Have you tried ESP Easy for ESP8266? Great for small projects

[whatsupskip]

When I first heard about ESP Easy firmware I was very hesitant to learn another language for just one project. Then I found the only easy solution for one project was using ESP Easy. So I bit the bullet and gave it a go.

Turns out you can have many projects working without using any code. Just flash the ESP8266 with the firmware, then it is all web base interface from there! There is also the option for some scripting as well.

The Dev version of the Mega script has a very extensive support for sensors, devices and displays. No need to load additional libraries.

ESP Easy supports a large range of systems and protocols including MQTT. I use it with Node Red and EMONCMS.

It is not designed to replace Arduino. It is a solution for beginners and for when you just want a project to be up and running quickly.

What does surprise me is the lack of coverage on Youtube, Instructables and similar.

[MasterBuilder]

I would say the ESP chips are not great for beginners they seem to be more suitable for people using ARM Cortex M4 who need WiFi.

From looking at that page I'm not sure what ESPeasy is. Is it a fully featured IDE or an Arduino compatible thing or something to sequence IOs with?

[C]

whatsupskip welcome to forum

Unlike a lot of people, I lean to starting with more power.
With ESP now being usable from Arduino IDE, it's not hard to get started. With a start you can expand if you have the needed foundation.
Think you will find hardware waiting to be used a lot better choice the having to switch due to missing hardware.
This said, you should know the problem areas of the ESP8266 vs the ESP32 if you are going to use the ESP8266.

There are many different sets of firmware for the ESP with some different capabilities.

The great thing is the many people putting up code examples on youtube.
ESP has power to put many of these to use in one project.

One thing to keep in mind. If you want to connect many CPU's over wire to do control, the low level simple is CAN Bus. Control is about processing events fast. You can do it other ways but not with the reliability or ease as with can bus. Keep in mind that a communication bus adds time delay.

Put the foundation parts in place. ESP can do OTA Over the air updates. Good CAN bus microcontrillers can get firmware over can bus. 
With this in place you can easily fix bugs.

For the cost difference I would chose ESP32 over ESP8266.

Keep in mind the security problems when you enable wireless.

Might want to check out Andreas Spiess & G6EJD
 sites on youtube.

Good luck

[Macbeth]

I've been playing with MicroPython for ESP8266 lately. I'm experimenting with the IN-9 "Nixie" bargraph displays which are high voltage current driven and so fine tuning the PWM and RC filter to a MPSA42 as a current source from a 150V DC supply. It is very handy to do on the fly over WiFi. No compiling and flashing needed. It even has its own little python filing system of sorts, built in commands like dir(). I can directly write code into a file and store it on the ESP8266, or up and download over a simple web terminal interface.

I really don't want to risk messing with a USB serial terminal or flashing over USB while I've got dodgy 150V on the breadboard just waiting to kill my PC due to my idiocy 

So this is pretty good!

[Dielectric]

I think a lot of people are missing the point of ESP Easy here.  Like the OP said, it's just a really nice, quick-n-dirty way to deploy a sensor.  I used it to put a few temperature/humidity probes up around the house and it was surprisingly easy to have them posting MQTT messages to my node-red server.  There is a lot more in there but that's all I needed at the time and it suited my needs perfectly.