Magento, the widely-used eCommerce platform from Adobe, has hundreds of unique themes catering to different business needs. Themes have been built out to cater to a specific design aesthetic, a specific industry, or even a specific functionality. Unfortunately, due to the complexity of the existing theme development infrastructure, Magento themes were not built to optimize for site speed and developer efficiency.
That changed with the advent of the Hyvä theme. In this article, we'll delve into what makes the Hyvä theme unique compared to other themes and explore the types of businesses that can benefit most from its features.
What is Hyvä?
The Hyvä theme is a performance-focused Magento frontend development solution. It is designed to enhance the user experience by providing a fast and flexible storefront. According to their website, Hyvä is “a toolset, an extension ecosystem and supporting community” as well as offering “the best performance and user experience, without the cost and overhead of a PWA.”
Hyvä is primarily focused on simplicity, performance, reduced time-to-market, and extension compatibility.
Is Hyvä a Theme, a PWA Solution, or a Blend of Both?
At its core, Hyvä operates as a theme, offering a cohesive visual framework for Magento storefronts. However, it diverges from traditional themes by prioritizing performance, simplicity, and developer-friendly customization. Its minimalist design and clean codebase lay the foundation for a seamless user experience, addressing the shortcomings of conventional Magento themes that often result in sluggish performance and convoluted development processes.
Simultaneously, Hyvä embraces some of the principles of progressive web applications. By this, we mean that Hyvä enables features such as offline browsing, push notifications, and lightning-fast page loads. According to their own website, “It is an alternative to headless PWAs, for those that choose not to venture into the Javascript-only web. We are not against headless SPA (single-page-application) PWAs. But we’re also not super passionate about PWA. For us, it’s not the silver bullet to all eCommerce needs.”
So while Hyvä borrows some functionality and ideas from PWAs, it is not itself classified as a PWA.
The Hyvä Technology Framework is Different
The Hyvä theme for Magento 2 boasts significant technical framework differences compared to the Blank and Luma themes, impacting performance, development experience, and customization flexibility. Here's a breakdown:
Performance:
- Hyvä: Leverages modern technologies like Webpack, JavaScript modules, and server-side rendering for lightning-fast page load times and improved SEO.
- Blank/Luma: Relies on traditional Magento architecture, known for its bulky, legacy codebase leading to slower performance.
Development experience:
- Hyvä: Built with modern tools like Tailwind CSS and Alpine.js, enabling faster and more efficient theme development due to pre-built UI components and modularity.
- Blank/Luma: Utilizes the default Magento framework, requiring extensive coding from scratch for customizations and potentially longer development cycles.
Customization flexibility:
- Hyvä: Highly customizable due to its decoupled architecture and open-source nature. Hyvä modules and extensions readily expand functionalities and cater to specific needs.
- Blank/Luma: Requires deeper knowledge of the Magento codebase and custom development for unique features, often lacking readily available extensions.
Additional differences:
- Headless vs. Headful: Hyvä adopts a headless approach, separating frontend and backend, while Luma is fully coupled. This allows for greater flexibility in frontend development with Hyvä.
- Community: Hyvä enjoys a growing and active community contributing extensions and themes, fostering innovation and support.
Key Features that Set Hyvä Apart from Other Magento Themes
The allure of Hyvä extends beyond mere aesthetics. It offers a suite of tools tailored to developers' needs, including Hyvä Checkout, Hyvä Enterprise (tailored for B2B), and Hyvä UI Toolkit, empowering them to craft seamless user experiences.
As mentioned above, Hyvä excels when it comes to simplicity, performance, reduced time-to-market, and extension compatibility. Let’s break down those categories, along with a few other key features of this Magento theme.
- Performance Optimization: Hyvä helps create optimized storefronts that feature fast page loading times. This is particularly advantageous as users expect increasingly seamless and fast interactions.
- Simplicity and Clean Code: The theme has a minimalist approach due to being built from the ground up by the Hyvä team, providing clean and efficient code. This not only facilitates faster website performance but also makes customization easier for developers — the simplicity of the codebase ensures a smoother development process.
- PWA (Progressive Web App) Compatibility: Hyvä is designed to support PWAs, offering a more app-like experience to users. This ensures that businesses who use the theme can provide a modern and responsive shopping experience.
- Headless Commerce Support: Hyvä embraces a headless architecture, allowing businesses to decouple the frontend and backend of their eCommerce platform. This flexibility allows for seamless integration with third-party services, technologies, and extensions.
Hyvä Checkout
Hyvä Checkout is meant to streamline and simplify the checkout experience for Magento sites, offering an intuitive process designed to enhance conversion rates and reduce cart abandonment. This feature optimizes the checkout flow, simplifying steps and eliminating friction points to create a seamless journey for customers.
Hyvä Enterprise
Hyvä Enterprise caters specifically to the needs of B2B eCommerce enterprises, providing a suite of tools and functionalities tailored to the unique requirements of B2B commerce. From custom pricing structures to sophisticated account management capabilities, Hyvä Enterprise empowers businesses to create personalized and efficient experiences for their B2B customers. Whether managing complex catalogs or facilitating bulk ordering, this add-on equips enterprises with the tools they need to meet the unique needs of B2B businesses.
Hyvä UI
The Hyvä UI Toolkit serves as a versatile resource for developers, offering a curated collection of UI components and design elements to expedite front-end development tasks. From buttons and forms to navigation bars and sliders, this toolkit provides a comprehensive library of pre-designed elements that can be easily integrated into Magento projects. With the Hyvä UI Toolkit, developers can streamline the development process, accelerate time-to-market, and ensure consistency and cohesiveness across their storefront(s).
What Hyvä Means for Your eCommerce Business
The Hyvä Magento theme stands out as a powerful and unique solution for businesses seeking a performance-driven eCommerce storefront. Its emphasis on speed, simplicity, and developer-friendly features make it a compelling choice for a range of industries.
Hyvä is a frontrunner in the competitive world of Magento themes — to learn more about it and speak to experts about using it for your business, click here.
FAQs About Hyvä for Magento
Should I migrate to Hyvä?
Migrating to Hyvä can be a strategic decision for businesses grappling with performance issues and developer frustrations with standard Magento themes. Its focus on streamlining development processes and enhancing site performance makes it an enticing option for those seeking a more efficient and optimized solution.
Is Hyvä the right fit for a new B2B venture?
Yes, Hyvä is well-suited for B2B ventures — especially with its dedicated Hyvä Enterprise offering. Tailored to meet the unique requirements of B2B commerce, Hyvä Enterprise equips businesses with the tools they need to create personalized experiences, manage complex catalogs, and facilitate efficient ordering processes for their B2B customers.
How much does Hyvä cost?
A Hyvä themes license will cost you a one-time fee of €1000 (about $1080 USD as of January 2024). Hyvä Checkout is available for €1000 with two support package options: a yearly subscription at €250 per year and a one-time 5 year support & updates fee of €1000. Hyvä Enterprise costs €2500 with a yearly subscription cost of €2500 or one-time 5 year support & updates fee of €10000. Finally, Hyvä UI is included for free with a Hyvä theme license.
How does Hyvä stack up against other Magento themes like Luma or Blank?
Hyvä sets itself apart from traditional Magento themes like Luma or Blank by prioritizing performance optimization, simplicity, and developer-friendly customization. The theme’s minimalist design, clean codebase, and emphasis on modern web technologies make it a compelling choice for businesses looking to elevate their Magento storefronts without the complicated code work that comes with the standard Magento themes.
Will Hyvä integrate with existing extensions crucial for business operations?
Businesses should assess whether their existing extensions are compatible with Hyvä or if alternative solutions or custom development may be required. It's advisable to conduct thorough compatibility testing and, if necessary, reach out to extension developers for guidance on integration with Hyvä. That being said, with the burgeoning popularity of the Hyvä theme, extension developers are ramping up their efforts to ensure compatibility.
