Softwr

Social Media · head to head

Khoros vs Pinterest

Khoros logo

Khoros

Social Media

Enterprise social media management and branded community platform, now owned by IgniteTech

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Pinterest logo

Pinterest

Social Media

Visual discovery and bookmarking platform monetised through advertising and shopping links, run as an independent public company

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Pinterest has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real 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.; Pinterest engagement skews heavily toward planning and browsing rather than real-time interaction, so it is a poor fit for time-sensitive announcements or breaking content.
  • They diverge on capability: Khoros covers Branded communities, Pinterest covers Boards.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Khoros and Pinterest actually diverge.

Attributes where Khoros and Pinterest differ
AttributeKhorosPinterest
Starting priceOn requestFree
Pricing modelquoteFree for users, advertising revenue from businesses
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsWeb, iOS, Android, APIiOS, Android, Web

Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated), category (Social Media).

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 Khoros

  • Branded communities
  • Community gamification
  • Social publishing
  • Social customer care
  • Moderation tooling
  • Listening and analytics
  • Aurora and Iris AI
  • Knowledge deflection

Only in Pinterest

  • Boards
  • Visual search
  • Shopping pins
  • Idea pins
  • Promoted pins
  • Pinterest Trends

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Khoros

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

Pinterest

  • Planning a home renovation, wedding or event by collecting ideas in one placenot Khoros
  • A retailer running shoppable pin campaigns to drive purchase-intent traffic rather than pure brand awarenessnot Khoros
  • A content creator or blogger driving referral traffic to a website through pinned contentnot Khoros
  • A brand researching seasonal trends through Pinterest Trends data before a product launchnot Khoros

Where each one falls short

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

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.

Pinterest

  • Engagement skews heavily toward planning and browsing rather than real-time interaction, so it is a poor fit for time-sensitive announcements or breaking content.
  • Organic reach for businesses without a paid budget has declined as the feed increasingly favours advertising and algorithmic recommendation over follower-based distribution.
  • The user base skews demographically narrow, concentrated among women and higher-income users in several markets, which limits its usefulness for brands needing broad reach.
  • Ad pricing is auction based with no published flat rate, so campaign cost is unpredictable and can rise sharply during high-demand seasonal periods.
  • Content moderation and misinformation controls have lagged some competitors, and health and wellness misinformation pinned to boards has been a recurring problem the company has had to address after the fact.

Pricing, plan by plan

Khoros

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

Pinterest

Free
  • PinterestFree
    • Free account, unlimited pinning and boards for users
    • Businesses pay for promoted pins and shopping ads through Pinterest Ads Manager, priced by auction, no flat published rate

Which should you pick?

Choose Khoros if

  • You need branded communities.
  • You work on Web, iOS, Android, API.
  • You also want community gamification.
Khoros review

Choose Pinterest if

  • You need boards.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on iOS, Android, Web.
  • You also want visual search.
Pinterest review

Questions people ask

Is Khoros or Pinterest better?
Neither clearly leads. Khoros starts at On request and Pinterest at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Khoros or Pinterest?
Pinterest has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at On request for Khoros and Free for Pinterest.
Does Khoros or Pinterest run on more platforms?
Khoros runs on Web, iOS, Android, API. Pinterest runs on iOS, Android, Web.
Can I use Pinterest for free?
Yes. Pinterest has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Khoros starts at On request.
What is Khoros best used for?
Khoros is most often used for a telecommunications operator that wants a public support community whose accepted answers measurably deflect contact centre volume, a consumer brand consolidating a dozen regional social accounts under one publishing approval workflow with regional role permissions, a games publisher running player forums where moderation load and volunteer moderator tooling matter more than publishing features, a bank that needs social service messages tracked against the same sla framework as its email and chat queues. Of those, a telecommunications operator that wants a public support community whose accepted answers measurably deflect contact centre volume and a consumer brand consolidating a dozen regional social accounts under one publishing approval workflow with regional role permissions are not what Pinterest is typically brought in for.
What can Khoros do that Pinterest cannot?
Khoros covers Branded communities, Community gamification, Social publishing, Social customer care. Pinterest covers Boards, Visual search, Shopping pins, Idea pins.

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.

Pinterest: Is Pinterest free?

Yes for users. Pinterest makes money from advertisers and shopping commerce tools, not from user subscriptions.

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.

Pinterest: Does Pinterest take a cut of sales through shopping pins?

Pinterest itself does not typically take a transaction cut; it charges advertisers for promoted placement, and the retailer handles the actual sale and payment.

Khoros: Is pricing published?

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

Pinterest: Has Pinterest changed ownership recently?

No. Unlike several platforms in this category, Pinterest remains an independently listed public company with no recent acquisition or rebrand.

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.

Share

Related pages

More on Khoros

More on Pinterest

Keep looking

Other head to heads