CI or CMSs?

[eluser]Colin Williams[/eluser]
CI helpers and "plugins" (the latter having been deprecated for a reason), don't necessarily work in the regard you just described.

The structure of CI takes you about as far as one controller, one model, and one view. When you start having multiple controllers, models, and views, you need to know how to engineer those relations yourself. Not trying to turn you off, but you still need to be a skilled programmer to build a solid CI application. And remember that CI is meant for applications, not necessarily Web sites.

I suppose it's a bit like needing a car, and opting for getting a package with a bunch of really great car parts. You can put it together yourself and make it exactly how you want, but you need to know how to put together a car from scratch. Maybe all you want is a car with a nice paint job and some 20" spinners. It's probably wiser to get a nice car then add those features on yourself.