Salesforce to HubSpot migration: what maps, what breaks, what stays behind

Smart Transfer or the Salesforce app: which route fits?

Pick the route by how long Salesforce stays in use. If everyone switches on one date, use Smart Transfer. If sales keeps working in Salesforce for weeks or months while marketing or service move first, use the Salesforce app as a bridge.

How Salesforce objects map to HubSpot

Most Salesforce objects have a HubSpot counterpart. Each row below still needs a decision from you.

The one-time move with Smart Transfer, step by step

Smart Transfer sits under Data Management > Data Integration > Transfer data, and only a Super Admin sees it. Work through it in this order.

1. Step 01

   Create users and currencies first

   Every Salesforce user who owns records needs a HubSpot user with the same email. Smart Transfer also offers Salesforce’s own system users, such as Integration User or Chatter Expert: untick them. If you sell in several currencies, turn on multi-currency in HubSpot before you configure the transfer, or the configuration fails.

   

2. Step 02

   Run the audit

   The audit lists each Salesforce object with its HubSpot counterpart and record count, plus pipelines, stages and fields, and marks the fields that can’t transfer. Custom objects and opportunity products don’t appear in it at all. Export it: it’s the start of your mapping document.

   

3. Step 03

   Configure with automatic sync off

   Pick the objects and the fields to bring across. “Automatically start sync” is set per object, so turn it off on each object’s page for the first run. Then you can check the properties and pipelines Smart Transfer creates before any record arrives. Properties marked “Needs review” afterwards are usually duplicate labels that Smart Transfer renamed, such as “Forecast Category salesforce”.

   

   

4. Step 04

   Check each sync, then start it

   Each object gets its own sync, with its own record matching, conflict rule and field mapping. Companies match on name or domain by default, and Salesforce wins a conflict. Start the syncs, and check a sample: companies with many contacts, open opportunities, records whose owner has left.

   

   

5. Step 05

   Transfer attachments, contact roles and lists

   Attachments, contact roles and campaign lists come in a one-time transfer after the sync, and only for records that already exist in HubSpot. Tick association labels too: opportunity contact roles arrive as labels such as Decision Maker. Nothing in this step updates afterwards.

   

6. Step 06

   Revert if the mapping was wrong

   A revert removes what the transfer created, stage by stage, records included. You confirm it by typing “revert”. Records that came in any other way stay as they are.

   

7. Step 07

   Stop the sync on the day you switch

   Smart Transfer keeps syncing in the background after the first run. On cut-over day, turn off each sync from its More menu, then clean up the empty properties and the helper workflows it created.

   

For the test round, the freeze and the cut-over itself, follow our CRM migration guide. Its steps hold for Salesforce too.

Run both systems, then switch: the sync-first route

With the Salesforce app, HubSpot and Salesforce run side by side until the last team moves. The order of the steps decides whether your links between records survive.

1. Step 01

   Check the Salesforce side

   You need a Salesforce edition with API access or Professional, not Group Edition, and a system administrator with API Enabled and Modify All on the objects you sync. If Salesforce enforces login IP restrictions on every request, the connection fails.

   

2. Step 02

   Install the app and sign in to Salesforce

   Install the Salesforce app from the HubSpot Marketplace and sign in with the Salesforce user the sync should run as. HubSpot shares that user’s rights in Salesforce, so use an integration user rather than a person who might leave.

   

3. Step 03

   Decide what new records do

   By default, a new HubSpot contact creates a Salesforce lead, but a new Salesforce lead or contact does nothing in HubSpot. Only records with a valid email address sync to HubSpot. If HubSpot contacts become leads, turn off automatic company creation in HubSpot, or converted leads create duplicate companies.

   

4. Step 04

   Check what deletions do

   A contact deleted in either system stays in the other by default. A Salesforce opportunity that is deleted deletes its HubSpot deal, and that rule can’t be changed.

   

   

5. Step 05

   Give every field a rule

   For each mapped field, decide which system wins: Salesforce unless blank, always Salesforce, two-way, or don’t sync. During the move, Salesforce usually wins for sales fields and HubSpot for marketing fields. A new mapping doesn’t change existing values until the records sync again.

   

   

6. Step 06

   Import companies first, then deals

   Nothing syncs right after installing. Import the accounts first, then the leads and contacts, then the opportunities, under Import, Objects from an app. In the other order, deals arrive without their company. Watch the API calls: the app shares your Salesforce daily limit with every other connected tool, and a contact can take up to four calls.

   

   

7. Step 07

   Move team by team

   Marketing usually moves first, sales last. An inclusion list limits which HubSpot contacts sync to Salesforce, so only what a team still needs there goes back.

   

8. Step 08

   Uninstall on the last day

   When sales works in HubSpot, uninstall the app under Actions. HubSpot keeps every record, the Salesforce properties and their values. Then remove the HubSpot package in Salesforce.

   

Opportunities to deals: record types, stages and products

Opportunities hold most of what sales needs: stages, amounts, close dates, contact roles and products. Settle each of the points below before the first sync.

• Record types don’t survive Smart Transfer. It puts every opportunity into one pipeline, “Salesforce pipeline”, with every stage value Salesforce knows, used or not. The record type itself is an unsupported field. If you sell in several processes, copy the record type name into a plain text field in Salesforce before the transfer, then split the deals into pipelines in HubSpot.
• The Salesforce app keeps record types apart. It creates one pipeline per record type, named “Salesforce -” plus the record type, such as “Salesforce - Renewal”. If two record types share the same stages, merge their deals into one pipeline after the move and keep the record type in a dropdown property. HubSpot allows 15 custom pipelines on Starter, 100 on Professional and 350 on Enterprise, shared by all objects.
• Stages are mapped by meaning. List every Salesforce stage and decide where it lands. Stages nobody used last year go. Set each HubSpot stage’s win probability from your own Salesforce numbers, as our forecast guide shows.
• Contact roles become links, labelled or not. Smart Transfer’s one-time step turns each opportunity contact role into a link with the role as its label, such as Decision Maker. The Salesforce app links the contacts to the deal without the role.
• Products don’t come along. Neither route turns opportunity products into line items. A deal arrives with its amount and a “has line item” flag, but no products. Import the product library, then the line items per deal from an export, or use a migration app.
• Currencies don’t convert. The Salesforce app syncs the number, not the exchange rate. Turn on multi-currency in HubSpot and keep each deal in its own currency.
• Create dates start again, except on deals. Smart Transfer adds a workflow that sets each deal’s create date to the Salesforce created date. Contacts and companies get the day of the transfer, so carry their old date in a property of its own.

Salesforce custom objects: rebuild, don’t copy

Salesforce orgs collect custom objects over the years, often for one report or one project. Before you move one, decide what it becomes in HubSpot.

• A property when every company or deal has just one of it, such as a contract end date.
• An association label when the object only describes a relationship, such as a partner on a deal.
• A custom object when a customer has several, each with its own data and status, such as machines or subscriptions. It needs HubSpot Enterprise.

Smart Transfer doesn’t move custom objects. On Enterprise, the Salesforce app syncs them: create each object in HubSpot first, with at least one required property. Lookup fields can’t be mapped as fields. The app offers them as associations instead, and only to objects that already sync. When a custom object is worth it is in our custom objects guide.

Salesforce files and attachments: how they move

Files are what people expect to move and what most often doesn’t. Of HubSpot’s two routes, only Smart Transfer moves files, and only once.

Before you move files, ask who opens them. Signed contracts and offers usually matter. Signature images and logos saved from emails usually don’t. Upload contracts as private files.

Owners and users: match them before the first sync

Every Salesforce record has an owner. HubSpot recognises that owner only when a HubSpot user has the same name and email as an active Salesforce user.

• Create users first. Add every active owner as a HubSpot user with the same email before the first transfer or sync.
• Owners who have left. The Salesforce app also brings owners without a HubSpot user, queues included. They show with “(Salesforce)” after their name. When you uninstall the app, every record they own has to be reassigned. Do it before, and keep the old owner’s name in a text property.
• Queues. HubSpot has no queues. Give queue records a team or a default owner, and route new ones with a workflow.
• User fields beyond the owner. Fields such as account manager or customer success manager hold Salesforce user IDs, and HubSpot can’t map them to a user property. Map them to a dropdown property, type each user’s name as the label of their 18-digit ID, and add new users by hand.
• Records without an owner. Salesforce requires one. A HubSpot record without an owner that creates a Salesforce record gets the integration user as its owner.

What doesn’t move from Salesforce to HubSpot

These Salesforce features never come across to HubSpot, whichever route you use. Plan where each one goes. The list for any CRM, such as field history and create dates, is in our CRM migration guide.

Data protection and timing in Germany, Austria and Switzerland

A move from Salesforce to HubSpot in Germany, Austria or Switzerland adds data protection duties for the parallel run and a contract date to plan around.

• Two processors during the parallel run. While both systems sync, Salesforce and HubSpot process the same personal data. Both need a data processing agreement, and both belong in your record of processing activities.
• Deletions aren’t passed on. Deleting a contact in HubSpot doesn’t delete the Salesforce lead or contact. During the parallel run, carry out every deletion request in both systems.
• Data centres. Check where each system holds the data. HubSpot has an EU data centre, and Salesforce runs orgs in EU regions.
• German picklist values. Many orgs in German show German labels but store English API names. Map by the API name, and give the HubSpot dropdowns the labels your team reads.
• Start well before the end date. Salesforce contracts run for a fixed term. Start at least four months before it ends, so the final export, the cut-over and a few weeks of read access all fit.

How we run a move from Salesforce to HubSpot

A Salesforce move goes wrong in the decisions, not in the transfer. So most of the time goes in before the first record moves.

1. Step 01

   Audit

   Objects, fields with how often they’re filled, record types, automation, reports, owners and connected tools in your Salesforce org.
2. Step 02

   Decide

   The route, what each object becomes in HubSpot, what stays in the archive, and which system owns which field during a parallel run.
3. Step 03

   Test

   A transfer or sync into a test account first, checked by the people who use the data, until nothing surprises anyone.
4. Step 04

   Switch

   Team by team or on one date, with Salesforce read-only at the end and a full export kept.

Frequently asked questions