I've used the easypic5 with C18 and mplab, works fine. There was a cd inside with the software and examples, but I think you can find them online. Im sure you can program PIC18's and 16's 12's...
Also used the mikro Compiler, it's works fine. It doesnt matter which compiler you use, it's just the hex file you create ( C18/mikro c) that is programmed into the PIC.
mikro C has some easy to use methods ( like I²C,spi,uart) inside that makes it very fast to create a program.