So what does everyone think is the best free forum software out there?
Also, I always thought Invision was free, but I just visited their site and they have pricing for it!? Is this true? Didn't it used to be free?

Thanks for any help!

It been a lot time since I looked into any message boards I do think I remember Invision being free at one time but not sure if it still is or not. ??: As far as the best, I always liked vBulletin or PHPBB myself but I'm by far not an expert on the matter. Just my 2cents

Their earlier versions of Invision are free. If you are going to pay for a board, buy vB, NOT Invision.

Phpbb is actually pretty decent- I like it.

For a paid solution vB comes out on top, hands down. You only need to look at this forum and some of the other very popular boards to realize that its the forum software of choice.

Don't we all just wish when we buy vB, it would come with our very own JdS?

Thank you for the compliment Bobby.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. If I had to do it all over again, I would have stuck with phpBB. vBulletin is nothing special, except if you want to concern yourself with designing funky designs for your forum every so often.

Me, I don't care about superficial stuff like that (if that's not already obvious to you). I prefer to spend more effort in making the whole forum search engine friendly and that requires no particular brand of forum script. phpBB or vbulletin or invision, they all need some work to be done on them to make them truly optimised for the search engines. Just don't believe the hype if any one of the forum developers claims their product to be SEO straight out from the box...