On 2025-07-16T04:00:00Z, the Discourse team hosted a live webinar focused on migrating from Khoros to Discourse. We shared insights from recent enterprise case studies and welcomed two special guests who led a major real-world migration.
Watch the replay:
Here’s a recap of key takeaways:
The Case for Change
Dave (Director of Product) kicked us off with a look at the current state of enterprise communities:
“The landscape of enterprise communities is shifting… in this moment, with Khoros’s future being a bit uncertain, many communities are looking for what their next option is going to be.”
He emphasized Discourse’s ability to scale, adapt, and integrate:
“Discourse is a platform that is highly configurable… You can go into the admin dashboard and configure the product to behave in various different ways… and there’s APIs and plugins for all sorts of features.”
“We believe that you should be able to take your data with you.”
Real Migration Stories
Coco (Migrations Manager) shared highlights from three complex Khoros migrations. These included:
- Cleaning and reorganizing content during and after the move.
- Restructuring user groups and permissions.
- Supporting multi-language interfaces.
- Custom event features and badges.
- Hybrid migrations using Excel + database mapping.
“We’ve developed a whole Khoros migration process from what we learned with these ones.”
Lessons From the Field: Guest Q&A
We were joined by Orit Yehezkel and Flavia Siqueira, who guided a major Khoros-to-Discourse migration.
When asked what triggered the change, Orit shared:
“We had a limited functionality and usability issues that basically prevented us from scaling… The biggest one was actually the mobile view.”
On why open source mattered:
“It eliminated our vendor dependency… [and] allowed us much faster iteration… we could do more with less.”
Flavia reflected on the implementation journey:
“It took a little bit longer, but having the migration team hand-hold us… and feeling safe that what we were sharing is not getting lost in translation… was very, very pivotal.”
On finally seeing the new experience come to life:
“That ‘aha’ moment—like, wow, this was worthwhile.”
Advice for Other Teams
Orit and Flavia shared some great adivce for those considering a migration, our guests had clear recommendations:
- Understand the why behind your migration. Why are we doing this? And why now?
- Don’t do it alone. Involve your community… even before we started the transition, we were doing research with our users.
- Give yourself enough time. Don’t wait until it becomes urgent. If we had to start over today, I don’t know if we could have.
From Flavia (About the support and trust from Discourse in the process):
“It was a pleasure to work with the team. We knew that we were being guided by experts who deeply know what communities need in order to thrive."
From Orit (On the quality of collaboration and expertise):
“We just realized we could trust we were working with experts in the industry… people that really could show that it was a deep understanding of what it takes to build a community that will thrive.”
And:
“The responsiveness and helping us through so many questions and challenges was very critical… We just felt very grateful to have the team there along the way.”
How It Works: A Look at the Migration Process
After the Q&A, Ruben (Migration Engineer), walked attendees through how the Discourse migration process works behind the scenes. His focus? Making migrations feel confident, collaborative, and low-stress.
“Our approach isn’t about just moving data. It’s about honoring emotional bonds while guiding everyone to a brighter future.”
He explained how your Khoros data is reviewed, mapped, and migrated in repeatable cycles, giving your team full visibility and time to get it right. From user profiles to permissions, media, and custom badges—your community comes with you.
“We turn what could be a moment of stress into an opportunity for rebuilding trust and rekindling excitement.”
A Final Note on Collaboration
During the Q&A, Coco asked Flavia and Orit to reflect on their internal testing process—and how their team pulled it off so well.
“It was really impressive—the beta testing, the multiple cluster groups, the in-depth QA… You really involved your users.”
— Coco, Director of Migrations
Flavia credited the structure they put in place with involving community champions, sharing exact timelines, and creating space for input. Their commitment to transparency and gratitude made a big impact on the final result.
What’s Next?
If you’re exploring a move from Khoros—or any other legacy platform—we’d love to help.
Learn more: Migrating to Discourse | Discourse - Civilized Discussion
Join the discussion: meta.discourse.org
Contact us: team@discourse.org
Whether you’re ready to migrate or just starting the conversation, our team is here to support you every step of the way.
