Out of my own experience. CI is easier to learn but deep and meaningful tutorials are in dire short supply as compared to Laravel. When I do small simple projects that I feel won't require too much research and googling I go with CI. When I am presented with complicated problems, I go with Laravel since I know I will most likely find solutions online solved using Laravel. I have noticed, however, that my apps built with CI load quite fast. All in all, the skills learned from CI and Laravel are useful both ways and I use them interchangeably. There are no regrets at all when you try out both frameworks then pick and choose whichever you find most convenient to use for your projects.
