Q:

Codeigniter or Wordpress?

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!

A:

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

A:

If what you develop is web applications, especially for high-traffic sites, then why not to also consider Doctrine? It is a really good framework for developing webapps. Regarding WordPress - if what you need is mostly webapps with extensive user interaction and complex data structures - WP can't handle that efficiently due to lack of ORM and MVC pattern support (there are a couple of workarounds, but anyway). 
And if you're open to learn new languages - also consider learning RubyOnRails and Django - both are awesome platforms, documented well and having awesome communities.

A:

I agree with tpae. Definitely WP is not meant to be used for web apps. So forget about it.
CI is great, easy to learn, and in combo with Backbone.js and Phil's REST_Controller it's a beauty to work with :) You'll be building highly responsive web apps in no time (this sounds like a commercial :D )

