New project: Best tool for the job?

Hey guys,

I’m planning to create a new website/application and am unsure which tool would be the most efficient.

The project is generally based on site like flippa (although in an entirely different market and country specific).

People can create listings to which other people can respond, as well as contact them directly. Again think of flippa, but with distinct categories and more socially oriented (oAuth integration, PM’s). The listings will be searchable and the main goal of the site is basically to enable people to connect with a specific person who has a specific request (kind of like ebay in a way also).

The question is:

What should I use to build this site?

I program in php myself and would like to use it because it also gives me the possibility to outsource further development easily.

The 3 options I came up with myself:


Build from scratch using framework (Codeigniter/Kohana probably)

  • Great customisation, will get all the features I want just how I want.
  • A lot of time/work. No use reinventing the wheel.


Hack up some kind of general CMS (wordpress/joomla/drupal)

  • A little less work. Can use plugins for some features.
  • Codebase will be hacky and more difficult to maintain in case of future enhancements. More insecure. Less efficient/speedy than bare metal framework.


Use an existing script that provides a similar functionality and hack that up to give me what I want (e.g. forum software or script)

  • Less work than starting from scratch. Reuse some features.
  • Harder to find plugins than with well known CMS. Ugly codebase in a lot of scripts for sale. Could not find any script yet that would match my requirements.

I would be really happy if someone could give me some input on what to do.

Thanks in advance!

No probs, though I’d say spending a few hundred on software is really small beer for a project of this size, plus you also get full develop support for the lifetime of your site and a solid and secure platform.

Thanks for the input.

Expression engine does indeed seem like a possibility for this kind of thing.

The problem became apparent when I looked at the pricing, which is $250 for a commercial license for 1 site (which I need) excluding modules etc.

This $250 could otherwise be spent on a designer and/or marketing.

Had the price been around $50 or so, I wouldn’t have had a problem with it.

Still thanks for the suggestion though!

Welcome to Sitepoint!

If you’re considering Codeigniter you might want to check out Expressionengine 2.0 which is built on Codeigniter. That would give you a solid proven CMS as a foundation to which you could add your own custom addons for the extra functionality you’d need.