From my opinion a user friendly and dashing theme is very important for a community forum. Its always attract people to join the community though content is also important. However, I am using MyBB forum script with a paid theme. I have nearly 4/5 premium theme but when I started the community I has used free themes with some customization. However, which one do you prefer ? free theme or paid theme ?? and why ?
I always use a paid theme for a serious project. I think that's very important for the overall look and feel of the website, and to make it appear as professional as possible. However, I only buy a theme if I can remove the branding that comes with it. Nothing worse than paying money and still having a backlink in the footer or something.
How a forum looks (within reason) is about 90th on my list of things that effect whether or not I use a forum. I would allocate the cash elsewhere. Focus on the content, generating activity, discussion, etc. and everything will fall into place.
One note about using a free one (or really even a paid one): make sure it's reasonably up to date, including all dependencies. I once used a template for wordpress that was, itself, secure but used a .js file that was antiquated.
It depends, I've seen some better free themes than paid but usually, I find most of the ''popular'' premium themes have excellent features and support.
It also depends on your budget, if you're looking to make a forum with a tight budget, a bit of persistence in looking for free themes pays off.
I would go for a paid one over a free one. As others have mentioned, you get what you pay for. If you're serious about your project, I don't think there's really even a choice.
