We have been trying to get ahold of someone for over 3 days now with zero luck. We need to get off the Shopify platform ASAP and looking to see if this Magento thing is a good fit. So far I have absolutely no clue what I am doing. I have been running an online Shopify store for years, i know the ins and outs of that software. Am I in way over my head hear?
Send help..
For better or worse, experience in managing a Shopify store doesn't translate directly to the knowledge to successfully launch a Magento store.
Shopify is a Software as a Service (SaaS) platform that's built to provide a turnkey experience.
Magento is a more robust open-source eCommerce platform. You have to set up proper hosting, install and configure the software, etc. It's powerful, flexible software, but it's not plug-and-play like Shopify. It's intended for web developers to build with.
For an analogy, you could say that being able to spin up a Gmail account and get it set up with an email signature, some add-ons, etc. doesn't translate directly to being able to set up your own email servers using Linux, etc.
There are a lot of moving parts, and most definitely a learning curve.
From my experience, your best bet is to consider contracting with a Magento developer who can assist.
Could you eventually get the site launched yourself? Probably... but for the same reason I take my car to an experienced mechanic, I'd suggest taking your site to an experienced Magento developer.
Best of luck!
Me too