What is the Best Free Forum Hosting Service?

Frankly speaking, I have never used any free hosted forums as an owner, however, I have tried a few free hosted forums as a user. I have used Proboard, Jcink, and this one Forum Spark. I did not like Jcink, Proboard is ok and Forum Spark seems nice. If you have tried multiple free hosted forums, what is your favorite free forum hosting platform?

Forum spark is actually my favorite free forum host now. For the longest time that title belonged to Jcink since you could get a database backup. While I know you can't currently do this on Forum Spark, the feature will be added soon. Also Cedric is knocking it out of the ballpark with all these updates he's adding to the service! We got to thank Jamie too for laying the groundwork for Cedric to take over.

Ravenfreak said:

Forum spark is actually my favorite free forum host now. For the longest time that title belonged to Jcink since you could get a database backup. While I know you can't currently do this on Forum Spark, the feature will be added soon. Also Cedric is knocking it out of the ballpark with all these updates he's adding to the service! We got to thank Jamie too for laying the groundwork for Cedric to take over.

Would you build a forum on Forum Spark? I currently run two forums. My preference is always to use premium or open source, never thought about using free forum hosting.

Steve said:

Ravenfreak said:

Forum spark is actually my favorite free forum host now. For the longest time that title belonged to Jcink since you could get a database backup. While I know you can't currently do this on Forum Spark, the feature will be added soon. Also Cedric is knocking it out of the ballpark with all these updates he's adding to the service! We got to thank Jamie too for laying the groundwork for Cedric to take over.

Would you build a forum on Forum Spark? I currently run two forums. My preference is always to use premium or open source, never thought about using free forum hosting.

Not to brag or anything but with the roadmap we have planned, we won’t be your average free forum host. As always, we put members first. You can export/import at any given time, and soon that is possible from within the ACP.

Steve said:

Ravenfreak said:

Forum spark is actually my favorite free forum host now. For the longest time that title belonged to Jcink since you could get a database backup. While I know you can't currently do this on Forum Spark, the feature will be added soon. Also Cedric is knocking it out of the ballpark with all these updates he's adding to the service! We got to thank Jamie too for laying the groundwork for Cedric to take over.

Would you build a forum on Forum Spark? I currently run two forums. My preference is always to use premium or open source, never thought about using free forum hosting.

I currently have a forum hosted on Forum Spark. :) I need to finish setting up the board and adding images, then I plan on sharing the link here and on other forums. I've used other forum hosts too in the past so I'm familiar with how most of them work and yeah Forum Spark is definitely my favorite now haha. So if you're hesitant on starting a forum on FS, you shouldn't be!

Maybe I should consider this as well. If I ever intend to start a community but with no budget at my disposable, I might use something like Forum Spark. However, I wouldn't start something that I would abandon later, I always look for long term approach.

People still think “free hosting” will take the forum far. Bro, I have tried that route before. They are sweet at first but once traffic start coming in, that's where the issue is. Ads would be placed everywhere, you have limited control, sometimes they can even suspend your forum without proper explanation.

Personally, I've had a thing for ProBoards forum software, although I haven't used it but I've seen forums thrive using it. Also, phpBB is very good. Forum Coin have thrived for years using that software.