CodeIgniter Does It For Me

I use CI for it's simplicity.

I have found Laravel a complete PITA to install and configure.

I second that. When I was considering whether to use Laravel or CI, I installed both to try them. After some length of time (I don't remember exactly how long as it was a while ago) I gave up trying to get Laravel to work. I had CI up and running in 5 minutes.

Before using CI I wrote vanilla PHP and did so in an MVC kind of way. However CI has revolutionised my ability to write applications faster and in a more organised manner. It's very similar to the way I was doing things before, just better, but still familiar. For that, I am massively grateful to the developers and contributors behind CI.

Sometimes I can't help feeling like one of the "uncool" kids at school when I read comments from people that have left CI behind and moved on to Laravel. But I think sometimes you have to go with what clicks and works for you. For me it's getting the job done that puts money on the table - when all said and done the client doesn't care what technology is used as long as it works.