I have a forum I visit that someone else set up which is hosted through pro-boards. I am a moderator on this person's forum. I found getting used to pro-boards fairly easy. I have not had to deal with trying to get anyone banned or moving posts or threads around yet. Pro-boards also allows the administrator to make the board very secure. The forum I am on requires new members to be approved by the administrator. Also it seems easy to make changes to the administrator for the forum I am on likes to add new forums and change the background scenery.
I've never used the "free" hosting sites, as you usually get what you pay for.
A small plan on a regular web hosting site run as low as $3.99 US a month, no contract, plus all the software for your site and forums. Tech support, backups, etc. None of which you'll get with a free forum.
Right now I'm just looking for something to get my feet wet, so to speak. I would also like to find some good tutorial programs for creating and running my own site rather than using a free hosting site like Pro Boards. I also want to learn more about HTML coding and how to use the phpbb stuff.