For Admins

Forumotion.com Lefora.com FreeForums.org Proboards.com
Free hosting Yes Yes Yes Yes
Simple forum creation and login in less than 30sec No Yes No No
Full support including forums, how-to articles, and admin interviews No Yes No No
Simple Privacy Controls No Yes No No
In active development, adding new features monthly No Yes No Yes
Massive amounts of free storage No, only 10MB Yes, 2,000MB Yes, 1,400MB No, only 100MB
Automatic SPAM detection and removal No Yes No No
Newsletters, direct to your members inboxes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Automatic Weekly Backups Yes Yes Yes No
Full CSS access Yes Yes No No
Widgets and Mods to add to your forum Yes Yes Yes No
Stats with Charts No Yes Yes No
Polls Yes Yes Yes Yes
Custom Domain Hosting Yes Yes Yes No
Automatic security patches No Yes No Yes
Support for millions of Flash widgets Yes Yes No No
Recommended by major news publications No Yes, BBC, Business Week, LA Times, and more No No

For Members

Forumotion.com Lefora.com FreeForums.org Proboards.com
Yes Yes No sitemaps No
Avg. % of pages indexed by Google 20-40% 100% 20-40% 20-40%
Friend Invites with 1-click No Yes No No
Cross Community Promotions No Yes No No
Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace Integration No Yes No No
Global Leaderboards No Yes No No

For Promoting

Forumotion.com Lefora.com FreeForums.org Proboards.com
Quick, 1-step new member signup w/ login No Yes No No
Supports chatrooms and chatboxes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Rich Profiles No Yes No No
Multiple Email notificatons, Welcome emails, and Daily Digest No Yes No No
Support for YouTube video Yes Yes Yes No
Support for 3rd party flash widget providers (music players, games, calendars, chats, etc.) Yes Yes No No
Rich Text WYSIWYG editor No Yes No No
Member account works across the entire forum network No Yes No No
Community moderation (thumbs up/down) No Yes No No
Private Messaging Yes Yes Yes Yes
Ranks & Leaderboards No Yes No No
Badges to use on other websites No Yes Yes No
Color coded topics for unread posts Yes Yes Yes Yes
Facebook Connect No Yes No No
Avatar clipart library Yes Yes No Yes
Dynamic Member profiles No Yes No No
Hottest topics No Yes No No
VIP Status Badges No Yes No No
Small footprint for fast load times (selfseo.com) 44.9KB 31.8KB 42.9KB 69.8KB
Multiple ways to read new posts No Yes No No
Games Yes Yes Yes No