I can confirm that Kohana's code is very readable, which is good, because the documentation itself is sometimes lacking and there's not a ton of good resources

I can confirm that Kohana's code is very readable, which is good, because the documentation itself is sometimes lacking and there's not a ton of good resources and tutorials for learning it. While this sounds a little off-putting, it's actually (surprisingly!) a benefit - as a beginner you'll get used to digging under the hood and learning how your framework works, and you'll come out a better programmer for it. By the time you run into something your framework can't do, you'll be in a pretty good position to simply extend it. (And Kohana is very easy to modify and extend.) That said, it might take you a bit longer to get going than it'll take you to get going on some other framework that does a better job holding your hand. The way I see it, you're gambling. If you use a better-documented framework, and if the documentation and tutorials out there for it cover everything you want to do in your app, you've got a better chance of hitting your deadline - but if you run into something the framework can't easily handle, you're hosed. While it takes a lot longer to really understand what's going on in your framework, you'll be able to then deal with unexpected problems as they arise. If you do decide on Kohana and have some questions, I'm in NYC and am also a beginner - email me.