[jskippack]

I keep hearing that Invision Power Board is free, but it is obviously not. What's going on with this?

[Wilson]

The forum system is not free.
It is free to sign up for accounts on forums that use IPB as their forum system, as it is with most forums (unless that site specifically wants to charge you).
Or maybe they're speaking of those sites that let you set up a free forum on a pre-installed Invision Power Board installation (aka "forum hosting provider" such as http://freeforumi.com), usually those are ad supported.

If you are looking for a free but powerful forum system then Simple Machines Forum is top of the line: http://www.simplemachines.org

[xoticpt]

IBP itself is not free. Like Wilson says, there are hosted solutions that are free. Alternatively there is SMF, and XMB, and phpBB which are free or have free version.

[MarvinG2]

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