Drupal is not at all similar to Laravel or Codeigniter. Drupal is a CMS, while Laravel and CI are frameworks.
If you just need a CMS, there are tons of open-source CMS already built that you can use commercially for free. Why spend time/money building a new one?
At this point, Laravel is so widespread in the PHP world, you might as well just use it. They have a smaller version (Lumen, I think?) that is probably faster to learn and much lighter-weight.
Agreed. The problem is that we have a non technical person pushing us to Drupal. That person has left, so I'm trying to make a push into a customized CMS via framework because there is no direction or mission statement, or user stories for this project. That's the real problem... lacking leadership.
The good news is time and money is not an variable in the equation. (meaning I'm not working in the real world...)
Do I understand this correctly? You're pushing to go fully custom because the requirements are lacking?
If I do understand that correctly, if I were you, I would spend some serious time learning about why they picked Drupal in the first place. If you run into brick walls, keep on knocking on doors until someone eventually lets you in.
I have been involved in many projects, but I have never seen one with very loose requirements end well.
see above, some of my questions was cut off. The answer to why they picked Drupal is because... The sysadmin that somehow became a manager did some programming in the early 2000 in Drupal. That is why they picked Drupal. That sysadmin/manager has left, so I have leverage to make some changes.
If you just need a CMS, there are tons of open-source CMS already built that you can use commercially for free. Why spend time/money building a new one?
At this point, Laravel is so widespread in the PHP world, you might as well just use it. They have a smaller version (Lumen, I think?) that is probably faster to learn and much lighter-weight.