Is It Time to Upgrade Your Magento Store with the Hyvä Theme? 5 Signs Hyvä Is the Right Choice

Is It Time to Upgrade Your Magento Store with the Hyvä Theme? 5 Signs Hyvä Is the Right Choice

If you operate a Magento 2 storefront or Adobe Commerce store based on themes like Luma, Porto, or Ultimo, there is a good chance you’re finding it challenging to meet performance objectives and keep your store competitive. You may have also considered a move to other platforms like Shopify or BigCommerce, but the costs and risks of re-platforming deter many. Throw in the ever-evolving Magento landscape since Adobe’s acquisition of Magento in 2018, and the choice can become daunting.

Enter Hyvä Theme. Perhaps you’ve heard of it, but are unsure if it’s the right solution. Let’s take a deep dive and find out.

What is Hyvä Theme?

Hyvä Theme is a modern solution for both Magento 2 Open Source and Adobe Commerce. Built from the ground up by the team at Hyvä, it focuses on making stores ultra-performant and providing better experiences for both users and developers.

It stands as a more feasible alternative to expensive headless/PWA frontends for Magento 2 — saving you money while delivering real results.

With many Magento merchants grappling to upgrade their storefronts and match rivals on platforms like Shopify, Hyvä offers a modernized, performance-driven approach to themes.

Is Hyvä Right for Your Business?

Considering Hyvä Theme? Here are five key indications that Hyvä may be a fit for your store:

  1. You’re on Magento Open Source or Adobe Commerce with a theme like Luma or Porto.

  2. Your existing theme is cluttered with unnecessary Javascript and CSS, making optimization tough.

  3. You’re launching a new Magento store and deem headless or PWA themes unfitting or out of budget.

  4. You’re pondering a shift from Magento to another platform but aren’t ready for the big leap yet. Meanwhile, you wish to rejuvenate your store to outshine your competition and improve the UX.

  5. You’re satisfied with Magento 2 or Adobe Commerce but aren’t yet ready to transition to Adobe’s headless/PWA platform.

Adobe Commerce B2B and Hyvä

Interested in using Hyvä for an Adobe Commerce B2B store? Well, great news has arrived! Hyvä announced in August 2023 that Hyvä Enterprise is in development and will include support for B2B features, along with Adobe Sensei. There is no exact timeframe for the official release of Hyvä Enterprise, but an Early Access offering is expected relatively soon.

Transitioning to the Hyvä Theme

After choosing to transition to the Hyvä Theme, collaborate with your developer to outline the project’s scope and establish both the budget and timeline. Here’s a guide to help navigate this transition.

Auditing 3rd Party Extensions & Customizations

One of the most important steps when planning a move to Hyvä Theme is performing a full audit of installed Magento 3rd party extensions and customizations. Specifically, you’ll need to assess which extensions include frontend code that interacts with the theme. Any 3rd party Magento extension that interacts with the theme by modifying or presenting a custom frontend component will likely need to be updated to support Hyvä Theme.

The good news is that many popular Magento 2 extension developers are now providing Hyvä compatibility. In addition, the community has developed compatibility updates for many popular extensions. Hyva maintains a public Compatibility Module Tracker that serves a list of available and requested compatibility modules for Hyvä Theme.

If you have implemented your own Magento 2 customizations with frontend code, you’ll likely need to develop Hyvä compatibility updates for those customizations. Depending on the complexity of your site, these updates could be minimal or could be a significant portion of the effort, so it is important to properly review this work before starting a Hyvä Theme project.

Lastly, you may find that quite a few of your existing extensions or customizations are no longer needed with Hyvä, as Hyvä implements a number of common features (such as lazy loading or other optimizations) that developers would often need to add to Luma or other themes.

Considering Hyvä Checkout

The Magento 2 checkout system is quite complex, and making significant changes to the checkout isn’t for the faint of heart. Many merchants rely on popular payment processors and shipping providers that maintain their own Magento extensions that integrate with the standard Magento checkout. Therefore, the decision to implement a custom checkout requires careful consideration of checkout-related extensions and the work necessary to make those extensions compatible with the custom checkout.

The standard Hyvä Theme addresses these issues by reverting to the standard Luma theme when users navigate to checkout. This allows merchants to gain all of the benefits of Hyvä theme on their store, but not have to worry about compatibility with extensions that interact with the complex checkout system.

More recently, Hyvä has announced an early access release of Hyvä Checkout, a replacement checkout for Hyvä Theme users that also focuses on performance and reduced complexity. While Hyvä and extension developers are still working on compatibility updates for popular payment and shipping extensions, it is certainly worth reviewing. There is a separate Checkout Integration Tracker that can be used to track compatibility progress for common extensions.

Notably, Hyvä Checkout offers both one-page and multi-step checkout options and is much easier for developers to customize.

Be sure to check out the Hyvä Checkout demo here.

Design Overhaul

When considering the move to Hyvä, it may also be a great time to give your site design a refresh. While it’s not mandatory, since your developers will already be rewriting and updating almost every aspect of your theme it can be advantageous to take this opportunity to make updates to your overall design and user experience. This will add more cost and time to the project, but if you are already considering a refreshed look, it makes sense to include this as part of your Hyvä Theme project.

Accessibility

Making your site more compliant with Accessibility standards and requirements is also an important consideration, but reaching WCAG compliance can be time-consuming. Fortunately, the latest Hyvä 1.3 release includes dozens of major improvements aiming directly at reaching good WCAG-level compliance.

Hyvä Licensing Costs

There is a licensing fee associated with Hyvä Theme and Hyvä Checkout. As of this writing, the licensing costs are as follows:

  • Hyvä Themes: €1,000/domain
    Note that there are currently no subscription fees for the Hyvä Theme, but this is likely to change soon.

  • Hyvä Checkout: €500/domain (€1,000 after early access ends)
    In addition, you must select a “Support and Update” plan, which is either €250/year or a €1,000 one-time fee for 5 years of support and updates.

  • Hyvä Enterprise (Coming Soon): €2500/year per Magento installation (unlimited store views and domains)

Conclusion

Merchants on Magento 2 and Adobe Commerce seeking a storefront makeover without breaking the bank can look to Hyvä Theme. With a promise of optimized performance and streamlined development, it’s a boon for both users and developers. Planning is key, and understanding your specific needs will ensure a seamless transition.

Interested in a Hyvä Theme implementation for your store? Let our team at Swarming Technology guide you. Reach out, and let’s rejuvenate your e-commerce presence!