To Hyvä or Not to Hyvä? That Is the Question
5 cases when another frontend might be a better fit
Back in 2023, we published an overview and comparison of storefront solutions for Magento 2 and Adobe Commerce. We compared the default Luma storefront with Hyvä Themes, Vue Storefront (also known as Alokai), and the Venia storefront (PWA Studio).
Since then, we’ve worked extensively with the Hyvä Theme, delivering dozens of successful implementations for merchants of various business sizes. Over time, we've explored and applied Hyvä in so many different ways and contexts that we have started to identify where it does - and does not add value to a business.
In this article, I’d like to discuss the scenarios in which we would not recommend using Hyvä Themes for your eCommerce solution.
Before we begin
Let’s briefly review what the Hyvä Theme is. Released in 2021, it was introduced as an alternative to Magento 2 and Adobe Commerce’s native monolithic storefront, Luma. Over the following four years, Hyvä gained strong support from the Magento community and expanded its ecosystem with products for checkout, Adobe Commerce integration, and its flagship feature suite known as Hyvä Commerce.
Today, there's little point in comparing Hyvä to Luma. Hyvä has transformed Magento 2 from a clunky and costly platform into a viable solution for the SME segment. In fact, it's fair to say that Hyvä’s true competitors are not Luma, but platforms like Shopify and BigCommerce.
Still, it's worth briefly examining why Luma has fallen so far behind - even within its own ecosystem.
Outdated Technology Stack
The Luma theme was built using technologies that were popular in the early 2010s, such as Knockout.js and jQuery. Today, this has become a technical burden that limits performance improvements, increases development costs, and makes it difficult to find developers familiar with this outdated stack.
In contrast, the Hyvä Theme adopted a modern technology stack inspired by the Laravel ecosystem - including Alpine.js, Tailwind CSS, and Magewire (a Magento-adapted version of Livewire). As a result, it simplifies performance optimization and provides a more approachable learning curve for developers coming from Laravel or other modern frontend environments.
Complexity as a Result of Comprehensive Flexibility
Luma was designed as a "Swiss Army knife" - a one-size-fits-all frontend meant to serve businesses across a wide range of industries and scales. But this level of flexibility comes at a cost. It introduced considerable complexity in the form of overengineered page layouts, bloated UI components, and excessive JavaScript dependencies.
Hyvä, on the other hand, inherits the Magento 2 layout system but greatly simplifies it by reducing the number of layout elements. While it may not offer the same level of built-in flexibility as Luma, it enables developers to achieve the desired outcomes with far less effort. This simplicity translates directly into reduced development time and lower total cost of ownership.
Second-Rate Performance and Optimization Limitations
Although Adobe has made meaningful improvements to the Luma storefront since 2023, Hyvä still consistently outperforms it in real-world scenarios. For example, here are Lighthouse performance scores for the Homepage, Category Overview, and Product Details pages on a fresh Magento 2.4.8 Open Source installation with Sample Data:
Maintaining a high Lighthouse score is a constant challenge for any modern webshop. Unfortunately, due to the outdated technologies and inherent complexity mentioned earlier, the Luma theme creates technical limitations that make performance optimization significantly harder and more expensive.
That’s why Hyvä rightfully describes itself as “The version of Luma we wish Magento had built. Or the frontend that Luma could have become.”
When Hyvä Theme Might Not Be the Best Option
Despite its strengths, there are scenarios where the Hyvä Theme may not be the most suitable solution for your eCommerce needs.
1. You're Planning to Adopt MACH Architecture
(Microservices, API-first, Cloud-native, Headless)
Hyvä is an extension of the Magento 2 / Adobe Commerce monolith and, as such, inherits many of the limitations of monolithic architectures. If your business requires a storefront that can be developed and deployed independently, with its own release cycle and elastic scalability, you should consider a true headless setup. In this case, a decoupled JavaScript-based storefront - such as Alokai (formerly Vue Storefront) or Adobe Commerce Storefront - may be a better fit.
2. You're Building a Composable Commerce Solution with Deep API Integrations
If your architecture relies heavily on integrating multiple services to deliver a rich, personalized customer experience, Hyvä may not be the best choice. Integrating systems like Contentful (for headless CMS) or Relewise (for search and personalization) can be more complex with Hyvä, as it isn’t optimized for API-first orchestration of content, commerce, and personalization across loosely coupled services.
While such integrations are still achievable with Hyvä, we recommend considering the following four options to make an informed decision:
- Use services that offer native or third-party integrations with Hyvä for Magento 2 / Adobe Commerce.
- Build custom storefront integrations using Hyvä.
- Evaluate whether Hyvä Commerce offers built-in features that meet your needs.
- Opt for a headless JavaScript-based storefront that better supports composable architectures.
3. Your Storefront Requires Complex Single-Page Application (SPA) Features
If your business depends on a highly interactive frontend - such as a product selection wizard, guided questionnaire, or a seamless landing-to-checkout funnel - Hyvä may not be the most efficient solution. While it is technically possible to build SPA-like experiences using Magewire (as proven by Hyvä Checkout), the development complexity and cost may outweigh the benefits.
In some cases, leveraging Luma’s built-in UI components or going headless with a modern JS frontend might be more practical and cost-effective.
4. You Lack Skilled Developer Resources
Hyvä is a powerful and elegant tool, but like any tool, it requires experience to use effectively. You can cook with fire - but without knowing how, you might get burned. The same goes for Magento 2 / Adobe Commerce development.
If your team lacks experience with Hyvä, it's advisable to either invest in training and onboarding first or continue with a stack your team already knows well. The good news here, if you already have developers that have experience with Magento 2 / Adobe Commerce storefront or Laravel Ecosystem (Alpine.js/Tailwind CSS), they can expect a relatively smooth and gentle onboarding with Hyvä themes.
5. Your Project Depends on a Third-Party Extension That Is Not Compatible with Hyvä
Almost every third-party module that adds functionality to the Magento 2 / Adobe Commerce storefront requires a compatibility package with Hyvä, due to the differences in technology stack.
Over the past four years, the Hyvä community has done a great job: the most popular third-party extensions now have compatibility packages developed by the community, and many technology providers have started maintaining their own.
Nevertheless, some individual third-party vendors or less popular open-source extensions may lack Hyvä compatibility. If your eCommerce solution depends on such modules, and building a custom compatibility package is out of budget, this could be a dealbreaker for using Hyvä in your project.
Final Thoughts
Hyvä is a fantastic tool that has revitalized Magento 2 for the SME segment. It offers simplicity, performance, and a modern development experience. But it is not a silver bullet. Like any solution, it has its limitations.
Every business is unique, and the answer to the question "Should we use Hyvä?" should always be made on a case-by-case basis - considering the benefits it brings alongside the effort and costs it may require.