Discourse vs Khoros Communities
Discourse
discourse.orgKhoros Communities
khoros.comSide by side
| Figure | Discourse | Khoros Communities |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $100/mo | — |
| Free plan | Yes | — |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | — | Yes |
| iOS | — | Yes |
| Android | — | Yes |
| API | — | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 5 | 1 |
| Spec score · Community Platforms | 9.0 (#8) | 8.3 (#36) |
| Spec score · Social Networking Software | 8.8 (#2) | 7.9 (#12) |
| Spec score · Online Community Platforms | 8.8 (#5) | 7.9 (#28) |
| Spec score · Forum Software | 8.9 (#2) | 8.2 (#5) |
| Custom domain | Yes | Yes |
| Event hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Available integrations | Integrations include GitHub, chat providers, Zendesk, and authentication providers. | The Aurora Salesforce integration can escalate community threads to cases, provide a private support case portal, and enable federated search; it requires a full Salesforce license. |
| Moderation tools | Discourse provides built-in moderation tools and AI-assisted community management. | AI-driven content filters and workflow automation help teams moderate and triage community activity. |
| Moderation tools | Yes | Yes |
| Private spaces | Yes | Yes |
Plans
Discourse
- FreeFree
- Pro$100 a month
- Business$500 a month
- EnterprisePriced on request
- Free planFree
In their own words
Discourse
Discourse is community software for hosting discussions, with options to self-host or use managed hosting. It supports private spaces, event hosting, custom domains and moderation tools, and its codebase is freely available on GitHub. The free plan costs nothing and includes unlimited members, 2 staff seats, 500k monthly page views, 20k monthly emails, 10 categories and 5GB storage. Pro costs $100 a month and includes 5 staff seats, 500k monthly page views, 100k monthly emails, unlimited categories and 20GB storage. Business costs $500 a month, with 15 staff seats, priority support, standard migration services and 100GB storage. Enterprise pricing is custom; it includes unlimited staff seats, 1M+ monthly page views, 1.5M+ monthly emails and 200GB+ storage. Enterprise also includes SSO, SAML, enterprise authentication and a 99.9% uptime guarantee. Paid plans have a 14-day trial, and hosting plans require no credit card up front. Integrations include GitHub, chat providers, Zendesk and authentication providers. Support options range from community help to email support and professional services.
Khoros Communities
Khoros Communities gives brands a space for customers to find answers, collaborate, and engage with one another. Communities can take the form of forums, blogs, knowledge bases, events, idea spaces, private messaging, and contests. Templates support initial setup, while no-code drag-and-drop tools let teams adjust page design and navigation. Operators can create private spaces, use a custom domain, and moderate activity with workflow automation and AI-driven content filters.
A rank and reputation engine scores activity across more than 80 triggers. Customizable analytics dashboards, widgets, and a bulk-data API support reporting. Khoros describes the product as API-first, with a GraphQL layer. Aurora early-access capabilities include AI moderation, appeals, generated answers for unanswered posts, and event-driven workflow automation; these require enablement. The Aurora Salesforce connector can escalate threads to cases, provide a private case portal, and support federated search, but requires a full Salesforce license. The product is available on web, Android, and iOS. Pricing is on request.