I’ve been on both sides of the HubSpot migration fence: helping teams extract value from the platform, and later helping them leave it. There’s a tidy allure to “switch off HubSpot” — lower recurring fees, more control, or a better fit for a particular stack — but the reality is messy. HubSpot is less a single product and more a cross-stitched ecosystem: CRM, marketing automation, CMS, services tools, analytics and dozens of integrations that quietly power revenue workflows. Miss one stitch and a workflow unravels.
Start with an audit (and assume friction)
Before you export a single contact, run a thorough audit. I recommend a two-pass approach: a functional audit (what business processes rely on HubSpot?) and a technical audit (what apps, webhooks, properties and integrations are in play?). Document every form, workflow, list, saved view, email sequence, report, domain authentication, and any external system that consumes HubSpot data.
Expect surprises. In projects I’ve led, discoverable items included: internal Slack alerts triggered by contact property changes, a billing reconciliation job that matched invoices to HubSpot deals, and an abandoned checkout email series using HubSpot lists. These dependencies are easy to miss if you only look at Marketing Hub and ignore the CRM and Service Hub pieces.
Priority checklist: what to migrate, what to keep, and what to retire
| Item | Migrate? | Why / Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Contacts & Companies | Yes | Core dataset. Export full history (engagements, notes, property change log). Map custom properties carefully. |
| Deals & Pipelines | Yes | Essential for forecasting. Preserve stage history and close dates if possible. |
| Tickets & Service Data | Conditional | If you use Service Hub for SLAs, ticket routing, or knowledge base links, migrate or replicate the logic. |
| Contact & Deal Properties | Yes | Custom properties encode business logic (MQL flags, source attribution). Recreate these before importing records. |
| Marketing Emails & Templates | Yes/No | Export HTML and assets. Rebuild in new ESP to preserve personalization tokens and dynamic modules. |
| Forms & CTAs | Yes | Forms often push directly into pipelines. Recreate and update embedded code on your site to point at the new platform. |
| Workflows & Automation | Yes (recreate) | Most fragile area. Document triggers, branches, and integrations; rebuild logic in the new automation engine. |
| Reporting & Dashboards | Yes | Historical reports often use HubSpot-specific metrics; export raw data for rebuilding in BI tools. |
| CMS Pages & Landing Pages | Yes | Export HTML/CSS/images; recreate forms, redirect old URLs, and check SEO metadata. |
| Domains & Email Auth (SPF/DKIM) | Yes | Update DNS for new sending domain and authentication records to maintain deliverability. |
| Integrations (Zapier, Stripe, Salesforce, etc.) | Yes | Repoint or rebuild integrations; some will need custom middleware or a different connector. |
Hidden costs that break workflows (and how to mitigate them)
Don’t be fooled by license savings alone. Here are the non-obvious costs that bite teams during and after a HubSpot exit.
- Data clean-up and mapping: HubSpot properties are often messy — whitespace, duplicate fields, legacy options. You’ll pay for data engineering time to standardise values before import into the new system.
- Rebuilding automation: Workflows are the most expensive rebuild. Expect development and QA time to replicate conditional branching, delays, lead rotation, and integrated steps (e.g., calendar invites or invoicing).
- Integration rework: Many teams depend on Zapier or native HubSpot connectors. New platforms may lack parity, requiring custom middleware (Make, Zapier, AWS Lambda) or new vendor subscriptions.
- Email deliverability hit: Moving ESPs without proper SPF/DKIM alignment and warm-up can tank open rates. Plan domain auth and a slow warm-up for sending IPs.
- Lost analytics and attribution: HubSpot’s session stitching and source attribution can’t be exported cleanly. Rebuild tracking plans, implement first-party tracking, and consider CDP tools (Segment, RudderStack) if you need unified identity.
- Team training and productivity loss: New UI and processes slow teams. Budget training sessions, playbooks, and overlap time where both systems run in parallel.
- Contractual and historical data limits: HubSpot stores engagement history that may be huge; exporting everything could hit API limits or require multiple exports and stitching.
- Third-party app costs: Some apps you used with HubSpot may charge per seat or lack integrations with your new stack, which could increase costs.
Practical migration steps — a playbook I use
Here’s a practical sequence that’s helped me avoid the typical landmines:
- Freeze changes: Pick a date to freeze major config changes in HubSpot (no new workflows, properties, or forms). This gives you a stable source of truth for export.
- Export data and engagement history: Pull CSVs for contacts, companies, deals, tickets, properties, and association tables. For engagements (emails, calls, notes), use API exports if CSVs are incomplete.
- Map properties to the new schema: Create a property mapping doc. Identify required fields in the destination CRM and create them before importing.
- Rebuild key automations first: Recreate lead routing, SLA escalation, and revenue-critical workflows before cosmetic automations.
- Parallel run and reconciliation: Run both systems in parallel for at least one sales cycle. Reconcile records and adjust mappings as you find mismatches.
- Cutover communications: Communicate with sales, marketing and customer success about new links, playbooks and where to log notes during the transition.
- Archive HubSpot: Keep read-only access to HubSpot for at least six months to pull missing history or resolve disputes.
Tooling and alternative platforms to consider
There’s no single “HubSpot replacement”; pick tools based on which parts of HubSpot you used most.
- If you primarily used CRM + sales: consider Salesforce, Pipedrive, or Copper.
- If you used marketing automation: look at ActiveCampaign, Klaviyo (ecommerce), or Marketo for enterprise needs.
- For CMS and landing pages: WordPress + Elementor, Webflow, or a headless approach with Next.js and a landing page builder.
- For integrations and CDP: Segment (Twilio), RudderStack, or Fivetran to centralise data first, then distribute to downstream tools.
- For low-code automation: Zapier, Make, or an integration platform like Workato.
Choosing a best-fit stack often means splitting HubSpot’s all-in-one into best-of-breed components. That can lower licence spend but raises integration complexity — another form of hidden cost.
Checklist to put in your project plan
- Complete functional and technical audit
- Identify revenue-critical workflows and mark as high priority
- Export full datasets and engagement logs
- Create property mapping and import templates
- Rebuild and test automations in new tools
- Update forms and site embeds; implement redirects
- Reconfigure email authentication and plan deliverability warm-up
- Run systems in parallel; reconcile for one sales cycle
- Archive HubSpot with read-only access and document access instructions
- Schedule training sessions and update internal SOPs
Switching off HubSpot is doable, but it’s a project — not an afternoon task. Plan for data work, automation rebuilds, integration refactors and a careful cutover. If you map dependencies up front and prioritise what keeps revenue flowing, you’ll avoid the most painful surprises.
