Store Eltrino (Hyva)
Our extension store is where we test new Magento technologies first. We migrated it to Hyvä early, built a custom Stripe integration, and keep the stack always up to date
since 2011
As early adopters of Hyvä, we migrated our own Magento store to test new features, performance, and custom workflows—proving its real-world value before client projects.
About the project
We have been working as an eCommerce web development agency since 2011, and the technological landscape has changed significantly since then. Developers are often tempted to try new and promising technologies. However, we prefer to test these innovations on ourselves before recommending them to our clients. This is why our own Magento (Adobe Commerce) extension store, store.eltrino.com, serves as a valuable playground for experimentation, innovation, and validation. Although our store is relatively small and has simple functionality, it provides an excellent environment for honing our skills. We keep all the stack up to date, upgrading to latest available versions Magento, Hyva, PHP. So every time when the new version is launched we check it on our own store.
In 2019, we tested Vue Storefront on our store. By 2021, we decided to explore the Hyvä Theme. We began working with Hyvä Theme from its early stages, as it looked very promising from the first announcement. When the initial version was launched, we immediately put it to the test.
Challenge
Adopting new technologies early comes with trade-offs. When we started working with Hyvä in its first public release (2021), the ecosystem was far from what it is today. The community was still small, and some features were not available out of the box. As with any emerging product, some bugs and limitations were expected.
However, one of the most impressive aspects was the responsiveness of the Hyvä team. From the very beginning, they were quick to reply to support requests and bug reports, actively listening to the community and shipping improvements rapidly. That commitment to developer success is a big part of why Hyvä is so powerful and stable today.
So, how far has Hyvä come?
Hyvä: 2021 vs. 2025 — What’s Changed?
| Feature / Capability | Hyvä 2021 (Early Releases) | Hyvä 2025 (Current State) |
|---|---|---|
| Theme Stability | Launched Feb 2021; rapid release cycle; early production usage mostly by small–mid merchants; limited case studies (Hyvä Showcases 2021–2022). | Mature, enterprise-ready; thousands of live sites; adopted by leading brands including Dunkin’, Volkswagen, Purina, Citizen Watch (Hyvä Business Review 2023). |
| UI Component Library | Basic Tailwind CSS + Alpine.js components (buttons, forms, alerts); no formal UI library; limited accessibility tooling. | Hyvä UI library with reusable, themeable components; Alpine.js helpers like x-defer; improved accessibility; documented patterns for grids, navigation, modals, accordions (Hyvä UI Docs). |
| Checkout Options | No native Hyvä Checkout; merchants used Luma fallback or custom solutions. | Official Hyvä Checkout; faster React-based experience; roadmap includes UX refresh, CSP support, stored payments, improved login/guest workflows (Hyvä Roadmap 2025). |
| Payment Integrations | Limited; most gateways required custom adaptation; Mollie not yet supported. | Official Mollie integration; Magento’s native PayPal module compatible; other gateways supported via Hyvä-ready versions or patches (Hyvä Roadmap 2025). |
| Third-Party Compatibility | Many JS-heavy extensions needed custom patches; small compatibility list. | Hundreds of officially listed Hyvä-compatible extensions; covers search (Algolia, ElasticSuite), personalization (Nosto), shipping (ShipperHQ), marketing automation (Dotdigital) (Hyvä Compatibility Tracker). |
| Developer Ecosystem | Small early adopter community; limited docs. | 6,200+ Slack members; hundreds of partner agencies; active GitLab repos; regular webinars, showcases, and case studies. |
| Documentation & Support | Basic GitHub markdown docs; help via Slack and GitHub issues. | Full documentation portal; private Slack for license holders; GitLab issue tracking; YouTube tutorials; “Hyvä Hot Cakes” LinkedIn newsletter (Hyvä Docs). |
| Performance Optimization | Lightweight architecture without RequireJS/Knockout/jQuery; out-of-box Lighthouse >90; minimal tuning needed. | Built-in Core Web Vitals optimizations; deferred JS/CSS loading; image optimization with WebP/AVIF; responsive image resizing; inline critical CSS (Hyvä Roadmap 2025). |
| Page Builder / CMS Support | Magento Page Builder unsupported by default; required custom integration. | Hyvä CMS (in Hyvä Commerce) with drag-and-drop editing, live preview, scheduled publishing, version control; full Magento Page Builder compatibility (Hyvä Roadmap 2025). |
| Core Features | Single storefront theme built on Tailwind CSS + Alpine.js; minimal JS dependencies; basic storefront components; no built-in CMS; no admin UX changes. | Expanded suite: Hyvä Theme, Hyvä Checkout, Hyvä UI, Hyvä CMS; features include drag-and-drop CMS, live preview, version control, scheduled publishing, visual merchandising roadmap, image optimization, CSP-ready checkout (Hyvä Roadmap 2025). |
| Contribution Model | Closed-source license; contributions accepted via approved developers; early contributions mostly bug fixes and extension compatibility patches. | Closed-source but highly collaborative for license holders; compatibility modules maintained in shared GitLab; agencies contribute to Hyvä UI; roadmap shaped by community feedback via Slack and events (Hyvä Contribution Info). |
| Adoption & Trust | Mostly by small–mid merchants usage; early adopters; few public case studies. | Trusted by thousands (~6,000) of merchants worldwide; adopted in B2C, B2B, and D2C; official partnerships with top Magento extension vendors (Hyva Themes Usage Statistics). |
What we've done
🎨 Custom Hyvä-based theme built from scratch
💳 Stripe Payment Method development for Hyvä React Checkout
🚀 Full store migration to Hyvä in ~200 hours
🧪 Implementation of Hyvä best practices, ready-made UI components, and the latest feature set
🔄 Ongoing updates to keep Magento, Hyvä, and PHP versions up to date
Results
By using our own store as a real-world testing ground, we validated Hyvä as a high-performance, developer-friendly, and efficient solution, perfect for both B2B and B2C merchants. Our Stripe integration for Hyvä React Checkout was an important contribution.
Summary
We migrated our Magento extension store to Hyvä Theme as one of the earliest adopters, using it as a playground.
It allowed us to explore Hyvä’s features, unmatched performance, development speed, and maintainability, shape workflows, and contribute to the ecosystem.