Hyvä vs Luma: Which One Is Better? – A Detailed Comparison

If we talk about Hyvä vs Luma, then both are two fundamentally different themes for Magento 2. Luma is the default theme that comes with Magento and benefits from full compatibility with all extensions right out of the box. However, it relies on older technologies like jQuery and RequireJS, which can hinder site speed.

On the other hand, Hyvä is a newer theme created by third-party developers, designed with modern standards for speed and performance. It enhances the user experience while significantly improving performance metrics that is becoming a topic of influence due to which hyvä theme development services are on rise nowadays.

In this article, we’ll conduct a side-by-side comparison of Hyvä vs Luma, focusing on performance and many other factors to help you decide whether migrating to Hyvä is the right choice for your site. All the details written in this blog are collected by conducting thorough research by our Hyva developers so you can take the right decision for the growth of your Magento store.

What is Hyvä?

Hyvä is a cutting-edge Magento 2 frontend theme that has revolutionized Magento eCommerce development since its launch in 2021. Designed with speed and efficiency at its core, Hyvä’s simplified architecture accelerates development, leading to reduced project costs.

Unlike more complex headless PWA frameworks, Hyvä theme Magento 2 employs a minimal tech stack. By replacing RequireJS and Less with Alpine.js and Tailwind CSS, Hyvä delivers a superior experience for both developers and end-users. Its streamlined codebase not only boosts page speed but also enhances SEO performance, often resulting in web vitals close to a perfect 100/100 on Google’s metrics. Additionally, Hyvä seamlessly integrates with Magento’s quarterly updates with minimal disruption.

Thanks to its simplified yet powerful architecture, Hyvä is quickly becoming the future of Magento frontend development, embraced by a growing developer community.

Key Benefits of Hyvä:

• Simplified development process
• Easy to manage
• Faster page loading times
• Lower development costs
• Accelerated project timelines
• Enhanced SEO performance
• Reduced reliance on third-party libraries
• xpanding developer support
• One-time Hyvä license fee

What is Luma?

Luma theme was introduced in 2016 as the default theme for Magento 2 and, until recently, was one of the top choices for a starting point in Magento and Adobe Commerce projects. Luma’s infrastructure is robust, incorporating Responsive Web Design (RWD) principles to ensure sites are adaptable across devices. Built on the Magento UI library, Luma features customizable components and uses CSS3 media queries for optimal responsiveness.

One of Luma’s strengths is its compatibility with third-party extensions, which can streamline development and reduce costs for new builds. However, relying on these extensions often introduces extra JavaScript and CSS, which can negatively impact site performance and SEO—both of which are critical for success in today’s eCommerce world

Key Benefits of Luma:

• Adaptive, responsive design across devices
• Out-of-the-box compatibility with third-party extensions
• Familiar checkout process

What are the differences between Hyva and Luma?

Hyva is new to the market, and known for its exceptional performance simplicity, and developer friendliness due to its less, and lower coding complexity, while using a familiar PHP templating system. Besides this, it also offers a streamlined way of customization with the guidance of up-to-date resources. However, hyva involves ongoing maintenance, and it demands at least a one-time purchase that could be difficult for small businesses.

Luma, it is a default theme of Magento 2 that is easy to set up, has great compatibility thus reducing the risk of conflict between different Magento extensions, and has no additional cost as it comes with Magento itself. Nonetheless, it has heavy dependency on various CCS, and Javascript files, impacting page load times. Also, Luma uses older technologies like RequireJS and KnockoutJS.

Pricing and Licensing

The Hyvä theme requires a one-time purchase of €1,000, granting full access to its codebase via Private Packagist and Gitlab, along with Hyvä UI and future updates.

Luma, on the other hand, comes at no additional cost as it is the default theme for Magento. If you’re using Magento Open Source or Magento Commerce (previously Enterprise), the Luma theme is already included in your package.

Return on Investment (ROI)

Hyva will cost you some amount for the licensing, however, it’s essential to evaluate the influence on long-term expenses, revenue, and efficiency. Although the Luma theme is free, it can introduce hidden costs over time, whereas Hyvä often proves more cost-effective:

• Faster Development: Hyvä shortens the development process, leading to lower overall costs for store development and optimization due to which Hyva developers also deliver the project on-time as compared to the Luma theme project.
• Improved User Experience: Hyvä outperforms Luma in performance optimization, addressing issues like slow load times, poor responsiveness, and lack of device optimization, all of which can lead to customer loss and reduced profits.
• Lower Long-Term Expenses: When it comes to scaling, adding new features, or customizing your store’s design, Luma can become a challenge. Hyvä’s modular architecture makes scaling and maintaining the store easier, allowing you to work on individual components without disrupting the entire system.

Integration and Compatibility

Hyvä, despite its modern and efficient design, can present integration challenges. Not all third-party Magento extensions are compatible, which may require additional development efforts to ensure a smooth integration with your store’s existing systems.

Luma excels in integration and compatibility due to its default status in Magento. It works effortlessly with a wide range of Magento extensions and third-party modules, giving it an advantage in this area. Magento stores often rely on additional extensions for custom functionality, and Luma’s traditional architecture ensures compatibility with most of these.

Pointed to be noted here – While Hyvä’s extension support is currently more limited, it is improving as more extension providers work to ensure compatibility. Hyva theme development service agencies also offer services specifically for Hyvä theme customization and development, further enhancing its usability over time.

Maintenance Costs

Every website requires ongoing upkeep to ensure it runs efficiently. This includes tasks like software updates, bug fixes, and performance optimization. So how do Luma and Hyvä fare in terms of maintenance?

Luma’s code is quite complex and outdated, relying on older libraries. Adding new features or making changes can further complicate the code, meaning developers will spend more time—and your business more money—on fixes and updates. As your store grows, this complexity tends to snowball, leading to a system that demands frequent maintenance and adjustments, ultimately driving up costs.

Hyvä, with its simplified and optimized code, makes it easier for developers to address issues quickly. Its modern architecture ensures smoother compatibility with Magento updates, reducing the need for extensive changes. Moreover, Hyvä’s superior performance metrics mean fewer needs for ongoing performance optimization, translating into significant maintenance savings over time.

SEO Optimization: How Hyvä and Luma Impact Search Engine Rankings

Both Hyvä and Luma themes come with SEO-friendly features that can greatly impact your site’s search engine rankings. They are fully mobile-responsive, ensuring your website looks and performs well on any device, which is essential as mobile browsing continues to grow. Both themes also prioritize fast page load times, a crucial factor for both user experience and search engine performance. Additionally, they have optimized, clean code structures that make it easier for search engines to crawl and index your site, boosting its visibility in search results.

However, there are some notable differences:

• HTML Structure: Hyvä’s HTML structure is more streamlined compared to Luma, contributing to faster load times and better crawlability by search engines.
• Schema Markup Flexibility: While both themes support schema markup for better content interpretation by search engines, Hyvä offers more flexibility when it comes to customization.
• XML Sitemaps: Both themes automatically generate XML sitemaps, ensuring search engines can easily find and index all pages on your site.

Overall, Hyvä theme Magento 2’s more modern architecture and performance edge gives it an advantage in SEO optimization.

Visual Appeal: Comparing the Design of Hyvä and Luma Themes

Layout, Typography, and Color Scheme Comparison

Both themes offer design options but in different ways. Luma provides several pre-designed layouts for various pages, like homepages, product listings, and category pages. Hyvä takes a more flexible approach, featuring a drag-and-drop builder that makes it easy to create custom layouts.

Typography plays a key role in readability and user experience. Luma uses classic, easy-to-read fonts that give the site a clean, professional look. In contrast, Hyvä uses modern, stylish fonts that add a more dynamic and engaging feel to the design.

Luma theme typically uses neutral colors, with shades of gray and subtle accents, creating a timeless and elegant appearance suited to many industries. Hyvä, on the other hand, often employs bold, vibrant colors that make a strong visual impact and convey energy and creativity.

User Preferences: Modern vs. Traditional Design

The choice between Hyvä vs Luma largely depends on personal design preferences. Those who prefer a more traditional and familiar look may gravitate toward Luma, which offers a safe, reliable design ideal for businesses seeking a professional image without taking design risks. Moreover, it is seen that online customers mostly prefer cutting-edge Hyvä’s modern design, so it could be a great choice for your brand to stand out in the market with hyvä theme development services.

Performance Comparison

When it comes to performance, Hyvä vs Luma, Hyvä significantly outpaces Luma thanks to its streamlined tech stack, which reduces development time and complexity. Its architecture is designed with simplicity and speed in mind, making it easier to manage while delivering high performance.

Though the Luma theme is robust and capable of delivering a solid experience, its performance falls short compared to Hyvä’s near-perfect 100/100 web vitals score. This gap in performance is largely due to Luma’s more cumbersome framework. While optimizations can enhance Luma’s speed, it remains a challenge to match the high standards that customers now expect from high-performing websites.

Wrapping Up

In conclusion with Hyva vs Luma, Hyvä and Luma serve distinct purposes for Magento 2 development, each with its strengths. Luma, as the default theme, provides seamless integration with third-party extensions but suffers from slower performance due to its reliance on outdated technologies. Hyvä, designed for speed and modern standards, outshines Luma in terms of page load times, SEO optimization, and user experience, making it a more efficient choice for growing eCommerce stores.

Though Hyvä theme Magento 2 may require an upfront investment, its simplified architecture and reduced long-term maintenance costs offer substantial benefits in the long run. Ultimately, Hyvä is quickly becoming the preferred option for Magento frontend development. Moreover, at Rock Technolabs we offer end-to-end hyvä theme development services with our 1 decade of experience in the e-commerce industry, you if you are in need let us know, besides this, we also offer experienced, and certified hyva developers – +91 99047 96885