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Marketing · head to head

Hootsuite vs Khoros

Hootsuite logo

Hootsuite

Marketing

Save time and grow on social media

From
$99/year
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: Hootsuite no free tier available; minimum cost is $99/user/year annually; 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: Hootsuite covers Content scheduling, Khoros covers Branded communities.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Hootsuite and Khoros actually diverge.

Attributes where Hootsuite and Khoros differ
AttributeHootsuiteKhoros
Starting price$99/yearOn request
Pricing modelUnknownquote
PlatformsWebWeb, iOS, Android, API
CategoryMarketingSocial Media
Founded2008Unknown

Identical on both: 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 Hootsuite

  • Content scheduling
  • Social inbox
  • Content calendar
  • Analytics & reporting
  • Social listening
  • Team collaboration
  • Approval workflows
  • Bulk scheduling

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.

Hootsuite

  • Social media schedulingnot Khoros
  • Community managementnot Khoros
  • Social advertisingnot Khoros
  • Analytics & reportingnot Khoros
  • Team collaborationnot Khoros

Khoros

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

Where each one falls short

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

Hootsuite

  • No free tier available; minimum cost is $99/user/year annually
  • Monthly billing significantly more expensive than annual (20-30% premium)
  • Advanced data export via SFTP available only to Enterprise tier customers

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

Hootsuite

$99/year

No published plan breakdown. See the Hootsuite review.

Khoros

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

Which should you pick?

Choose Hootsuite if

  • You need content scheduling.
  • You also want social inbox.
Hootsuite 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 Hootsuite or Khoros better?
Neither clearly leads. Hootsuite starts at $99/year and Khoros at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Hootsuite or Khoros?
Hootsuite starts at $99/year and Khoros at On request.
Does Hootsuite or Khoros run on more platforms?
Hootsuite runs on Web. Khoros runs on Web, iOS, Android, API.
What is Hootsuite best used for?
Hootsuite is most often used for social media scheduling, community management, social advertising, analytics & reporting. Of those, social media scheduling and community management are not what Khoros is typically brought in for.
What can Hootsuite do that Khoros cannot?
Hootsuite covers Content scheduling, Social inbox, Content calendar, Analytics & reporting. Khoros covers Branded communities, Community gamification, Social publishing, Social customer care.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Hootsuite: What is Hootsuite's pricing structure?

Hootsuite offers four annual plans: Standard at $99/user/year, Professional at $199/user/year, Advanced at $399/user/year, and Enterprise with custom pricing. Monthly billing is available at 20-30% higher cost.

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.

Hootsuite: Does Hootsuite offer a free tier?

No. Hootsuite does not offer a free tier or freemium plan. A 30-day trial is available, and skipping the trial provides 25% off annual plans.

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.

Hootsuite: How many integrations does Hootsuite support?

Hootsuite advertises support for over 100 integrations, claiming more than any other social media management platform.

Source
Khoros: Is pricing published?

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

Hootsuite: Can users export their data from Hootsuite?

Yes. Hootsuite offers Advanced Analytics data export as CSV files to SFTP folders for Enterprise users, with daily exports and 90-day retention. Standard and Professional plans have more limited export capabilities.

Source
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.

Hootsuite: Does Hootsuite offer API access?

Yes. Hootsuite provides a REST API for building custom applications and integrations, though API capabilities vary by plan level.

Source
Hootsuite: Does Hootsuite offer self-hosted or on-premise deployment?

No. Hootsuite is a cloud-based SaaS platform only. There is no self-hosted or on-premise deployment option available.

Source
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