PWA or Hyva? The Brutally Honest Guide for Magento Store Owners

Looking to upgrade your Magento frontend to a faster, smoother, and more manageable solution? Curious about PWA vs Hyva and which framework is the right fit for your storefront? We’ve done the research and collected reviews on both, so you don’t have to.

At Elogic, a Hyva Bronze Partner with years of Magento expertise, we’ve gathered everything you need to know about the Hyva theme, the PWA theme, and how they compare in one place. 

From performance and SEO to costs and scalability, this guide will help you decide which framework fits your business best. Embracing new approaches to ecommerce is what we do best, so read on to learn what will make your Magento store faster, smoother, and easier to manage

PWA vs Hyva in a Nutshell

Just like with every other Magento front-end framework, choosing between PWA vs Hyva depends on your business priorities. 

Hyva is best for merchants seeking simplicity, speed, and cost-effectiveness, while PWAs are ideal for enterprises prioritizing scalability, advanced features, and a unified mobile-web experience.

What is Hyva? Pros and cons

Hyva is the fresh face in the Magento 2 world, but it’s already stealing the spotlight for all the right reasons. Released in 2021 by a small team based in the Netherlands, Hyva set out with a clear mission: make Magento front-ends faster, cleaner, and far less frustrating. And honestly? It’s doing a stellar job.

The creators of the Hyva theme weren’t trying to spark a revolution — they just wanted to fix what wasn’t working. As one of their team members, John Hughes, put it, “Nobody asked for a revolution in ecommerce.” Instead, Hyva focuses on evolution: stripping away unnecessary complexity, speeding up load times, and giving developers a break from Magento’s usual labyrinth of dependencies.

Read also: What Does an Ecommerce Agency Do and How to Choose One? 

What makes Hyva different? It’s all about simplicity and speed. By leaning on modern tools like Tailwind CSS and Alpine.js, Hyva keeps its codebase lightweight and efficient. No excess baggage here, just what you need to build a visually stunning, lightning-fast website that works beautifully on any device.

The pros of the Magento Hyva theme

• Faster page load times: Hyva significantly reduces load times, ensuring a smoother and faster experience for ecommerce shoppers.
• Better SEO and navigation: Quick load speeds and cleaner code improve search rankings and help customers easily find what they need.
• Simpler development process: Developers benefit from fewer dependencies and a streamlined code structure, cutting down on development time and headaches.
• Customizable designs made easy: Tailwind CSS simplifies styling, making it effortless to create a unique, professional store design.
• Great mobile experience: The theme adapts perfectly to any screen size, ensuring smooth performance on phones, tablets, and desktops.
• Helpful community and updates: Hyva’s active developer community ensures timely support and regular updates to improve functionality.
• Scalability without high costs: The modular setup allows for flexible growth, letting you add or remove features without overpaying.

The cons of the Magento Hyva Theme

• Licensing fee: One-time cost may not suit tight budgets.
• No native PWA support: Adding PWA functionality requires extra tools and development.
• Limited documentation: Fewer resources can make troubleshooting harder.
• Smaller developer pool: With 7,000+ members, the community is growing but still smaller than other frameworks.

What is PWA? Pros and cons

A Progressive Web App (PWA) is a type of web application that delivers an app-like experience directly through a browser. It combines the reach of a website with the functionality of a native app, providing a smooth and engaging experience without requiring users to download anything. 

For Magento store owners, PWAs — built using tools like Magento 2 PWA Studio — offer a way to create fast, interactive, and mobile-friendly storefronts that work seamlessly across all devices.

Here’s how it works: PWAs rely on technologies like Service Workers (for offline functionality), Web App Manifests (to allow users to “install” the site as an app), and advanced caching to deliver content quickly and efficiently. 

Magento’s Adobe Commerce PWA Studio provides the framework for creating a PWA theme out of the box. This lets you offer features like offline browsing, push notifications, and app-like navigation while maintaining the benefits of a website, like SEO visibility.

The pros of the PWA theme

• Mobile-first shopping experience: Delivers app-like performance directly in the browser, creating an engaging and user-friendly experience for mobile shoppers.
• Improved load times: Advanced caching and preloading ensure fast performance, even on slow networks, reducing bounce rates and keeping users engaged.
• Uninterrupted shopping: Offline functionality allows customers to browse and interact with your store without an internet connection, ensuring seamless shopping anywhere.
• Enhanced engagement: Features like push notifications, home screen shortcuts, and smooth navigation encourage repeat visits and purchases.
• SEO advantages over native apps: PWAs are indexed by search engines, increasing discoverability and driving organic traffic.
• Cross-platform solution: A single PWA works across mobile, desktop, and tablet devices, eliminating the need for separate app or website development, significantly reducing Magento mobile app costs.

The cons of the PWA theme

• Complex implementation: Building a PWA requires specialized expertise, so you’re most likely need to hire a Magento developer for the task.
• High initial costs: Development and launch costs are steep, which can be prohibitive for smaller businesses.
• Limited backend improvements: PWAs enhance the frontend but don’t simplify Magento’s backend, which may still feel cumbersome.
• Extension compatibility issues: Some Magento extensions aren’t optimized for PWAs, requiring custom solutions for full functionality.
• Ongoing developer dependency: Customization and maintenance often demand regular input from skilled developers, increasing long-term costs.
• Resource-heavy setup: PWAs need more server resources than lighter themes like Hyva, potentially leading to higher hosting expenses.

A Deep-Dive Comparison of PWA and Hyva

Now that you understand what Hyva and PWA themes bring to the table, let’s compare them head-to-head. From pricing to performance, scalability to SEO, we’ll break down the key differences to help you choose the right framework for your Magento store.

Read also: Best Magento 2 SEO Guide: Setting, Optimization, Tips 

Pricing

When it comes to pricing, Hyva keeps things straightforward. A one-time €1,000 licensing fee covers multiple Magento 2 storefronts, making it a predictable option for merchants. Adobe Commerce users can upgrade to the Hyva Enterprise plan for €2,500 per year, which includes extras like AI tools and B2B functionality. 

Development costs typically range from $5,000 to $20,000, depending on customization. Plus, Hyva’s lightweight framework means lower maintenance costs over time — a win for both merchants and developers.

“For medium-sized businesses with extensive customizations, Hyvä for Magento stores is a noteworthy option. While the initial costs may be higher than some traditional themes, they remain much more affordable compared to PWA solutions. If your long-term strategy involves staying with Magento, investing in a modern, high-performing theme like Hyvä could deliver significant value over time.”

— Igor Yakovliev, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Elogic

It’s only fair to mention that despite the relative affordability of the Hyva theme Magento store, some merchants still think it’s pricey. Though, as many others confirm, worth the investment:

PWAs, on the other hand, skip licensing fees but come with much—and we really mean it—much higher upfront costs. A relatively small PWA project starts around $20,000, while larger, feature-rich builds can exceed $100,000. That said, PWAs can save money in the long run by combining web and mobile functionality, so you don’t need separate iOS and Android apps.

The trade-offs? PWAs need more server resources to support their advanced features, which drives up hosting costs, especially for high-traffic stores. They also face challenges like poor PageSpeed Insights scores, complex caching, and limited Magento feature support. Fixing these issues often means extra expenses, like investing in prerendering for SEO.

Performance

Hyva delivers standout performance, achieving perfect Google PageSpeed Insights scores — 100 on mobile and desktop — out of the box. Even with customizations that may lower scores to 70–80 on mobile, Hyva still outpaces PWA frameworks. 

On average, Hyva sites load two seconds faster, thanks to its lightweight architecture and reduced dependencies, ensuring consistent speed and efficiency.

Here’s what ecommerce merchants have to say about Hyva’s impact on the performance of an ecommerce site:

Elogic’s client, Amelie, an apparel and fashion retailer, saw a massive boost in performance with the Hyva Theme. Page load times improved by 2.2x on the homepage, 1.7x on SKU pages, and 2.5x on the cart page, slashing bounce rates by 30% on mobile and 22% on desktop. With Core Web Vitals now in the green (FID 14 ms, LCP 1.2 ms), the site delivers exceptional speed and a seamless user experience.

PWAs were designed for high performance, using headless frameworks like React and Vue and the GraphQL protocol. By preloading all JavaScript for an entire session, they aim to deliver dynamic content and seamless navigation without page reloads. However, this approach often results in a longer initial page load time.

“As real projects using this technology were released, more serious issues emerged, such as poor SEO, difficult optimization due to numerous server requests, complex caching, a challenging debugging process (client-side rendering does not provide logging), and, above all, poor PageSpeed Insights scores. Speed measurement is done without caching, simulating a first-time visit, leading to enormous waiting times before content is rendered.” 

— Volodymyr Leshchyshyn, the Head of Development at Elogic.

The bottom line is, a lot of PWAs are unnecessarily heavy due to excessive JavaScript, which can negatively impact metrics like First Contentful Paint (FCP) and Time to Interactive (TTI), lowering the overall performance. 

Mobile-friendliness

PWAs offer advanced mobile-first features like offline access, push notifications, and the option to save the store as an app on a user’s home screen. These capabilities make PWA Magento 2 stores highly functional for mobile users, particularly those in regions with unreliable internet or businesses aiming to provide an app-like experience.

Read also: What is Mobile Commerce and Why You Should Invest in It 

Hyvä, while not offering app-like features, excels in delivering fast, responsive mobile websites. Its lightweight architecture minimizes JavaScript and CSS usage, leading to quick load times and smooth mobile performance. Hyvä adheres to standard responsive design practices, which make it easier to maintain and optimize for mobile SEO. However, it does not support offline browsing or push notifications, which may limit its appeal for businesses seeking advanced mobile functionality.

SEO friendliness

We’ve already covered how PWA vs Hyva stacks up in terms of performance and mobile-friendliness. So far, it’s neck and neck — each framework excels in its own way. 

But when it comes to SEO-friendliness, there are a few additional factors that tip the scales:

• Indexability of PWA vs Hyva storefronts

PWAs rely heavily on JavaScript, which can make content harder for search engines to crawl and index without proper implementation. On the other hand, Hyvä uses a traditional HTML-first approach, making content easily accessible to search engines and simplifying metadata and structured data management.

• Customizability for SEO

PWAs offer advanced customization options for SEO, such as schema markup and dynamic rendering, but these often require significant expertise to implement effectively. Hyvä allows for easy integration of commonly used SEO tools and straightforward customization of metadata, XML sitemaps, and structured data.

• Longevity and future proofing for SEO

PWAs align with Google’s emphasis on mobile-first and app-like experiences, making them highly adaptable to emerging SEO trends. Hyvä focuses on simplicity and performance but may need updates if future web standards shift toward PWA-like functionality. 

• Ease of maintenance

PWAs require more effort to maintain due to their complex codebase and reliance on APIs like GraphQL, which can complicate updates and SEO adjustments. Hyvä’s simpler structure and reduced dependencies make it significantly easier to manage and maintain for ongoing SEO needs. 

Time to market / Speed of development

A shorter time to market is critical for merchants aiming to generate revenue quickly and developers looking to streamline their workload.

When comparing PWA vs. Hyva, Hyva takes the lead with its lightweight framework and simplified architecture, enabling faster development and fewer complications. This allows merchants to launch their storefronts sooner, even with customizations.

PWAs, on the other hand, require more time due to their complex setup, reliance on advanced technologies like React and GraphQL, and extensive customization needs.

Integrations

When it comes to integrations, Hyva is still catching up due to its status as a relatively new framework. Not all Magento extensions are supported out of the box, which can be a drawback for merchants relying on specific tools. 

However, Hyva is making significant progress. It supports over 1,000 popular extensions like Plumrocket, ExtendWare, Webkul, and Amasty, and its pool of supported extensions has grown by 150% year-over-year. 

Additionally, Hyva’s compatibility with microservice architecture provides flexibility for scaling and optimizing ecommerce operations.

You might think, the PWA theme is a clear winner here. But… While more established, PWAs don’t fare much better in terms of seamless integrations. 

Many Magento extensions require customization to work with PWA frameworks, adding complexity and development costs.

Scalability

Both PWA and Hyva offer scalable solutions but cater to different needs. 

Hyva’s compatibility with microservice architecture and expanding integration support provide a straightforward way to scale efficiently, maintaining strong performance even as your store grows.

One of Elogic’s clients, DIGI, an online consumer electronics retailer, needed a solution to support their expanding product catalog and feature set. To meet their needs, we developed custom compatibility modules for tools like Mailchimp, LiveChat, and third-party integrations with Amazon Pay and Wisepops. This approach allowed the website to scale effortlessly while maintaining top-notch performance and a seamless user experience.

PWAs shine in large-scale operations, with their decoupled architecture allowing flexibility to manage high traffic and complex customizations across platforms. While they require more resources to integrate new features, their adaptability makes them a solid choice for enterprise-level growth.

Support

When it comes to support, PWA benefits from an established community and a wealth of resources. With years of adoption, there are plenty of ecommerce developers familiar with PWA frameworks like React and Vue, making it easier to find advice, tutorials, and solutions to common challenges.

Hyva, being newer, has a smaller but highly active and rapidly growing community. Over 5,000 members are part of the Hyva Slack group, sharing insights and offering support. While its resources aren’t as extensive as those for PWA, the engaged community and consistent growth make Hyva a promising choice for merchants seeking ongoing support.

Hyva vs PWA: What is Better for Your Business?

Deciding between Hyva and PWA comes down to your specific business needs, priorities, and resources. Both frameworks have their strengths, but they cater to different goals, making it important to choose the one that aligns with your ecommerce objectives.

Choose Hyva if you:

• Need a faster time to market with a simpler development process.
• Prioritize performance and PageSpeed Insights scores for SEO and user experience.
• Run a small to medium-sized business where cost predictability and lower maintenance expenses are key.
• Want straightforward integration with Magento extensions and flexibility to scale gradually using microservice architecture.
• Prefer a framework that offers consistent performance without requiring advanced technical expertise.

Choose PWA if you:

• Operate a larger or enterprise-level store that demands advanced scalability and flexibility across platforms.
• Need app-like features such as offline browsing, push notifications, and home screen shortcuts to enhance the mobile shopping experience.
• Have the budget and technical resources to handle the higher initial investment and ongoing optimization requirements.
• Are looking to unify your mobile and web presence into a single, future-ready solution.
• Plan to heavily customize your storefront and need the flexibility of a decoupled frontend-backend architecture.

Afterthought

As a Magento merchant, dealing with a slow frontend, poor SEO, or complex management can be frustrating — especially when a full redesign isn’t an option.

If you’re prioritizing speed, cost-effectiveness, and simplicity, Hyva offers a streamlined solution that can help you deliver a fast and responsive store without breaking the bank. On the other hand, if your focus is on scalability, app-like features, and long-term flexibility, PWA is a powerful choice — but it comes with higher costs and a longer timeline. 

Ultimately, the decision boils down to your unique goals. Do you need to solve performance issues quickly while keeping things manageable? Or are you looking to future-proof your store with advanced features, even if it means a larger investment upfront? 

At Elogic, we specialize in helping businesses like yours navigate these decisions. With years of expertise in Magento consulting, we can guide you toward the solution that works best for your specific needs — whether that’s Hyva, PWA, or something else entirely. 

Want Hyva Bronze partners to build you a fast ecommerce store that drives conversions?

Contact our Elogic Hyva theme experts to lead the new wave of Magento stores. Let’s talk! —>