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News · head to head

Cision vs Khoros

Cision logo

Cision

News

The complete PR and earned media platform

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: Cision no transparent pricing published for media monitoring and PR tools; 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: Cision covers Media monitoring, Khoros covers Branded communities.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Cision and Khoros actually diverge.

Attributes where Cision and Khoros differ
AttributeCisionKhoros
Pricing modelsubscriptionquote
PlatformsWeb, Ios, AndroidWeb, iOS, Android, API
CategoryNewsSocial Media
Founded1867Unknown

Identical on both: starting price (On request), 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 Cision

  • Media monitoring
  • PR Newswire distribution
  • Media database
  • Analytics & reporting
  • Influencer identification
  • Salesforce
  • Google Analytics
  • Slack

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.

Cision

  • Press release distributionnot Khoros
  • Media monitoringnot Khoros
  • PR measurementnot Khoros
  • Media outreachnot Khoros
  • Crisis communicationsnot Khoros

Khoros

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

Where each one falls short

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

Cision

  • No transparent pricing published for media monitoring and PR tools

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

Cision

On request
  • Cision Communications CloudFree
    • Media monitoring
    • Media database
    • PR analytics
  • EnterpriseFree
    • Full platform access
    • PR Newswire distribution
    • Custom integrations

Khoros

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

Which should you pick?

Choose Cision if

  • You need media monitoring.
  • You work on Web, Ios, Android.
  • You also want pr newswire distribution.
Cision 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 Cision or Khoros better?
Neither clearly leads. Cision 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, Cision or Khoros?
Cision starts at On request and Khoros at On request.
Does Cision or Khoros run on more platforms?
Cision runs on Web, Ios, Android. Khoros runs on Web, iOS, Android, API.
What is Cision best used for?
Cision is most often used for press release distribution, media monitoring, pr measurement, media outreach. Of those, press release distribution and media monitoring are not what Khoros is typically brought in for.
What can Cision do that Khoros cannot?
Cision covers Media monitoring, PR Newswire distribution, Media database, Analytics & reporting. Khoros covers Branded communities, Community gamification, Social publishing, Social customer care.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Cision: How much does Cision cost?

Cision does not publish standard pricing on its website. The company offers media monitoring, journalist outreach, and social listening tools through CisionOne platform with pricing based on media monitoring scope, number of keywords, and service level. Contact sales for quotes.

Source
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.

Cision: What services does Cision offer?

Cision offers media monitoring, instant insights and reporting, journalist outreach, social listening and management, professional services, and CisionOne AI. All services are part of the CisionOne unified platform.

Source
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.

Khoros: Is pricing published?

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

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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