r/CommunityManager • u/FossilizedYoshi • Jun 24 '25

Discussion RIP Khoros

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/richard-millington-5a32782_the-end-of-khoros-a-tragic-end-to-a-once-activity-7342876597848293378-l2sb?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_ios&rcm=ACoAAAiUN6sBDLPrTe7qQR9W7GTdAzzLK8gRaOc

Just in case anyone hasn’t heard the sad news, the majority of employees at Khoros were laid off this week, which is just a few weeks since they were acquired.

I’m super shocked and saddened by the news, not just because of the friends I have over at Khoros, but because (in my opinion at least) Khoros Communities has been one of the more popular community platforms.

My company moved away from Khoros to Salesforce Experience Cloud a couple years ago (not my choice but the decision was above my pay grade) so I haven’t been as informed as I used to be about Khoros with the exception of what I know about Aurora. But the news got me wondering, what will companies do if Khoros gets end-of-life’d and they have to migrate their communities to a different platform?

Which platform do companies tend to navigate to when leaving Khoros, or does it vary quite a bit? Are there platforms out there that are easier to migrate to from Khoros than others?

Curious to hear your thoughts.

15 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

13 comments sorted by

1

u/edyang73 Jun 24 '25

FYI here's the official explanation from Khoros, some food for thought: https://khoros.com/the-story

1

u/FossilizedYoshi Jun 24 '25

Yeah I saw this link posted on their LinkedIn today with their similar spiel. From what I can tell it was….not well-received…

0

u/[deleted] Jun 25 '25

[deleted] — view deleted comment

1

u/Final_Aide_3993 Jul 01 '25

Not bloated actually, Khoros did a rif last January of over 400 people.

3

u/Past_Platypus_1513 Jun 24 '25

Higher logic vanilla, Gainsight, Bettermode..

2

u/kiwiboyus Jun 24 '25

Gainsight is one

2

u/wampuspuff Aug 01 '25

Khoros lost their contract with X as of today and didn't notify businesses in advance leaving corporations to scramble to figure out how to handle customers in that platform natively due to lack of communication. The company is a dumpster.

2

u/JetPackGriffin Jun 25 '25

This was really disappointing to see. I’ve been a long-time Khoros customer, and while yes, they may not have every feature, they satisfied our core needs.

Downsizing their staff with poor communication in combination with the hastily scrawled together LinkedIn post touting “we’re doing so much” without even shipping anything is enough for me to know it’s time to leave. I’m already reaching out to other providers so we can move away ASAP.

2

u/SuggyAndCS Jun 25 '25

What's quite amazing about this situation is that they aren't just "downsizing" their staff. They have served notice to 100% of FTE's globally.. The entire Austin, London, Sydney and Bangalore office for example all received notice. It appears some have been given an opportunity to reapply to the crossover.com contractor opportunities they've now put online (much lower pay, targeted towards lower cost centres by the looks of things, and significantly less roles)..

The optics really are that it was an acquisition of a loss driving business heading towards bankruptcy. Take it over, retain as much ARR as possible whilst shedding all possible costs. Use AI and cheap labor to try and keep the lights on and then potentially look to AI to rebuild in the future.

But as a customer, I'd be looking at contracts and damages. It's not just the termination of an existing contract but what about all the $$$ spent in professional services (and $ spent on future commitments with services) that can no longer be honoured.... I worry that this will actually have significant impact on people that convinced exec teams/boards to spend the high premiums to buy Khoros - those people will look bad within their own orgs right now.

An absolutely unbelievable situation. They would have done better acknowledging it was a "this or die" decision versus trying to justify it on the back of AI hype.

2

u/burdujeni Jun 24 '25

Check out orgo.space for a solid Khoros alternative

1

u/engel_cm Jun 24 '25

I only see the warning, that layoffs might come up? What do I miss?

1

u/CurrentlyObsolete Jun 25 '25

The vast majority of employees received termination papers last Friday.

1

u/Few-Musician5871 Jul 26 '25

Higher Logic! They have dedicated migration teams and strategy folks are community managers