Big News: Hyvä Theme Is Now FREE — What This Means for Magento Stores

In one of the most important updates for the Magento community, Hyvä Theme is now completely free and open-source as of November 10, 2025.

This change follows five years of rapid growth, strong community support, and more than 6,000 live stores using Hyvä — including enterprise brands like Nestlé, Volkswagen, and Dunkin’.

For Magento store owners, this update opens major opportunities to modernize their frontend, improve site speed, and reduce development costs.This article provides a clear, store-owner-friendly overview of the latest Hyvä Theme News, explains what the Magento 2 Hyvä Theme becoming free means for online businesses, and highlights how your store can take advantage of Hyvä’s new open-source model.

What Changed With Hyvä Theme in 2025?

In November 2025, Hyvä announced one of the biggest updates since its launch: the Hyvä Theme is now completely free and fully open-source. This update marks one of the most important moments in recent Hyvä Theme news, significantly expanding accessibility for Magento merchants and developers who rely on the Magento 2 Hyvä Theme for modern ecommerce performance.

Until now, merchants needed to purchase a commercial license to use the theme. By removing this barrier, Hyvä has made its high-performance Magento frontend available to every store — regardless of size, budget, or technical expertise.

The new model means:

• Free access to the Hyvä Theme
• Source code available publicly on GitHub
• Composer installation available with free keys through the Hyvä Portal
• Open-source licensing under OSL 3.0 + AFL 3.0, similar to Magento Open Source itself

For merchants, this creates a much more affordable entry point for redesigning or migrating their storefront. For developers and agencies, it means more flexibility, easier collaboration, and the ability to build new commercial or open-source tools on top of Hyvä.

Additional Changes Store Owners Should Know

• Hyvä UI becomes a paid standalone product (€250), offering ready-made UI components to speed up development.
• Hyvä Checkout, Hyvä Enterprise, and Hyvä Commerce remain commercial products and continue to receive dedicated support and feature development.
• Existing license holders retain their support, cashback programs, and access to premium tools.
• Because Hyvä Theme is now open-source, third-party developers can contribute improvements, create extensions, and even build their own Hyvä-based themes for sale.

Why Hyvä Made This Change

According to Hyvä’s official announcement, the decision to make the theme free and open-source is driven by several key motivations:

• Hyvä was originally created as a response to the limitations of Magento’s traditional front-end options. For years, merchants and developers struggled with slow, complex, and outdated frontend frameworks. Hyvä set out to offer a faster, modern, more developer-friendly alternative.
• Hyvä aimed to become more than just a theme—it needed a strong ecosystem. The team focused on building partnerships, supporting agencies, and enabling long-term sustainability for Magento’s frontend landscape.
• They recognized that open-source projects often struggle with sustained resources and ecosystem growth. By opening the codebase, Hyvä Theme for Magento 2 encourages more contributors, more innovation, and more collective development from the community.
• Making the theme free removes barriers for merchants and accelerates adoption across the industry. This allows smaller stores to benefit from high-performance storefronts, while giving developers more flexibility for building custom solutions faster.
• The goal is to strengthen the entire Magento ecosystem. Open-source access empowers students, developers, agencies, and merchants—driving Hyvä forward as a modern standard for Magento frontends.

In short, Hyvä’s move reflects a long-term commitment to openness, collaboration, and helping Magento stay competitive in a rapidly evolving ecommerce landscape.

What This Means for Magento Store Owners

The Hyvä Theme for Magento 2 stores becoming free and open-source has direct, practical implications for ecommerce businesses. Whether you run a small online shop or manage a large multi-store setup, this update significantly lowers costs, reduces technical barriers, and improves long-term scalability for Magento stores.

Below is a clear breakdown of what Magento merchants can expect moving forward.

Lower Upfront Costs for Store Redesign or Migration

Previously, the Hyvä license added a notable cost to any redesign or migration project. Now that the theme is fully free store owners can invest more budget into custom design, UX improvements, or performance optimization.

Faster, More Responsive Stores Without Extra Fees

Hyvä is widely recognized as the fastest Magento frontend available today, consistently outperforming Luma and older headless solutions. Its architecture is built around performance, resulting in:

• Better Core Web Vitals
• Faster page load times
• Minimal JavaScript and CSS bloat
• A cleaner, more modern user interface
  

In our experience working with ecommerce stores, site speed is one of the strongest drivers of conversion rate growth. Each time we migrate a store to Hyvä, we see dramatic improvements in performance metrics. For example, one of our clients achieved a 96% increase in page speed, which directly contributed to a 12% boost in revenue. These are significant results for any ecommerce business — and they clearly demonstrate how better performance translates into measurable growth.

Hyvä achieves its speed by combining modern frontend practices such as lightweight templating, minimal JS frameworks, optimized rendering, and a streamlined CSS structure. The theme is designed to eliminate unnecessary complexity, allowing Magento stores to run faster, smoother, and more efficiently.

Read more: Is Hyvä really as fast as they say?

Faster Development and Easier Maintenance

Hyvä Theme for Magento is not only fast for users — it’s fast for developers. The simplified frontend architecture means:

• Shorter development timelines
• Easier customizations
• Faster troubleshooting
• Lower ongoing maintenance costs

Now these benefits become even more appealing, especially for merchants planning a redesign or expansion.

How to Install the Hyvä theme in Magento 2?

To install the Hyvä theme in Magento 2, follow these steps:

1. Go to the official Hyva theme website and click “Get your free license”.
2. Register an account to generate your free access key.
3. Transfer the theme repository and key to your Magento project.
4. Install the Hyvä Theme using Composer.
5. Apply the theme in Magento Admin Panel under Content > Design > Configuration.
6. Deploy static content and clear cache using commands: 

php bin/magento setup:static-content:deploy
php bin/magento cache:clean

7. Verify the installation by checking your storefront.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Is the Hyvä Theme for Magento 2 really free now?

Yes — as of November 10, 2025, the Hyvä Theme is fully free to download and use for Magento 2 stores.

Do I still need to purchase Hyvä UI or support?

Optional support packages and UI kits may still be paid, but the core theme is free.

Will switching to Hyvä affect SEO?

Yes — usually positively. Most stores see higher rankings due to improved Core Web Vitals and lower bounce rates.

Can I Use My Magento 2 Extensions on the Hyva Theme?

Because Hyvä uses a modern, lightweight JS/CSS stack, not all Magento extensions work out of the box. Using incompatible extensions may result in broken layouts or missing UI elements. To avoid issues, we offer a set of Hyvä-compatible Magento extensions — optimized for speed, seamless UI integration, and the new Hyvä architecture.

Below are best Plumrocket Hyvä Theme compatible extensions for Magento 2:

1. Social Login Pro
2. Cookie Consent
3. Layered Navigation
4. Affiliate Programs
5. Advanced Reviews & Reminders

What about Hyvä Checkout?

Hyvä Checkout is still separate and provides a lightweight, high-conversion alternative to the default Magento checkout.