Hyvä partner tiers run Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum. Each requires a points threshold, a minimum number of certified developers, and a minimum share of that agency’s live Hyvä builds passing Core Web Vitals. Gold requires at least three certifications and 60% passing. Platinum requires five and 70%. It is a measured signal, not a logo you buy.
That last point is what makes the tier worth checking. Most agency badges in the Magento world are participation markers. Hyvä’s are not, because two of the three requirements are outcome-based: how many of your developers passed a certification, and how many of your live stores actually hit Core Web Vitals thresholds in the field. An agency cannot buy its way past a portfolio of slow builds.
The tiers, side by side
Taken directly from the Hyvä partner program documentation:
| Tier | Developer certifications | Live builds passing Core Web Vitals | Access |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bronze | None required | ≥50% | GitLab access for Theme and Checkout |
| Silver | ≥1 | ≥50% | Adds listing description, event participation |
| Gold | ≥3 | ≥60% | Full GitLab access including Commerce and beta |
| Platinum | ≥5 | ≥70% | Full access, dedicated marketing fund, Platinum event |
Every tier also carries a points threshold, and the points system is where the commercial reality sits. At least 45% of an agency’s points must come from licence sales. Certifications are worth 3 points each and stay valid for the certification year plus the two following years. Licence contributions are worth 10 points for Commerce or Enterprise and 5 for Checkout. Marketing activity earns between 2 and 15 points depending on what it is. Points are tallied once a year, in December.
How to read a tier, and what it does not tell you
The Core Web Vitals requirement is the part worth dwelling on. It is measured across an agency’s live Hyvä builds, so it is a statement about work already shipped rather than work promised. If an agency holds Gold, at least 60% of the Hyvä stores they have put into production are passing. That is a harder thing to fake than a case study.
Core Web Vitals themselves are Google’s field metrics for loading, interactivity, and visual stability, documented on web.dev. “Passing” means real users, not a lab score on a developer’s laptop.
Here is what the tier does not tell you:
- Nothing about your industry. A Gold partner with fifteen fashion builds and no B2B experience is still the wrong choice for a distributor with company hierarchies and tiered pricing.
- Nothing about capacity. Tier is not team size. A highly certified boutique may be booked for six months.
- Nothing about the integration layer. Hyvä certification covers the frontend. Your ERP, OMS, and payment integrations are where most project risk lives, and no Hyvä tier speaks to them.
- Nothing about who does the work. Certifications belong to named developers. Ask whether those specific people are on your project or whether you get a different bench.
The commercial mechanics matter too. Because at least 45% of points must come from licence sales, tier partly reflects how much Hyvä product an agency has sold. That is a reasonable proxy for volume and commitment. It is not a pure quality score, and treating it as one would be reading more into it than the program claims.
Why a tier can lag reality in both directions
Points are tallied once a year, in December, and that annual cadence has consequences most buyers never think about.
An agency that has grown quickly through the year, certified three more developers in March, and shipped six fast Hyvä builds since is carrying last December’s tier until the next tally. They are, on the ground, better than their badge. The reverse is equally true. An agency that has lost its certified developers to attrition, or whose recent builds have drifted on performance, keeps its tier until the count catches up.
There is a second timing effect in the certification rules. A developer certification is worth 3 points and stays valid for the certification year plus the two following years. That means an agency’s points can be propped up by certifications earned nearly three years ago, held by people who may no longer be there. None of this is a criticism of the program, which has to draw a line somewhere. It is a reason to treat tier as a starting point and ask the follow-up questions rather than stopping at the badge.
The practical read: tier tells you what was true last December. Ask what has changed since.
When a non-partner agency is still the right call
Plenty of competent Magento teams have no Hyvä tier at all, and ruling them out on that basis would be a mistake in at least three situations.
The first is when your project is not really a Hyvä project. If your problem is an ERP integration that keeps dropping orders, or a Magento upgrade blocked by an unmaintained module, the frontend certification is beside the point. Hire for the actual problem.
The second is when the agency is new to the program but not new to the work. Because at least 45% of points must come from licence sales, an agency that builds Hyvä frontends without reselling much Hyvä product accumulates points slowly. Their tier understates their capability by design.
The third is when you have an in-house frontend team and need capacity rather than expertise. If your developers own the theme and you need hands on deck, tier is close to irrelevant and availability, communication, and code review discipline matter far more.
What partner status does reliably give you is access. Gold and above carry full GitLab access including Hyvä Commerce and beta features. If your build depends on those, an agency without that access is working around a gap, and you want to know that before you sign.
Verifying a claim independently
Do not take a badge on a website at face value. Hyvä maintains its own official partner directory. If an agency is not listed there at the tier they claim, that discrepancy is your first question, and it is a fair one to ask directly.
Three follow-ups worth asking once you have confirmed the listing:
- How many certified developers do you have, and will any of them work on my build? The tier proves the count. It does not promise you access.
- What is your Core Web Vitals pass rate, and can I see two live builds to test myself? A partner at Gold or above should be relaxed about this, because the number is already audited. Run the URLs through a field-data tool yourself.
- When were your points last tallied? Because tallying happens annually in December, a tier can lag reality in both directions. An agency that grew fast may be under-tiered; one that has lost certified staff may be coasting on last year’s count.
Where tier sits in a real evaluation
Partner tier is a useful filter and a poor decision. It narrows a long list quickly and tells you almost nothing about fit. We have written the fuller evaluation frameworks separately, and they matter more than the badge: our guide to vetting a Magento agency, the certifications, questions, and red flags covers the diligence, and nine signals your current partner is the wrong fit covers the other direction.
The single most predictive question in a Hyvä engagement is not about tier at all. It is whether the agency will run an extension compatibility audit before quoting. Extension compatibility is the largest cost variable in any Hyvä project, and a fixed quote produced without that audit is a guess with a commercial incentive attached. We covered the mechanics in adapting third-party Magento extensions to Hyvä.
A workable sequence for an evaluation looks like this:
- Filter by tier and directory listing. Use it to get from twenty candidates to six, and confirm each listing at the source rather than on the agency’s own site.
- Test two live builds yourself. Ask each shortlisted agency for two production Hyvä URLs and run them through a field-data tool. This validates the pass-rate claim independently and takes ten minutes.
- Ask for the audit before the quote. Any agency willing to fix a price on a migration without inventorying your extensions is either guessing or has priced in a large contingency you will pay for.
- Confirm who does the work. Names, not headcount. Ask whether the certified developers are assigned to your project and what happens if they are pulled.
- Scope the integration layer separately. Frontend certification says nothing about your ERP, OMS, tax, or payment connections. Price that work on its own terms.
- Check the platform prerequisite. If you are on an unsupported Magento patch level or PHP version, you have an upgrade project before you have a Hyvä project, and it needs to be scoped and sequenced first.
The agencies that do well against this sequence tend to be the ones that slow you down early. An agency pushing to sign before the audit is optimising for the close, not the build.
How Bemeir helps
Bemeir is a Brooklyn ecommerce agency and the USA’s first official Hyvä Gold Partner, with a direct line to the Hyvä team since the project launched. We are listed in Hyvä’s directory, and we would encourage you to check it rather than take our word for it.
Our Hyvä development services start with the compatibility audit, because that is what turns a guess into a scope. That sits inside a wider Magento and Adobe Commerce development practice covering upgrades, B2B, security patching, and the integration work no frontend certification covers. We also build on Shopify and Shopify Plus, Shopware, and BigCommerce, and our technology partner ecosystem spans payments, ERP, shipping, and fraud.
More about the team is on the about Bemeir page, and you can start a conversation from the Bemeir homepage.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between a Hyvä Gold and Silver partner?
Gold requires at least three certified developers and at least 60% of the agency’s live Hyvä builds passing Core Web Vitals. Silver requires at least one certification and at least 50% passing. Gold also carries a higher points threshold and unlocks full GitLab access including Hyvä Commerce and beta features, where Silver does not.
Is Hyvä partner status something an agency pays for?
Partly, and it is worth being precise about this. At least 45% of an agency’s points must come from licence sales, so commercial volume genuinely contributes to tier. But the certification counts and the Core Web Vitals pass rate are independent requirements that money does not satisfy. An agency whose live builds do not hit the performance threshold cannot buy its way to Gold.
How do I verify an agency’s Hyvä partner tier?
Check Hyvä’s official partner directory at hyva.io/partners rather than relying on a badge on the agency’s own site. If the listing does not match the claim, ask about it. Also ask when their points were last tallied, since tallying happens annually in December and a tier can lag the agency’s current reality in either direction.
Does a high Hyvä tier mean the agency is right for my project?
No. Tier tells you about frontend certification and shipped performance. It says nothing about industry experience, current capacity, whether the certified developers will actually work on your build, or the ERP and integration depth where most project risk sits. Use tier to shorten a list, then evaluate fit separately.
What does the Core Web Vitals requirement actually measure?
It measures the share of an agency’s live Hyvä stores passing Google’s Core Web Vitals thresholds for loading, interactivity, and visual stability, based on real user field data rather than lab tests. Because it is measured across production builds, it reflects work already delivered, which makes it one of the more meaningful signals in the program.
