Mid drive , direct drive , hub geared Rad Power looks affordable as does Juiced cross current. Cross current has the benefit of more speed. I have a 7 speed around town bicycle that a conversion could work. Or buy a used hybrid bicycle to convert. wattage of motors. Climbing hills.
I'm obviously a bit overwelmed
Please help!

Here's a link to a article I found which should answer a lot of your questions. I currently have an older 24 volt Currie rear drive kit with lead acid batteries. I find it slow and heavy so I'll be upgrading to a 3000 watt Cyclone mid drive and 48 volt battery. This kit and the 1000 watt Bafang BBSHD mid drive are offered at Luna Cycle. The Cyclone is unrefined raw power and the more civilized BBSHD offers 10 levels of assist. Luna Cycle in California are a good source for quality battery packs and ebike kits. Hope this helps...
https://electricbike-blog.com/2016/0...ot-get-punked/

Maybe you should choose a style first. Radrovers and most of the Yukons are fatbikes. Cross currents are narrow tires. Your riding style is important too. As a senior member on this forum, you might ride a regular bike 10X farther than most non commuter ebikers? Maybe you're not ready to switch to throttle only and want to ride with occasional pedal assist. Then you need a bike that can do that.

Then you get into the feel. Never rode a bike with torque sensors on pedals. They're pretty standard on high end bikes. Starting to appear on lower cost. If I want to pedal harder than the motor delivers power, I can set that up on my bikes. I don't think I want a torque sensor, unless I can retrofit in a sensor for 50 bucks. You should ride some examples and get a demo anyway.

I have converted several beater bikes. It's hard to buy a new donor bike, motor, and battery and have the same quality ride and beat the price on a Juiced or other lower cost model. Ditto for the Yukon and Radrover fat bikes, as fatbike motors cost more.

Still, if you understand how bikes are put together, and can solder/splice wires, conversions can be fun, and not that expensive, if you can forsake some of the goodies on a new bike.. Two of mine are on this page along with others, spanning 250W front hubs to monster bikes.

https://www.bikeforums.net/electric-b...s-here-23.html

From what I've read, a direct drive has some drag if you pedal without the motor on, think of low battery pack after riding too far. I have a hub gear drive, and they have more torque than than a direct drive, and free wheel easily. I also have a high end aluminum frame mid drive Haibike. It's much much lighter than my steel frame hub motor bike. I personally pedal all the time. I have a throttle on the hub motor bike, so use that when taking off from a light. The mid drive is pedal assist only, but has an 10 speed cassette. I much prefer the better computer on the mid drive. Choose your riding style because a lot of people use these bikes like a scooter. I put about 1500 miles on the hub motor bike this year, and was thrilled with it, but now am crazy in love with the Haibike. Spend as much as you can on batteries is the best advice I'd heard before, but since I've a convert on a high end bike, well, spend as much as you can anyway!

In- Wheel motors dont have the hill climbing power that mid drives do.