Is the Canon Rebel T5i a good buy?

I have been researching this camera a lot and there's a lot of mixed reviews about it but the general conclusion seems to be that it is a very good entry level dslr. I'm just getting serious in photography and I would like to buy a camera that I can use to minor or major in photography. I want to buy a good body at the moment but put a lot more money into the lenses. The t5i seems like a very good body to start out and is something that could last quite a while before upgrading. I have also been looking at the d5300. A lot of people say that the d5300 takes better images but the t5i images look just as good if not better to me most of the time. Do you think getting this camera is a smart decision? Any recommendations? I have looked at the mirorless cameras and I'm not a big fan of the viewfinder, it makes me kind of sick. People have also recommended Pentax but I have always been a big Canon and Nikon fan. Please don't be mean. I'm just genuinely curious, and would love some good advice.

If either Canon or Nikon were that much better than the other, they'd own the DSLR market outright. They've been trying to one-up each other for ages; it's what the market calls a "healthy rivalry". What this means is that, barring the odd QC issue, they both put out solid cameras, and people use what they're familiar with. I haven't used a DSLR for a while, but when I did it was Nikon all the way, because I got used to them and holding a Canon felt weird. Canon users will have the exact opposite experience. The two systems turn their lenses in opposite directions, for a start, so once you've got one of them in your muscle memory, using the other will throw you for a loop at the beginning.

Either one of those will do you nicely, and neither will in itself take better pictures than the other. The one thing you want to avoid is option paralysis, i.e. Going back and forth between the two. Pick one, commit to the system for the time being, and go from there.

The fact that the T5i images look "as good if not better" just means that they were shot by photographers who are "as good as not better" than those who shot the pictures with the Nikon. If I were inclined, I could make the Canon look far worse than the Nikon, and vice versa, just with some selective googling.

Get either one, with its kit lens, and start shooting, studying, learning and enjoying photography. Lenses and accessories can wait until you really need them.

Yes! It is a good camera so go for it.
There are, of course, other comparable cameras but the T5i will serve you well.

It isn't the camera that takes good images… It's the person using it.

You'll grasp that after you have completed the course.

Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Sony or whatever… Isn't important… Honestly.