Building a HubSpot Integration for Niche Industry Software

Your sales team lives in HubSpot. Your operations team lives in that industry-specific software you spent months evaluating and implementing. And somewhere in between, data is getting lost, duplicated, or manually copy-pasted by someone who has better things to do.

I've built these bridges more times than I can count. Property management systems, medical coding platforms, specialty e-commerce tools—they all share the same problem: HubSpot's marketplace has thousands of integrations, but yours isn't one of them.

Let me walk you through how to build a custom HubSpot integration that actually works.

Why This Matters More Than You Think

The obvious answer is "we need our data in one place." But the real value goes deeper. When your niche software talks to HubSpot, you unlock:

  • Sales context: Your reps see a prospect's actual usage data, support tickets, or account status before making a call
  • Marketing automation: Trigger campaigns based on real product events, not just email opens
  • Accurate reporting: Finally answer "which marketing channels bring customers who actually stick around?"

I worked with a property management company that had tenant inquiries coming through their PM software while their sales team tracked commercial lease prospects in HubSpot. Two systems, zero connection, and a lot of frustrated people trying to piece together the full picture.

The Marketplace Integration Trap

Before building custom, you probably checked the HubSpot marketplace. Maybe you found something that looked close. Here's what you likely discovered:

Most marketplace integrations are built for the 80% use case. They sync the obvious fields—name, email, company—and call it a day. But your business logic lives in the details:

  • Custom properties specific to your industry
  • Complex object relationships (not just contacts and companies)
  • Conditional sync rules based on record status
  • Historical data that needs backfilling

Even when a marketplace integration exists, you often end up with a half-solution that creates more cleanup work than it saves.

Technical Approaches: Pick Your Path

You have three main options for connecting your software to HubSpot. Each has tradeoffs.

Webhooks: Real-Time Event Streaming

If your niche software supports outgoing webhooks, this is often the cleanest approach. Events fire as they happen, and you process them immediately.

// Laravel controller handling incoming webhooks
class PropertyWebhookController extends Controller
{
    public function handle(Request $request)
    {
        $event = $request->input('event_type');
        $data = $request->input('data');

        match ($event) {
            'tenant.created' => $this->createHubSpotContact($data),
            'lease.signed' => $this->createHubSpotDeal($data),
            'tenant.moved_out' => $this->updateHubSpotDealStage($data, 'closed'),
            default => Log::info("Unhandled webhook event: {$event}"),
        };

        return response()->json(['status' => 'processed']);
    }

    private function createHubSpotContact(array $data): void
    {
        $hubspot = new HubSpotClient(config('services.hubspot.token'));

        $hubspot->crm()->contacts()->basicApi()->create([
            'properties' => [
                'email' => $data['email'],
                'firstname' => $data['first_name'],
                'lastname' => $data['last_name'],
                'property_interest' => $data['property_id'],
                'move_in_date' => $data['desired_move_date'],
            ],
        ]);
    }
}

The upside: near-instant sync. The downside: you need to handle failures gracefully, because webhooks don't retry themselves (unless your source system is sophisticated).

Scheduled API Sync: The Reliable Workhorse

When webhooks aren't available—or when you need to reconcile data regularly—scheduled sync jobs are your friend. Pull data from both systems, compare, and update as needed.

// Laravel command for scheduled sync
class SyncTenantsToHubSpot extends Command
{
    protected $signature = 'hubspot:sync-tenants';

    public function handle(PropertyManagementApi $pmApi, HubSpotService $hubspot)
    {
        $tenants = $pmApi->getTenantsModifiedSince(
            now()->subHours(2)
        );

        foreach ($tenants as $tenant) {
            try {
                $existingContact = $hubspot->findContactByEmail($tenant->email);

                if ($existingContact) {
                    $hubspot->updateContact($existingContact->id, $tenant);
                } else {
                    $hubspot->createContact($tenant);
                }

                $this->info("Synced: {$tenant->email}");
            } catch (HubSpotException $e) {
                Log::error("Failed to sync tenant", [
                    'email' => $tenant->email,
                    'error' => $e->getMessage(),
                ]);
            }
        }
    }
}

Run this every 15 minutes, every hour, or whatever cadence makes sense. You trade real-time updates for reliability and simplicity.

Middleware Layer: For Complex Orchestration

Sometimes the integration logic gets complex enough that you need a dedicated service. This middleware sits between your systems, handling:

  • Data transformation and validation
  • Queue management for high-volume syncs
  • Retry logic with exponential backoff
  • Audit logging for compliance

I typically build this as a separate Laravel application with its own database for tracking sync state. Overkill for simple integrations, essential for complex ones.

Real-World Example: Property Management to HubSpot

Let me get specific. A client ran commercial property management software that tracked:

  • Property listings and availability
  • Tenant inquiries and tours
  • Lease negotiations and signed contracts
  • Maintenance requests and renewals

Their HubSpot needed to reflect the sales pipeline accurately. Here's how we mapped it:

Data Mapping Strategy

PM SoftwareHubSpot ObjectNotes
InquiryContact + DealCreated simultaneously
PropertyCustom ObjectSynced nightly
TourDeal Stage"Tour Scheduled" → "Tour Completed"
LeaseDeal (Closed Won)With custom properties for terms
TenantContactUpdated with lease details

The tricky part was handling the inquiry-to-lease lifecycle. In the PM software, a single "tenant" record evolves through multiple stages. In HubSpot, we needed to represent this as a deal moving through a pipeline.

class LeaseStageMapper
{
    private array $stageMap = [
        'inquiry_received' => 'appointmentscheduled',
        'tour_scheduled' => 'qualifiedtobuy',
        'tour_completed' => 'presentationscheduled',
        'application_submitted' => 'decisionmakerboughtin',
        'application_approved' => 'contractsent',
        'lease_signed' => 'closedwon',
        'inquiry_cancelled' => 'closedlost',
    ];

    public function getHubSpotStage(string $pmStatus): string
    {
        return $this->stageMap[$pmStatus]
            ?? throw new UnmappedStatusException($pmStatus);
    }
}

Sync Strategies: Real-Time vs Batch

This decision comes down to your use case:

Choose real-time when:

  • Sales needs immediate visibility (hot leads)
  • You're triggering time-sensitive automations
  • Data volume is manageable (< 1000 events/hour)

Choose batch when:

  • You're doing initial historical sync
  • Data doesn't need instant availability
  • You want to reduce API calls (HubSpot has rate limits)
  • Complex transformations need to happen

In practice, I often use both: webhooks for high-priority events (new leads, closed deals) and batch jobs for everything else (contact updates, historical reconciliation).

Handling HubSpot's Rate Limits

HubSpot's API limits are generous but real. For batch operations, use their batch endpoints:

public function batchCreateContacts(array $tenants): void
{
    $chunks = collect($tenants)->chunk(100);

    foreach ($chunks as $chunk) {
        $inputs = $chunk->map(fn ($tenant) => [
            'properties' => $this->mapTenantToProperties($tenant),
        ])->toArray();

        $this->hubspot->crm()->contacts()->batchApi()->create([
            'inputs' => $inputs,
        ]);

        // Respect rate limits
        usleep(100000); // 100ms pause between batches
    }
}

Error Handling and Monitoring

Integrations fail. Networks hiccup, APIs change, data gets weird. Build for this reality.

Retry with Backoff

class HubSpotSyncJob implements ShouldQueue
{
    public $tries = 5;
    public $backoff = [60, 300, 900, 3600];

    public function handle(): void
    {
        // Your sync logic
    }

    public function failed(Throwable $exception): void
    {
        Notification::route('slack', config('services.slack.webhook'))
            ->notify(new SyncFailedNotification($this->tenant, $exception));
    }
}

Sync State Tracking

Keep a record of what synced and when. This saves hours of debugging:

Schema::create('hubspot_sync_log', function (Blueprint $table) {
    $table->id();
    $table->string('source_type'); // 'tenant', 'property', etc.
    $table->string('source_id');
    $table->string('hubspot_object_type');
    $table->string('hubspot_object_id')->nullable();
    $table->string('action'); // 'create', 'update', 'delete'
    $table->string('status'); // 'success', 'failed', 'pending'
    $table->json('payload')->nullable();
    $table->text('error_message')->nullable();
    $table->timestamps();
});

Alerting That Actually Helps

Don't just log errors—alert on patterns. A single failed sync might be noise. Ten failures in an hour is a problem:

// In your monitoring/alerting service
if (SyncLog::where('status', 'failed')
    ->where('created_at', '>', now()->subHour())
    ->count() > 10) {
    Alert::critical('HubSpot sync failure rate exceeded threshold');
}

When to Build Custom vs Use iPaaS

I'll be honest: sometimes you shouldn't build this yourself. Tools like Zapier, Make (formerly Integromat), or Workato can handle simpler integrations without code.

Consider iPaaS when:

  • The integration is straightforward field mapping
  • You don't have development resources to maintain it
  • The niche software has a pre-built iPaaS connector
  • Volume is low (most iPaaS tools charge by operation)

Build custom when:

  • You need complex business logic in the transformation
  • Volume would make iPaaS expensive
  • You need full control over error handling and retries
  • The integration is core to your business operations
  • You need to sync custom objects or complex relationships

That property management integration I mentioned? We started with Zapier. It worked for basic contact creation but couldn't handle the deal stage mapping, property custom objects, or the reconciliation logic. Custom was the right call.

Getting Started

If you're about to build your first HubSpot integration, here's my recommended path:

  1. Map your data model first. Before writing code, document exactly what syncs to what
  2. Start with one object. Get contacts working perfectly before adding deals
  3. Build observability early. Logging and alerting from day one saves pain later
  4. Plan for historical data. You'll want to backfill, and that's a different problem than ongoing sync
  5. Test with real data. HubSpot has sandbox accounts—use them

The integration might seem daunting, but it's really just a series of API calls with good error handling. Your niche software has data your sales team needs. HubSpot is where they work. Connect them properly, and everyone's life gets easier.

Building a HubSpot Integration for Niche Industry Software - Ferre Mekelenkamp