I'm starting to build a small ERP web application. Im currently a bit in-between choices for the system that i should use. What i have in mind is that i would do a REST api to pass data from backend to frontend and probably use Angular.js to handle all the frontend stuff (views and such).
Would it be an overkill to use a PHP framework, lets say Codeigniter just to build an REST service like that?
Im also very inclined to use Node.js / Express / Angular combination. But since that would be harder to maintain in the future (since pretty much everything here runs on PHP and the knowledge is better in that) i would really need some good pointers why that would suit better such need? I have some experience with Node / Angular / Express and PHP but i haven't really used Codeigniter.
TL;DR is Codeigniter an overkill to use only to build an REST service and use Angular for the rest & is there any really good advantages why I could lean towards Node.js / Express combination rather than PHP framework?
Depends on what your data will be, and how you will manipulate that data. Think of it as when you do PUT request, what you will do after that. If developers are familiar with PHP i would go with CI, if you are certain that developers will pick it up easy (in case you know, you went missing) and you wish to learn new stack, go with Node.js / Express / Angular.
I personally have build CI rest (it's not a brainier with CI REST library) with backbone.js as front end. Not much of an overkill, CI is fast and I used Doctrine 2 as my ORM (as database was relational).
Advatages /Disadvatages as said, are depending on (1) what your app is intended to do, (2) development time/deadlines , and as you said (3) maintenance.
Edit, if on another hand you want very light PHP REST framwework http://www.slimframework.com/