phpBBStyles.com has a few skins and some mods (modifications) for the phpBB forum system. There aren’t nearly as many as the official PHP BB site, but there are over 30. The site also has places to talk about phpBB, post tutorials, and ask for help.
The Offical phpBB site’s got about 200 skins available on their site. Some styles are available in more than one color. There are even some themed ones, like the Harry Potter Quidditch skin. This is the place to try first when looking for a phpBB skin.
IFSkinZone.net, otherwise known as “the best place for Invisionfree skins”. Just register on their board and you can access thousands of pre-made skins and request custom ones. IFSZ may have the biggest collection of Invisionfree skins around. Unfortunately, you have to register and login before you can access any of the skins.
PHP Bulletin Board is nearly as widely used as Invision Power Board… AND IT”S FREE! It’s an open-source board system with a reasonable amount of features. phpBB version 3 is nearing it’s release, finally bringing the feature set up to IPB’s standards.
Invision Power Board isthe non-free, more powerful, counterpart of Invisionfree. It’s got a lot more features than Invisionfree and NO ADS. You can buy a one-year license or for $185, a lifetime of service. [NOTE: Go with the lifetime of service! Three years would be more than the perpetual license.] A single year license costs $70. This is possibly the most popular forum system. If you don’t want to host it on you own server, IPB will sell you hosting space for the board.
Based on the popular and not free Invision PowerBoard, Invisionfree is the free king of hosted forums. At the time of this writing there are 15 servers for their boards. You can change settings, create a new stylesheet, replace any image or button, assign moderators, ban people, delete posts, allow users to upload images, etc. Need I say more? I almost forgot, you can download thousands of skins and modifications. What’s the catch for this great service? Just a Google Adsense ad. I highly recommend Invisionfree, if you don’t want to set-up a board on your own server (or if you’re unable to). They’re currently working on their new custom forum system known as ZetaBoards, which will eventually replace the Invisionfree service (keeping all your posts and such).
Forum For Free has in the past offered free Invision boards, and now offers PHPBB as well. Currently they offer both, but they appear to be moving in the PHPBB direction. There are no popups, but there are banner ads. I haven’t been able to look at the PHPBB boards yet, but the Invision ones look a bit like Invisionfree’s.
If there’s anything The Potter Police can’t help you with, I haven’t found it yet. They mostly focus on Harry Potter sites, as their name suggests. but they’ll help pretty much anyone. They design layouts, banners, and forum skins. The most-used part may be “Quick Help”, where you can ask for help or advice.
