I've heard a lot of good things about ipbfree, mostly along the lines of "It's just like invisionfree, but better." So I was going to make my board using ipbfree, but then Zetaboards comes along and completely throws me for a loop.

So what's the scoop on Zetaboards? Any good? Do you think that I should use that or stick with ipbfree, or go with another host entirely? What're your reviews?

ZB, i find, loads MUCH slower, is more dificult to skin, and has loads of glitches, while IF is more easily hacked/spammed, etc. by what seems to be the general review of it, although is a great, simple host, while ipbfree is offering many more features, is relatively easy to code, being very similar to IF, and has (i think) a better user interface.

i looked at all three, and a few others for the board i'm currently developing, and setlled on ipbfree as being the best choice among them.

I prefer Zetaboards - I've only seen it act slowly a few times, and that's hardly much at all. Plus it has a lot of useful admin tools that I wasn't able to get on other boards such as a Report CP and the ability to hide topics and posts (last place I worked we couldn't do this - it was so terrible!) The interface isn't hard to use at all, and there are plenty of skins available if you look in the right spot. It's definitely my preferred board type. ^_^

I honestly couldn't say there is any better way than - unless you happen to be in a big rush - to sign up for each forum, poke around in each of them. However, i do find the invisionfree is somewhat of an old dog now and would reccommend either IPB-free(although much like invisionfree you get quite a few more perks) or Zetaboards (which is not slow from what I've experienced and have an limitless amount of sub-forums if I remember correctly, only downside is that this thing is new, its not as seasoned as the previously mentioned providers but its starting out pretty damn well if you want my opinion).

This is just what I know from a window's view. Best bet is to sign up for each of them and see for yourself rather than completely relying on our somewhat slanted views on the providers as we all may have our own preferences.

o.O i wasn't aware that ANY of them limited the number of subforums you could have.
unless you mean subforums iwthin subforums, in which case ipbfree limits you to no subforums in subforums.

I haven't used ZB, but out of IF and IPB, I most CERTAINLY prefer IPB.

IPB is extremely handy if you like to edit the entire board. Not just the appearance, but the board itself. I love editing the small things and fixing the very basis of the board, which you can to do the extreme on IPB since you can edit the HTML Templates.

IPB has a lot more things to do, but IF if better if you're just starting out. There's less to it and less confusing.

If you're adept with HTML and CSS and really want to customize your board, IPB is awesome for that. (:

I personally prefer IPB 1.3 to 2.x. I find 2.x to be a much bigger hassle and more work than it's worth. I believe IPBfree is IPB 1.3, so that's good.

My favourite part about IPB is how you can have multiple skins. Mmm.

yes i meant subforums within subforums. I hope i remember it correctly. I'll apologize if I might be wrong.

I think Zetaboards has its own special coding like IF does. That and the ACP being unnecessarily complicated made me give up on it. I went on to try IPBfree and I can't say I have any complaints whatsoever besides the occasional downtime.

Zetaboards works fine for me - no mysterious speed issues. I have minimal experience with IPB, but ZB is definitely an upgrade from IF.

The most experience with RP board hosts is InvisionFree. I have just gotten involved with Zetaboards, and have no experience with IPB. So far, though, I really like Zetaboards, a big enhancement from IF, offering the same features (I would guess) plus some new ones.

I have more experience with InvisionFREee, but IPBFree is just the same with better features, IMO. Less restrictions.

As for Zetaboards, there's too many problems, I think. Starting with the fact that PMs can't be deleted, and going on down past no pre-registration and and a complicated templating system.

Personally, if you want to make a good board, I'd suggest a software you host yourself. Of course, this requires you to have a web host, but it's worth it for the freedom to be able to use software like Simple Machines Forum, MyBB, etc. As well as being able to use software like Wikis, Galleries, etc.

I discovered Zetaboards a while back, and moved my board for writers onto that host. It was hardly active, it doesn't have topic reply notifications, which is frustrating (and doesn't help very much when trying to remind people that a board is still around), and as someone said above, you can't do much with the layout.

After that, I discovered Jcink, which is MUCH better, and moved the board there, though I renamed it and gave it a new purpose. It's now really active, largely, I think, due to the better layout and purpose of the board. I believe we got something like forty members in three days.

Jcink is basically like Invisionfree, but it offers a number of things. Portals, PM logging, chat box, sub-forums...umm...usergroups...I can't even think of half of the other things, but it's awesome. I highly recommend it. If you go to the link in my sig, you can more or less get to the Jcink site.

I think the most important thing you can do is try it yourself. There's nothing like finding out what you prefer. I personally prefer PHPBB3 over any of the discussed ones (except for the blimmin' permissions) and I found that out after trying one out for myself. I've tried pretty much every software around (that I know of) except for SMF (for some reason).

I personally like IPBFree (which is vastly, vastly different to IPB - IPB is paid, has a lot of features and is expensive!) over the other two, so far. I like how it has a good skin changer that can totally alter the appearance of the entire board and how it has nifty little shop features. I can't really think of anything else xD Except custom profile fields. Unfortunately IPBFree can go down a lot and for some people it's much slower than IF.

ZB has so far confused me, but the fact that I've not got a specific board in mind when I play with it makes it hard to really get around it. I've seen some really gorgeous skins out there for it, so don't give up hope on that sector.

I repeat again: register a test-board with all three and set your board up on them. Play around and see which one feels the best, which would help what you want to do with your board and which has the most potential for growth -nodnod- (so that wouldn't be IF, as Invision have moved on to ZB).

You should try SMF, then. Who knows, maybe you'll like it. ;)

We need to make a strong distinction between IPB, and IPBFree.

IPB (Invision Power Board) is a forum software, not a forum software provider. The provider of IPB is IPS (Invision Power Services).

Invisionfree and IPBFree both run on the same version of IPB, which is 1.3 Final. JCink also runs this same version of IPB - almost all free forum software providers will. Any version above that requires a license.

The difference between IF, IPBFree and JCink - features. IF disabled a lot of features when they made it free-for-all, and simplified a lot of other aspects of the ACP (particularly in skinning). IPBFree allows for modding of the board, with 'components' (pre-written self-installing from what what I've heard... so technically 'components' rather than mods) -- to do this with Invisionfree, you would need to use 'hacks' as there is no way to access the PHP coding at all. JCink from what I remember offers similar extra features in the manner that IPBFree does.

All of them use the same CSS, and have the same basic functions that were offered in the IPB 1.3

Yes. The current version of IPB (2.3.5) kicks some serious butt. It also kicks your wallet's butt. You can get it hosted for 15 bucks a month, but you can't mod the hosted version. The actual license itself is around $150... but if you're going to ever take a leap like that, wait til 3.0!

But... in answer to your question!

I always found Invisionfree to be a very stable provider. Back in the day, where there was downtime every blue moon, and IF still actually cared about the Invision software. To be honest, it's gone downhill in the past few months. I hear IPBFree has a fair bit of downtime itself, but lately IF has been ridiculous.

I've tried Zetaboards. I wasn't really in love with it... which is sad, because I did look forward to it coming out. I found it a litte constricting, and not as easy to move to from IF as I would have hoped.

PhpBB2 and 3 I've messed around with -- also eagerly awaited the release of 3 as I did Zetaboards... but was considerably less disappointed. It's a great software, it does a few things odd, but if you're game to go into the coding... I found most of what annoyed me could be fixed. There's a lot of support for it, and if you're looking for something you can have a tonne of control over, I'd strongly suggest hosting your own phpBB3.

SMF I've tried as well, I didn't mind it. I didn't love it. It was sort of 'meh' to me. One thing it does which I really should point out -- RSS. This is awesome if you like to keep up with the news as it happens. I play on an SMF board, and it's pretty simple (haha, I know) to use.

But it's really all about poking through them yourself and seeing what floats your boat. And -- if you want to experience the WOW... you can actually see a test version of IPB 2.3.5 from the InvisionPower website. Sold me on the ACP... but, like I said: wallet breaker, and I'm lucky I have awesome friend who knows I need a forum software licence before my driver's license!

Really you should try out what you yourself would prefer. IPBfree has its own advantages and disadvantages, same with IF and ZB. I mostly choose my host to what I want to have with the board. ZB offers the unlimited subforum features, which is handy when you want to create a fantasy RPG or an RPG set in an unique enviorement, as it´s easier to make a forum layout. (can't find a space for a forum as subforum? Just put it in another subforum lol).

IPBfree is nice because it has some nifty community related stuff as well, like a topsite list, Arcade, Shoutbox, which you can all install via the ACP.

ZB has other features like a blog, gallery and that kinda jazz.

With all three, ZB, IF and IPBfree I've never experience slow loading times, unless the server itself was busy/not working. Downside with IPBfree though is that if the server goes offline, everythng goes offline, including their own support forum. As it's located on the same server. With IF/ZB you have a bit more security because the support forums/website aren't hosted on the same servers.

In the documentations area I think there is a documentation made about different forums hosts and their pro's and cons, maybe a nice idea to have a peek at that ^^.

There's others to consider as well. ProBoards, Yuku, SMFForFree, and a myriad of free phpbb2 hosts.

Unfortunately, this thread is specific to IPBfree, IF and ZB. ^^;

And I would never, ever, EVER use Yuku. It's from the people who made ezboard ezwhore. And that service was absoloutely terrible. Entire boards had their posts deleted, you had to pay to get rid of your ads (and the price went UP as more people visited). You could even buy advanced accounts- ezsupporter.

Ick. D:

The forum additive addon on Firefox lets you monitor threads and immediately tells you when someone has posted. I love it.

I'm an IPBFree fan. I have never liked IF because of their poor attitudes and service, and I love the mod installer on IPBFree. Plus, the admin panel is the same, so there's no adjustment for someone who has used IF.

I do enjoy Zetaboards and I like it a lot better then invisionfree. Previously I was getting up to three spambots a day , now I hardly ever get spam threads anymore. I feel safer using this set up.

The only thing that annoys me about it is that their is no way to mass private message the members. And I'm not a fan of locating a "hack" to add this feature.

I was using "proboards" before I jumped to invisionfree, so maybe I'm just easy to please.

I absolutely love Zetaboards. The first board I ever used was Boards2Go and since then I've used XMB, PHPbb and PHPbb2. I absolutely hate Invision. Zetaboards has everything I could ever want. It has loads of functionality and I never have to mess around with stupid code. After XMB, anything is better.