I'm assisting a bunch of people and their group in improving and developing their website and one thing they have interest in is their own forum. Considering free forum templates (Invision Board, Ikonboard, ProBoards, phpBB, etc.) which would you deem the best. vBulletin is my recommendation, however it costs $$. Criteria that seem most important: server speed, customization (which would allow colors/personal logos; any that allow direct hosting versus link to outside host), and limited ads. Any other recommendations?
I have an invisionfree board. They're layout is nice, and easy to use. Lot's of templates. The downside, spambots who try to create accounts.
The other one that comes to mind is SMF. I think Proboards is remotely hosted like EZBoard. Dedicated, VPS or shared? A fairly closed loop of Forum membership or will they be expecting -wanting to have membership growth? The amount of advertising is your choice. SMF, phpbb, vbulletin and Invision use PHP and Ikonboard uses Perl. Colors etc? It seems like customization is fairly common, but could you be more specific? Funding seems to be a consideration since you mention that vbulletin costs $$$............so it is a business or a group that has a membership fee-contribution or do they have a few benefactors to cover the hosting costs? How many people will be on - using the forum at the same time? Some Forum Features Compared
Here is a Discussion Board that touches on some of the things that you have under consideration: The Admin Zone
Have you also taken database support into consideration? "Their" not "They're", and "lots" not "lot's".
