I'm doing some research for a site i have in the works, and i started looking into which forum i should use. I found a few, then i found a few more, and now, as you can probably tell, i'm spoilt for choice. There are dozens of programs to choose from, each with it's own upsides and downsides. A lot of them free. Basically, which one should i use? What's you're favorite? Thanks for your help.

You can also just chat about them too, should you so wish.

The ones I'm most pleased of (and I've used) are IP.Boards and Simple Machines.

Actually, you could have added "None" to these parts of the poll

I would recommend vB if you are going to do this. Ive used a lot of them, vB is the one I still use.

IP.Board / IF / IPB Free is a decent, flexible and easy to use forum software that I've grown to know and love. However I also must add Proboards (flame me if you must). Despite being quite primitive compared to IP.Board and PHPBB3, it's very flexible and has a ready fanbase who can provide you with many skins, codes et cetera. Plus there's the Display Name section which many forumers love and/or wish to use.

PHPBB3 doesn't suit my style. Quite complicated and it's too professional looking and can be very daunting to potential members of your forum. Zetaboards is quite alright although not as good (in my opinion) as the others I've stated above. I have yet to fully acquaint myself with Simple Machines.

I have to say I really like ZetaBoards. The blog system is horrible compared to, say, Sal's, but everything else is very good. You can add nearly any feature you want with the right know-how, it's very easy to administrate, even easier for members to use, looks better than any forum I've come across yet (with the right themes, easy enough to find at ZB Theme Zone), and best of all, it's free.

IP.Board is better than ZetaBoards, but not enough to be worth the money in my opinion.

You never listed Invision...
I go with IP.BOARDS all the way

They're all so good. That's what makes it such a hard choice. But in the end you just have to pick one. And since Simple Machines is one i found first, and liked, that gets the vote.

I might use Vanilla first, until i get enough members and then it starts to get cluttered.

Ugh. The thing is, if you go to any tech forum (the Admin Zone, for example) with people experienced in using all types of forums, fluent in many coding languages, and are experts at making websites... they will ALL vote for vB. On the other hand, go to a RuneScape fansite that so happens to be using IPB, and everyone says IPB is the best. Well, actually, I do think it the best too ... just because it feels more light, and nice to use. vB on the other hand... I don't like its interface, its admin Control Panel is incredibly cluttered... but it is very, very professional and a nice forum to use. Overall, I'd spend my money on Invision Power Board, despite my rant on how all the techies like vB.

Me:

phpBB (Best Forum Software Around)
vBulletin (Its ok..)


Hosted:
ZetaBoards/InvisionFree

IPS and the IPBv1.3 (with its quirks )

I would say Proboards is the best if you want a free forum. You can make your forum look very good if you know some stuff about coding.

Of no doubt the type has got to be php/mysql, hosted are really bad and you can't access the ftp and most of the settings are obscure, don't use java forums if you can help it.
I particular liked smf and phpbb, IPB is the best if you pay but I recommend phpbb3 to anybody.