HubSpot to Braze Migration Guide

HubSpot is a CRM. Braze is a customer engagement platform. Those two sentences contain the entire rationale for this migration.

The brands moving from HubSpot to Braze are not running failed HubSpot implementations. They're running successful ones — successful enough that they've built a B2C or app-first business on top of what is fundamentally a B2B tool, and they've hit the point where that mismatch is costing them revenue.

HubSpot's strengths — CRM pipelines, sales sequences, deal management, contact properties tied to company records — are precisely its weaknesses as a B2C lifecycle platform. It doesn't have native mobile push. Its workflow logic is contact-property-based rather than behavioral-event-based. Its personalization model wasn't designed for real-time ecommerce or app engagement data. The moment a consumer brand needs in-app messaging, real-time behavioral triggers from their app SDK, or Connected Content personalization, HubSpot reaches its ceiling.

At Propel, we've run HubSpot to Braze migrations for consumer brands, fintech apps, and marketplace businesses that started on HubSpot and grew past it. This guide covers what the migration actually involves — including the structural decisions that most HubSpot teams don't anticipate.

TL;DR

• HubSpot is relational and CRM-centric. Braze is event-driven and channel-native. The migration is a data model redesign, not a contact export.
• HubSpot's workflow logic is property-update-based. Braze's Canvas logic is event-driven. Every workflow must be re-architected as a Canvas — the trigger model changes fundamentally.
• Braze has no equivalent to HubSpot's CRM. If your team uses HubSpot for sales pipelines, deal management, or B2B contacts alongside your B2C lifecycle, HubSpot stays for those functions. Braze handles B2C engagement; HubSpot handles B2B sales. Many teams run both.
• The contact property → Custom Attribute mapping is the most nuanced data phase. HubSpot contact properties are flat. Braze Custom Attributes require data type specification. Every property used in active workflows needs explicit mapping.
• Propel has run this migration for brands navigating the HubSpot-to-Braze transition at the point where their B2C lifecycle program has outgrown their CRM's capabilities.

Why B2C Brands Move From HubSpot to Braze

The B2B architecture problem. HubSpot's data model is Contact → Company → Deal. It was designed for B2B sales processes. B2C brands running lifecycle marketing on HubSpot are bending a B2B CRM into a retention marketing tool — and the bending creates structural limitations that eventually break. There's no native concept of a purchase event tied to a user profile. Behavioral data from your app or ecommerce platform requires a third-party integration. Retention marketing for B2C brands needs an event-driven model, and HubSpot's model is property-driven.

No native mobile channels. HubSpot has no native push notification capability and no in-app messaging. For consumer brands or app-first businesses where mobile app retention is a primary business metric, HubSpot's channel set is simply insufficient. Braze's push, in-app messaging, and Content Cards are native to Canvas Flow — the same event stream handles all channels.

Workflow logic ceiling. HubSpot's workflow logic is property-update-based: "Contact property X changes to Y, trigger workflow Z." Braze's Canvas logic is event-based: "User fires event X with properties P1 and P2, enter Canvas Y with those properties available for branching and personalization." For brands trying to build behavioral triggers in retention marketing that respond to granular product behavior, HubSpot's property-update trigger model is too slow and too coarse.

Connected Content. HubSpot's personalization is static at send time — you insert contact property values into messages. Braze's Connected Content makes a live API call at send time to pull dynamic content from any external endpoint. Real-time pricing, live product recommendations, current account status — none of these are accessible in HubSpot email personalization. All of them are accessible in Braze via Connected Content.

One fintech brand we migrated had built a fully functional HubSpot lifecycle program for their consumer app. HubSpot was their CRM, their email tool, and their contact database. When they launched push notifications, they added a separate push tool. When they needed in-app onboarding messages, they added a third tool. They were running three platforms for a single user's lifecycle — with no shared event stream, no unified Canvas, and attribution split across three dashboards. The Braze migration consolidated everything onto one platform and one event stream. The operational reduction was immediate; the lift in customer engagement metrics followed within 60 days.

The Architecture Difference: HubSpot vs. Braze

HubSpot's model: Relational CRM. Contacts are linked to Companies and Deals. Contact properties are flat key-value pairs. Workflows trigger on property value changes, form submissions, list membership changes, or scheduled times. Personalization uses HubSpot's token system {{ contact.firstname }}.

Braze's model: Profile-centric and event-driven. Users have Custom Attributes (profile properties, no company/deal hierarchy) and Custom Events (behavioral actions with nested properties). Canvases trigger off Custom Events in real time. Personalization uses Liquid and Connected Content. There is no CRM hierarchy — Braze is not a replacement for HubSpot's B2B CRM functions. These are parallel tools for different jobs.

The migration consequence: every HubSpot contact property used in active workflows must be mapped to a Braze Custom Attribute with the correct data type. HubSpot's workflow triggers — property updates, list changes, form submissions — must be converted to Braze Canvas event triggers. HubSpot's token personalization syntax must be rewritten in Braze Liquid. The CRM functions — deal pipelines, company records, sales sequences — stay in HubSpot.

What Transfers and What Doesn't

Transfers With Mapping ✅

Contact identity data. First name, last name, email, phone, and external identifiers transfer via CSV export from HubSpot and import to Braze. Map your HubSpot Contact ID to Braze's external_id for consistent user identity.

Contact properties → Custom Attributes. HubSpot contact properties used in active workflows and email personalization map to Braze Custom Attributes. HubSpot properties have data types — text, number, date, dropdown (enum), boolean. Each maps to the closest Braze Custom Attribute type. Dropdown values become string Custom Attributes in Braze; the enumerated options become the convention enforced by your Canvas logic rather than by the field type.

Suppression data. HubSpot's unsubscribed contacts and hard bounces (Bounced, Invalid Email status) transfer — and they move first. Map HubSpot's unsubscribed state to Braze's email_subscribe: unsubscribed. Map Bounced/Invalid to hard_bounced: true.

List membership → segments (with rebuild). HubSpot lists can be exported as contact segments. They must be re-created as Braze segments using Custom Attribute and event filters rather than imported directly. Use the lifecycle stage segmentation playbook to rethink segment definitions in Braze's event-driven model.

Must Be Rebuilt 🔄

Every workflow becomes a Canvas. HubSpot workflows trigger on property updates and list changes. Braze Canvases trigger on Custom Events. Every workflow must be re-architected with an event-based entry condition. This is the most significant structural shift in the migration. Begin with the Braze onboarding Canvas template for your highest-volume lifecycle Canvas.

Email templates. HubSpot's drag-and-drop templates and token personalization ({{ contact.firstname }}) are platform-specific. Rebuild in Braze's composer with Liquid personalization. Run the pre-send email QA checklist on every rebuilt template.

SDK instrumentation for app channels. If your migration includes push, in-app messaging, or Content Cards, Braze's SDK must be instrumented in your app. This is an engineering task requiring a planned app release.

Does Not Transfer ❎

HubSpot CRM functions. Deal pipelines, company records, contact-to-company associations, sales sequences, meeting scheduling — none of these have Braze equivalents. These stay in HubSpot. If your B2C and B2B contacts are in the same HubSpot instance, the migration requires a careful contact split: B2C contacts move to Braze; B2B and wholesale contacts stay in HubSpot. Running both tools in parallel for their respective jobs is a supported and common outcome.

HubSpot's attribution reporting. HubSpot's email attribution stays in HubSpot. Set up your retention metrics dashboard template in your analytics stack and connect Braze Currents before the first Canvas goes live.

Migration Checklist: HubSpot to Braze

Pre-Migration Audit

• Identify B2C vs. B2B contacts in HubSpot — define which contacts migrate to Braze and which stay.
• Inventory all active workflows — trigger condition, channel, entry volume, 30-day performance.
• Document all contact properties in active use across workflows and email templates.
• Map workflow triggers — property updates, list changes — to Braze Custom Event equivalents.
• Confirm app channel scope — assess Braze SDK instrumentation requirement.

Data Migration

• Export unsubscribed contacts — import to Braze as email_subscribe: unsubscribed.
• Export Bounced or Invalid contacts — import to Braze as hard_bounced: true.
• Export active B2C contacts with all relevant contact properties — map to Braze Custom Attributes.
• Segment import into engagement tiers before any Canvas is activated.

Technical Setup

• Verify sending domain in Braze — DKIM, SPF, DMARC. Reference email deliverability channel health standards.
• Instrument Braze SDK for app channels — validate every Custom Event against your schema. Reference events and attributes architecture spec.
• Configure Braze Subscription Groups for each channel.
• Set up Braze Currents for data warehouse or analytics integration.
• Build HubSpot-to-Braze integration bridge for CRM data if B2B data informs B2C personalization.

Canvas Rebuild and Go-Live

• Convert each workflow's property-update trigger to a Braze Custom Event entry condition.
• Rebuild all workflows as Braze Canvases — priority order: onboarding, conversion, retention, re-engagement.
• Rebuild all email templates — rewrite HubSpot tokens in Braze Liquid.
• Run end-to-end Canvas QA before deactivating any HubSpot workflow.
• Execute email deliverability warm-up over 4–6 weeks.

Handling the HubSpot CRM / Braze Split

This is the most organizationally complex aspect of a HubSpot to Braze migration — and it's rarely discussed in migration guides.

Most B2C brands using HubSpot for lifecycle marketing are also using it for something else: a wholesale contact database, a B2B sales pipeline, a support ticketing integration, or a marketing operations backend. When Braze takes over B2C lifecycle communications, HubSpot doesn't go away — it becomes a parallel system with a different job.

The questions to answer before the migration starts:

Which contacts go to Braze? B2C contacts with purchase history or app behavior should move to Braze. B2B, wholesale, or pipeline contacts stay in HubSpot.

Does CRM data need to inform Braze personalization? If a B2C contact's account tier (stored in HubSpot) should personalize their Braze messages, you need a data bridge — either a HubSpot-to-Braze integration or a warehouse-mediated data flow. Our events and attributes architecture service maps this dependency as part of the pre-migration schema design.

Who owns the contact record going forward? For brands running both HubSpot and Braze post-migration, define the system of record for each data field. Email address, phone, and behavioral data live in Braze. Deal stage, contact owner, and B2B data live in HubSpot. Overlap creates data consistency problems.

Stakeholder Expectations

Lifecycle and marketing team: Budget 8–12 weeks for a typical HubSpot B2C migration. The workflow-to-Canvas rebuild is the primary time investment. The trigger logic redesign — from property-update to event-based — requires strategic thinking, not just technical execution.

Sales and B2B teams: HubSpot stays. The migration is a B2C lifecycle function split — it doesn't affect CRM, deal management, or B2B workflows. Brief the sales team that HubSpot is not going away before the migration announcement.

Engineering team: SDK instrumentation for app channels requires a planned app release. Budget 2–3 weeks of engineering time. The trigger event instrumentation — replacing HubSpot's property-update triggers with Braze SDK events — is the engineering-lifecycle team collaboration point. Our campaign analytics and performance insights service maintains visibility through this transition.

Leadership: Use the customer retention impact calculator to set the post-migration revenue baseline. The email deliverability warm-up period will temporarily reduce B2C send volume — brief leadership before the first month shows a dip.

Why Propel for Your HubSpot to Braze Migration

Propel is a certified Braze partner with migration experience across B2C brands navigating the HubSpot-to-engagement-platform transition. Our practice covers contact segmentation and B2C/B2B split planning, workflow-to-Canvas rebuild, SDK instrumentation for app channels, and the lifecycle strategy review embedded in the Canvas rebuild phase.

Talk to a Propel operator about your HubSpot to Braze migration.