Redefining Community Engagement: 7 Powerful Khoros Alternatives

When building a thriving online community, customization and scalability are crucial for enterprise companies. The community engagement platform you choose must be up-to-date, offering advanced functionality and robust support to effectively engage community members as your organization grows.

Khoros Communities is one option in the market, providing tools for customer engagement, user-generated support and community management. However, many users have reported challenges with Khoros, particularly regarding its resource-intensive customization options and pricing.

To help you make the right decision, we've created this guide to highlight the best Khoros competitors out there. Whether you are looking for better integration options, advanced community analytics or a more cost-effective solution, these platforms offer unique features to meet your specific needs.

Let’s explore the Khoros competitors that can help you create and manage your online community more effectively.

What is Khoros? (And why look for alternatives?)

In short, Khoros helps businesses build customer loyalty by hosting a vibrant space where customers and community members can ask questions, generate knowledge, share experiences, and contribute ideas.

While Khoros has proven to be a useful solution for many companies, there are a few reasons why someone might look for alternatives. Perhaps you need:

• More customization without investing in engineering resources
• More features
• Better user interface designs
• More cost efficiency

Or maybe you just need a solution that focuses on specific aspects like social measurement, sentiment analysis, and influencer identification as mentioned in.

The bottom line: It's essential to make a well-informed decision when choosing an online community platform for a business, as it directly impacts customer interaction, brand image, and overall growth. 

So, which factors do you need to consider when choosing a Khoros competitor?

Top 7 competitors of Khoros to build a thriving online community

From content moderation to social sharing, there are many core competencies your chosen online community platform needs to have. 

Bettermode

Bettermode is a fully customizable community platform. It provides an all-in-one platform solution with an intuitive and user-friendly interface. 

Unique feature: Flexible customization allows you to customize and change every part of your community in real time. 

What Bettermode users say

Pros

• Professional-looking templates to get started easily for all the common use cases; forums, ideation, events, Q&A, etc. 
• Customization using advanced tools in the Design Studio, including the new Section Block, allows admins to simplify content management and create custom layouts.
• App Store allows complete integration with your tech stack (HubSpot, Salesforce, Zendesk, etc.), plus the ability to build custom apps on top of the Bettermode platform. 
• Embedding options – integrating the complete community, individual spaces, and individual posts into websites and apps using different layout options. 
• Scalability: Suitable for both small and larger communities, with features that grow as the community expands.
• Security: Protects user data with features like user permissions and data encryption to keep the community safe.

Cons

• Doesn’t yet offer a white-label mobile app.

Pricing information: Bettermode’s all-in-one customer engagement platform offers a free trial and pricing starts from $59 per month for the Pro plan. Additionally, selecting the billed annually option allows you to save 20%

Check out how Bettermode compares to Khoros.

2. Salesforce Experience Cloud

Salesforce Experience Cloud is a powerful competitor that comes with a robust set of community-building tools. These robust features include personalized content, multi-channel engagement, and in-depth analytics, which help drive meaningful connections and better understand community performance

Unique feature: Being a part of the Salesforce ecosystem makes integration with other Salesforce products a breeze.

Pros

• Advanced security with flexible sharing settings. 
• Good customer support.
• Easy to connect with your internal CRM database.  

Cons

• Can take a lot of practice to learn the main features. 
• It’s one of the most expensive platforms on the market. 
• Implementation can take weeks to get set up. 

Pricing: The most basic package starts at $5 per community member per month, which would equate to around $5000 a month based on 1000 monthly users.

3. Vanilla Forums (Higher Logic)

Vanilla Forums is another great option when it comes to Khoros competitors. Its platform focuses on creating engaging and customizable forums with functionalities like search, moderation, and gamification. It also offers integrations with other tools, making managing and nurturing your community easy.

Unique feature: Vanilla Forums lets you gather your customers for discussions and answer questions from them.

Pros

• Good customization options. 
• Post directly to a discussion board from an email.
• Ability to add sub-groups and events with their Events Plus add-on. 

Cons

• The main downside to the Vanilla Higher Logic platform is that the design is quite clunky. 
• Users on G2 also noted some trickiness with getting notifications to work well (they have to be enabled on the back end to work at all).
• Most branding changes require CSS changes, which means you need coding knowledge or help from Higher Logic staff to implement. 

Pricing: Higher Logic Vanilla doesn’t disclose pricing on its website.

4. inSided

inSided is a versatile and scalable community platform built to help SaaS companies improve customer success and retention. It offers a combination of online community features and self-service knowledge base functionality.

Unique feature: Sleek and user-friendly self-service knowledge base.

Pros

• Easy to use and intuitive for end-users. 
• Content is easy to find for members. 
• Robust analytics and reporting tools.  

Cons

• Customization is lacking, especially in the ‘Activity Stream’ news feed of the homepage.
• Moderation lacks scalability and could become problematic as your community grows. 
• You can’t do bulk actions for posts - e.g. you can’t bulk-move multiple threads into a new category.  

Pricing: According to Feverbee, minimum pricing starts at $100,000.

5. Zendesk Gather

As a Khoros competitor, Zendesk Gather has strong comprehensive community building features. It enables you to develop robust, personalized community spaces that promote engagement, participation and collaboration. Additionally, since it's part of the Zendesk suite, it integrates easily with other Zendesk products.

Unique feature: Zendesk Gather is best known for its ticketing functionality. 

Pros

• Strong automation features such as Zendesk’s trigger options.  
• The ability to create complex message templates with auto-filled information is a significant time saver.
• Allows you to filter tickets in different statuses and create new tabs for each.

Cons

• Lack of flexibility when making structural changes. 
• When merging tickets the default behavior is to make them a public comment. This can create confusion with the customer. 
• Hard to integrate, for example, when it comes to integrating into tools like HubSpot, Sprout Social, and Hootsuite, the platform only syncs one way.

Pricing information: Zendesk pricing starts at $55 per agent/month when billed annually. 

6. Hivebrite

In your hunt for alternatives to Khoros, Hivebrite is another noteworthy platform. It offers all-in-one community management with event planning, membership management, and email marketing. Its visually appealing interface and advanced customization options allow you to create a unique and engaging online community.

Unique feature: All-in-one platform for non-profits and education sectors. 

Pros

• Good membership management features and capabilities. 
• Robust fundraising management. 
• Easy social media marketing and social media management. 

Cons

• Difficult to set up. An IT professional may need to help you.
• Limited third-party integrations. 

Pricing: Contact the sales team for pricing information.

7. Discourse

Finally, Discourse is a good open-source Khoros competitor worth considering. It prioritizes simplicity and user-friendly design, which makes managing online communities enjoyable. Plus, being open-source provides you with the flexibility to customize and extend the platform to suit your specific needs and requirements.

Unique feature: Member-driven moderation.

Pros

• Powerful member-driven moderation functionality. 
• Configurable access control.
• Basic insight into key metrics and customer health – great for small businesses.  

Cons

• Hard to use. Discourse requires some sysadmin skills to host.
• Data export can be clunky. 
• Lack of integrations with third-party providers, like marketing software and LinkedIn.

Pricing: Discourse offers a free trial and after that, packages start at $20 per month.

Key factors to consider when evaluating Khoros competitors

When evaluating Khoros competitors, there are several important factors to ensure the chosen platform meets your specific needs. To begin with, look at the range of features and functionalities offered by the competing platforms. Some essential features include:

• Customization capabilities
• Community moderation and management tools
• User interface, branding, and personalization options
• Analytics and reporting tools – and ease of access to data
• Integration with other software and tools

In addition to features, focus on the level of customer support provided by each of the competitors. For instance, it's crucial to have access to a responsive and helpful support team that can assist if you encounter any issues or need guidance. Including 24/7 support, live chat, phone, or email support.

Likewise, take the time to analyze the pricing structure of each competitor. The goal is to find a platform that offers the desired features and quality support at a cost-effective price. Some competitors also offer trial periods or freemium plans, which can be helpful to test out their platform before committing to a long-term plan.

Lastly, pay attention to the reputation and user reviews of each platform. A solid track record and positive feedback from Gartner or can help ensure that you are choosing a reliable and high-quality platform for building your online community.

With all this in mind, let's get into the top 7 Khoros platform alternatives.

Why Bettermode is the best overall

When you have a reliable customer community platform to fall back on, you can shift your focus to the bigger picture: providing memorable customer experiences. And that's where Bettermode can help.  

We believe Bettermode stands out as the best Khoros alternative for several reasons:

1. Templates for common use cases

Getting started with Bettermode is easy, thanks to the variety of pre-built templates it offers. These templates cover common use cases such as forums, ideation, events, and Q&A. This ensures a smooth and quick setup process for users looking to build an online community tailored to their specific needs.

2. Customization with a professional Design Studio

Customization is at the heart of Bettermode. Its intuitive Design Studio provides a range of different blocks that you can choose and arrange to create unique layouts for your online community. This flexibility ensures that your community not only serves its purpose but also reflects your brand identity.

3. App Store for tech stack integration and custom apps

The Bettermode App Store allows you to effortlessly integrate your online community with your existing tech stack, such as HubSpot, Salesforce, and Zendesk. Moreover, Bettermode enables you to build custom apps on top of its platform, further increasing the potential for expanding your community and enhancing its functionality.

4. Embedding options for seamless integration

With Bettermode's versatile embedding options, you can easily integrate your entire community, specific spaces, or individual posts into your website and apps. The different layout options allow you to choose the best configuration that aligns with your website design and user experience, ensuring a seamless and consistent appearance for visitors.

In summary, Bettermode stacks up as the best alternative when it comes to building online communities. The combination of pre-built templates, Design Studio customization, App Store integrations, and advanced embedding options, allows you to create and manage an online community with ease and flexibility, catering to your specific requirements, preferences, and workflows.

Final thoughts on choosing the right community platform

Finding the right online community platform is key to keeping your customers engaged and happy. Bettermode is a top alternative to Khoros communities, offering easy customization, a user-friendly design and powerful integration options that can elevate your community experience.

Ready to see how it can benefit you and your target audience? Try Bettermode and its unique offerings for free today!

Discover how it can help your community thrive, allowing members to share ideas, solve problems and build strong connections. Don't miss out on the chance to transform your online community!

This article was originally published on April 21st, 2023, and was updated on October 31st, 2024.

FAQs

Who are Khoros' competitors?

Khoros competes with several platforms in the community engagement space, but Bettermode stands out as the best choice for businesses looking to build thriving online communities. Bettermode is a customizable platform that’s easy to use, allowing companies to make real-time changes to fit the needs of their community members.

It features pre-built templates, robust features such as integration with existing tools like HubSpot and Salesforce, and the ability to manage discussion forums effectively. Unlike other competitors, like Salesforce Experience Cloud and Zendesk Gather, which can be complicated and expensive, Bettermode is straightforward and affordable.

What type of company is Khoros?

Khoros is a community engagement and customer success platform that helps businesses build and manage online communities. It offers tools for connecting with customers, fostering discussions and increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty, making it easier for companies to engage their community members and improve customer satisfaction.

Who acquired Khoros?

Khoros was acquired by Vista Equity Partners, a company that invests in software and technology businesses. This purchase was part of Vista's plan to help Khoros grow and expand its business in the customer engagement industry by providing significant financial support.

Is Khoros a SaaS company?

Yes, Khoros is a SaaS company, which means it provides software that you can use online instead of installing it on your computer. Their platform helps businesses connect with customers, manage online communities, and provide support through various digital channels. This makes it easy for companies to access Khoros's tools from anywhere without needing special equipment or installations.

‍