Softwr

Social Media · head to head

Khoros vs Statusbrew

Khoros logo

Khoros

Social Media

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

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Statusbrew logo

Statusbrew

Social Media

Social media publishing, inbox and moderation with rule-based comment hiding built in

From
$69/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • 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.; Statusbrew plans cap both seats and social profiles, so an agency with many small clients hits the profile ceiling well before the user ceiling and is pushed to a tier it does not otherwise need.
  • They diverge on capability: Khoros covers Branded communities, Statusbrew covers Publishing and scheduling.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Khoros and Statusbrew actually diverge.

Attributes where Khoros and Statusbrew differ
AttributeKhorosStatusbrew
Starting priceOn request$69/month
Pricing modelquotePer user per month
PlatformsWeb, iOS, Android, APIWeb, iOS, Android

Identical on both: free tier (No), 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 Statusbrew

  • Publishing and scheduling
  • Unified inbox
  • Rule-based moderation
  • Approval workflows
  • Reporting
  • BrewLink
  • AI sentiment analysis
  • Social and web listening

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 Statusbrew
  • A consumer brand consolidating a dozen regional social accounts under one publishing approval workflow with regional role permissionsnot Statusbrew
  • A games publisher running player forums where moderation load and volunteer moderator tooling matter more than publishing featuresnot Statusbrew
  • A bank that needs social service messages tracked against the same SLA framework as its email and chat queuesnot Statusbrew

Statusbrew

  • A consumer brand running paid social where ad comment threads fill with spam and complaints faster than a community manager can clear themnot Khoros
  • An agency managing a dozen small clients that needs client-facing approval before anything publishes to a client accountnot Khoros
  • An in-house team of five that wants one inbox for Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn engagement rather than three native appsnot Khoros
  • A retailer with many Google Business Profile locations that wants reviews and posts handled in the same queue as socialnot 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.

Statusbrew

  • Plans cap both seats and social profiles, so an agency with many small clients hits the profile ceiling well before the user ceiling and is pushed to a tier it does not otherwise need.
  • Listening is limited to Premium and above and is keyword monitoring rather than a full listening dataset, so a brand that needs historical share of voice will still buy a second tool.
  • Moderation rules are keyword and sentiment based, which means sarcasm and coded language slip through while legitimate comments containing a blocked word get hidden, and someone must audit the rule set regularly.
  • Analytics retention is capped at 18 months even on paid tiers, so year-on-year comparisons beyond that require exporting data yourself before it ages out.
  • Network coverage depends entirely on the platform APIs, and features such as Instagram direct message handling or ad comment access change without notice when Meta adjusts permissions, occasionally breaking a workflow the plan was bought for.

Pricing, plan by plan

Khoros

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

Statusbrew

$69/month
  • Lite$89/month
    • 1 user
    • 5 social profiles
    • Unlimited scheduled posts
  • Standard$179/month
    • 3 users
    • 10 social profiles
    • Everything in Lite
  • Premium$299/month
    • 6 users
    • 15 social profiles
    • Everything in Standard
  • Enterprise$undefined/year
    • Unlimited users and profiles
    • SAML single sign-on
    • HubSpot and Salesforce integration

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 Statusbrew if

  • You need publishing and scheduling.
  • You work on Web, iOS, Android.
  • You also want unified inbox.
Statusbrew review

Questions people ask

Is Khoros or Statusbrew better?
Neither clearly leads. Khoros starts at On request and Statusbrew at $69/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Khoros or Statusbrew?
Khoros starts at On request and Statusbrew at $69/month.
Does Khoros or Statusbrew run on more platforms?
Khoros runs on Web, iOS, Android, API. Statusbrew runs on Web, iOS, Android.
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 Statusbrew is typically brought in for.
What can Khoros do that Statusbrew cannot?
Khoros covers Branded communities, Community gamification, Social publishing, Social customer care. Statusbrew covers Publishing and scheduling, Unified inbox, Rule-based moderation, Approval workflows.

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.

Statusbrew: Can it moderate comments on paid ads?

Yes, and that is the main reason to choose it. Rules can hide or delete comments on ad posts as well as organic ones.

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.

Statusbrew: How much is it really?

89, 179 and 299 US dollars per month on monthly billing for Lite, Standard and Premium, dropping to 69, 129 and 229 on annual. Agency pricing starts at 49 per client per month.

Khoros: Is pricing published?

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

Statusbrew: Does the Lite plan work for a small agency?

No. One user and five profiles covers roughly one client. Agencies should price the dedicated agency plan against the per-client count.

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.

Statusbrew: Is there a free plan?

No, only a 14-day trial without a card.

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