I have been an moderator of the phpBB forum and now I ' m an moderator of an IPB forum ( these forum are free ) , i think phpbb has many skins for your choice while ipb has only one ( I say that because I don't know how to have one new skin with ipb )so ... phpBB is colorful than IPB , but with my experience , phpbb is seem dark than ipb and text is not meet with the frame, the text is small and hard to read , and if you repair it to be bigger , it isn't well-lookingand it doesn't allow you to have your image in signature part ...and smiley is bad ...and one thing , it loads slower ( just my thinking )if you an colorful one , choose phpBBvice versal , IPB just my support idea , disadvantages and advantages is always together