One of those tasks that seems easy until you actually do it is switching CRMs. You’re attempting to exit a system that has years’ worth of contact information, deal history, custom fields, email sequences, and integrations. It takes more than a CSV export and a prayer to move it to HubSpot without ruining everything.
HubSpot migration services are intended for this purpose. Regardless of whether you’re coming from Salesforce, Zoho, or an older system that your business has been using since 2020, there is a method that genuinely works and several ways to make it go wrong if you start from scratch.
Why Businesses Switch to HubSpot in the First Place
It’s important to comprehend the why before moving on to the how, as they are typically the same few factors.
Salesforce is strong, but it costs a lot and needs a lot of administrative labor to function properly. Salesforce is paid for by many mid-sized businesses and they use something like 30% of the features. Zoho is cheaper, but as your team grows larger the user interface becomes cumbersome, reporting becomes annoying and customer service isn’t always supportive when something goes wrong.
Legacy CRMs are their own category entirely. Some companies are running on systems that haven’t had a meaningful update in a decade. Data is scattered. Nobody fully knows where everything lives. Getting out of those systems is less a migration and more an excavation.
HubSpot is appealing since it is simple to use, has a really helpful free tier, and works effectively with marketing automation right out of the box. It is actually possible for marketing and sales teams to collaborate inside the same system without continual conflict.
What HubSpot Migration Actually Involves
Moving data from point A to point B is only one aspect of migration. Anyone who claims to have done one is either preparing you for a terrible surprise or has never really done one.
Data Audit and Cleanup
Before anything can be moved someone has to decide what is worth moving on. Most CRMs gather junk data over time, such as the phone numbers of people who left the company four years ago, duplicate contacts, dead deals and old company information. When migrated into HubSpot, it’s just moved to a new location and the problem isn’t cleaned up.
A proper migration begins with an audit. You decide which information you have, what can be archived or deleted, what is really useful and what needs to be deduplicated. That alone can save you big headaches down the road.
Custom Field Mapping
Data is arranged slightly differently in each CRM. The fields and objects in Salesforce do not correspond exactly to the contact and deal characteristics in HubSpot. Zoho has unique naming conventions. Legacy systems sometimes have fields that don’t have a logical equivalent anywhere in HubSpot.
Migration services handle the mapping, matching your existing data structure to HubSpot’s so nothing gets lost or misplaced during the transfer. This is where a lot of DIY migrations go wrong. People assume the fields will line up automatically and then discover their deal stages showed up in the wrong property or entire columns of data didn’t import at all.
Historical Data and Activity Logs
Contact records are one thing. Email history, call logs, notes, and activity timelines are another. Some of that data transfers cleanly. Some of it requires workarounds. And some legacy systems export activity logs in formats that need preprocessing before HubSpot will accept them.
A good migration service handles this without you having to figure out what a JSON transform looks like.
Migrating from Salesforce vs. Zoho vs. Legacy Systems
These aren’t the same migration.
Salesforce to HubSpot Migration
The most complicated Salesforce migrations are not because the data is more unruly, but because Salesforce is so customized at most companies. You might have Apex triggers, complex automation rules, custom objects and a hierarchy of permissions that took months to build. And that doesn’t happen by chance.
The good news is that HubSpot has a native Salesforce connector so you can use both systems side by side while your workforce acclimates to HubSpot. This enables two way data synchronization. That, by itself, reduces the likelihood of a hard cutover.
Zoho to HubSpot Migration
Zoho migrations are usually faster but still need attention. The main issues tend to be around automation, Zoho workflows don’t translate directly to HubSpot sequences or workflows, so they need to be rebuilt rather than imported. Reporting dashboards are the same story.
Data-wise, Zoho exports are workable, but the field structures need cleanup before import. Companies with large contact lists often find more duplicates than they expected.
Legacy CRM Migration
This is where it gets creative. Sometimes, legacy systems are unable to export to standard formats in a clean manner. You may be working with a local server database, a system without an API, or data that can only be accessed through exports that haven’t been used in years.
More preparation work is frequently needed for legacy migrations than for the actual move. Getting the data into a usable state before moving it is the job.
What to Look for in a HubSpot Migration Service
Not every migration partner is worth hiring. Here are some things to think about before you decide:
HubSpot certifications are important especially HubSpot Solutions Partner title which means that the supplier has been vetted directly by HubSpot. In addition, get recommendations from businesses that made the same change as you. A team that has done fifty Salesforce migrations will see issues that a generalist may not see.
Timeline and rollback plans matter too. What happens if something breaks mid-migration? A serious provider, like 3 & four Technologies, has an answer to that question before the project starts.
FAQs
Q: How long does a HubSpot migration from Salesforce or Zoho typically take?
The majority of mid-size business migrations take two to six weeks to go online which depends mainly on the amount and complexity of your data. It is possible to do a simple Zoho transfer with clean data more quickly, sometimes in less than two weeks. Heavily customized Salesforce migrations can take longer, particularly if HubSpot workflows need to be recreated. The timing is typically determined more by the first data audit and cleansing process than by the actual transfer.
Q: Will historical data like emails and call logs transfer when migrating to HubSpot?
Depending on where you’re moving from, some of it will and others won’t. Records of contacts and deals often transfer smoothly. Email history is more difficult: emails that were recorded as activity records in your previous CRM may frequently be imported into HubSpot as notes or timeline entries, but they won’t show up in the native Gmail or Outlook integration history. Meeting notes and call records adhere to comparable regulations. Before the project begins, a migration service will outline precisely what transfers automatically and what requires a workaround to avoid unpleasant surprises.
