Well, there are
not tons of unnecessary default things implemented in it. It's pure enough. And it's flexible enough for you to build any kind of project that you can do with
PHP. Now, with its latest releases, PHP is faster than before! Try to understand how CodeIgniter works. At least you should get the
Controller - Model - View (MVC) concept which is a modern way of coding. By the way CodeIgniter is very lightweight. I mean, it's around 900 kb. When it's time to go live on a real server, it's easy! Upload it - arrange some changes if needed and go!
So, I don't know your coding background but the to do list should be:
- Learn PHP (you will advance in time)
- Learn Controller - Model - View (MVC) concept.
- Learn CodeIgniter (There might be some differences between frameworks, e.g default folder names)
Enjoy!