Magento Hyvä Theme Hosting: What Hyvä Is and What Your Server Needs
What Hyvä (Hyva) is, how it differs from Luma, what it costs, and the hosting a Hyvä Magento store needs: Varnish, PHP, Valkey, OpenSearch and staging.
Hyvä in four facts
Free since November 2025
The Hyvä Theme is open source (OSL3 and AFL3). Hyvä Checkout and Hyvä's other products are paid.
Still server-rendered
Hyvä keeps Magento's layout XML, blocks and templates. It is not headless and not a PWA.
Lighter pages
Median mobile page weight in August 2026 field data: 2.24 MB for Hyvä sites, 3.35 MB for Magento sites overall.
Server time unchanged
The same data shows almost the same share of good server response times. That part is still the hosting's job.
Licence: Hyvä, 6 November 2025. Page weight and response times: HTTP Archive Core Web Vitals Technology Report, August 2026, mobile.
What is Hyvä for Magento?
Hyvä (often written Hyva) is a frontend for Magento 2 and Adobe Commerce, made by Hyvä Themes in the Netherlands. It replaces Magento's default Luma storefront, which loads RequireJS, Knockout and jQuery, with a much lighter theme built on Tailwind CSS and Alpine.js, while keeping Magento's own layout XML, blocks and PHTML templates. The Hyvä Theme has been free and open source since November 2025; Hyvä Checkout and Hyvä's other products are paid.
Hyvä makes the pages a shopper's browser has to download and run much lighter. It does not change how quickly the server answers, or the server work behind baskets, checkout, search and imports. That still depends on hosting, caching, extensions and the quality of the build. This guide is published by EveryHost, a UK Magento hosting company, and the last sections explain where our hosting fits.
How Hyvä works
Hyvä describes itself as a product suite for Magento 2 and Adobe Commerce that started as a frontend theme (What is Hyvä). The theme keeps the parts of Magento's frontend that do the real work on the server, layout XML, blocks, view models and PHTML templates, and drops the parts that make Luma heavy in the browser: UI components, Knockout, RequireJS, jQuery and Less. Adobe documents those as the default frontend stack: RequireJS as the module loader, Less for CSS and Knockout bindings for UI components (Adobe frontend developer guide).
In their place, Hyvä uses Tailwind CSS for styling and Alpine.js for interactivity. Tailwind CSS v4 has been used since theme 1.4.0, and the current release, 1.5.2 (10 July 2026), ships Alpine.js 3.14.3. Tailwind builds one CSS file containing only the classes the theme uses; it is compiled with Node.js 20 or later as a build step, and Hyvä recommends doing that outside production (Hyvä system requirements).
Pages are still rendered on the server by Magento. Hyvä calls itself an alternative to headless and PWA builds (Hyvä technical vision), so it is not headless and not a progressive web app. Private details such as the basket count are loaded after the page as Magento customer section data, which is what lets the page itself be cached (Hyvä section data).
Where Hyvä works and where the server works
- 1. A page from the cacheNginx handles the secure connection and passes the request to Varnish. If Varnish already holds the category, product or content page, it answers from memory and PHP does not run. The browser then renders Hyvä's HTML with its Tailwind CSS and Alpine.js.
- 2. The shopper's private dataThe basket count, name and other private details are not in the cached page. Hyvä loads them afterwards as customer section data, a request Varnish passes to PHP, which reads the session from Valkey and the basket from the database.
- 3. Search and filtersA search or filtered category page that Varnish does not hold goes to PHP. OpenSearch decides which products match, and their details come from the database and cache.
- 4. Basket and checkoutAdding to basket, checkout and account pages are never cached. Each request runs PHP and uses the session and database, so these pages decide how much server capacity a busy sale needs, whatever the theme.
Hyvä vs Luma
Both are Magento themes rendered on the server. The differences are in what reaches the browser, the checkout and the extension ecosystem.
| Luma | Hyvä Theme | |
|---|---|---|
| How pages are built | Server-rendered by Magento (layout XML, blocks, PHTML) | Server-rendered by Magento (layout XML, blocks, PHTML) |
| JavaScript | RequireJS, Knockout UI components and jQuery | Alpine.js (3.14.3 in theme 1.5.2), mostly inline in templates |
| CSS | Less, compiled by Magento | Tailwind CSS v4 (since theme 1.4.0), compiled with Node.js at build time |
| Checkout | Magento's Knockout checkout included | Not included: Hyvä Checkout (paid), Luma checkout fallback (free) or a third-party checkout |
| Extensions | Most Magento extensions target Luma | Frontend parts need Hyvä support or a compatibility module |
| Licence | Part of Magento (OSL3 and AFL3) | Theme free and open source since November 2025; other products paid |
| Median mobile page weight, Aug 2026 | 3.35 MB (all Magento sites) | 2.24 MB (Hyvä sites) |
| Mobile Core Web Vitals pass, Aug 2026 | 43.9% of Magento sites | 67.9% of Hyvä sites |
Sources: Hyvä docs, Hyvä theme-module changelog, Hyvä checkout FAQ and the HTTP Archive (August 2026, mobile origins; the Magento figure includes Hyvä sites). Field data shows correlation across thousands of sites, not the effect of switching one store.
Hyvä Theme, Checkout, UI, Commerce and Enterprise
Hyvä is now several products, and the theme does not include the others. Hyvä relicensed the theme under OSL3 and AFL3 in November 2025, effective from 10 November, and said Checkout, Commerce and Enterprise would stay proprietary (Hyvä announcement). Prices below are Hyvä's, in euros, as listed on 7 October 2026.
| Product | What it is | Price and terms |
|---|---|---|
| Hyvä Theme | The storefront theme: Tailwind CSS and Alpine.js on Magento's templates | Free, open source. Community support only |
| Hyvä Checkout | A server-rendered checkout built with Magewire, switched on per store view | €1,000 one-off with a year of support and updates, then €250 a year, or €1,000 more for five years |
| Hyvä UI | A library of ready-made Tailwind components and a design system | €250 one-off per Magento install |
| Hyvä Commerce | Theme, Checkout and UI plus Hyvä CMS and admin tools, for Magento Open Source | €3,000 a year, or €15,000 for five years |
| Hyvä Enterprise | Hyvä Commerce plus support for Adobe Commerce features such as B2B and Live Search | €7,500 first year, then €5,000 a year, or €27,500 for five years |
Sources: Hyvä Theme licence, Hyvä Checkout, Hyvä UI, Hyvä Commerce and Hyvä Enterprise. Check Hyvä's site for current prices and terms before you buy.
Checkout is a separate decision. Hyvä calls its theme bring your own checkout (Hyvä FAQ). The options are Hyvä Checkout, Magento's standard checkout kept on Luma through Hyvä's free Luma checkout module, or a third-party checkout with Hyvä support. React Checkout is a community project that Hyvä does not support.
Support. The free theme comes with community support through Hyvä's Slack; Hyvä's ticket support comes with its paid products and covers only those products.
Supported Magento versions and requirements
Hyvä Theme lists Magento 2.4.4-p9, 2.4.5-p8, 2.4.6-p7 or 2.4.7-p1 and higher, and PHP 8.1 to 8.4 (Hyvä system requirements, checked 7 October 2026). Magento 2.4.9 runs on PHP 8.5 (Adobe system requirements), which Hyvä's requirements page does not yet list; its changelog shows PHP 8.5 compatibility fixes from theme-module 1.4.6, released on 12 May 2026 (changelog). If you are on or moving to Magento 2.4.9, use a current Hyvä release and confirm with your developer.
Hyvä Checkout lists Magento Open Source and Adobe Commerce 2.4.5 to 2.4.9, PHP 8.1 to 8.5, and Hyvä Theme 1.3.12 or newer (Hyvä Checkout requirements).
Adobe Commerce. Hyvä says the theme and checkout can be used on Adobe Commerce without Hyvä Enterprise, as long as you do not need Adobe Commerce features such as B2B or Live Search, which Hyvä Enterprise adds. Hyvä also publishes an Adobe Commerce Cloud deployment guide (Hyvä docs).
Extensions, compatibility and migration
Extensions built for Luma usually need extra work on Hyvä. Hyvä's documentation says modules based on the Luma or blank themes need a compatibility module, which re-implements the parts that do not work out of the box (Hyvä compatibility modules). Support arrives in two ways: vendors adding Hyvä support to their own modules, and community or Hyvä-built compatibility modules listed in the public compatibility module tracker, where on 7 October 2026 330 of 968 tracked modules were marked published. Hyvä itself quotes more than 1,000 compatible extensions, which includes vendors who ship support directly.
Moving from Luma is a rebuild, not a switch. Luma JavaScript written for RequireJS and Knockout is rewritten in Alpine.js or plain JavaScript, and Less styling is redone in Tailwind CSS (Hyvä migration guide). Hyvä's Luma theme fallback can keep chosen pages on Luma while the rest of the store moves, which is how many stores keep the Luma checkout (Hyvä theme fallback). Standard Magento checkout integrations usually need Hyvä Checkout support added, so check payment and shipping providers early.
Hyvä's own blog reports builds taking from six weeks to eight months. Treat any timeline as an estimate until every extension, the checkout choice and the integrations have been checked against your store.
What Hyvä improves, and what still depends on the rest
Vendor figures. Hyvä's homepage claims 5 page requests against 230 for Luma, and 0.4 MB against 3 MB of page weight (hyva.io). These are Hyvä's own figures for its default theme, without a published test method, and a real store with images, extensions and tracking scripts will be heavier.
Independent field data. The HTTP Archive's Core Web Vitals Technology Report, built from Chrome UX Report data, gives a broader picture. For August 2026, on mobile:
| Measure (mobile) | Hyvä sites | All Magento sites |
|---|---|---|
| Pass all Core Web Vitals | 67.9% (of 4,606) | 43.9% (of 32,992) |
| Good Largest Contentful Paint | 78.1% | 57.6% |
| Good Cumulative Layout Shift | 89.2% | 70.1% |
| Good Interaction to Next Paint | 91.2% | 85.0% |
| Good Time to First Byte | 23.5% | 22.5% |
| Median page weight | 2.24 MB | 3.35 MB |
| Median JavaScript | 0.76 MB | 1.27 MB |
| Median images | 0.80 MB | 1.17 MB |
Source: HTTP Archive Core Web Vitals Technology Report, August 2026, read on 7 October 2026. Sites are detected automatically; the Magento group includes Hyvä sites. This is correlation: Hyvä sites tend to be newer, actively maintained builds.
The pattern is clear. Hyvä sites pass Core Web Vitals far more often, mostly through better loading and layout stability. But the share of sites with a good Time to First Byte is almost identical. The theme changes what the browser does; it does not change how fast the server answers. Images and third-party scripts also remain a large part of a Hyvä page, and Hyvä's own performance guidance says a well-performing store still needs deliberate decisions throughout the project (Hyvä performance).
No theme can guarantee a PageSpeed score, a Core Web Vitals pass or a conversion rate. Measure your own store with field data before and after.
How Hyvä and the hosting stack work together
A lighter frontend and a well-built server solve different halves of the same problem. Hyvä reduces the work in the shopper's browser. The server decides how quickly the HTML arrives, and how well the store copes with everything that cannot be cached.
- Varnish serves cacheable pages, typically categories, products and content, from memory without running PHP. Adobe strongly recommends it for production (Adobe Varnish guide), and Hyvä's performance guidance recommends it too. It does not serve private data, the basket, checkout, account pages or form posts. Hyvä's docs also cover Varnish details worth testing: cache tags for view models, and blocks such as the top menu that use edge-side includes.
- PHP-FPM and the database handle every cache miss and every uncached request: the private data each page loads, search, basket, checkout, the admin, cron, imports and indexing. Hyvä does not remove this work, so PHP capacity and database memory matter as much as on any Magento store.
- Redis or Valkey hold Magento's application cache and customer sessions, ideally as separate instances. Hyvä's performance guidance recommends Redis for both; Adobe lists Valkey for current Magento releases.
- OpenSearch powers catalogue search and the filters on category pages, which a fast frontend makes more visible, not less.
- Fast NVMe storage helps the database, media, reindexing and deployments, all of which read and write a lot of data.
- Node.js is needed to build Hyvä's CSS, normally on a build machine or in a deployment pipeline. Some Hyvä Commerce features run a Node process on the server, so check this if you use them.
For more on each component, see nginx and Varnish for Magento, the Varnish cache guide, Valkey for Magento, Redis and OpenSearch and our technology stack.
Choosing hosting for a Hyvä store
Hyvä does not need special hosting. It needs good Magento hosting. These questions separate the two:
- Will the host build the exact PHP, database, OpenSearch and Redis or Valkey versions your Magento release needs, and change them when you upgrade?
- Is Varnish in front of the store and configured with Magento's VCL, and will they help test cache tags and private data?
- Are CPU and memory guaranteed, and sized for the traffic that misses the cache rather than total page views?
- Is there a staging environment on the same versions, where a Hyvä build can be tested before launch?
- Does your deployment process allow a Tailwind CSS build step, and are your Hyvä Composer credentials kept with your project?
- Where are backups held, and when was a restore last tested?
- Who answers when checkout breaks at 8pm on a Friday?
Which kind of server. Size from the store's workload, not the theme. A Managed VPS suits most stores starting out or moving from a generic host. A dedicated server suits high concurrent traffic, large catalogues, heavy imports or several stores; we recommend it above about 5,000 orders a month. High Availability suits a checkout that must keep running if a server fails. The Magento server sizing guide and the server calculator help with the numbers.
Hyvä migration and readiness checklist
- Confirm your Magento version against Hyvä's requirements, and plan any Magento upgrade first. For Magento 2.4.9 on PHP 8.5, use a current Hyvä release.
- List every extension that touches the storefront and check each for Hyvä support or a compatibility module. Note the gaps and who will close them.
- Decide on checkout: Hyvä Checkout, the Luma checkout fallback, or a third-party checkout. Check each payment and shipping integration against that choice.
- Budget the theme as a rebuild. Luma Less, RequireJS and Knockout work does not carry over; it is redone in Tailwind CSS and Alpine.js.
- Re-check analytics, tag manager, consent, reviews and chat scripts. Anything that relied on Luma's JavaScript needs rewiring, and third-party scripts can undo the weight saving.
- Get Hyvä keys and licences in your own name, and keep the Composer authentication for them with your project, so a move of host or agency does not lose access.
- Set up a build step that compiles Tailwind CSS with Node.js 20 or later before deployment, rather than on the live server.
- Build and test on a staging copy on the same versions as production: browse, search, filters, basket, checkout with every payment method, accounts and emails.
- Turn on Varnish full page cache and test cache tags and private data, including the top menu and any blocks with their own cache lifetime.
- Measure before and after with field data (Chrome UX Report or your own real-user monitoring), not a single lab score.
If you are on Magento 2.4.7 and planning both a Hyvä build and a Magento upgrade, our 2.4.7 to 2.4.9 upgrade guide covers the order for the server side.
Where EveryHost fits
EveryHost is a UK Magento hosting company, and we already host Magento stores built on Hyvä, on Magento releases from 2.4.7 to 2.4.9. We are not a Hyvä partner and we do not sell Hyvä licences. What we provide is the server underneath: nginx, Varnish, PHP-FPM, Redis or Valkey set to match your Magento version, OpenSearch and the database on fast enterprise NVMe, built to order on Managed VPS, dedicated servers and High Availability clusters in a UK data centre.
- Managed VPS from £119 a month, dedicated servers from £249 and High Availability from £799, all ex VAT, with UK VAT at 20% added at checkout. See plans and prices.
- A staging environment on every plan, for testing a Hyvä build or an upgrade before it goes live.
- On-server backups on every plan, with Bastion off-site backup as an optional add-on.
- Moving an existing Hyvä store to us is covered by our free managed migration. Most stores are live within 24–48 hours, with minimum downtime.
- Building or rebuilding a theme in Hyvä, buying Hyvä licences, compatibility modules and checkout development are not part of hosting or migration. That is work for your developer or agency, and we work alongside them.
If you are planning a Hyvä build, or moving an existing Hyvä store, tell us about the store and we will suggest the package that fits its workload. Call 0333 577 6191 or get in touch.
Frequently asked questions: Hyvä Magento hosting
What is Hyvä for Magento?+
Hyvä (often written Hyva) is a frontend for Magento 2 and Adobe Commerce, made by Hyvä Themes in the Netherlands. It replaces the default Luma storefront, which loads RequireJS, Knockout and jQuery, with a much lighter theme built on Tailwind CSS and Alpine.js, while keeping Magento's own layout XML, blocks and PHTML templates. The Hyvä Theme has been free and open source since November 2025; Hyvä Checkout and Hyvä's other products are paid.
Is Hyvä free?+
The Hyvä Theme is. Hyvä relicensed it under the OSL3 and AFL3 open source licences in November 2025, and you install it with a free Packagist key. Hyvä Checkout costs €1,000 one-off including the first year of support and updates, Hyvä UI €250, and Hyvä Commerce and Hyvä Enterprise are larger packages (prices checked on hyva.io on 7 October 2026). The free theme comes with community support only.
Is Hyvä headless or a PWA?+
No. Hyvä is a server-rendered Magento theme: pages are still built by Magento from layout XML, blocks and PHTML templates, and Hyvä positions itself as an alternative to headless and PWA builds, not as one of them.
Does Hyvä include a checkout?+
Not the free theme. Hyvä describes its theme as bring your own checkout. You can buy Hyvä Checkout, keep Magento's standard Luma checkout through Hyvä's free fallback module, or use a third-party checkout that supports Hyvä. Many Hyvä stores run the Luma checkout fallback.
Is Hyvä faster than Luma?+
Hyvä pages are much lighter for the browser. In the HTTP Archive's August 2026 field data, 67.9% of Hyvä sites passed Core Web Vitals on mobile against 43.9% of all Magento sites, and the median Hyvä page weighed 2.24 MB against 3.35 MB. That is a correlation across thousands of sites, not a guarantee for yours, and the server's response time was almost the same for both groups.
Does Hyvä work with Varnish?+
Yes. Hyvä's own performance guidance recommends Varnish full page cache, and Adobe strongly recommends Varnish for any Magento production store. Varnish serves cacheable pages such as categories, products and content without running PHP. Private shopper data, the basket, checkout and account pages still run PHP on every request.
Does Hyvä change Magento's server requirements?+
Not in principle: the server still needs whatever your Magento version needs, including PHP, the database, OpenSearch and Redis or Valkey. Two practical points: Tailwind CSS is compiled with Node.js 20 or later as a build step, ideally outside production, and Hyvä's requirements page lists PHP 8.1 to 8.4, while Magento 2.4.9 needs PHP 8.5, so use a current Hyvä release and check it with your developer.
Will my Magento extensions work with Hyvä?+
Only if they have Hyvä support. Extensions built for Luma usually need a compatibility module for their frontend parts. Many vendors now ship Hyvä support themselves, and Hyvä's public compatibility tracker lists community and Hyvä-built modules. Check every frontend extension before you commit to a timeline.
Can I move my existing Hyvä store to EveryHost?+
Yes. Moving an existing Hyvä store is a hosting migration like any other Magento store, and it is covered by our free managed migration. Most stores are live within 24–48 hours, with minimum downtime. Building or rebuilding a Hyvä theme, buying Hyvä licences, adding compatibility modules and checkout development are not part of the migration; that is work for your developer or agency, and we work alongside them.
Which hosting plan does a Hyvä store need?+
The same as the Magento store underneath it. Hyvä makes pages lighter in the browser but does not remove the server work for baskets, checkout, search, imports and indexing. Most stores start on a Managed VPS; a dedicated server suits high concurrent traffic, large catalogues or several stores; High Availability suits a checkout that must keep running if a server fails.
Sources
All checked on 7 October 2026.
- Hyvä: What is Hyvä and Technical vision
- Hyvä: Hyvä Theme is now open source and free (6 November 2025) and Hyvä Theme licence
- Hyvä product pages: Checkout, UI, Commerce, Enterprise
- Hyvä Theme system requirements, theme-module changelog and Hyvä Checkout requirements
- Hyvä: Why is the checkout page empty? and Luma theme fallback
- Hyvä compatibility modules, the compatibility module tracker and migrating JavaScript and templates
- Hyvä performance and working with section data
- HTTP Archive Core Web Vitals Technology Report (August 2026)
- Adobe: Configure Varnish, Adobe: JavaScript in the frontend and Adobe system requirements