Hello everyone! I’m working on developing a cost simulation tool within HubSpot. I’m unsure if others have created something similar that can calculate costs based on factors like shipping fees, weight, location, and unit measurements. I’m open to any suggestions. My initial thought is to use a third-party service and then transfer the data to HubSpot using an API. I’ve heard that other platforms like Zoho have a cost simulator, but since we use HubSpot, I need to stick with it. Any insights would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
HubSpot cost simulators are a pain without proper planning. I spent months building one with their operations hub and custom objects for product catalogs (weight/dimensions). The game-changer was separating the calculation engine from HubSpot’s interface - we used Lambda functions triggered by webhooks. For shipping, FedEx and UPS APIs work well but need heavy error handling for address validation failures. Pro tip: test international addresses early. Customs duties need completely different data structures than domestic shipping. We’re now processing 200+ quotes daily with barely any manual work.
hey there! we created a similar tool using hubspot workflows and custom fields. it works for simple calcs, but shipping stuff can get complicated. honestly, the API option might be your best bet if you want up-to-date carrier rates!
We built a cost calculator with HubSpot’s calculated properties and external pricing APIs about six months ago. The trick was creating middleware that pulls from multiple sources - shipping carriers, tax calculators, and our pricing database - then pushes results back to custom HubSpot properties. Instead of doing everything in HubSpot, we used Azure Functions for the heavy lifting. Way more flexibility for weird stuff like dimensional weight pricing or zone skipping that basic workflows can’t handle. It updates costs automatically when deal properties change, which cut our manual quote errors big time.
Built something like this last year for our sales team. We connected ShipEngine’s API with HubSpot for real-time shipping rates. Set up custom properties in HubSpot for product dimensions and weights, then used webhooks to calculate costs when deals moved through the pipeline. Going with a third-party API beats hardcoding shipping logic into HubSpot workflows - way more accurate. If you ship internationally, don’t forget to add fields for customs and handling fees. We learned that one the hard way.
i actually built one in-house first but gave up when i saw how complex shipping zones get. ended up going with EasyShip’s API instead - their docs are solid and it integrates nicely with HubSpot. just cache the rates so you don’t hit api limits during busy periods!