Online Community Software and Platforms

Khoros

Star Rating

Khoros' (formerly Lithium) Digital Engagement platform brings marketing, customer service, community, and other parts of the organization together with an intelligent design to rally around a better customer experience. Khoros is known for highly customized implementations focused on peer to peer engagement.

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Overview

Khoros
Khoros' (formerly Lithium) Digital Engagement platform brings marketing, customer service, community, and other parts of the organization together with an intelligent design to rally around a better customer experience. Khoros is known for highly customized implementations focused on peer to peer engagement.
2001
  • Khoros is particularly well-suited to external communities.
  • Every Khoros community tends to have a degree of customisation.
  • Numerous integrations available via API’s.
  • SSO supported.
  • Built-in analytics and game mechanics to track and promote engagement.
  • Mobile support.
  • Khoros treats every implementation as a bespoke customisation.
  • An expensive solution in both technology and services
  • High staff churn in recent years
  • Limited platform development since acquisition
Khoros

Pricing

35000.00
  • 0 to 500k: $90k
  • 500k to 3m: $90k - $210k
  • 3m to 6m: $210k - $330k
  • 6m+: Usage purchased separately
3 Year
No
No free trial
Up to 25% discounts are offered on 3+ year contracts
  • Tribal Knowledge Base: $15k+ (annual)
  • Premium Gamification and Badging: $50k+ (annual)
  • Ideation: $17.5k+ (annual)
  • Q&A Base: $17.5+ (annual)
  • Design, customization, data migration, training: $30k to $150k+
None
  • API calls via ActiveCast & REST above 10m calls : $20k per year (upwards)

Details

Enterprise
  • Two-factor authentication
  • Annual internal security audits
  • SSAE 16 SOC 2 audits
  • U.S. – Swiss Safe Harbor
  • TRUSTe (US-EU compliant)
  • ISO 27001/27018
  • Secure data centers
  • Continuous security penetration testing
  • Independent security penetration testing
Support package
SAAS (Single Tenant)
  • Canned Reports
  • Customizable Reports
  • API for integration/selective exports
Medium
API’s available
  • Gamification
  • Ideation
  • Product Reviews
  • Language Translator
  • Bulk API for Analytics
  • Product Reviews
  • Content Syndication
  • CRM Integration
  • Staging instances
  • Enhanced Moderation - customizable workflows (Khoros Care)
  • Real Time Analytics
  • SSO (native or 3rd party)

Notable Clients

Features

Analytics / Reporting toolsAutomated community tour for newcomersAutomation rulesBloggingCase ManagementDirectoriesDiscussions / Activity FeedDocument CollaborationDocument PreviewsDocument SharingDocument UploadsEvents Calendar with RegistrationGroups (Public, Private, Secret)Knowledge BaseMention by @name
Mentor / volunteer matchingMicrositesMobile AppModeration toolsPermissions configurable by rolePersonalizationPollsPrivate Messaging / NotificationsQuestions (with ability to mark questions correct)Ratings and reviewsResponsive designSEO friendly linksSpam control toolsTask Management

Customer Reviews of Khoros

Reviews Summary

Star Rating
3.9 out of 5
  • Metrics (especially LSI and Bulk Data)
  • Strong customisation available via Studio
  • API v2 (SQL-like querying) tools provide improved efficiency
  • Freemarker + API component coding simple to use without needing full developer training
  • Able to handle threads with extremely large post counts
  • Member-facing UX is dated
  • Responsive version has limited backwards compatibility for devices
  • Expensive
  • Support and Documentation are both hit-and-miss
  • A little nickel and dime mentality even though they will 'throw in' high ticket incentives (ex PS). It gets tiring.
* Taken from our most recent reviews

Latest Reviews

Person

Star Rating Backend tools and metrics are exemplary, however member-facing UX is dated.

We've been using Lithium for our community for nearly 8 years now. There's been ups and downs during that time, however as we're heavily reliant on metrics to support our community model we've stuck w... Read Full Review

October 27, 2017 | Anonymous

Person

Star Rating Great features, high cost if you don't know what you really need

Overall a great product. The strongest use case is for support, call deflection, case management (check out lithium's community -- case portal. Also create cases via email.)

Read Full Review

March 15, 2017 | Anonymous

Person

Star Rating Great solution with poor professional services experience

The platform is really well rounded. It provides the most tools and features I have seen in the enterprise platform offerings. While the features may not be the most polished, you get a lot of them ou... Read Full Review

March 15, 2017 | Nikoletta Harrold

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All Customer Reviews

Person

Star Rating Backend tools and metrics are exemplary, however member-facing UX is dated.

October 27, 2017 | Anonymous

We've been using Lithium for our community for nearly 8 years now. There's been ups and downs during that time, however as we're heavily reliant on metrics to support our community model we've stuck with them and generally felt they've mostly delivered on what we pay for.

Unfortunately, however, their focus on developing new modules and features to be paid for by customers has resulted in a general lack of development on existing basic features, which are now pretty much obsolete (eg Private Messaging tools are relatively stone age).

  • Metrics (especially LSI and Bulk Data)
  • Strong customisation available via Studio
  • API v2 (SQL-like querying) tools provide improved efficiency
  • Freemarker + API component coding simple to use without needing full developer training
  • Able to handle threads with extremely large post counts
  • Opportunities to influence future development directions through beta programs
  • Member-facing UX is dated
  • Responsive version has limited backwards compatibility for devices
  • Expensive
  • Support and Documentation are both hit-and-miss
Person

Star Rating Great features, high cost if you don't know what you really need

March 15, 2017 | Anonymous

Overall a great product. The strongest use case is for support, call deflection, case management (check out lithium's community -- case portal. Also create cases via email.)

  • Data and reporting is pretty good. especially if you opt for Bulk API (however, you will need a BI tool to actually use the data ex. Tableau)
  • They introduced Reach and Response (2 add ons) that cover social listening, workflow). Similar to Social Studio. I haven't used it but I hear good things.
  • A little nickel and dime mentality even though they will 'throw in' high ticket incentives (ex PS). It gets tiring.
  • Make no mistake, owning this platform means a strong operations model with solid resources. Otherwise the platform fixes & optimizations, analytics/listening, internal stakeholder management are all you do. Actions like nurturing the member relationships (beyond badges) tends to suffer.
Person

Star Rating Great solution with poor professional services experience

March 15, 2017 | Nikoletta Harrold

The platform is really well rounded. It provides the most tools and features I have seen in the enterprise platform offerings. While the features may not be the most polished, you get a lot of them out of the box and configurable through the admin and studio functionalities for community managers.

  • Most Out of the Box functionality
  • No-dev/ coding configuration (not complete, but fairly manageable with low dev work) which keeps costs down
  • Studio and Admin console in the platform gives great power and flexibility to CMGR to add/ change the platform functionalities
  • Great filter, escalation and moderation tool sets
  • Extensive analytics tools
  • Their customer community is very supportive
  • Most API connections possible with 3rd party vendors (up to 1million api calls included in licensing and no extra cost )
  • Most extensive Subscription and Notification features
  • Rolling platform update from PS without extra cost
  • Most expensive licensing cost I have ever seen
  • Every change beyond basic configuration needs a Change Order request with Lithium PS and is very expensive and time consuming
  • Lithium team is working in a non-agile process so things are slow and cumbersome
  • The assigned project time is very time limited to your project and push hard on their expected delivery date, not what is needed for you as a customer
  • Analytics is broken across several platforms and have different price packages and hence may not be available to all customers (based on their spending)
  • They have a great campus for training, but most items are for pay (beyond your licensing costs) and are out of date
Person

Star Rating Powerhouse of Metrics

March 14, 2017 | Rebecca Braglio

If you are metrics and data intense, Lithium is for you. While it comes with a pretty price tag, there's really nothing you can't track. Pair it with Adobe, and you can literally track everything a member does from the moment they enter your site to the moment they leave.

  • -great training videos available
  • -easily download all of the data into an excel sheet and break it down to the granular level
  • -CHI (Community Health Index) where you can benchmark your community to a similarly situated one
  • -easy to update and do a/b testing
  • -good ticket support
  • -you should be familiar with basic html and css
  • -out of the box version is very sterile looking - lots of customization required
  • -Lithium has its own coding language, which will drive your developers crazy
Person

Star Rating Built for enterprise customers.

March 8, 2017 | Andy McIlwain

Old-school forum administrators will recognize what lies beneath Lithium's SaaS veneer: This is traditional message board software packaged and promoted as an enterprise solution. A lot of (expensive) custom development is required to bring it to parity against what other platforms offer, but if you have the budget, the Lithium team has the people and expertise to deal with the unique demands of an enterprise client.

  • Consultative sales and implementation process to onboard you into the system.
  • Responsive customer support and client care.
  • SaaS model means you're never dealing with hardware or software problems on your own.
  • Admin UX is intuitive for anyone familiar with forum administration.
  • Helpful reporting tools on community health.
  • Limited custom development capabilities.
  • Limited bulk user management capabilities.
  • Overall native UX feels extremely dated.
Person

Star Rating Strong performer but has room to improve

March 4, 2017 | Anonymous

I manage a B2B community in the high tech market. I've been using Lithium for slightly over two years and have seen our community grow. Lithium has been able to keep up with the growing demand and working with their success service team, we've maintained our growth.
We are also transitioning to their responsive platform for a more enjoyable mobile experience.

  • Single Sign On ability good
  • Staging environment before moving to production
  • Lithium Social Intelligence (LSI) Very Good
  • Success Team always willing to help
  • Email support very good/responsive
  • Price - expensive platform
  • No onboarding feature for new users
  • Lack of admin control to zap spam accounts
  • Lack of integrations with some popular external sites, for example, GitHub
Person

Star Rating Flexible Features, Customizable API, and In-Depth Reporting

March 3, 2017 | Sherrie Rohde

I'm currently using Lithium for a high-tech B2B community in the open source realm. Two years after re-platforming our forums, we've surpassed 200,000 members and have exceeded industry averages month over month for conversion of new visitors to members, returning members and accepted solutions. The Lithium platform has allowed us to achieve this, largely due to its flexibility. Lithium has also reduced our operational time with it's strong spam controls and in-depth reporting features.

  • Ability to use single sign on with pre-existing website accounts.
  • Strong spam controls.
  • A robust API.
  • In-depth reporting features.
  • Priced for enterprise companies.
  • Occasionally a bit sluggish.
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