How do you migrate to HubSpot from another CRM?
A HubSpot migration moves your contacts, companies, deals and history from your current CRM or marketing platform into HubSpot. It involves mapping the data model, exporting and transforming records, preserving associations and activity history, de-duplicating, rebuilding integrations and workflows, validating everything, then cutting over, often with a period of parallel running to confirm nothing is lost.
What it is
A migration is more than an export and import. The hard part is mapping one system's data model onto HubSpot's, preserving the relationships between records, keeping the history that your team relies on, and rebuilding the workflows and integrations that made the old system work, all without losing data or disrupting the business while you switch.
I run migrations end to end, from the platform you are leaving to a HubSpot account your team can use with confidence. That means deciding what comes across and what is left behind, transforming the data so it fits HubSpot's model cleanly, de-duplicating as part of the move rather than importing the mess, and recreating the assets and automations that were doing real work.
Salesforce migrations are the most common request, and the most involved: complex object relationships, custom objects, report and automation logic, and years of activity history all need careful handling. But the same disciplined approach applies whether you are coming from Marketo, Pardot, Pipedrive, Zoho, Dynamics, ActiveCampaign, Mailchimp or a tangle of spreadsheets. Across ten years of implementations I have moved businesses of every size onto HubSpot, and the priority is always the same: no surprises, no lost data, and a system people trust on day one.
Who it's for
- Businesses moving off Salesforce, Dynamics or another CRM they have outgrown or want to simplify
- Marketing teams leaving Marketo, Pardot, ActiveCampaign or Mailchimp to consolidate on HubSpot
- Companies running sales and marketing on separate tools that want one platform
- Teams escaping spreadsheets, shared inboxes or a CRM nobody maintained
- Anyone who has been quoted a migration that ignores history, associations or de-duplication
How it works
Discovery & data audit
We review your current platform, its data model and the volume and quality of what is in it, then agree what migrates, what is archived and what is left behind. Migration is the ideal moment to leave bad data behind rather than carry it across.
Data mapping
Every object, field and picklist in your old system is mapped to its HubSpot equivalent, with property types, naming and values normalised so the data lands clean and consistent rather than as a literal copy of someone else's structure.
History & associations
Contacts linked to companies, deals linked to contacts, and the activity history (emails, notes, calls, meetings) preserved so your team keeps the context they rely on. Maintaining these relationships is what separates a real migration from a flat import.
De-duplication
Duplicates are identified and merged as part of the move, with clear rules for which record wins, so you arrive in HubSpot with a clean database instead of importing the duplication problem you already had.
Integrations rebuild
The connections that made the old system work, your website, forms, calendar, billing, data and reporting tools, are reconnected to HubSpot, so nothing that depended on the previous CRM quietly breaks at cutover.
Workflows & assets
Automations, email templates, forms, lists, lead scoring and reports are recreated in HubSpot, built around HubSpot's strengths rather than copied field for field, so they work better than the originals rather than just matching them.
Validation & cutover
Record counts, associations and key reports are checked against the source before go-live, often with a period of parallel running, so you can confirm nothing is missing before switching the team over and decommissioning the old system.
| From platform | Common challenge | Handled by |
|---|---|---|
| Salesforce | Complex objects, custom logic, activity history | Careful object mapping and parallel running |
| Marketo / Pardot | Programs, scoring, email and form assets | Rebuilding automation around HubSpot's model |
| Pipedrive / Zoho | Pipelines and field naming differences | Pipeline and property normalisation |
| Microsoft Dynamics | Custom entities and relationship data | Data-model mapping and association rebuild |
| ActiveCampaign / Mailchimp | Lists, tags, automations, deliverability | Segmentation, list and workflow recreation |
| Spreadsheets / inbox | Inconsistent, duplicated, unstructured data | Cleansing, de-duplication and structuring |
The outcome
- Your data in HubSpot with history and relationships intact, not a flat list of contacts
- A cleaner, de-duplicated database than the one you left behind
- Integrations reconnected so nothing breaks at cutover
- Workflows, templates and reports rebuilt to work well in HubSpot
- A validated migration you can prove is complete before you switch over
- A team that can keep working through the move, with no lost context
Frequently asked questions
Will I lose any data when migrating to HubSpot?
Not with a properly run migration. The whole approach is built around no data loss: we map every field, preserve history and associations, validate record counts against the source before go-live, and usually run the old and new systems in parallel for a period so you can confirm everything is present before switching over and decommissioning.
Can you migrate from Salesforce to HubSpot?
Yes, this is the most common migration I handle. Salesforce migrations need care because of complex object relationships, custom objects, report and automation logic, and years of activity history, but all of it can move across cleanly with the right mapping and validation. There is a Salesforce to HubSpot migration checklist that walks through what to plan for.
How long does a migration take?
Anywhere from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, depending on data volume, the number of objects and integrations, and how clean the source data is. A straightforward move from Pipedrive or a set of spreadsheets is quick; a large Salesforce account with custom objects and many integrations takes longer. You will get a realistic timeline after the data audit.
What happens to our integrations and automations?
They are rebuilt rather than abandoned. Integrations to your website, forms, calendar, billing and reporting tools are reconnected to HubSpot, and your workflows, templates, scoring and reports are recreated to take advantage of how HubSpot works. The aim is for the new setup to be better than the old one, not just a like-for-like copy.
Can the team keep working during the migration?
Yes. Most migrations are planned so the business keeps running throughout, often with a period of parallel running where both systems are live before the final cutover. We agree a clear switch-over point, and validation happens before that point so you are never working blind in a half-migrated account.
Should we clean up our data before or during the move?
During. A migration is the best opportunity you will get to leave bad data behind, because we are touching every record anyway. De-duplication, normalising field values and deciding what to archive are all built into the process, so you arrive in HubSpot with a cleaner database than the one you left, rather than importing existing problems.