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Business Intelligence · head to head

Anaplan vs Khoros

Anaplan logo

Anaplan

Business Intelligence

Connected planning platform with an in-memory calculation engine for large multidimensional models

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Khoros logo

Khoros

Social Media

Enterprise social media management and branded community platform, now owned by IgniteTech

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Anaplan workspace is licensed by memory consumed, so a model that grows as the business adds SKUs, regions or scenarios generates a bill increase without a single new user being added, and teams end up optimising models for licence cost rather than clarity.; Khoros igniteTech, part of ESW Capital, acquired Khoros in May 2025 and around 116 staff were made redundant within weeks, and ESW has a documented pattern of running acquired software on minimal cost bases, so support responsiveness and roadmap delivery are legitimate contract-negotiation issues rather than theoretical risks.
  • They diverge on capability: Anaplan covers Hyperblock calculation engine, Khoros covers Branded communities.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Anaplan and Khoros actually diverge.

Attributes where Anaplan and Khoros differ
AttributeAnaplanKhoros
PlatformsWeb, iOSWeb, iOS, Android, API
CategoryBusiness IntelligenceSocial Media

Identical on both: starting price (On request), pricing model (quote), free tier (No), user rating (Not yet rated).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Anaplan

  • Hyperblock calculation engine
  • Connected planning
  • Scenario and versioning
  • Model builder
  • Anaplan PlanIQ
  • Workflow and approvals
  • Application lifecycle management
  • Data integration

Only in Khoros

  • Branded communities
  • Community gamification
  • Social publishing
  • Social customer care
  • Moderation tooling
  • Listening and analytics
  • Aurora and Iris AI
  • Knowledge deflection

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Anaplan

  • Sales territory and quota planning across thousands of reps where a change to segmentation must reflow quota immediatelynot Khoros
  • Demand and supply planning at SKU and location level for a manufacturer with tens of thousands of itemsnot Khoros
  • Workforce planning that ties headcount, cost and capacity to a revenue plan across dozens of business unitsnot Khoros
  • Replacing a spreadsheet estate where the master planning model has become too large and too fragile for Excel to open reliablynot Khoros

Khoros

  • A telecommunications operator that wants a public support community whose accepted answers measurably deflect contact centre volumenot Anaplan
  • A consumer brand consolidating a dozen regional social accounts under one publishing approval workflow with regional role permissionsnot Anaplan
  • A games publisher running player forums where moderation load and volunteer moderator tooling matter more than publishing featuresnot Anaplan
  • A bank that needs social service messages tracked against the same SLA framework as its email and chat queuesnot Anaplan

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Anaplan

  • Workspace is licensed by memory consumed, so a model that grows as the business adds SKUs, regions or scenarios generates a bill increase without a single new user being added, and teams end up optimising models for licence cost rather than clarity.
  • Model building requires certified Anaplan modellers using a proprietary formula language, and the labour market for that skill is small, so most customers stay dependent on a systems integrator long after go-live.
  • Thoma Bravo took the company private in 2022 in a $10.7bn deal, and customers have since reported firmer renewal terms; a private-equity owner optimising for cash flow is a real factor in a multi-year planning contract.
  • Native reporting and visualisation are weak for anything beyond planning grids, so most customers push data out to Power BI or Tableau for executive reporting, adding another tool and another latency point.
  • Implementations are long. A connected planning programme across finance and supply chain routinely runs six to eighteen months before the first production plan, which is difficult to justify when the business wants a forecast this quarter.

Khoros

  • IgniteTech, part of ESW Capital, acquired Khoros in May 2025 and around 116 staff were made redundant within weeks, and ESW has a documented pattern of running acquired software on minimal cost bases, so support responsiveness and roadmap delivery are legitimate contract-negotiation issues rather than theoretical risks.
  • Community migration is genuinely hard: moving years of threads, accepted solutions, member reputation and SEO-bearing URLs off Khoros later is a project measured in quarters, which makes the switching cost far higher than the annual licence suggests.
  • Pricing is not published and the platform is sold on annual enterprise contracts with substantial implementation and design services, so the first-year cost is materially higher than the recurring licence and hard to benchmark.
  • The publishing and listening side inherited from Spredfast has been outpaced by dedicated social suites, so social-first teams frequently find themselves keeping a second tool for scheduling and analytics and paying for overlapping capability.
  • The product is the result of merging two large codebases and has now changed private-equity owner twice, and reviewers consistently report that community administration and social management still feel like separate systems sharing a login rather than one product.
  • Khoros Community Classic is being sunset in favour of the new Aurora AI community platform, so existing customers face a forced migration of an already hard-to-move asset, on the acquirer timetable rather than their own.

Pricing, plan by plan

Anaplan

On request
  • Anaplan$undefined/year
    • Licensed by user tier and by workspace capacity
    • Workspace charged on memory consumed by models, independent of user count
    • Multi-year enterprise agreements are the norm

Khoros

On request
  • Khoros$undefined/year
    • Branded communities
    • Social publishing and governance
    • Social customer care queue

Which should you pick?

Choose Anaplan if

  • You need hyperblock calculation engine.
  • You work on Web, iOS.
  • You also want connected planning.
Anaplan review

Choose Khoros if

  • You need branded communities.
  • You work on Web, iOS, Android, API.
  • You also want community gamification.
Khoros review

Questions people ask

Is Anaplan or Khoros better?
Neither clearly leads. Anaplan starts at On request and Khoros at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Anaplan or Khoros?
Anaplan starts at On request and Khoros at On request.
Does Anaplan or Khoros run on more platforms?
Anaplan runs on Web, iOS. Khoros runs on Web, iOS, Android, API.
What is Anaplan best used for?
Anaplan is most often used for sales territory and quota planning across thousands of reps where a change to segmentation must reflow quota immediately, demand and supply planning at sku and location level for a manufacturer with tens of thousands of items, workforce planning that ties headcount, cost and capacity to a revenue plan across dozens of business units, replacing a spreadsheet estate where the master planning model has become too large and too fragile for excel to open reliably. Of those, sales territory and quota planning across thousands of reps where a change to segmentation must reflow quota immediately and demand and supply planning at sku and location level for a manufacturer with tens of thousands of items are not what Khoros is typically brought in for.
What can Anaplan do that Khoros cannot?
Anaplan covers Hyperblock calculation engine, Connected planning, Scenario and versioning, Model builder. Khoros covers Branded communities, Community gamification, Social publishing, Social customer care.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Anaplan: Why is Anaplan expensive even when user counts are low?

Because workspace is licensed on the memory your models consume as well as on users. Large models cost money regardless of how many people log in.

Khoros: Who owns Khoros now?

IgniteTech, an ESW Capital company, acquired Khoros on 27 May 2025. Vista Equity Partners, which created Khoros by merging Lithium and Spredfast, is no longer the owner.

Anaplan: Do we need a systems integrator?

Almost always for the first implementation. The proprietary modelling language and the scale of typical models make an experienced partner or an internal certified team effectively mandatory.

Khoros: Why does the website say khoros.ai?

The company moved its corporate domain from khoros.com to khoros.ai as part of an AI-first relaunch under IgniteTech, centred on its Aurora and Iris AI capabilities.

Anaplan: Who owns Anaplan?

Thoma Bravo, which took it private in 2022 for $10.7bn.

Khoros: Is pricing published?

No. Khoros quotes privately on annual enterprise contracts, and implementation services are a significant separate cost.

Anaplan: Can it replace our BI tool?

No. It is a planning and calculation platform; most customers still export to Power BI or Tableau for reporting and dashboards.

Khoros: Should the ownership change affect my decision?

It should affect your contract. Ask for written roadmap commitments, named support staffing and exit or data-export terms before signing a multi-year community deal.

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