To migrate from Salesforce to HubSpot, audit and clean your Salesforce data, decide what moves, map objects and fields, and create matching HubSpot properties. Import in dependency order: companies, contacts, deals, then activities. Test on a sample, run a final delta import, rebuild workflows and integrations, then cut over.
Before you start: decide scope and an owner
Most migration trouble starts before any data moves. Agree what has to come across, what can stay behind in Salesforce, and who on your side signs off each stage.
- List every object you use: leads, accounts, contacts, opportunities, activities, files and custom objects.
- List every tool connected to Salesforce, such as email, forms, billing, support and reporting.
- Name one person who owns the decisions, and one who can answer questions about how the data is really used.
- Pick a target go-live date and work backwards from it.
Planning a migration like this and want a second pair of eyes? Book a free Systems Review
Audit and clean your Salesforce data
Moving messy data only gives you a messy HubSpot. Spend the time on the source first.
- Find and merge duplicate contacts and accounts.
- Check that every record has a valid owner and that former employees' records are reassigned.
- Decide how much history you need. Old closed records and unused fields often do not need to move.
- Export a copy of everything before you change anything.
Map objects and fields
HubSpot structures data differently from Salesforce. Write the mapping down before you import, field by field.
- Salesforce leads and contacts usually become HubSpot contacts, with the lead status carried in a lifecycle stage or lead status property.
- Salesforce accounts become HubSpot companies.
- Salesforce opportunities become HubSpot deals, with each Salesforce stage matched to a deal stage in a pipeline.
- Activities such as calls, emails and notes become engagements on the matching record.
- Custom objects need a decision. HubSpot supports custom objects on some plans, so check what your plan allows.
- Match picklist values on both sides, or imports will drop or reject them.
Build the HubSpot side first
Create the properties, pipelines, users, teams and permissions in HubSpot before you import a single record. Records land in a structure that already fits them.
- Create custom properties with the same data types as the Salesforce fields they receive.
- Set up deal pipelines and stages.
- Create users and teams, and set permissions.
- Add a property that stores the original Salesforce ID on each record.
Import order and associations
Associations are the links between records, such as a contact and the company they work for, or a deal and its contacts. They break when records are imported in the wrong order or without a shared key.
Import the records that others depend on first. Keeping the Salesforce ID on every record gives you a reliable key to rebuild the links.
- Companies (from Salesforce accounts).
- Contacts, associated to their companies.
- Deals, associated to their companies and contacts.
- Activities and notes, associated to the records they belong to.
Rebuild workflows, integrations and reports
Salesforce flows, process builders and reports do not transfer to HubSpot. Treat them as a list of business rules to rebuild, not as files to copy.
Reconnect each tool from your list to HubSpot, and rebuild the reports your team relies on so the first week after go-live is not spent asking where the numbers went.
Test on a sample, then run a final delta import
Import a small sample first and check it against Salesforce. Compare record counts, spot-check associations, and look at a few records the way a salesperson would.
When the sample is right, run the full import. Just before go-live, run a final delta import that picks up everything created or changed in Salesforce since the full import.
Go-live, parallel run and training
Choose a cutover moment, stop edits in Salesforce, run the delta import, and switch your connected tools to HubSpot. Many teams keep Salesforce available read-only for a period, so people can check the old record while they learn the new one. How long is your call.
Train the team on the HubSpot views they will use daily before go-live, not after.
Where this comes from
Our team has run Salesforce to HubSpot migrations with databases of hundreds of thousands of records. We deduplicated the data with scripts and rules, kept associations, tasks, email history and custom object data, and planned go-live within four weeks.
