Moving from Salesforce to HubSpot at 100+ seats
The order a Salesforce to HubSpot migration goes in, what goes wrong at each step, and the Australian privacy, hosting and contract dates to plan around.
A Salesforce to HubSpot migration at 100 or more seats goes in a fixed order. Audit what people actually use, decide what you will leave behind, map the objects, then load users and owners, records, associations, activities and attachments, and only then rebuild the automation and the reports.
Get the order wrong and the cutover week goes on fixing deals with no company and tasks with no owner.
How long it takes depends on four things: how much custom code and how many custom objects you have, how many systems connect to Salesforce, how clean the data is, and when your Salesforce renewal notice falls due. That last one usually sets the deadline. Here is the plan, step by step, with what goes wrong at each step.
Why so many teams are asking this now
Salesforce lifted list prices by an average of 6 per cent on 1 August 2025 for the Enterprise and Unlimited editions of Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Field Service and some Industries clouds. In the same announcement it priced its Agentforce add-ons from US$125 per user per month. Those are US list prices in USD; your order form says what you pay.
If you are still deciding whether to move at all, start with HubSpot or Salesforce: what actually changes at 100 people. This post assumes you have decided and need to know how.
Step one: audit what your team actually uses
Before you map anything, list everything in the org and mark each item as used, unused or unknown:
- Standard and custom objects, with record counts
- Fields on each object, and how many records have a value in them
- Reports and dashboards, and who opened them in the last 90 days
- Apex triggers and classes
- Flows, process builders and workflow rules
- Validation rules
- AppExchange packages, and what each one writes into your records
- Every integration: your website forms, finance system, phone system, marketing tools and anything calling the API
The integrations list is the one that bites. Each one has to be pointed at HubSpot, replaced or switched off, and its owner needs to know the date.
What should you leave behind?
Less than you think. Fields nobody fills in, reports nobody opens and leads that went cold years ago all cost time to map, test and train on.
There is an Australian legal reason too. If your business turns over more than $3 million a year, the Privacy Act applies to you, and Australian Privacy Principle 11 says you must take reasonable steps to destroy or de-identify personal information once you no longer need it for any permitted purpose, unless a law or court order requires you to keep it. If you have no reason to keep a contact, do not move it into a second system.
The same rule applies to what you leave in Salesforce. Under Salesforce's standard Main Services Agreement, you can ask for your data back within 30 days after the agreement ends, after which Salesforce has no obligation to keep it. Take a full export before that window closes, then decide what you keep, where it is stored, and who can open it.
How do Salesforce objects map to HubSpot?
HubSpot's Smart Transfer tool publishes its Salesforce mapping, and it is a sensible default:
| Salesforce | HubSpot |
|---|---|
| Accounts | Companies |
| Contacts, Leads and Person Accounts | Contacts |
| Opportunities | Deals |
| Cases | Tickets |
| Tasks, Notes, Events | Tasks, Notes, Meetings |
| Email messages | Email activities |
| Users | Users |
Two things trip people up. Leads and Contacts both become HubSpot contacts, so decide how you will tell them apart afterwards, usually with lifecycle stage. And custom objects need a HubSpot Enterprise subscription. Smart Transfer does not move custom objects at all, so they go across through the Salesforce integration's import or a separate import. Before you buy Enterprise for one object, read when you actually need a custom object in HubSpot.
Smart Transfer also lists Salesforce field types it cannot carry: encrypted strings, junction ID lists, master record, reference and calculated fields. Rebuild calculated fields as HubSpot calculation properties and check the numbers match.
Smart Transfer or the Salesforce integration?
HubSpot gives you two routes, and they suit different jobs.
Smart Transfer is available to Super Admins on all HubSpot plans. It audits your Salesforce data, creates the properties and pipelines, then syncs records one way into HubSpot. Attachments and campaign lists come across as a one-off transfer after the sync. Transferring custom field mappings needs Data Hub.
The HubSpot Salesforce integration needs a Professional or Enterprise subscription and a Salesforce edition with API access. It syncs between the two systems, checking for changes about every 15 minutes, and it can import leads, contacts, accounts, opportunities, tasks, cases, events and selected custom objects. It suits a period where both systems stay live.
Pick one route per object and write it down. Two tools matching records on different identifiers is how duplicates get made.
Do you know what is running inside your Salesforce org?
The audit decides how big the migration is, so it is the first thing we scope.
The order to load it in, and what goes wrong at each step
Each phase depends on the one before it. This is the order that works, and the failure to look for at each step.
| Phase | What happens | What can go wrong |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Users and owners | Create every HubSpot user, with the same email they use in Salesforce, and set teams and permissions | Records arrive with no owner, so nobody gets the task and reports by rep are empty |
| 2. Properties and pipelines | Build the fields you decided to keep, and deal and ticket pipelines with stages that match how you sell now | Old stage names come across as they were, and the forecast means something different from last quarter |
| 3. Records and IDs | Load companies, contacts and deals, storing each Salesforce record ID in a HubSpot property | No Salesforce ID kept, so you cannot match records later, re-run a load or trace a mistake back |
| 4. Associations | Link contacts to companies, deals to companies and contacts, tickets to both | Deals with no company, and contacts attached to the wrong company after duplicates merge |
| 5. Activities and attachments | Bring across emails, notes, tasks, meetings and files | Activity history lands on the wrong record because the associations were not right first |
| 6. Automation | Rebuild the flows and triggers you still need as HubSpot workflows | Workflows switched on during the load send emails or reassign owners on old records |
| 7. Reports and dashboards | Rebuild the reports people actually opened | Numbers differ from Salesforce, and nobody can say why until the definitions are written down |
| 8. Cutover and training | Freeze Salesforce edits, run a final sync, switch integrations, train each team | People keep updating Salesforce because nobody told them to stop |
Phase 3 is the easiest one to skip. The Salesforce ID costs nothing to store, and without it every correction later is a manual search.
For the full mapping worksheet and sign-off steps, see our CRM data migration and field mapping checklist.
Apex, Flows and validation rules do not come across
None of Salesforce's automation transfers. Each piece gets rebuilt, or retired, and the audit tells you which.
- Flows and workflow rules usually become HubSpot workflows. Rebuild what the process does today, which is often simpler than what the flow was built to do in 2019.
- Apex triggers that do real logic can often become a custom code action in a workflow, which runs JavaScript or Python and needs Data Hub Professional or Enterprise. Some Apex exists only to work around another piece of Apex, and can go.
- Validation rules map to HubSpot property validation rules, available on all plans, with regex rules on Professional and Enterprise. One catch: HubSpot enforces them on edits and imports, but not on values set by workflows.
Running both systems during cutover, and your renewal date
Expect a short period with both systems running and Salesforce read only after the final sync. Agree a freeze date, tell every team, and remove edit access on the day.
Now the contract. Salesforce's standard Main Services Agreement says subscriptions renew automatically for further one year terms unless either side gives written notice at least 30 days before the term ends, and your order form can change that. It also says a renewal with fewer seats or a shorter term is re-priced without regard to the previous per-unit price. So keeping a handful of Salesforce licences for a parallel quarter may cost more per seat than you expect. Read your order form, find the notice date, and plan backwards from it.
Where will your HubSpot data be hosted?
HubSpot runs data centres in Sydney, as well as Germany, Virginia, Oregon and Montreal. A new paid account is assigned a data centre from the location of the IP address used at sign-up, and accounts on Starter, Professional or Enterprise can change data centre.
Check which one your portal is on before you load anything. HubSpot also says some processing can happen outside your hosting location, for example through connected apps, partners, sub-processors and support staff in other regions, so put that in front of whoever signs off your privacy obligations.
If any of your automation makes decisions about people, the Privacy Act change on 10 December 2026 is worth reading before you rebuild it.
When should an Australian business cut over?
The Australian financial year runs from 1 July to 30 June for most businesses. Avoid cutting over in the weeks around 30 June, when finance needs year-end numbers and sales is chasing quarter close. A cutover early in a quarter gives you clean HubSpot reporting for a full period and a known number from Salesforce to compare it against.
Then line that date up with your Salesforce notice date. Training goes last, by team, on the real pipeline: reps need to find their deals, and managers need to see their reports match before they trust them.
Frequently asked questions
How long does a Salesforce to HubSpot migration take? It depends on how many custom objects and how much Apex and Flow automation you have, how many systems connect to Salesforce, how clean the data is, and when your Salesforce renewal notice is due. A proper audit is the only honest way to put a date on it.
Can HubSpot migrate my Salesforce data for me? HubSpot's Smart Transfer tool audits your Salesforce data, creates properties and pipelines, and syncs records one way into HubSpot. It does not move custom objects, and it does not rebuild your automation or reports, so those still need planning and building.
Do I need HubSpot Enterprise to migrate from Salesforce? Only if you need custom objects, which require an Enterprise subscription. Many Salesforce custom objects can be handled with standard HubSpot objects and properties, so check before you buy.
Can HubSpot host our data in Australia? Yes. HubSpot has a data centre in Sydney, and accounts on paid plans can change data centre. Some processing can still happen outside the hosting location, for example through connected apps and support staff.
When do I need to tell Salesforce we are leaving? Under Salesforce's standard Main Services Agreement, subscriptions renew automatically for one year unless written notice is given at least 30 days before the term ends. Your order form can change that, so check it.
Sources
- Salesforce pricing update 2025, Salesforce, for the 6 per cent list price increase and Agentforce add-on pricing.
- Main Services Agreement, Salesforce (version of 1 September 2026), for automatic renewal, notice, re-pricing and data export after the agreement ends.
- Transfer data from other apps using HubSpot Smart Transfer and Supported apps for HubSpot Smart Transfer, HubSpot Knowledge Base, for the steps, the Salesforce mapping and unsupported fields.
- Connect HubSpot and Salesforce and Import and sync Salesforce records, HubSpot Knowledge Base, for integration requirements and importable objects.
- How to use objects for business processes, HubSpot Knowledge Base, for the custom object subscription requirement.
- Custom code workflow actions, HubSpot Developers, and Set validation rules for a property, HubSpot Knowledge Base.
- HubSpot Cloud Infrastructure and Data Hosting, HubSpot Knowledge Base, for data centre locations and processing outside them.
- Chapter 11: APP 11 and The Privacy Act, OAIC, for destruction and de-identification and the $3 million turnover threshold.
- Income year, Australian Taxation Office, for the 1 July to 30 June year.
Thinking about leaving Salesforce before your next renewal? See how we move teams from Salesforce to HubSpot, or talk to us and we will scope the migration with you.
When is your Salesforce renewal notice due?
Work backwards from that date and the plan mostly writes itself.