I don't know about you, but when I decide to do a project, I'll often use a new technology that I'll struggle with, because I want to learn and grow as a developer. Giving up because something is hard is a poor excuse. Period.
I didn't mean for my comment to come off as snobby, I just hope you don't discard rails/ruby (or branching out from php) because you feel it's not the easiest to work with out of the box (even if only for non-technical people).