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HARO vs Khoros

HARO logo

HARO

News

Help A Reporter Out - connecting journalists with expert sources

From
Free
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

  • Only HARO has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: HARO hARO was rebranded and phased out by Cision in favor of Connectively (www.connectively.us) starting early 2024, per the vendor's own helpareporter.com notice (Internet Archive capture, 2023); 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: HARO covers Daily journalist queries, Khoros covers Branded communities.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which HARO and Khoros actually diverge.

Attributes where HARO and Khoros differ
AttributeHAROKhoros
Starting priceFreeOn request
Pricing modelfreemiumquote
Free tierYesNo
PlatformsWeb, EmailWeb, iOS, Android, API
CategoryNewsSocial Media
Founded2008Unknown

Identical on both: 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 HARO

  • Daily journalist queries
  • Source submissions
  • Query archives
  • Response tracking
  • Source directory
  • Email matching
  • Profile management
  • Email

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.

HARO

  • Finding expert sourcesnot Khoros
  • Press coveragenot Khoros
  • Expert positioningnot Khoros
  • Media relationsnot Khoros

Khoros

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

Where each one falls short

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

HARO

  • HARO was rebranded and phased out by Cision in favor of Connectively (www.connectively.us) starting early 2024, per the vendor's own helpareporter.com notice (Internet Archive capture, 2023)

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

HARO

Free
  • FreeFree
    • Daily email alerts
    • Query submissions
    • Source directory
  • Pro$19.99/month
    • Advanced features
    • Priority support
    • Analytics

Khoros

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

Which should you pick?

Choose HARO if

  • You need daily journalist queries.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, Email.
  • You also want source submissions.
HARO 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 HARO or Khoros better?
Neither clearly leads. HARO starts at Free and Khoros at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, HARO or Khoros?
HARO has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for HARO and On request for Khoros.
Does HARO or Khoros run on more platforms?
HARO runs on Web, Email. Khoros runs on Web, iOS, Android, API.
Can I use HARO for free?
Yes. HARO has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Khoros starts at On request.
What is HARO best used for?
HARO is most often used for finding expert sources, press coverage, expert positioning, media relations. Of those, finding expert sources and press coverage are not what Khoros is typically brought in for.
What can HARO do that Khoros cannot?
HARO covers Daily journalist queries, Source submissions, Query archives, Response tracking. Khoros covers Branded communities, Community gamification, Social publishing, Social customer care.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

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.

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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