Enterprise social media management and customer engagement platform
Khoros is a social media management platform for enterprise customer service and marketing teams.
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AI Editor ApprovedApproved and published by our AI Editor-in-Chief after full panel analysis.Khoros is an enterprise social media management and customer engagement platform for large customer service, marketing, and community teams. It combines social listening, publishing, analytics, and customer care in a unified interface, with listening coverage that spans billions of sources across 187 languages. The platform is delivered through two product lines, the Aurora AI community platform and Iris AI social media management. Pricing is quote-based, with no public tiers, though a free trial is available. Key capabilities include AI-driven content creation and scheduling, automated community moderation, AI-native self-service for ticket deflection, intelligent engagement routing, and community and social analytics. TopReviewed's six-seat AI review panel scored it 7.4/10, praising the unified coverage of community, social management, and digital care while noting that the 2025 IgniteTech acquisition and subsequent layoffs raise vendor-stability questions. It best fits large enterprises that run high-volume social customer care across many languages.
Khoros is an enterprise social media management platform that helps large organizations manage customer interactions and marketing activities across social channels. The platform serves as a comprehensive solution for social customer service, content publishing, community management, and social listening.
The platform is designed primarily for enterprise customers including Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, and large brands that need to manage high volumes of social media interactions. Khoros integrates with major social networks including Facebook, X, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube, allowing teams to respond to customer inquiries, publish content, and monitor brand mentions from a centralized dashboard.
Key capabilities sit in two platforms. Aurora AI handles community moderation, Answer Assist, and the Orchestrator rules engine for routing, escalation, and lifecycle automation with a full audit trail. Iris® AI handles social publishing, listening across 187 languages, digital care routing, and analytics. Customers can bring their own model API key rather than being locked to one LLM provider, and trust scoring plus auditability cover AI-generated output. The platform also offers community management features for building and moderating branded online communities.
Khoros competes in the enterprise social media management space alongside platforms like Sprout Social, Hootsuite Enterprise, and Sprinklr. The platform differentiates itself by focusing specifically on enterprise-scale deployments with features like advanced security, compliance tools, and integration capabilities designed for large organizational structures.
Assists with content creation and analyzes sentiment across social channels to support publishing and engagement decisions within Iris AI.
Uses a Community Language Model with hybrid search and authority-weighted ranking to automatically moderate content and assist with generating answers in community forums.
Applies trust scoring to AI-generated content and provides auditability features so organizations can review and verify AI outputs.
Provides dashboards that turn social listening and engagement signals into reportable business decisions.
Routes customer service conversations and cases across social and digital channels within Iris AI's digital care capability.
Automates responses and self-service pathways within Aurora AI to reduce support ticket volume and deflect cases from live agents.
Enterprise community platform with Community Language Model, Answer Assist, AI Moderation, and Orchestrator for self-service and governed community engagement.
AI-native platform for social publishing, listening, engagement, digital care, and analytics with shared customer context.
Allows customers to bring their own API keys and choose their preferred LLM provider rather than being locked into a single AI model.
Connects to CRM systems, listening and analytics tools via APIs, webhooks, and OAuth 2.0 SSO within the Iris AI platform.
Provides encryption, vulnerability management, secure development practices, incident response, and business continuity/disaster recovery documented via the Trust Center.
Offers role controls, audit visibility, workspace-level governance, and compliance policies for regulated industries.
Khoros does not publish standard list pricing; the platform (Aurora AI for branded communities and Iris® AI for social media management and brand care) is sold via custom quotes based on modules selected, user count, and interaction volume — best suited for mid-market to large enterprise organizations needing custom digital customer engagement, community, or social media care solutions. Contact Khoros sales for a tailored quote.
Khoros is a deep enterprise engagement suite, but the IgniteTech ownership change makes it a careful bet.
“A 20-year-old enterprise platform that covers community, social, and care in one stack. The catch is a 2025 acquisition that came with mass layoffs.”
Khoros traces back to a 2019 merger of Lithium and Spredfast under Vista Equity Partners. IgniteTech bought it in May 2025, and the deal was followed by mass layoffs. That is the first thing a board will ask about in an 18-month review.
The product itself is real. Aurora AI rebuilt the community platform around ticket deflection, and Iris® AI unifies publishing, engagement, and Social Listening across 187 languages. Sprout Social is the cleaner pick for a mid-market team, but it does not match this depth for a Fortune 500 care operation running high volume.
The catch is vendor risk, not capability. A post-acquisition restructuring this fresh raises a fair question about roadmap continuity and support staffing. Pilot one business unit, write renewal protections into the contract, and watch how IgniteTech invests before you standardize the org.
Depth in community plus brand care outpaces Sprout Social for large-scale operations.
A known enterprise name with Fortune 500 customers is defensible, but the recent ownership change invites board scrutiny.
Workflow automation and ticket deflection pay back fast, though enterprise deployments are contract-and-onboarding projects.
Aurora AI and Iris® AI consolidate three tool categories into one stack, which advances an enterprise care operation.
Twenty years in market is durable, but the May 2025 IgniteTech acquisition and ensuing layoffs raise real continuity questions.
Large enterprises who need community, social care, and listening in one suite.
Mid-market teams who want a lighter tool and a stable vendor.
Khoros is durable enterprise CX infrastructure, but the org chart underneath it changed hands in 2025.
“Khoros rebuilt its community and social products as AI-native platforms sharing one intelligence layer. The architecture is sound for enterprise CX teams, however the 2025 ownership change carries real three-year staffing risk.”
Khoros is mature infrastructure, and the lineage shows it. The platform traces to Lithium, founded in 2001, and Spredfast, which merged under the Khoros name in 2019 after Vista Equity Partners assembled both. Two decades of enterprise community and social tooling is a craft depth that newer entrants cannot fake.
The strategic signal is the AI rebuild. Aurora AI and Iris® AI, both launched April 2026, share a single Shared AI Intelligence Layer, so community knowledge and social engagement learn from the same brand-voice data, with Social Listening spanning 187 languages. That coherence is a genuine edge over running Sprout Social alongside a separate community vendor.
But the tradeoff is the org chart. IgniteTech acquired Khoros in May 2025 and followed it with layoffs, and an enterprise community deployment leans hard on vendor services depth. Contact-only pricing also keeps cost modeling against Salesforce opaque until you are deep in procurement.
Khoros sits as the enterprise-scale incumbent against Sprout Social and Salesforce, now rebuilt around AI-native products.
Unified community, social care, and listening matches how enterprise CX organizations actually structure teams.
The Shared AI Intelligence Layer ties Aurora AI and Iris AI together, but external stack integration depth is undocumented here.
The May 2025 IgniteTech acquisition and subsequent layoffs raise a genuine vendor-stability question over three years.
Two decades of community and social tooling from the Lithium and Spredfast lineage gives real craft depth.
Enterprise CX leaders who run high-volume social care and branded communities together
Small teams who need transparent pricing and a lighter social tool
There is no published sticker, so every Khoros number starts inside a sales call.
“Khoros prices everything by quote, with reported enterprise contracts running $75K to $300K+ a year. The free Aurora AI migration window closes December 31, 2026, and that deadline is the negotiation lever.”
Khoros publishes no pricing page. Two products, Aurora AI and Iris® AI, both quote-only. Reported contracts run $75K to $300K+ a year.
TCO math. Budget a mid-market community near $120K/year before integrations and professional services. The catch is the overage meter, not the sticker — member counts grow, and the invoice grows with them. Khoros formed from the 2019 Lithium and Spredfast merger, then was acquired by IgniteTech in 2025. New owner, same year layoffs hit. Vendor risk is moderate, so push for termination rights and a data export clause.
ROI is measurable through Social Listening across 187 languages and ticket deflection. Compare Sprout Social, which posts real tiers without a call. Classic-to-Aurora migration is free only through December 31, 2026 — use that deadline as leverage.
Every deal routes through sales, though enterprise procurement is staffed to handle that friction.
Enterprise terms are negotiable, but the IgniteTech acquisition raises the need for termination and export clauses.
No pricing page exists; both Aurora AI and Iris AI are quote-only with a mandatory demo.
Ticket deflection and Social Listening across 187 languages tie to measurable, countable outcomes.
Reported contracts span $75K to $300K+ yearly, and member overage fees make the year-3 number hard to forecast.
Enterprise brands who run high-volume social care across many languages.
Small teams who need transparent pricing before a sales call.
Five months and five public releases in, Khoros's moderation queue is trackable; its price list still isn't.
“Aurora AI and Iris® AI have shipped monthly since April, and the release notes name the moderation and Answer Assist changes a community manager actually feels. Pricing is still contact-only, so the rollout math waits on a sales call.”
Version 26.4 fixed the 'AI Flagged' filter in the moderation queue so it actually narrows results. Small line in a release note. It's the filter a moderator leans on all day, and someone on that team noticed.
Five months and five releases in, the queue keeps moving. AI Moderation and Appeals auto-approves the clear-cut and escalates gray areas to a human. The Answer Confidence Threshold swapped percentage boxes for three plain options. 26.5 added recurring Orchestrator rules with execution history — an audit trail on the automation, not just the posts.
The catch is Early Access. The best of it sits behind feature flags a CSM has to enable, so what you read about isn't what you can switch on. The release notes are more transparent than the price list — contact-only, no tiers, no way to cost a rollout without a sales call. Classic-to-Aurora migration is free through December 31, 2026.
Five monthly releases since April name the real queue friction — 26.4 closed the 'AI Flagged' filter bug a moderator hits daily.
Public versioned 26.x release notes list per-fix detail, locale counts and pre-prod, testing and production dates — written by people who run the platform.
AI Moderation and Appeals removes manual passes on clear-cut content, but new capabilities sit behind feature flags a CSM must enable.
Recurring Orchestrator rules with execution history, Bring Your Own Key model choice and 187-language listening give advanced users real headroom.
Aurora AI and Iris® AI share one intelligence layer, and Orchestrator handles routing, escalation and lifecycle with a full audit trail.
Enterprise community managers who live in a moderation queue every day.
Small teams who need a published price before a demo call.
Khoros is built for the big enterprise floor, and the small daily polish shows its age.
“A whole social customer-care operation runs from one place, and at enterprise scale that matters. The catch is this is a contract-and-demo product, not something you boot up on a Tuesday.”
There is no free plan and no public price. You request a demo, and that one detail tells you who Khoros is for. This is two products now, really. Aurora AI runs branded communities, Iris® AI runs social publishing and listening, and both lean on a Shared AI Intelligence Layer that is meant to learn your brand voice across the whole thing.
The scale is the real pitch. Social Listening watches billions of sources across 187 languages, which Sprout Social does not match at that breadth. For a Fortune 500 care team drowning in mentions, that is genuine. The catch is the day-three feel: this is a Control Room for big teams, and the onboarding leans more homework than welcome.
Khoros became one brand in 2019 after the Lithium and Spredfast merger, and you can sense both histories in the interface. It works, it is deep, but it never feels light.
The merged Lithium and Spredfast histories show in an interface that is deep but not light.
Two products plus a Shared AI Intelligence Layer reward month three but ask a lot upfront.
Enterprise care platform where mobile is not the core use case, so scored neutral.
Demo-and-contract entry with no free plan means the first hours feel like setup, not welcome.
Built as an enterprise Control Room with compliance and crisis tooling for Fortune 500 volumes.
Large enterprise teams who manage high-volume social customer care.
Small teams who want a tool running the same afternoon.
A 2001-rooted survivor renamed three times, now AI-native under a brand-new owner.
“Khoros traces back to Lithium in 2001 and was acquired by IgniteTech in May 2025. The catch is exit — communities and routing logic bind to the platform with no clean port.”
Khoros has been renamed three times. Lithium and Spredfast merged under Vista Equity in 2018, became Khoros in 2019, then IgniteTech bought it in May 2025. The community core dates to 2001. Survivor, not startup — but the rebrand churn is its own tell.
Eleven months after that acquisition, the whole product got renamed again. Aurora AI and Iris® AI launched April 2026, both pitched as AI-native. The Shared AI Intelligence Layer underneath is genuinely the differentiator versus Sprout Social, which sells social management without the community forum side. Social listening covers 187 languages — a real number, not vapor.
The yellow flag is exit. Communities and routing logic bind to Khoros, and there is no clean port to a rival. Pricing is demo-only with no public tiers. Durable platform, but price the lock-in and the new-owner risk.
The Shared AI Intelligence Layer unifying community and social is a real gap versus Sprout Social and Hootsuite.
Communities and routing logic bind to Khoros with no clean migration path off the platform.
IgniteTech ownership since May 2025 plus the April 2026 Aurora and Iris launches show active investment.
AI-native framing is everywhere post-rebrand, but the 187-language and 2001-origin claims are concrete and checkable.
The community core has shipped since 2001 and survived two mergers — a real history, not a pitch deck.
Enterprise brands who run high-volume social care and branded communities together.
Small teams who want transparent self-serve pricing.
Common questions answered by our AI research team
Aurora AI is Khoros's AI-native community platform. It powers AI-native self-service that deflects tickets before they're created, synthesizes knowledge from millions of conversations, automates moderation, gamification, and lifecycle management, and delivers community analytics on trends, sentiment, and signals.
Iris AI monitors social listening across billions of sources in 187 languages.
Yes. Aurora AI includes AI-native self-service designed to deflect support tickets before they're created, reducing the volume of issues that reach human agents.
Yes. Iris AI unifies social listening and publishing in one AI-native social media management platform, combining content creation, scheduling, cross-channel publishing, and listening across billions of sources.
Khoros powers 300+ enterprise communities generating billions of customer interactions, all orchestrated by AI.
Who Khoros competes with, and how each one differs
Sprinklr is the closest direct rival in unified social-media-management and customer-experience software for large enterprises; it went public via NYSE IPO in 2021 while Khoros has stayed privately held under PE ownership throughout its history.
Kustomer targets the same high-volume, consumer-brand support buyer as Khoros Care, but is built around a unified customer-timeline CRM model rather than Khoros's roots in social publishing and online communities.
Ada is a narrower, pure-play AI chatbot automation vendor that resolves support inquiries without human agents, competing directly with the AI/bot layer Khoros built through its 2021 Flow.ai acquisition rather than the full platform.
Netomi's agentic AI platform resolves inquiries across email, chat, voice, SMS and social -- the same channel mix as Khoros Care -- but sells the AI-agent layer alone rather than a combined social-management-plus-care suite.
Zendesk competes for the same enterprise support budget with a ticketing-first customer service platform used by 200,000+ companies, versus Khoros's narrower base of large consumer brands built out of social and community management.
Intercom overlaps on AI-assisted messaging support, but sells primarily to SaaS and tech companies for in-app and website chat rather than Khoros's core market of consumer brands managing customer engagement across social channels at scale.
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Khoros is an Austin-based customer engagement company offering community management, social media, and service tools for enterprises.
