For years, Hyvä was the fastest way to modernise a Magento storefront — and a paid licence. With Hyvä Theme 1.4.0, released in November 2025, the theme became free and open source, licensed under OSL 3.0 and AFL 3.0. That removes the licence cost from the decision and makes Hyvä the default choice for new Magento storefronts.
What Is Free and What Is Still Paid
| Product | Status | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Hyvä Theme | Free, open source | The storefront theme and core modules: Tailwind CSS, Alpine.js, ViewModels and templates for catalogue, cart and account pages. |
| Hyvä Checkout | Commercial licence | A replacement checkout built on Magewire, customisable through layout XML and PHP components. |
| Hyvä UI | Commercial | A library of ready-made UI components and templates. |
| Hyvä Enterprise | Commercial | Support for Adobe Commerce B2B features in Hyvä. |
| Hyvä Commerce | Subscription bundle | Combines the commercial products, priced by store size. |
You still create a free account at hyva.io to get a Composer key for the private package repository.
What Changed Technically in 1.4
- Tailwind CSS v4 — Hyvä 1.4 moved from Tailwind v3 to v4, with CSS-first configuration and a faster build engine.
- Restructured CSS — source styles are organised into
base,components,utilities,themeand generated folders underweb/tailwind. - Simpler build commands —
npm run buildfor production andnpm run watch(ornpm start) for development. The oldbuild-prodandbuild-devcommands were removed. - Node.js 20 is required for building styles.
Why This Matters for Merchants
Luma's RequireJS, Knockout.js and jQuery stack makes good mobile performance hard to achieve. Hyvä replaces it with server-rendered templates, small Alpine.js components and a single compiled stylesheet. In practice that usually means faster Largest Contentful Paint, better Interaction to Next Paint, and a frontend that is quicker and cheaper to change.
Before 1.4, the licence fee was part of the business case. Now the cost of a Hyvä project is the work itself: building the theme, making extensions compatible and deciding on a checkout. That changes the maths especially for smaller stores.
What It Does Not Change
- Extensions still need compatibility. Any module that outputs Luma frontend code needs a Hyvä compatibility module. Many popular vendors provide one; others need custom work.
- Checkout is still a decision. Choose between Hyvä Checkout, the Luma checkout fallback or a supported third-party checkout.
- A migration is a project. Templates, tracking, Page Builder content and SEO details all need care.
Should You Move to Hyvä Now?
If you are planning a redesign, an upgrade from an old Magento version or a replatform to Magento, building on Hyvä is the sensible default. If your Luma store performs well and is stable, plan Hyvä alongside your next major change, starting with an extension compatibility audit so you know the real scope.
Next, see our step-by-step guides to installing Hyvä, working with Tailwind and Alpine.js and building your first Hyvä template.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Hyvä really free for commercial stores?
Yes. Since version 1.4.0 the Hyvä Theme is open source and free for commercial use. Commercial products such as Hyvä Checkout still require licences.
Do existing Hyvä customers need to change anything?
Existing installations continue to work. Upgrading to 1.4 involves the Tailwind v4 changes, so plan and test the theme update.
Does Hyvä work with Adobe Commerce?
Yes. Hyvä supports Magento Open Source and Adobe Commerce; Hyvä Enterprise covers Adobe Commerce B2B features.
Thinking about moving to Hyvä?
We audit your extensions and checkout, then give you a fixed migration plan.
Written by the Magento Services engineering team — Magento 2, Adobe Commerce and Hyvä specialists since 2014. We write about problems we solve on real client stores.