Salesforce to HubSpot Migration: The Complete Guide for 2025
Why consider a migration from Salesforce to HubSpot in 2025?
Moving from Salesforce to HubSpot is a major strategic decision for many companies looking to optimize their marketing, sales and customer service operations by 2025. There are several reasons for this change. HubSpot is often seen as having a more intuitive interface and a softer learning curve than Salesforce, making it easier for teams to adopt. In addition, HubSpot’s pricing model, especially for SMEs and growing businesses, can be more predictable and potentially less costly in terms of total cost of ownership (TCO), especially when considering the all-in-one native features offered by HubSpot (Marketing Hub, Sales Hub, Service Hub, CMS Hub). This integrated approach reduces the need for multiple tools and facilitates CRM integration.
Easy to use and intuitive HubSpot interface
One of the major attractions of HubSpot is its clean and user-friendly user interface. Designed to be easy to get started, it allows sales, marketing and service teams to quickly become operational, reducing training time and costs.
Potentially lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)
While Salesforce offers immense functional depth, its cost can increase rapidly with the addition of users, advanced features, and necessary integrations. HubSpot offers a tariff structure that is often considered more transparent and a unified platform that can reduce overall spending on third-party software, offering potentially more advantageous TCO for some business structures.
All-in-one platform (Marketing, Sales, Service, CMS)
HubSpot shines with its integrated platform approach. Having marketing, sales, customer service and even the website (CMS Hub) on a single database and interface simplifies team alignment, improves customer view to 360 degrees and facilitates inter-departmental automation.
Integration ecosystem and marketplace HubSpot
Although Salesforce has a very mature ecosystem (AppExchange), HubSpot’s app marketplace has grown significantly, offering hundreds of native and third-party integrations to connect HubSpot to other essential tools in your technology stack.
Adaptability for SMEs and growing teams
HubSpot is particularly appreciated by SMEs and companies in the growth phase for its ability to evolve with their needs. You can start with free features or Starter versions, and then upgrade as the company grows, without the initial complexity sometimes associated with Salesforce.
Key steps in a successful Salesforce to HubSpot migration
A CRM migration cannot be improvised. Moving from Salesforce to HubSpot requires rigorous planning and methodical execution. Here are the essential phases for 2025:
Phase 1: Preparation and Audit
This is the foundation of your migration. Start by clearly defining your goals: why do you migrate? What processes do you want to improve? What KPIs will you follow? Next, complete an audit of your data in Salesforce. Identify unnecessary, outdated, or duplicated data to clean *before* migration. Specifically map standard, custom objects, fields, users, and profiles from Salesforce to their equivalents in HubSpot. Finally, choose your migration method: will you do it manually (for very small volumes), will you use HubSpot’s native import tools, a third-party migration platform, or will you use a specialized integration partner?
Phase 2: HubSpot Configuration
Before importing the data, prepare your new home. Configure your HubSpot account based on the needs defined during the audit: custom properties, sales pipelines, users and permissions, dashboards. Recreate or adapt your automation workflows, email sequences, and templates. It is crucial to test this configuration to ensure that it fits your business processes.
Phase 3: Data migration
Don't switch all of a sudden. Perform a test migration with a representative sample of your data (a few hundred contacts, companies, transactions). Scrupulously validate that the data is properly transferred and mapped in HubSpot. Once the adjustments are made, proceed to the complete migration. Depending on the volume, it may take time. Plan this phase to minimize the impact on your operations (for example, for a weekend). After the main migration, perform a final thorough validation.
Phase 4: Post-migration and Training
Technical migration is only the beginning. Success is the adoption by users. Organize comprehensive training sessions for your teams on using HubSpot on a daily basis and on new processes. Continue to optimize your configurations and automations in HubSpot based on field returns. Set up a follow-up to measure the adoption and effectiveness of the new CRM. Allow a transition period where Salesforce remains read-only before permanently disabling it.
Common Migration Challenges and How to Overcome Them
All migration has its share of potential challenges. Being aware of this allows to better anticipate them.
Complexity of data mapping
Salesforce and HubSpot do not have exactly the same structure of objects and fields. Mapping, especially with highly customized Salesforce configurations, can be complex.
Solution: A detailed audit and mapping phase is crucial. Do not hesitate to simplify your data structure if possible during the migration. Using an expert can avoid many mistakes.
Source data cleaning and quality
Migrating poor quality data will only pollute your new HubSpot CRM ('Garbage In, Garbage Out').
Solution: Allocate significant time and resources to data cleaning and deduplication in Salesforce *before you launch the migration.
Management of existing integrations
Your current Salesforce integrations (ERP, BI tools, telephony...) will not work natively with HubSpot.
Solution: List all critical integrations. Look for their equivalents in the HubSpot marketplace or plan specific developments if necessary. Test these new integrations.
Resistance to change and adoption by users
Salesforce’s teams can be reluctant to change.
Solution: Clearly communicate the benefits of HubSpot, involve key users early in the process, and invest heavily in post-migration training and support.
Potential downtime and business continuity
A poorly planned migration can disrupt business activities.
Solution: Carefully plan the 'cut-over' (tipping time), prioritize periods of low activity, and make sure teams know how to operate during the transition. A test migration reduces the risk.
Tools and resources to facilitate migration
There are several options available to you to carry out the technical transfer of data.
HubSpot Native Tools (Import)
HubSpot offers built-in import features that allow you to import common objects (contacts, businesses, transactions, tickets, products) via CSV files. There is also a native Salesforce import tool, but its capabilities can be limited for complex structures.
Third-party migration platforms
Specialized tools like Trujay (now part of HubSpot), Import2, or other data migration platforms can automate much of the process, manage complex mappings, and reduce migration time. However, these tools have an associated cost.
The Importance of Using an Integration Partner (Like Turnk)
For complex migrations, involving large volumes of data, advanced customizations, or critical integrations, collaborating with an experienced HubSpot integration partner is often the best approach. A partner brings their technical expertise, knowledge of best practices, and can manage the project from start to finish, ensuring a smooth transition and minimizing risk.
How much does a Salesforce migration to HubSpot cost?
The cost of a migration varies considerably depending on several factors:
- Data volume and complexity: The more data and customizations you have, the longer and more complex the migration will be (and therefore expensive if you outsource).
- Data cleaning: The effort needed to prepare your data can impact the overall cost.
- Migration method: A manual migration is the cheapest but unrealistic except very simple case. Third-party tools have a licensing/use cost. Using a partner is an investment but can save time and avoid costly mistakes.
- Integrations: The need to redo or replace integrations can add costs.
- Training: Do not underestimate the cost (time and/or money) of team training.
It’s important to compare this unique (or month-long) investment to the recurring cost of your Salesforce subscription and associated tools, as well as the expected efficiency and productivity gains with HubSpot.
Ready to take the plunge to HubSpot in 2025?
Migrating from Salesforce to HubSpot is a transformational project that, well-conducted, can bring increased agility, simplicity and efficiency to your marketing, sales and service teams. The key to success is meticulous planning, rigorous data cleansing, and effective change support. To calmly address your migration in 2025 and harness the full potential of HubSpot, a partner’s expertise is a major asset.
Are you planning a Salesforce migration to HubSpot? Our team of experts in CRM, ERP and AI integration is here to support you every step of the way. Get a personalized audit and a tailor-made migration strategy. Schedule an appointment with our consultants today!
the most common questions
Key benefits often include a more intuitive interface, potentially lower total cost of ownership, an all-in-one platform (marketing, sales, service, CMS), ease of use for SMEs, and an ecosystem of growing integrations.
The key steps are: 1. Preparation and Audit (objectives, data cleaning, mapping). 2. HubSpot configuration (properties, pipelines, workflows). 3. Data migration (test and then complete migration, validation). 4. Post-migration and training (team training, optimization, monitoring).
Common challenges include the complexity of data mapping between the two systems, the need for a thorough cleaning of source data, the management and replacement of existing integrations, resistance to user change, and the management of potential downtime during the transition.
Calling on a partner like Turnk is recommended for complex migration, because it provides technical expertise, ensures compliance with best practices, manages the project, minimizes the risk of errors or delays, and helps with the optimal configuration of HubSpot as well as the training of teams.
