Who should we hire to migrate our website to HubSpot CMS?

HubSpot's website migration service rebuilds your existing content in Content Hub, the product that holds HubSpot's CMS. The content goes onto a theme HubSpot built for migrations or onto one you pick from its Marketplace, and a specialist manages the project. The service takes up to 150 pages and typically runs two to four weeks once HubSpot has the assets it asked for. It does not include graphic design, significant custom development or content strategy.

HubSpot's account of the migration process offers the service with Content Hub Professional or Enterprise. Ask a HubSpot representative whether a Starter account qualifies. HubSpot evaluates the site and lists the agreed pages and exclusions.

Among the content it doesn't expect to move are database content, pages behind a login, stores, complex forms, visitor-written content and third-party tools.

You handle domain setup and redirects after delivery. Report missing or broken content within 60 days after completion. That reporting window belongs to HubSpot's service.

Suppose your company's WordPress site has 45 marketing pages and blog posts, a resource library behind a login, and a pricing calculator that would take significant custom development to rebuild. HubSpot's service is a possible route for the 45 pages, subject to what its agreement lists. The library and the calculator, as we've assumed them, need separate arrangements. You can hire a developer for those two pieces, or you can give the whole job to one team.

Design is the other dividing line. HubSpot directs substantial redesigns or custom templates and modules to a developer or partner agency.

Lean Labs' article on HubSpot website redesigns advises settling strategy, the sitemap, page outlines and copy before the build, and calls a redesign "more of a website re-messaging."

Lean Labs' migration FAQ adds that designs from another platform can't be imported, so page layouts are recreated in HubSpot's templates and modules. It treats that rebuild as the time to improve messaging and conversion paths too. If your pages need that work, doing it during the move can avoid a second round of changes to the same pages. If they don't, a like-for-like move is the smaller job.

An agency redesign is a different purchase from a content move. Lean Labs' article on the three stages of growth-driven design prices the strategy and build of its launchpad, a first release of the pages closest to the buying decision, at $30,000 to $70,000 or more over 9 to 13 weeks. SmartBug Media describes another agency route on its homepage, where it says it migrates existing content to HubSpot, WordPress or Shopify alongside design and development. We cover budgets in how much a B2B SaaS HubSpot website redesign costs.

Moving pages does not move contacts and deals. Lean Labs' FAQ separates a website migration from a portal migration, which covers contacts, companies, deals and workflows. HubSpot's Data Migration accreditation covers the same kind of data.

If you're changing CRMs at the same time, have the quote scope the records explicitly, as a line of their own. Do that even when one firm handles both jobs, so nobody assumes the website price covers them.

HubSpot's partner directory filters firms by service, industry and country. Each profile shows the firm's specialties, its badges and reviews from customers. That is enough to build a list.

Credentials help you shorten it. HubSpot awards accreditations to partner organizations that demonstrate practical experience, and awards certifications to individuals who pass training and an assessment. Treat either one as a reason to shortlist a firm, and then judge the firm on comparable work.

For the site in our example, comparable work is a site moved to HubSpot with a gated library or a calculator. Ask each candidate for its closest match. Open that site and use the feature. Then ask its owner who edits the pages now, and what happened to search traffic in the weeks after launch.

A page that moves to a new address needs a redirect from the old one. An agency agreement should say who builds the redirect list, who loads it into HubSpot and who tests it before launch. Build that list while you are planning the redesign, when you decide which pages stay, move or go.

The agreement should also list each form and say where its submissions go. If workflows in your HubSpot account are tied to existing forms, Lean Labs' FAQ advises having the new pages embed those same forms, so submissions keep reaching the workflows. Where a form is rebuilt, map it to the workflow it should trigger and test a submission before launch.

Launch day needs named owners as well. Someone has to change the DNS records, reinstall analytics tags on the new templates and be available while the switch happens. Keep the old site in place until the new one has been checked.

After launch, your editors need training and a period of support. Lean Labs' FAQ says the firm provides one-on-one training and 90 days of support after a migration. Whatever a provider offers, the agreement should state the number of days, what they cover and who owns the theme.