I built my own CRM system and want to sync it with HubSpot automatically. Right now my team copies data by hand from our CRM to HubSpot which takes forever.
I want to use HubSpot’s API to automate this process but I’m wondering if there’s a way to do it without having to store HubSpot’s unique identifiers in my database. Adding extra fields to track HubSpot IDs seems messy and doesn’t really solve the manual work problem.
Is there another approach that lets me sync records between the systems without needing to modify my existing CRM structure? Any ideas would be helpful.
I faced this exact situation about two years ago when integrating our proprietary system with HubSpot. The solution that worked best was using a combination of email addresses and custom properties as matching keys instead of storing HubSpot IDs directly. We created a custom property in HubSpot that mirrors our internal record identifier, then used the contacts API to search by email first, and fall back to the custom property if needed. This approach keeps your database clean while still enabling reliable bidirectional sync. The key is implementing proper error handling for duplicate detection and ensuring your matching logic is robust enough to handle edge cases like missing emails or changed contact information.
You can leverage HubSpot’s webhook system combined with a middleware approach to handle this synchronization challenge. Instead of storing HubSpot IDs in your CRM, create a temporary mapping table or use an integration platform like Zapier or Make. When records are created or updated in your CRM, trigger a webhook that searches HubSpot using existing fields like email or phone number to find matching records. If no match exists, create a new record. This keeps your CRM architecture intact while providing automated sync capabilities. The middleware handles all the ID mapping logic externally, so your core system remains unchanged. I implemented this pattern for a client last year and it significantly reduced the maintenance overhead compared to direct database modifications.