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Khoros Communities vs. Higher Logic Vanilla

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Khoros Communities

    Score8.2 out of 10
    Enterprise companies (1,001+ employees)
    Khoros Communities is a fully-featured community platform, built for self-service support, education and collaboration. Organizations can host a vibrant space where customers can find answers, develop expertise, share experiences, and connect with their brand.N/A

    Higher Logic Vanilla

    Score6 out of 10
    N/AHigher Logic Vanilla is a customizable and themable forum software. It can be used for support communities, Q&A Communities and more. There are numerous integrations, including SSO, and connectors to popular software such as Mailchimp, WordPress, Zendesk and Salesforce.N/A
    Pricing
    Khoros CommunitiesHigher Logic Vanilla
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    Essential
    Contact sales team
    Corporate
    Contact sales team
    Enterprise
    Contact sales team
    Enterprise Plus
    Contact sales team
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Khoros CommunitiesHigher Logic Vanilla
    Free Trial
    NoYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoYes
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesYes
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional DetailsPricing is variable based on the needs of the customer.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Khoros CommunitiesHigher Logic Vanilla
    Considered Both Products
    Khoros (Formerly Spredfast + Lithium)
    Chose Khoros Communities
    Khoros was the best use for our needs and other solutions were always missing at least one or more features that were crucial for our use case and the workaround proposed by other platforms weren't simply enough. Most of them have their strong side and it is hard to say, which …
    Incentivized
    Chose Khoros Communities
    I evaluated several different community platforms when Jive-x was being discontinued and ultimately chose Khoros as it had much more customization options compared to the other platforms out there. It also seemed to be the most robust and powerful, had the most features, and …
    Incentivized
    Chose Khoros Communities
    A lot of small and key features which are not available on other platforms
    Incentivized
    Chose Khoros Communities
    • Khoros had a clear migration path for Jive users.
    • Khoros is a platform that can scale.
    • Khoros allows us to spread and share knowledge while allowing us to continue to build trust and credibility with all our loyal fans.
    Incentivized
    Higher Logic
    Chose Higher Logic Vanilla
    Most of all we could customize the forum to look and feel like an extension of our existing web properties. This makes the forum feel more native to the users coming from or being redirected to the forum. We also had plans of being able to create custom badges we could grant …
    Incentivized
    Chose Higher Logic Vanilla
    From a footprint standpoint, Vanilla has less technical bloat than vbulletin or InVision, and it outdoes Lithium as far as features and service go. The bloat of other services and ability to use new ways of engaging communities such as through Reactions are part of the reason …
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    95%
    Would buy again
    69 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Delivers good value for the price
    98%
    Delivers good value for the price
    47 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Happy with the feature set
    86%
    Happy with the feature set
    63 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    88%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    30 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    80%
    Implementation went as expected
    37 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    User Ratings
    Khoros CommunitiesHigher Logic Vanilla
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.5
    (94 ratings)
    9.0
    (10 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    5.8
    (7 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Usability
    8.0
    (3 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Availability
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    5.0
    (5 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Online Training
    4.5
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    8.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    9.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    8.5
    (85 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Khoros CommunitiesHigher Logic Vanilla
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Khoros (Formerly Spredfast + Lithium)
    No answers on this topic
    Higher Logic
    For companies that want to customize almost anything and make the forum look like your site, Vanilla Forums is the one for you. Customization and automation of the data via the API with other systems is more than possible and they serve to be great as a hosting provider, dealing with all the upgrades, deployments and maintenance and threat management well. I would say they might be less turn key for a small application but the fact they have an open source community, the ability to find help and information can lower the barrier of entry for most.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Khoros (Formerly Spredfast + Lithium)
    No answers on this topic
    Higher Logic
    No answers on this topic
    Cons
    Khoros (Formerly Spredfast + Lithium)
    • Self Service, Low and No Code. The Community Managers should be able to some UI Tasks by self with doing any code updates.
    • Salesforce Integration: The basic Integration should also include the basic level of business requirement. (Contacts and Accounts Mapping)
    • Slack Connector Update: There is no update on this connector till the time its launch. The other team has lot of options to push the notification in multiple slack channels. And unfortunately Khoros does not. This creates a lot work for Community team to bring internal teams to the community to respond or acknowledge an post.
    • More Integrations: Since now the Khoros communities does not comes up with the integrations with basic support tools like JIRA, Confluence, Github etc.
    • Search Improvisation: Apart from last search update there is no updates we see in this feature. The team should think of Putting Some AI based Search into the community which helps the Community managers to manage the content accordingly
    • Some update on AI and Gen AI: Khoros communities did not shared any thoughts about their plans for putting these technology in community
    Read full review
    Higher Logic
    No answers on this topic
    Likelihood to Renew
    Khoros (Formerly Spredfast + Lithium)
    No answers on this topic
    Higher Logic
    No answers on this topic
    Usability
    Khoros (Formerly Spredfast + Lithium)
    Like every backend, it can always be improved upon. The excellent thing is that Khoros have a hugely active customer support community as well as a fantastic case management system to triage support issues and requests. So regardless of your level of knowledge or familiarity, you're well supported out of the box.
    Read full review
    Higher Logic
    No answers on this topic
    Reliability and Availability
    Khoros (Formerly Spredfast + Lithium)
    I've hardly ever seen downtime in any of their production communities. There's the occasional reboot needed for config reasons or if patches are applied, but these take place after customer approval and typically last only a few minutes.
    Read full review
    Higher Logic
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    Khoros (Formerly Spredfast + Lithium)
    No answers on this topic
    Higher Logic
    No answers on this topic
    In-Person Training
    Khoros (Formerly Spredfast + Lithium)
    I think it is engaging and has good instructors.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Higher Logic
    No answers on this topic
    Online Training
    Khoros (Formerly Spredfast + Lithium)
    No answers on this topic
    Higher Logic
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation Rating
    Khoros (Formerly Spredfast + Lithium)
    No answers on this topic
    Higher Logic
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    Khoros (Formerly Spredfast + Lithium)
    Large companies and organizations with complex community needs are well served by Khoros communities. The platform's advanced analytics and reporting features helps organizations seeking deeper insights. The gamification is the best way to boost user engagement, Khoros Communities has a rich feature set. Also with customization options offered by Khoros Communities, companies can develop a unique and customized community experience.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Higher Logic
    No answers on this topic
    Scalability
    Khoros (Formerly Spredfast + Lithium)
    No answers on this topic
    Higher Logic
    No answers on this topic
    Return on Investment
    Khoros (Formerly Spredfast + Lithium)
    No answers on this topic
    Higher Logic
    • Increased uptime and overall speed in the forum (compared to our previous phpbb solution)
    • Increased usage by users which resulted in a higher pages/session in a short amount of time
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Khoros Communities Screenshots

    Screenshot of the Khoros Communities solution, and some of its tools available to build an enterprise-class online community and scale member engagement.Screenshot of discussions, which can be enabled to connect product experts and brand-enthusiasts through peer-to-peer discussions. Both newbies and experienced users can read, post, and easily respond in forums.Screenshot of where community members can submit, vote on, and discuss ideas to improve products, and share insights, all while driving engagement, and building brand loyalty. Idea boards deliver value for product managers, marketers and customers.Screenshot of events, that provide a platform to schedule, announce, inform, and discuss everything from the smallest group gathering to the largest user conference. These community-hosted activities harness the enthusiasm generated by interactions between members, company, and brand ambassadors and foster deeper connections with audiences. Users can integrate Zoom meetings and webinars within the community, or host live-stream video outside the community with URL links to any video hosting platform like YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook or others.Screenshot of where to design a brand-approved community without custom code. It includes expert-created templates and a drag-and-drop interface to customize page layouts, navigation, and brand themes.Screenshot of some of the dashboards, reports, and benchmark data used to track visitors, usage, trending topics, interaction preferences, and agent responsiveness.

    Higher Logic Vanilla Screenshots

    Screenshot of Looks great on any device, including desktop, tablet or mobile device.Screenshot of We offer over 60 plugins that can add functionality to your community.Screenshot of Many different themes to choose from, which you can further customize as you like.Screenshot of You have full access to edit HTML and CSS of your theme, to make any changes you need.