If you were to build a social networking web application, would it be better to use EE or CodeIgniter?

[eluser]shibuya[/eluser]
I've used ExpressionEngine before (best CMS I've used) but I also want to learn to develop using MVC and learn to use frameworks. Which one would be more effective if you were to build a small social networking site?

[eluser]Phil Sturgeon[/eluser]
Well it depends what options there are for EE with social networking. If there is alot of pre-built code you feel you can use with minimal changes, then go ahead. If you think you will be doing an awful lot of your own development then go with CI.

[eluser]kevinprince[/eluser]
Go for CI, its not that hard to do a social network, it should not be more than a few controllers. Biggest issue is making sure you get the relationships established properly.

[eluser]Toppy[/eluser]
I would go with CI. My reasoning:

- CodeIgniter License: The unrestrictive licensing allows you freedom to do basically what you wish with your completed code and and the supporting CI libraries that will be required to run it. Further, if the code is released this provides a larger audience/target market.

- Support and Community: There's a lot of great and free support on CI. Your project may benefit from this and vice-versa for the CI community.

- Flexibility: With the reports that ExpressionEngine will be moving towards code that is based more on CI it would be easier to port it to EE in the future (as opposed to the other way around).

[eluser]John Fuller[/eluser]
I agree with Toppy, the license would be the biggest issue for me. A social network would already be borderline against the EE license but you may want to do something that would put you over the line. For instance, if you want each member to have a blog then that would be against the license.

You should contact EE sales before you decide to use EE for anything like this.