Switching from HubSpot to Account Engagement

Hubspot and Account Engagement have been around in the marketing automation space for a similar amount of time. This year, we’ve seen an increase in the number of customers looking for support with switching from Hubspot to Account Engagement, but why?

Why are we seeing a big shift?

Key to this is that Salesforce is most often ranked the top CRM platform(1). Whilst Hubspot is also a strong contender, it’s most often aimed at startup businesses. Organisations often outgrow Hubspot’s CRM capabilities and migrate to Salesforce for the sales processes, reporting and analytics. But in this transition, they sometimes leave marketing behind using Hubspot.

The common bugbear with this situation is that the integration between Hubspot and Salesforce is less than good. This is the most common reason for B2B businesses migrating from Hubspot to Account Engagement in 2024/2025.

Sales and marketing alignment is critical for a B2B business to be successful, and disjointed marketing and sales platforms just won’t do.
Account Engagement and Hubspot are very similar in terms of capability but certainly have differences, some of which are absolutely tie-breakers. If you have done your research, roughly the two platforms can be broken down as so:

Hubspot is an all-in-one solution, often aimed at small to medium businesses and starts as the cheaper option of the two. It has a wide range of out of the box marketing asset templates, integrations and reports.
Account Engagement facilitates lead management and account-based marketing, whilst seamlessly integrating with Salesforce. It provides a range of automation features, ROI reporting capabilities, with an increasing AI presence.

Ultimately, it depends on what you are using for your CRM? If you are using Salesforce, it’s become clear that Account Engagement will give you the most return on investment.

How do they compare?

Here’s a handy, high-level guide of where we’ve found the platforms can compare when you are using Salesforce as your CRM:

Capability	Account Engagement	Hubspot
Salesforce Integration	Salesforce connector comes with Account Engagement package	Hubspot Salesforce connector provides limited integration and outdated visualforce component
Email Marketing	2x email builders to choose from – WYSIWYG or drag and drop builder Automated journeys, one-off list sends and one-to-one emails to Salesforce contacts Personalise based on recipient, account or sender Unlimited number of emails can be sent with plan	Easy to use drag and drop builder with range of pre-built templates to choose from One-off sends and automated sending option available Personalise based on recipient or account Limited monthly emails can be sent based on subscription plan
Lead Qualification	Scoring based on engagement with website and assets Grading based on Lead information AI Lead qualification based on Salesforce and Account Engagement data	Positive and negative score rules
Automation	Automation, nurture programs and dynamic content included at different levels depending on plan	Workflows included with different levels depending on plan
Integrations	Open API Salesforce AppExchange connectors can extend features via Salesforce integration	Wide range of third-party connectors via Hubspot marketplace
Reporting	Choice of Account Engagement or Salesforce reports Advanced B2B Marketing Analytics App with prebuilt dashboards on pipeline, engagement and ABM	Pre-built reports on campaign performance in Hubspot Challenge to report on marketing impact on revenue with Salesforce as CRM

How to prepare to switch from Hubspot to Account Engagement

We like to think that there’s a huge opportunity in moving house, even though it can feel a little unsettling. It gives you a chance to take stock of what is working, what could be improved and what you don’t want to take with you to the new home.

Before you decide how you’d like to approach the move, the most important thing to consider is the timeline:

When does your Hubspot contract end? Give yourself plenty of time so you aren’t working right up until the switch-off.
Which in-flight campaigns will you have running during the migration?
What are some big campaigns coming up that you might need to launch imminently from Account Engagement?
What other projects and events do you have going on that could impact this move?

These are all things that an experienced and trusted partner like Nebula can support you with, to ensure that the switch to Account Engagement from Husbpot is as smooth as possible.

Don’t just take it from us, see what our customers have to say who we’ve guided through the move too, and get in touch to find out more.

(1) Reference