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Influencer Marketing · head to head

Impact.com vs Khoros

Impact.com logo

Impact.com

Influencer Marketing

The partnership management platform

From
$30/month
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: Impact.com starter plan minimum $30/month even if program generates less revenue in 30-day period; 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: Impact.com covers Partner discovery, Khoros covers Branded communities.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Impact.com and Khoros actually diverge.

Attributes where Impact.com and Khoros differ
AttributeImpact.comKhoros
Starting price$30/monthOn request
Pricing modelsubscriptionquote
PlatformsWeb, ApiWeb, iOS, Android, API
CategoryInfluencer MarketingSocial 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 Impact.com

  • Partner discovery
  • Contract management
  • Cross-device tracking
  • Fraud protection
  • Performance optimization
  • Global payments
  • Multi-program management
  • Attribution modeling

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.

Impact.com

  • Affiliate and partner marketingnot Khoros
  • Performance-based partnershipsnot Khoros
  • Commission trackingnot Khoros
  • Multi-channel affiliate programsnot Khoros

Khoros

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

Where each one falls short

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

Impact.com

  • Starter plan minimum $30/month even if program generates less revenue in 30-day period
  • Enterprise plan requires custom sales quote
  • Additional 2.5% transaction fee on all partner-driven sales applies across all tiers
  • One-time setup fee adds to initial cost

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

Impact.com

$30/month
  • Starter$30/month
    • Plugin integrations (Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, Adobe Commerce, Squarespace)
    • Automated partner recommendations
    • Promo code & link tracking
  • Essentials$500/month
    • impact.com Partner Marketplace (90,000 partners)
    • Unlimited contract templates
    • Unlimited tracking across events
  • Pro$2500/month
    • Dedicated customer support
    • Cross-device tracking
    • API-based tracking
  • Enterprise$null/custom
    • Benchmark recommendations
    • Attribution risk protection
    • Fraud scoring

Khoros

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

Which should you pick?

Choose Impact.com if

  • You need partner discovery.
  • You work on Web, Api.
  • You also want contract management.
Impact.com 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 Impact.com or Khoros better?
Neither clearly leads. Impact.com starts at $30/month and Khoros at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Impact.com or Khoros?
Impact.com starts at $30/month and Khoros at On request.
Does Impact.com or Khoros run on more platforms?
Impact.com runs on Web, Api. Khoros runs on Web, iOS, Android, API.
What is Impact.com best used for?
Impact.com is most often used for affiliate and partner marketing, performance-based partnerships, commission tracking, multi-channel affiliate programs. Of those, affiliate and partner marketing and performance-based partnerships are not what Khoros is typically brought in for.
What can Impact.com do that Khoros cannot?
Impact.com covers Partner discovery, Contract management, Cross-device tracking, Fraud protection. Khoros covers Branded communities, Community gamification, Social publishing, Social customer care.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Impact.com: How much does impact.com cost?

impact.com offers four tiers: Starter at $30/month, Essentials at $500/month (priced from), Pro at $2,500/month (priced from), and Enterprise with custom pricing. A one-time setup fee applies (varies by technical needs) plus a 2.5% transaction fee on partner-driven sales for all plans. Starter has a $30 minimum monthly charge.

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.

Impact.com: Is there a free version of impact.com?

No, impact.com does not offer a free tier. The lowest-cost option is the Starter plan at $30/month with a $30 minimum monthly charge if your program generates insufficient revenue in the first 30 days.

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.

Impact.com: What does impact.com's Pro plan add over Essentials?

The Pro plan at $2,500/month (priced from) adds dedicated customer support, cross-device tracking, API-based tracking, Data Lab for custom reports, SAML support, and partner discovery via keyword search beyond Essentials features. The 2.5% transaction fee applies to all tiers.

Source
Khoros: Is pricing published?

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

Impact.com: How is impact.com priced?

impact.com uses tiered per-month subscription pricing based on four plans. Starter targets small programs at $30/month; Essentials at $500/month adds partner marketplace; Pro at $2,500/month adds API access and analytics; Enterprise requires custom quote. All tiers incur a 2.5% transaction fee on partner sales plus a one-time variable setup fee.

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.

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