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Business Intelligence · head to head

Glassbox vs Khoros

Glassbox logo

Glassbox

Business Intelligence

Digital experience intelligence

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: Glassbox no fixed pricing tiers published; custom quotes required based on package, data retention, and session volume; 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: Glassbox covers Session Replay, Khoros covers Branded communities.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Glassbox and Khoros actually diverge.

Attributes where Glassbox and Khoros differ
AttributeGlassboxKhoros
Pricing modelsubscriptionquote
PlatformsWeb, Mobile, HybridWeb, iOS, Android, API
CategoryBusiness IntelligenceSocial Media
Founded2010Unknown

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 Glassbox

  • Session Replay
  • Struggle Detection
  • Journey Mapping
  • AI Insights
  • Voice of Customer
  • Adobe Analytics
  • Google Analytics
  • Salesforce

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.

Glassbox

  • User experience analysisnot Khoros
  • Bug reproductionnot Khoros
  • Conversion optimizationnot Khoros
  • Customer journey mappingnot Khoros
  • Usability testingnot Khoros

Khoros

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

Where each one falls short

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

Glassbox

  • No fixed pricing tiers published; custom quotes required based on package, data retention, and session volume

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

Glassbox

On request
  • CustomFree
    • Full Platform
    • Mobile Analytics
    • Enterprise Support

Khoros

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

Which should you pick?

Choose Glassbox if

  • You need session replay.
  • You work on Web, Mobile, Hybrid.
  • You also want struggle detection.
Glassbox 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 Glassbox or Khoros better?
Neither clearly leads. Glassbox 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, Glassbox or Khoros?
Glassbox starts at On request and Khoros at On request.
Does Glassbox or Khoros run on more platforms?
Glassbox runs on Web, Mobile, Hybrid. Khoros runs on Web, iOS, Android, API.
What is Glassbox best used for?
Glassbox is most often used for user experience analysis, bug reproduction, conversion optimization, customer journey mapping. Of those, user experience analysis and bug reproduction are not what Khoros is typically brought in for.
What can Glassbox do that Khoros cannot?
Glassbox covers Session Replay, Struggle Detection, Journey Mapping, AI Insights. Khoros covers Branded communities, Community gamification, Social publishing, Social customer care.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Glassbox: How much does Glassbox cost?

Glassbox uses custom pricing based on three factors: the selected package (Production Operation, Marketing/Business, or Product), data retention period, and session volume. The vendor encourages contacting sales to build customized packages.

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.

Glassbox: Does Glassbox offer add-ons for specific industries?

Yes, Glassbox offers specialized add-on solutions including fraud prevention, accessibility features, and call center solutions tailored for financial organizations.

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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