Last week, I posted about Hyvä CMS after watching their demo.
The demo blew me away. Real-time content editing with live storefront previews. Click any area of the preview and jump straight to the editor. The workflow was seamless, the performance was lightning fast, and the user experience felt like what Magento content management should have been from the start.
I was genuinely excited about what I saw.
Ananth Iyer commented: "You are 2 years late to the Hyvä Theme."
Willem Wigman from Hyvä chimed in that I'd "been there from the beginning."
At first, I was confused by their responses. Then it dawned on me - there's a disconnect here that reveals something much bigger.
Hyvä CMS is part of Hyvä Commerce, not Hyvä Theme. Completely different products with different purposes. (Me inserting facepalm emoji but as a description so you don't think this is ChatGPT)
But the confusion revealed a more important truth. While Adobe engineers their SaaS future, Hyvä is quietly building the complete Magento platform Adobe should have created years ago.
Here are three reasons why Hyvä Commerce will replace Adobe Commerce for mid-market merchants:
Adobe Commerce SaaS launches this month (June 2025) and will kill traditional Magento extensions.
SaaS requires apps that integrate via APIs, not extensions that integrate into the core code of the system. Extension developers face a choice: rebuild their products as standalone apps or exit the Adobe ecosystem.
This isn't just a technical shift - it's an economic one. Apps require different infrastructure, different support models, and different pricing strategies. Many extension developers won't make that investment.
Adobe benefits from this. They control the platform experience while app providers handle their own maintenance and support. Clean separation, fewer headaches for Adobe.
But mid-market merchants lose. The rich extension ecosystem that made Magento flexible disappears. Replacement apps will be more expensive and less integrated.
Hyvä Commerce maintains the traditional extension model.
Same flexibility, same developer ecosystem, same economics that built Magento's success.
While Adobe focuses on enterprise SaaS restrictions, Hyvä delivers merchant-focused innovation across the entire commerce experience.
Admin Experience: New dashboard with key metrics at a glance. Built-in image editor so you never leave the admin panel. Enhanced Page Builder that lowers barriers for marketing teams.
Performance: Media optimization that boosts Core Web Vitals automatically. Lightning-fast storefront performance that converts better.
Developer Experience: Intuitive technology that reduces development costs. UI components library that speeds customization. Lower technical debt through better architecture.
Total Cost of Ownership: The low cost (Maybe too low) includes Theme, Checkout, UI components, and new Commerce features. Compare that to Adobe's enterprise-focused pricing.
Hyvä looked at what merchants actually needed and built it. Adobe prioritized enterprise integrations and AEM compatibility over other options.
The result? Hyvä Commerce offers "the best version of Magento the world has ever seen" while Adobe builds the most expensive version mid-market merchants can't afford.
Adobe's SaaS strategy targets enterprise budgets and enterprise needs.
Mid-market merchants built the Magento ecosystem. Adobe's message is clear: you're not our focus ever.
SaaS pricing will reflect enterprise economics. Extension compatibility will favor enterprise workflows. Support priorities will match enterprise contracts.
Hyvä Commerce welcomes the merchants Adobe is abandoning. They explicitly state their focus: "While Adobe focuses its investment towards Enterprise merchants and Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) there is a gap for tens of thousands of SMB and mid-market Magento merchants."
That gap is Adobe's strategic choice. Hyvä Commerce turned it into their market opportunity.
Adobe Commerce SaaS: Enterprise pricing + broken extensions + Adobe's timeline
Hyvä Commerce + Mage-OS: Transparent pricing + thriving extension ecosystem + merchant-focused innovation
eBay couldn't figure out what to do with Magento's potential. Adobe bought it with bigger plans for their enterprise strategy. Six years later, the truth is clear: Adobe just doesn't care about the mid-market segment, these users, or dare I say, even Magento itself.
Adobe Commerce is plugging a hole while Adobe builds solutions for the segments they actually want to serve.
What this means for the market is confusion.
No one knows where Magento fits in Adobe's future. Hyvä Commerce is setting the bar, enabling merchants to feel comfortable choosing Mage-OS and Hyvä Commerce as their mid-market solution.
The path forward is becoming clear. Adobe gets its enterprise customers. Hyvä gets everyone else.
Are you seeing merchants already evaluating alternatives to Adobe's SaaS direction?
The migration might happen faster than Adobe expects.