Is Multisite the right solution?

Not sure if Multisite (with/without BuddyPress) is the way to go, but would appreciate your thoughts. The goal is to create a paid user site where users can add content, which will need to be searchable by all users. In addition, the user backend will need to be completely customized once the user signs in so the normal WordPress Dashboard isn’t visible and the user will only be able to post content, add tags, update his/her profile, and view/search for other people’s content. Any suggestions on a solution(s) would be greatly appreciated. I’m just not sure what combination of Multisite, BuddyPress, and/or various plugins would achieve this. My experience is limited to the single blog install of WordPress.