Step-By-Step Guide: Planning Your Freshsales To HubSpot Migration

Many organisations periodically review their CRM platforms as business needs evolve. For teams using Freshsales, these reviews can prompt a closer look at long-term suitability, product direction, and the level of support required to sustain growth. Sales, marketing, and operations leaders regularly evaluate whether their current CRM continues to align with changing processes and scale expectations.

HubSpot is frequently considered during such evaluations, particularly by organisations looking for a unified CRM, marketing, and service platform. This guide explains how to plan a structured move from Freshsales to HubSpot. It is written for business owners, administrators, sales managers, support leaders, and marketing teams who want clear guidance on what to consider before making a transition.

Freshsales-Specific Considerations Before Moving to HubSpot

Freshsales is often adopted as a sales-first CRM, with limited involvement from marketing or service teams during the early stages. Over time, it can become the default system for leads, deals, activities, and even customer notes, without a clear structure to support cross-team use.

When migrating Freshsales to HubSpot, it is important to identify whether your current setup reflects only sales execution or if it has gradually absorbed responsibilities beyond sales. Many teams discover that lifecycle stages, lead qualification, and ownership rules are loosely defined because Freshsales did not originally require strict separation.

This difference becomes more visible when comparing HubSpot vs Freshsales CRM. HubSpot expects clearer definitions across lifecycle stages, objects, and team roles, which makes early planning critical for a smooth transition.

Reworking telephony, activity tracking, and sales engagement

Freshsales’ built-in telephony is a major reason many teams adopt it. Call logs, recordings, notes, and activity timelines often form the backbone of sales reporting and coaching.

During migration planning, decide how much historical call data needs to move and how future calling will work in HubSpot. HubSpot supports native calling, integrations with external telephony providers, and conversation tracking, but the structure differs from Freshsales.

This is also the right moment to review how activities are logged. Freshsales users often rely on automatic activity capture, while HubSpot encourages a mix of automation and deliberate sales actions. Aligning this early helps sales teams transition without feeling they’ve lost visibility or control.

A step-by-step approach helps teams move with confidence, keeping data accuracy, user adoption, and process continuity at the centre of the transition.

Step 1: Audit Your Existing Freshsales Setup

Start by documenting how Freshsales is used today. List your pipelines, deal stages, custom fields, lead sources, automations, and integrations.

Identify which data is actively used and which data has become clutter. Old fields, unused pipelines, and inactive users often surface during this step. This audit prevents carrying over unnecessary complexity into HubSpot. A clear audit sets the foundation for a cleaner Freshsales to Hubspot CRM setup.

Step 2: Define Your HubSpot CRM Goals

Before any data is moved, define what success looks like in HubSpot. Goals may include better pipeline visibility, improved reporting, cleaner contact records, or stronger alignment between marketing and sales.

Involve sales, marketing, and support teams in this discussion. Each team uses CRM data differently, and their input shapes how properties and workflows are planned. This avoids rebuilding the same issues in a new system. Clear goals guide every technical decision that follows.

Step 3: Map Freshsales Data to HubSpot Properties

Data mapping is where most CRM migrations succeed or fail. Freshsales fields need to be mapped carefully to HubSpot contact, company, deal, and ticket properties.

Not every Freshsales field needs a direct match. Some fields may merge into a single HubSpot property, while others can be retired. Pay special attention to dropdown values, date fields, and ownership rules. This step protects reporting accuracy after migrating Freshsales to HubSpot.

Step 4: Review Custom Properties and Lifecycle Stages

Custom properties often grow without structure over time. Use migration planning as an opportunity to rationalise them.

In HubSpot, lifecycle stages and lead statuses play a key role in reporting and automation. Review how Freshsales statuses map to HubSpot lifecycle stages such as Lead, MQL, SQL, Opportunity, and Customer. Adjust definitions to match how your teams actually work. This clarity improves adoption and reporting from day one.

Step 5: Clean Data before Migration

Do the data cleanup before any import process starts. Remove contacts, inactive deals, and outdated account records.

Standardise names of companies, job titles, and locations. Fix the format for phone, email, and country. Clean data helps minimise errors on import and encourages trust in the CRM. A smaller and cleaner dataset makes post-migration onboarding smoother for its users.

Step 6: Plan Deal Pipelines and Sales Processes

Not all Freshsales pipelines will map to HubSpot. Consider each pipeline and check if it still represents your sales motion today.

HubSpot offers multi-pipeline as well as probability tracking and stage-based automation. Utilise this step to make the next stage and get it as close to what genuine buyers are doing as possible. Sales managers need to play a major role here. Clear pipelines make for better forecasts and clearer dashboards.

Step 7: Rebuild Automations with Intent

Freshsales adds automations that are basically alerts and new tasks. HubSpot’s workflows can go one step ahead if you build them with a purpose in mind.

Make a list of all automations you currently have and evaluate which ones are still useful. Then recreate them in HubSpot using workflows that have clear triggers and actions. Don't just replace automation because it already exists. This methodology ensures automation is useful, not just noisy.

Step 8: Manage Integrations and Connected Tools

CRMs rarely operate alone. Review apps and software that integrate with Freshsales, including email, calendars, telephony systems, marketing tools, and support desks.

See if there are native HubSpot integrations for each tool. In lots of cases, HubSpot can provide more integrated solutions that don’t require manual work. Include plan integration tests in your migration schedule. Integration planning prevents chaos post go-live.

Step 9: Run Test Migrations and Validation Checks

Before a full migration, run test imports with a subset of data. Validate record counts, field mapping, and ownership assignment.

Ask team leads to review migrated records and confirm accuracy. Testing highlights gaps early, when changes are easier to make. This step builds confidence before the final switch. Testing is especially important for reports and dashboards used by leadership.

Step 10: Prepare Users for HubSpot Adoption

Success in CRM rests on people, not only data. Create customised training sessions for sales reps, managers, marketers, and support teams.

Work on what you need day-to-day, not everything. Demonstrate to users how HubSpot fits into their workflow, including logging activities and updating deals. Provide simple documentation for reference. A good onboarding process drives adoption and decreases resistance to change.

Step 11: Go Live with a Clear Transition Plan

Choose a go-live date with minimal sales activity disruption. Communicate timelines clearly to all users.

Freeze data entry in Freshsales during the final migration window. After go-live, monitor activity closely for the first few weeks. Address issues quickly to maintain trust in the new system. A planned transition prevents confusion and duplicate data entry.

When to Work with a HubSpot Migration Partner

Some teams manage migrations internally. Others benefit from external expertise, especially when data volume and automation are complex.

A partner offering Freshsales to HubSpot CRM migration services brings structured processes, tested mapping logic, and risk mitigation. This is valuable for B2B organisations with multiple pipelines, integrations, and reporting needs. Partner support reduces internal workload and shortens the migration timeline.

Supporting Long-Term Success After Migration

Migration is only the first phase. Post-migration optimisation makes the difference between basic usage and long-term value.

This includes refining reports, improving workflows, and aligning marketing and sales data. Ongoing B2B HubSpot migration support helps teams adapt as processes mature. Continuous improvement keeps the CRM relevant as the business grows. Planning beyond go-live protects your investment.

Partnering for Smarter CRM Adoption

A migration works best when approached with patience and clarity. At Vajra Global, we help organisations plan and build CRMs that grow with actual usage, not unnecessary complexity. Our teams support data structure design, property planning, workflow setup, and automation aligned with real business processes.

As a HubSpot Platinum Partner, we work closely with sales, marketing, and operations teams to make CRM usage practical and consistent. We also share regular insights through our blog to help users build practical CRM habits, improve reporting accuracy, and apply workflow logic that supports day-to-day operations. With Vajra Global, you collaborate with a team that values organised data, thoughtful planning, and clear processes.

Partner with Vajra Global to create a HubSpot CRM experience that feels intuitive, useful, and aligned with how your teams work.