedicated online-community vendors, and today operates as part of Khoros, LLC, formed from the 2019 merger of Lithium and Spredfast under Vista Equity Partners, with headquarters in Austin, Texas.

The platform lets customers help each other troubleshoot issues, discuss products, and submit feedback and ideas, deflecting support tickets away from paid agents while giving brands a searchable, SEO-optimized knowledge base built from real customer conversations.

Khoros was acquired by IgniteTech in 2025, and the Communities product now sits alongside Khoros Care and Khoros Marketing as part of a broader customer-engagement suite sold to large enterprises.

Key Features

Core community functionality includes discussion forums, structured Q&A, knowledge bases, and idea/feedback boards, supported by gamification mechanics like points, badges, and leaderboards designed to keep members returning and contributing.

Administrators get granular moderation and governance tooling, SEO-oriented URL and content structuring to help threads rank in search engines, an API and embeddable widgets for surfacing community content inside a brand's own site or app, and analytics dashboards tracking engagement and support-ticket deflection.

Newer releases add AI-assisted features such as automated tagging, suggested replies, and AI-powered search across community content, plus integration with Khoros Care and Khoros Marketing for unified social and community customer engagement.

Pricing

Khoros does not publish list pricing for Communities. Contracts are custom-quoted based on the modules purchased, registered-user volume, interaction volume, and contract length, sold through a direct sales process rather than self-serve signup.

Public estimates suggest annual contract values typically range from the tens of thousands of dollars for smaller deployments up to several hundred thousand dollars for mid-market communities, with large enterprise contracts spanning multiple modules and premium support sometimes exceeding one million dollars per year.

Key Features

Pros & Cons

Pros

  • Long operating history in enterprise community software via the Lithium lineage
  • Strong SEO and ticket-deflection focus for high-traffic consumer brands
  • Combines community, social customer care, and marketing in one suite
  • Deep gamification and moderation tooling built for very large communities
  • Proven at scale with recognizable enterprise customers

Cons

  • No published pricing, requiring a sales process to get a quote
  • Enterprise contract values are high, out of reach for small and mid-market teams
  • Implementation and configuration can require significant setup time
  • Recent ownership changes (Vista to IgniteTech) may affect roadmap continuity
  • No self-serve free trial or free tier

Pricing

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Khoros Communities used for?

It is used by large brands to run branded online communities for customer support, product feedback, and peer-to-peer discussion.

How much does Khoros Communities cost?

Khoros does not publish pricing; contracts are custom-quoted based on modules, user volume, and contract length, commonly ranging from tens of thousands to several hundred thousand dollars annually.

Who owns Khoros?

Khoros was formed in 2019 from the merger of Lithium Technologies and Spredfast under Vista Equity Partners, and was acquired by IgniteTech in 2025.

Is there a free version of Khoros Communities?

No, Khoros Communities is sold as a custom-quoted enterprise product with no published free tier or self-serve signup.

What companies use Khoros Communities?

Large enterprise brands including Microsoft, Samsung, and Visa have been cited as customers of Khoros community products.

What are the main alternatives to Khoros Communities?

Common alternatives include Salesforce Experience Cloud, Higher Logic, inSided (Gainsight), Sprinklr, and open-source options like Discourse or Vanilla Forums.

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