The HubSpot Salesforce Integration, Set Up Properly

What do you need before connecting?

A HubSpot Professional or Enterprise subscription of any hub, a Salesforce edition with API access or Salesforce Professional, and a Salesforce system administrator with the right permissions to connect. Each HubSpot account connects to one Salesforce instance, and syncing custom objects needs HubSpot Enterprise.

When we checked HubSpot's documentation in October 2026:

• HubSpot: Professional or Enterprise of Marketing, Sales, Service, Data, Content Hub or Smart CRM. The installing user needs Account Access permission. Downgrading to Starter or free stops the sync.
• Salesforce: an edition with API access, or Professional. Group Edition is not supported; Government Cloud is.
• Connecting user: a Salesforce system administrator with API Enabled, View Setup and Configuration, Modify All on each synced object and Download AppExchange Packages. This user's permissions decide what HubSpot can do in Salesforce.
• IP restrictions: "Enforce IP Restrictions on Every Request" blocks the connection; HubSpot suggests a network IP range instead.
• Smart Transfer: do not run it at the same time as the integration, or you will create duplicates.

What syncs between HubSpot and Salesforce?

Contacts always sync with Salesforce leads or contacts, in both directions. Companies, deals and tickets can sync with accounts, opportunities and cases once you turn them on. Calls, meetings, sales emails and tasks sync both ways as activities, while form submissions, marketing emails and notes appear in Salesforce as tasks. Custom objects need Enterprise.

Two filters control the volume. An inclusion segment limits which HubSpot contacts sync to Salesforce; without one, all of them do. Selective sync limits which Salesforce companies, deals, tickets, activities and custom objects come into HubSpot.

How should you decide which system owns each field?

Give every mapped field one owner and pick the sync rule that enforces it. Use "always use Salesforce" for fields sales owns there, such as opportunity amounts, "prefer Salesforce unless blank" where HubSpot may fill gaps, "two-way" only where both teams genuinely edit the field, and "don't sync" for everything else.

A common cause of broken syncs is two-way rules on fields that both systems also change with automation, so each update overwrites the other. Write the ownership down before mapping, one row per field. Our integration governance guide covers the full pattern. Owners sync two-way and need an exact user match, and each object allows up to 500 field mappings.

How many Salesforce API calls does the integration use?

It depends on volume, but HubSpot says syncing one contact can take up to four API calls, and resyncing a segment needs about three calls per record. The integration shares your org's daily Salesforce API limit, so set the number of calls allocated to HubSpot in the integration settings, and keep inclusion segments tight.

Large one-off actions, such as resyncing a whole database after a mapping change, are where orgs run out. Plan them for quiet periods and check other integrations that use the same API allowance.

How do you set up the integration, in order?

Clean duplicates in Salesforce, agree field ownership, install from the HubSpot Marketplace, choose the contact settings and inclusion segment, turn on company and deal sync, map fields, then import records in a controlled order. Testing in a Salesforce sandbox first avoids most of the clean-up that follows a rushed install.

1. Prepare Salesforce. Merge duplicate leads and contacts that share an email, check the connecting user's permissions, and list validation rules and required fields.
2. Agree field ownership and the lifecycle stages that will sync. See HubSpot lifecycle stages explained.
3. Install from the HubSpot Marketplace, ticking the sandbox option if you start there, and install the connector package in Salesforce.
4. Set contact rules: whether HubSpot creates leads or contacts in Salesforce, deletion behavior and lifecycle updates. HubSpot advises against creating or updating leads when companies are created automatically from contacts, because it causes duplicates.
5. Set the inclusion segment so only contacts sales should see go to Salesforce.
6. Turn on company and deal sync before importing accounts or opportunities.
7. Map fields with one sync rule each, and refresh picklist mappings.
8. Add HubSpot Embed to Salesforce page layouts so reps see HubSpot activity in Salesforce. It replaces the older Visualforce window and does not work on mobile.
9. Import records in batches, then watch the Sync Health tab for the first week.

How do you fix HubSpot Salesforce sync errors?

Open the Sync Health tab in the integration settings. HubSpot groups errors by type: associations, custom code such as validation rules and flows, duplicates, permissions, picklists, property mappings and property values. Fix the cause in the right system, then resync the affected records, up to 100 at a time.

• Picklists: a value missing or inactive in Salesforce, or internal names that do not match. Add the value or fix the mapping, then refresh.
• Required values and validation rules: Salesforce rejects records missing a field it requires. Map that field or relax the rule for the integration user.
• Owners: inactive or unsupported Salesforce users cause errors. Reassign records before people leave.
• Duplicates: leads and contacts sharing an email overwrite each other. Merge them in Salesforce.

HubSpot does not recommend uninstalling and reinstalling to fix sync problems. Uninstalling removes settings and mappings but keeps HubSpot records and properties, and workflows with Salesforce actions stop running.

Salesforce integration checklist