Choosing the right CMS is more critical than ever as businesses race to meet rising digital demands. With platforms like WordPress and Wix dominating the market, it’s easy to stick with what’s familiar. But forward-thinking businesses are looking for more. They need a CMS that’s not just flexible and scalable, but also built to drive real growth through seamless marketing, sales, and service integration. This is where HubSpot CMS development stands out.
At Nexalab, we’re seeing a clear shift toward dynamic, data-driven digital experiences, and HubSpot CMS is at the center of it for businesses that want to move beyond static websites and build connected, high-performing platforms. In this article, we’ll show what makes HubSpot CMS a smart choice, how it compares to other platforms, and where you can step in.
What is HubSpot CMS?
HubSpot CMS, now branded as Content Hub, is a cloud-based content management system designed for marketing-led website development. Unlike traditional CMS tools, it’s built around the HubSpot CRM.
Content Hub is known for its drag-and-drop page builder, built-in SEO tools, and reliable hosting. All geared toward helping marketing teams work smarter without developer dependency.
With many features, you can try HubSpot CMS for a free plan. However, the free tier covers the basics, like web builder, blog, and managed hosting. As your business scales, the HubSpot CMS pricing tiers unlock more features.
Here are the quick details of HubSpot CMS plan.
| Types | Price (Monthly) | Key Features |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | Website builder, AI blog, Basic SEO, Managed hosting |
| Starter | $20/month per seat | No HubSpot branding, Personalisation tokens, Live chat |
| Professional | $500/month (3 seats) | Dynamic personalisation, Memberships, Content reporting |
| Enterprise | $1,500/month (5 seats) | Multisites, Content approvals, Serverless functions |
These levels add advanced features like content segmentation, member portals, and serverless functions. While pricing varies by region and user count, the structure provides flexibility without steep up-front costs.
Why Businesses Choose HubSpot CMS for Website Development?
The trend among Australian businesses leaning towards HubSpot CMS for their website development projects boils down to tackling modern digital needs head-on.
Here’s what we see resonating:
- Ease of Use for Marketers: With the HubSpot CMS builder, marketing teams can design and publish landing pages, update content, and launch campaigns quickly. And all with no code development expertise.
- Seamless CRM Integration: The CMS lets you personalise pages, CTAs, and lead flows using real-time customer data. This is something many HubSpot CMS vs WordPress debate comparisons highlight as a major advantage.
- Built-in SEO & Optimisation Tools: From keyword suggestions to A/B testing, everything is under one roof. There’s no need for a tangle of plugins to get your site ranking and converting. This benefit is relevant when your goal is to improve user journeys and increase your conversion rate without extra complexity.
- Security & Hosting: The platform includes secure hosting, SSL, CDN, and automatic updates. The main idea here is to remove the headaches of managing site maintenance.
- Scalability & Extensibility: As your needs grow, so does the CMS. The HubSpot Content Hub integrates with other Hubs (Marketing, Sales, Service). This feature gives your business an all-in-one toolkit that evolves over time.
Use Cases for HubSpot CMS
The flexibility of HubSpot CMS is suitable for a wide range of applications beyond basic corporate websites. We see it being used effectively in a few key ways.
For instance, many businesses use it to build high-performance lead generation sites. In this case, you can use smart CTAs and CRM-driven personalisation to capture visitor information effectively.
B2B companies, on the other hand, often rely on HubSpot CMS to align marketing and sales efforts. By integrating blogs, case studies, and gated resources, these websites become central hubs. With this central hub, you can nurture leads and provide valuable context to sales teams.
Membership sites and online communities are another popular use case, especially for businesses on Professional or Enterprise plans. These gated areas allow for premium content delivery, training materials, or partner portals. All are powered by CRM data for personalised experiences.
Additionally, event management and microsites benefit greatly from HubSpot’s ease of use and integration capabilities.
How to Migrate Your Website to HubSpot CMS
Migrating to HubSpot CMS can feel like a big leap, especially when you are new to it. Of course, you need a bit of planning. Typically, here is our usual process we guide clients through.
Audit & Planning
Review your current site. Here you need to map it out. See what pages work well, decide what content stays or goes, and understand how people use it now. Then, set clear goals for the move and figure out who needs to be involved. We’ve found this critical first step often determines migration success.
Backup & Prep
Here, you need to back up your existing site and gather all media files. We talk about media, forms, documents, and almost anything. Then, confirming your HubSpot subscription meets your needs. Next, you need to create a detailed project plan with timelines and responsibilities.
Setup & Rebuilding
This is where you set up your HubSpot CMS. You might pick a HubSpot CMS template from their marketplace. Or you can work with a developer like us for a custom design. Then, you rebuild pages using the CMS builder tools, recreate forms, and upload your media. Pages are then rebuilt using HubSpot’s tools, forms recreated, and media uploaded to HubSpot’s CDN. And HubSpot does have tools to help import blog content from places like WordPress, which can speed things up.
Technical Configuration
In this phase, setting up URL redirects to preserve SEO equity and configuring third-party integrations. So, you need to set up redirects (301s) for any page URLs that change. For this 301s setting, you can use HubSpot’s redirect tool. But, you’ll also connect any other tools that aren’t native to HubSpot.
Test & Launch
Before going live, check everything. Test functionality, load times, responsiveness, and data connections. See how it looks on different devices. Once you think everything is okay, update your domain’s DNS records to point to HubSpot’s hosting, and your new site is live.
HubSpot CMS vs Other Platforms
When comparing HubSpot CMS vs other platforms, the choice largely depends on your priorities. For example, one of the most common comparisons is HubSpot CMS vs WordPress. On the surface, they both offer flexibility, but the delivery model and maintenance responsibilities differ.
As you know, HubSpot is a proprietary SaaS platform. This means hosting, security, and updates are included in the subscription. Meanwhile, WordPress is open-source software where you arrange separate hosting and manage security and updates yourself. This impacts several areas:
- Hosting & Security: HubSpot includes secure hosting and automated updates. WordPress requires manual hosting and plugin management, which can increase vulnerability and maintenance time.
- CRM Integration: HubSpot has native CRM features baked in. WordPress needs third-party plugins to connect with CRMs. You can prove it when you need to integrate HubSpot with Salesforce or similar platforms—something that often requires more planning in non-native environments.
- Ease of Use: HubSpot is designed for marketers with no-code tools. WordPress has a steeper learning curve and often needs developer input for customisation.
- Pricing: WordPress is free to start, but costs add up with themes, hosting, and developer fees. HubSpot CMS pricing is upfront, with support included.
- Data Sync: HubSpot makes it easier to leverage contact data across platforms. In WordPress, this can become disjointed.
So, as mentioned earlier, the choice is all on you. If you often hinge on whether you value an all-in-one, managed system, choose HubSpot. If you want maximum control and flexibility with self-managed components, choose WordPress. And if WordPress is your choice, we can help design and revamp a website that is optimal for your business.
Supercharge Your HubSpot CMS with Real-Time Data Integrations
To move beyond a static site, real-time data integrations are the main keyword. The integration data in real time, whether from within HubSpot or from external systems, is where you unlock dynamic and personal experiences. Let’s check how rich data integration should be:
- Personalisation tokens that insert CRM property values directly into content
- Smart content that displays different versions based on viewer criteria
- HubDB and dynamic pages for structured content like product catalogues or resource libraries
Beyond internal HubSpot data, extend the platform by integrating external real-time data sources through:
- HubSpot APIs for custom integrations with backend databases or third-party applications
- Webhooks to trigger actions in external systems based on HubSpot events
- Third-party connectors or middleware for seamless data flow between systems. This is exactly where solutions like our Nexalab HubSpot connector service fit in. We built it to take the pain out of these integrations, ensuring data flows smoothly and reliably between HubSpot and your other essential tools, really maximising your HubSpot CMS development investment.
Your Next Steps
Choosing HubSpot CMS development is about building a hub that connects content, CRM, and campaign data under one roof. The platform simplifies the technical side while empowering marketing and sales teams to move faster.
However, to get the benefit of HubSpot’s connected ecosystem, integration is everything. You need to eliminate the sync issues, duplicate records, or missed opportunities. Then you need to bring real-time visibility and clean data flow across systems. So, if you juggling with disconnected systems and start seeing what a unified digital workflow looks like, let’s talk. Book a free session with our HubSpot integration team here.
