[drivingmenuts]

I agree about Laravel, to an extent. It's so big that it feels like more tail than dog for small- to medium-sized projects. Personally, I like CodeIgniter for those projects - it's lightweight and doesn't try to do everything under the sun. The documentation is clear and concise and consistent from version to version. CodeIgniter's not very exciting and it doesn't need to be, nor does it try to be. Mostly, it does exactly what it says on the label and no more.

And you don't need to pay for classes to understand it.