Which starter app kit or cms / admin system to choose?

Dear all,

after a couple of years of working with Codeigniter 2.1 using the bare framework and some home-made libraries, I'm considering porting my main project (a booking portal + booking system) and all my future works to an established CI 3 development framework, possibly with some cms functionalities and admin backend.

A quick search on the internet and some test installations, gives me the following choices (but I'm sure I'm leaving out lots of other alternatives):

1) Creating my starter app myself, maintaining it and keeping it consistent by updating it regularly with new CI releases and all the libraries I'm already using in my projects. Pros: complete control - Cons: lots of work to keep up with the updates. Probably at last I'd give up and forget updating (as I'm doing now...)

2) Using a starter app kit like for example:
- https://github.com/ivantcholakov/starter...-edition-4
- https://github.com/JasonBaier/ci3-fire-starter
Pros: simple Cons: limited / maybe won't be maintained for a longer time

3) Using a cms / admin system like bonfire or fuelcms
- http://www.getfuelcms.com
- http://cibonfire.com/
Pros: more complete, tested, etc... Cons: more work to enter the frame of mind, more difficult to modify, patch, etc... 

My important assessment points for the tool I'll choose will be:

1) The tool should have a conservative approach to the main codeigniter CI 3.0 source. That is, if the trunk moves on, I want to be able to update CI inside the tool without having to patch it in thousands of different places.

2) It should keep the CI original source code well separated from the tool's added source code.

3) It should be maintained and possibly alive

4) Should be easy to modify / patch (even if I'd keep these changes/patches to the bare minimum if possible)

5) Should have a segment based localisation feature (so not only session based)

What is your approach to this choice?


Choosing ("Marrying") a framework could shape my work for the next 2-3 years... therefore I think this choice is for me very important and should be made with all the possible care.


How would you address this challenge?

Thank you
Stefano