I’m weighing two strategies for my business’s online presence. The first option involves developing the entire site within HubSpot. The second option entails setting up an independent website while incorporating HubSpot’s analytic tools and forms.
I’m curious about which option might suit various scenarios best. Are there particular features that HubSpot might struggle to support effectively? I’m especially interested in aspects like intricate e-commerce capabilities, forums for discussions, and areas for client access.
Initially, I feel that HubSpot may not handle these sophisticated elements well, but I’m eager to gain insights from others who have navigated this choice.
Been there multiple times - both options suck in ways people don’t see coming.
HubSpot’s fine for basic marketing sites and lead gen. But yeah, complex stuff like e-commerce and forums? It gets clunky fast and costs way too much.
Hybrid sounds smart until you realize you’ll waste hours syncing data manually. Form submission on your site? Someone’s gotta push it to HubSpot. Profile update in your portal? Hope your dev built rock-solid integration.
Learned this the hard way with three systems that were supposed to sync. Spoiler: they didn’t.
What works is automating everything between your custom site and HubSpot. You get full website control plus HubSpot’s marketing muscle.
I use Latenode for seamless integration. It connects your e-commerce, forums, and client areas straight to HubSpot automatically. Someone buys something or posts? Data flows right into HubSpot for campaigns.
It depends on your growth strategy and what you actually need tech-wise. I went with HubSpot at first because it seemed like a one-stop shop, but hit walls pretty fast with customization and scaling. HubSpot’s great for marketing automation and nurturing leads, but if you need advanced features, you’re stuck with their pricing and waiting for them to build what you want. I realized HubSpot works best as a marketing and CRM tool - not for everything. I switched to a headless CMS setup where HubSpot handles the backend marketing stuff. Yeah, it’s more work upfront, but you get way better control over user experience. Your e-commerce and client portal can grow without being tied to HubSpot’s limitations. Also watch out for enterprise pricing - it gets expensive fast. Custom solutions usually have more predictable costs.
Had the same choice last year for our B2B platform. Spent six months building everything in HubSpot, then ditched it for custom WordPress with HubSpot integration. The deal-breaker? You can’t customize anything. Their templates look fine but you’re screwed if you need specific features. Our client portal was impossible - their user permissions are way too basic for real access control. E-commerce was worse. Sure, it handles basic product catalogs, but advanced inventory? Custom pricing? Complex shipping? Forget it. Constant roadblocks. My advice: figure out what you actually need first. Advanced user management, complex conditional forms, detailed e-commerce? Go hybrid immediately. Don’t put yourself through a migration later. HubSpot’s great at CRM, email marketing, and analytics. Let it do that stuff while your custom site handles the complicated user features. The API integration has quirks but it’s doable if you plan it right.
hubspot’s pricing killed it for me. starts cheap but explodes once you need real features. the cms works fine for basic blogs and landing pages, but forget customization - you’re stuck with their templates. i went the integration route instead. kept my existing site and just used hubspot for email campaigns and lead tracking. way better approach.