Question

Yes, I am aware one is a framework and the other a CMS.

However, I am a one man team that develops projects/websites for myself and I have a limited amount of time to get these projects off the ground, so speed is crucial.

Basically I am looking for the easiest and fastest method for creating web apps without being limited on features.

Would it be best/fastest to learn Codeigniter or to build off of WordPress and develop my own themes/plugins? Possibly another option that would be more viable?

I deal a lot with video/photo media and high traffic websites.

Thanks!

Answer 1

I would suggest using CodeIgniter. The logic is simple, and it doesn’t really have limitations, unlike WordPress. WordPress is designed for blogs, and if you are looking for flexibility, I would go with CodeIgniter.

CodeIgniter has one of the best documentation available as well. http://codeigniter.com/user_guide/index.html

If you are looking to learn CodeIgniter, NetTuts has some great tutorials, with different levels.
http://net.tutsplus.com/articles/news/codeigniter-from-scratch-day-1/

There are some nifty CodeIgniter libraries that can get you head start on your projects:

• https://github.com/benedmunds/CodeIgniter-Ion-Auth – Ion Auth, CodeIgniter Authentication Library
• http://www.kaydoo.co.uk/projects/backendpro – Backend Pro, designed to build admin side of your application.

If you are looking for CodeIgniter based blog/CMS, I would also suggest PyroCMS, one of the best I’ve used.
http://pyrocms.com/

CodeIgniter also has a great image manipulation library built in, so you won’t have to learn too much about generic PHP image libraries.
http://codeigniter.com/user_guide/libraries/image_lib.html