Buffer vs. Khoros Marketing

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Buffer
Score 8.2 out of 10
Small Businesses (1-50 employees)
Buffer is a social sharing tool. When browsing content, clicking on the Buffer icon automatically stores the content and schedules posts to social media channels throughout the day.
$15
per month
Khoros Marketing
Score 7.9 out of 10
Enterprise companies (1,001+ employees)
Khoros (Formerly Spredfast + Lithium) is a social media management platform. Key features include: Plan and Organize Social Campaigns, Manage Real-Time Engagement, and Learn and Prove Social ImpactN/A
Pricing
BufferKhoros Marketing
Editions & Modules
Publish Pro
$15
per month
Analyze Pro
$35
per month
Analyze Premium
$50
per month
Publish Premium
$65
per month
Publish Business
$99
per month
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
BufferKhoros Marketing
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
Additional DetailsHere are the prices of our various plans: Pro: $15/month Small Business: $99/month Medium Business: $199/month Large Business: $399/month Enterprise: Feel free to get in touch with us at onboarding@buffer.com. All plans can be paid on either a monthly or yearly basis. If you choose to pay yearly, you would receive a 15% discount, which works out to be approximately two months free per year.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
BufferKhoros Marketing
Considered Both Products
Buffer
Chose Buffer
Buffer has all the analytics tools and features that allow us to determine whether the result of our marketing is positive or negative. There are more complete alternatives, but Buffer is all I need at the moment.
Chose Buffer
Buffer is a very cost-friendly tool with similar functionality to the tools above (Hootsuite/Sprout Social). While the other tools may offer more functionality or a better user experience, Buffer is by far the most cost-friendly option that still allows for a good and reliable …
Khoros Marketing
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
BufferKhoros Marketing
Publishing
Comparison of Publishing features of Product A and Product B
Buffer
7.6
64 Ratings
4% below category average
Khoros Marketing
7.3
148 Ratings
8% below category average
Content planning and scheduling9.364 Ratings8.4146 Ratings
Content optimization6.457 Ratings5.05 Ratings
Workflow management7.053 Ratings8.4130 Ratings
Audience targeting00 Ratings7.2112 Ratings
Reporting/analytics
Comparison of Reporting/analytics features of Product A and Product B
Buffer
7.8
59 Ratings
1% below category average
Khoros Marketing
7.1
131 Ratings
10% below category average
Campaign success analytics7.859 Ratings8.0121 Ratings
Real-time tracking00 Ratings6.6120 Ratings
Competitor analysis00 Ratings6.777 Ratings
Account management
Comparison of Account management features of Product A and Product B
Buffer
8.4
61 Ratings
3% above category average
Khoros Marketing
6.1
136 Ratings
29% below category average
Role-based user permissions & privileges7.649 Ratings6.4132 Ratings
Mobile access9.159 Ratings5.8112 Ratings
Listening/monitoring
Comparison of Listening/monitoring features of Product A and Product B
Buffer
-
Ratings
Khoros Marketing
6.4
117 Ratings
18% below category average
Boolean keyword searches00 Ratings7.290 Ratings
Filtering out noise/spam00 Ratings5.999 Ratings
Sentiment analysis00 Ratings6.889 Ratings
Broad channel coverage00 Ratings5.8111 Ratings
Engagement
Comparison of Engagement features of Product A and Product B
Buffer
-
Ratings
Khoros Marketing
7.5
113 Ratings
7% below category average
Automated routing and prioritization00 Ratings7.290 Ratings
Customer interaction histories00 Ratings7.7103 Ratings
Bulk actions00 Ratings7.494 Ratings
Marketing
Comparison of Marketing features of Product A and Product B
Buffer
-
Ratings
Khoros Marketing
7.0
103 Ratings
9% below category average
Lead generation00 Ratings6.747 Ratings
Content marketing00 Ratings6.686 Ratings
Paid media management00 Ratings7.12 Ratings
Campaigns and promotions00 Ratings7.790 Ratings
Channel coverage/integration
Comparison of Channel coverage/integration features of Product A and Product B
Buffer
-
Ratings
Khoros Marketing
7.6
147 Ratings
11% below category average
Twitter00 Ratings7.7138 Ratings
Facebook00 Ratings7.9143 Ratings
LinkedIn00 Ratings7.5105 Ratings
Google+00 Ratings9.018 Ratings
Instagram00 Ratings7.3132 Ratings
Pinterest00 Ratings6.346 Ratings
YouTube00 Ratings7.533 Ratings
Best Alternatives
BufferKhoros Marketing
Small Businesses
Publer
Publer
Score 9.8 out of 10
Publer
Publer
Score 9.8 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Social Suite by Reputation.com
Social Suite by Reputation.com
Score 9.3 out of 10
Social Suite by Reputation.com
Social Suite by Reputation.com
Score 9.3 out of 10
Enterprises
Social Suite by Reputation.com
Social Suite by Reputation.com
Score 9.3 out of 10
Social Suite by Reputation.com
Social Suite by Reputation.com
Score 9.3 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
BufferKhoros Marketing
Likelihood to Recommend
8.2
(84 ratings)
8.0
(184 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.0
(14 ratings)
8.9
(34 ratings)
Usability
8.1
(23 ratings)
8.9
(29 ratings)
Availability
8.2
(2 ratings)
9.7
(11 ratings)
Performance
8.0
(2 ratings)
8.0
(8 ratings)
Support Rating
6.3
(23 ratings)
8.0
(31 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
8.9
(7 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
6.0
(7 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.0
(2 ratings)
7.7
(24 ratings)
Configurability
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
5.4
(4 ratings)
Product Scalability
8.6
(2 ratings)
7.3
(122 ratings)
User Testimonials
BufferKhoros Marketing
Likelihood to Recommend
Buffer
It helps me save hours by devoting only half an hour in a month's worth of posting, in addition to that it is quite simple to use. Buffer for scheduling social posts well in advance, but I have begun using it instead of posting natively on the social apps themselves because it makes it super easy to post the same messages to more than one platform.
Read full review
Khoros (Formerly Spredfast + Lithium)
The best it could be used for is running campaigns. Be it a product launch or be it any new event that you are hosting. If you need to quickly grab attention, then this might be your choice. Also the report given after the campaign is a good insight for improving your next campaign.
Read full review
Pros
Buffer
  • I can plan and publish content on social channels.
  • Buffer's interface is quite tidy and generates the necessary facilities to save us time in publishing consistent content.
  • It has a special price; it is pretty affordable.
  • It has the possibility of integrating with other tools to improve its functions.
Read full review
Khoros (Formerly Spredfast + Lithium)
  • Reporting is great - easy to create bespoke dashboards for multiple ways to view the data and trends in platform
  • Onboarding and training - a good repository of knowledge articles for users to access on most aspects of the platform for self-learning
  • The user-friendly and intuitive interface allows any user to quickly assimilate how to use the platform.
Read full review
Cons
Buffer
  • Expensive Analytics: The upgrade you need to access your analytics is quite expensive, and I have come across other tools that provide the same or even more for a lesser priced plan.
  • No Media Library: The one feature I have found on another social media planning tool that I wish Buffer had is a media library. This allows you to upload photos you aren't using right away to have them readily available when you do decide to use them. This is not a feature in Buffer.
Read full review
Khoros (Formerly Spredfast + Lithium)
  • Look and feel of the interface could use a refresh as it's not very exciting to use
  • Improve analytics features and accuracy
  • Facilitate bulk actions
  • Better alerts/visibility of collaborative actions and assigned tasks
  • Clearer communication around new feature releases and announcements
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Likelihood to Renew
Buffer
I am giving buffer this rating because of a couple issues that it has compared to other platforms. It does not always post to instagram and you will need to go in an manually post. Also, one of the biggest qualms that we have with buffer is the price it costs to have robust analytics
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Khoros (Formerly Spredfast + Lithium)
There is no product like Khoros. Our company lives and dies by the analytics, and to date, we have not seen a more comprehensive analytics structure for any social media management tool. Khoros support is also fantastic, responding and resolving any and all questions, ideas, or complaints, usually in 24 hours.
Read full review
Usability
Buffer
We use Buffer for certain website content that should be shared on social networks, having this tool helps us to do it faster and easier since we can send the publications from the internet browser and the stack of scheduled messages. It is really fast and easy for all team members who share access to the account, so at the same time that we analyze the information that we can share, the message stack is prepared
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Khoros (Formerly Spredfast + Lithium)
Khoros Marketing is very user-friendly and easy to navigate. The calendar visibility is the view I use most so I can see all posts going out on all of our channels. It allows us to time posts in a proper cadence so we don't overlap with other pressing content.
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Reliability and Availability
Buffer
Buffer is always on hand and very reliable, their software suite rarely has outages
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Khoros (Formerly Spredfast + Lithium)
• We still experience a bit of downtime and slowness here but things have drastically improved in the last year with their feature updates and reconfigured hosting.
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Performance
Buffer
Buffer performs well on both desktop and mobile platforms. The one area as I have stated before is that it does not always want to automatically push to Instagram and the user will have to go do it manually. Buffer works very well pushing to other platforms. The instagram issue is the only reason buffer does not get a 10 on this section
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Khoros (Formerly Spredfast + Lithium)
Khoros has greatly improved the performance of its SaaS products in the last 5 years. Their applications, including Conversations, Intelligence, and Experiences, all load quickly with real-time data. This performance is critical to provide meaningful, social customer support, and marketing. The performance maintains integrity even when you deploy powerful integrations like Salesforce Customer Relationship Manager.
Read full review
Support Rating
Buffer
  1. It really helped to my business to grow online.
  2. I was able to take actions mindfully as the analytics are damn good.
  3. Also used for managing clients social media accounts and it proved to be a best resource.
  4. Clients were really happy as they got high demand and growth on internet and the secret is Buffer.
  5. The user interface is really easy to understand and manage. Support is 24/7 available to help.
Read full review
Khoros (Formerly Spredfast + Lithium)
Overall, support does a great job and is timely in their responses and efforts. We have had to contact support many times due to the Capture app. Some tickets have remained open for months, while others get resolved quickly. I understand this is not always up to support and they often have to wait for their engineering team to fix issues that we identified, but it's difficult to deal with issues that are affecting our workflow, especially for extended amounts of time.
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In-Person Training
Buffer
No answers on this topic
Khoros (Formerly Spredfast + Lithium)
• As a very early customer, we did not undergo formal training but worked closely with the team to get the system set up to do what we wanted. However, online training resources are now available with many blog posts / video lessons and tutorials.
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Online Training
Buffer
No answers on this topic
Khoros (Formerly Spredfast + Lithium)
it is important to note that my perspective is not necessarily common - I'm a geek/nerd/poweruser in general, so I found the online resources to be more than adequate (and often very aesthetically pleasing, too). That said, a less "geeky" person might struggle a bit.
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Implementation Rating
Buffer
We were very satisfied with the implementation of Buffer. We had no issues switching from the platform that we were using over to buffer. Our staff did not even miss a beat when it came to posting content. It was an easy transition and I feel that is something that buffer has really done well. They have an "out of the box" usability platform
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Khoros (Formerly Spredfast + Lithium)
The implementation team from Khoros were great - they worked hard to understand our somewhat complex organization, and were with us all the way through face to face meetings, user training, and technical training. We had a clearly defined account manager and implementation manager, who worked really effectively together and with us.
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Alternatives Considered
Buffer
I also used Combin which is easy and free to use. However, Combin only posts when the computer is active and connected to the internet. So, posting while you are not actively using your computer at that moment is not possible, therefore Buffer is much more efficient as you can even post while being on vacation without working.
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Khoros (Formerly Spredfast + Lithium)
On some accounts that I am on, I use Asana in place of Khoros marketing but I much prefer Khoros Marketing. I prefer Khoros Marketing over Asana because I can post directly (and schedule posts) on Khoros but not on Asana. Also, I can moderate directly on Khoros but not Asana
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Scalability
Buffer
Buffer does what it say on tin as they say! you can always count on Buffer. Buffer can be scale to 25 social account with 2,000 scheduled post which is enough for most agencies or businesses
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Khoros (Formerly Spredfast + Lithium)
Khoros seems to struggle a little past a certain level of scale. More than 30 separate per day makes it difficult to view all content in the weekly calendar view, which is frustrating and could cause issues. However, the ability to schedule one post across multiple channels is hugely valuable and cuts down on a lot of duplicative work.
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Return on Investment
Buffer
  • It has saved money by allowing us to automate our social using one person
  • It allows us to connect one channel at a time instead of wasting money on larger account management tools
  • We are making money, because it has already delivered several clients
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Khoros (Formerly Spredfast + Lithium)
  • Negatively impacted relationship with Khoros as they're notoriously difficult to engage with or able to produce viable results from our feedback.
  • Negatively impacted KPI reporting, as metrics were inaccurate for six months.
  • Negatively impacted resource management, as there've been so many restrictions with this platform that simple, day-to-day tasks take so much longer.
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ScreenShots

Buffer Screenshots

Screenshot of The Buffer dashboardScreenshot of Customizable posting scheduleScreenshot of Tailored PostsScreenshot of List or calendar view of scheduled postsScreenshot of Browser extensionScreenshot of Social media analytics