HubSpot and Infusionsoft (Keap): migrate or sync?
Migrate if you are moving from Infusionsoft (now Keap) to HubSpot for good; sync only for a defined overlap, and keep it short. Contacts, companies and deals map across reasonably. Tags, automations, campaigns, sequences and email history do not transfer as working objects, so plan to rebuild them. The risks are duplicates, unclear ownership of each field during the overlap and consent data that does not follow the contact. We have not verified every vendor detail against current documentation, so this article states the design and tells you what to check on each vendor's own pages.
By Saveez IrfanUpdated
In short
- Decide migrate or sync first. Migration ends in one system; a sync is a bridge with a shelf life, and permanent bridges become the thing nobody dares touch.
- Contacts, companies and deals map across. Tags, automations, campaigns, sequences and email history are rebuilt, not moved.
- Tags have no single HubSpot equivalent. Turn each one into a property value, a list membership or nothing, depending on what it was for.
- Choose one owner for each field during any overlap. Two-way sync of the same field is how records start to disagree.
- Move consent and unsubscribe status deliberately. A contact who opted out in one system must not be re-mailed from the other.
- Pilot on a slice of contacts, check it by hand, then run the full import. Never start with the whole database.
Should you migrate or sync Infusionsoft with HubSpot?
Infusionsoft is the older name for what is now called Keap. The question behind the search is nearly always one of two things: we are leaving it for HubSpot, or we have both and need them to agree for a while. Those are different jobs.
| Situation | Approach | Where it breaks |
|---|---|---|
| Leaving Keap for HubSpot permanently | Migrate: export, clean, import, rebuild automations, then switch off Keap on a date | Rebuilding automations takes longer than the data import, and it is the part most plans leave out |
| Both systems for a defined period, such as a phased cutover | Short-lived sync with one owner per field, ending on a date | Sync with no end date quietly becomes the architecture |
| Both systems permanently, for different jobs (for example Keap for e-commerce and HubSpot for sales) | A deliberate sync of a short list of fields, with a documented boundary | Duplicates and field conflicts, unless one system is the master for each field |
Our position: migrate if you can. Running two CRMs costs two licences and a standing integration, and most overlaps exist because the automation rebuild was underestimated. If you keep both, treat the boundary as a design decision, in the way our HubSpot platform page describes for HubSpot and the systems downstream of it.
What maps, and what does not
| Keap side | HubSpot side | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Contacts | Contacts | Core fields (name, email, phone, address) map directly. Match on email and plan how you will handle contacts without one |
| Companies | Companies | Associate each contact with a company during or after import. Messy company names create duplicates, so standardise them first |
| Opportunities and pipeline stages | Deals and deal stages | Map stages one by one. Agree what an open, won and lost deal is before moving them |
| Tags | Properties, lists or nothing | No direct equivalent. A tag marking a customer type becomes a property value; a tag marking an interest may become a list; a tag that only triggered an old automation can be dropped |
| Custom fields | Custom properties | Create the properties in HubSpot first and choose the right type (text, dropdown, date). Dropdown values must match exactly or the import will not populate them |
| Campaigns, sequences and automations | Workflows and sequences | Do not transfer as working objects. Document what each does, then rebuild, simplifying as you go |
| Notes, tasks and email history | Notes, tasks and the activity timeline | Check what each vendor's export and import support. Some history may only be keepable as an archive or as notes |
| Orders, invoices and subscriptions | Depends on your HubSpot setup | If you used Keap for e-commerce and payments, this is a separate project, not a field mapping |
| Unsubscribes and consent | Subscription status and consent properties | Carry across deliberately and test. Re-mailing someone who opted out is the costliest error in the plan |
A phased plan
- 01Audit Keap. List the tags, custom fields, campaigns and automations that still do something. Most accounts hold a lot that nobody has touched in years, and the best saving in the project is not carrying it over.
- 02Design the HubSpot side. Decide properties, lifecycle stages, deal pipelines and who owns each. Fewer properties that are used beat a copy of every old field.
- 03Clean before export. Merge duplicates, fix obvious errors, standardise company names and remove contacts you would not email.
- 04Pilot import. Move a small slice, such as one segment, check names, associations, property values and consent by hand, and fix the mapping.
- 05Full import in a single window. Freeze edits in Keap during it, or record what changed so you can reapply it.
- 06Rebuild automations in HubSpot, starting with the ones that touch revenue or leads. Run each in parallel with Keap's version only where it cannot double-send.
- 07Cut over on a date. Update web forms, tracking and any integrations to write to HubSpot, then turn off Keap sending. Keep Keap read-only for a period as a safety net, and then close it.
If you must sync
Check first whether HubSpot's marketplace or Keap's integration list offers a connector for your case, and read what it syncs and in which direction. Otherwise a bridge can be built with Make, Zapier or n8n, or with a script against both APIs. Whichever you use, the design questions are the same.
- One master per field. If a phone number can be edited in both systems, one of them will eventually overwrite a correct value with an old one. Pick the owner and make the other read-only for that field.
- A matching key. Email is the usual one. Decide what happens to contacts with no email, or with two, before you start.
- Idempotence. Running the same update twice must leave the same result, so retries and re-runs do not create duplicates.
- Consent travels with the contact. A subscription change in one system must reach the other, or be impossible to make in the wrong place.
- Alerts. A sync that fails silently produces the drift you were trying to avoid. A named person should hear about every failure.
- An end date, or a recorded reason there is not one.
Where this breaks: automations in both systems acting on the same contact. A Keap sequence and a HubSpot workflow emailing the same person produce exactly the experience customers complain about. Decide which system sends what during the overlap.
Risks to plan for
| Risk | Mitigation |
|---|---|
| Duplicates after import | Clean first, match on email, and check how HubSpot treats a matching email on import in its current documentation. Test on the pilot slice |
| Lost history | Decide what history you need. Keep an archived export from Keap, and import only what people will actually read |
| Broken lead capture | List every form and landing page that posts to Keap. Move each on cutover day and test a submission |
| Double-sending | One sending system at a time per audience. Switch off the Keap version when the HubSpot one goes live |
| Data owner unclear | Name who signs off the mapping and who answers when sales and marketing disagree about a field |
Skofi does HubSpot integration and workflow work and is not a HubSpot partner. Rates for CRM work are covered in our hiring article and are Skofi's own: US$25 an hour, estimated in hours before we start, quoted after a discovery conversation. We have not delivered a Keap to HubSpot migration that we can cite as a case study, so nothing here describes a client result.
Common questions
Infusionsoft is the earlier name of the product now sold as Keap. Searches for both lead to the same account type. If you are on an older account, check Keap's current documentation for the export options available to you.
Not as a tag. HubSpot does not have a direct equivalent. Turn each tag into a property value, a list membership or nothing, depending on what it was used for, and create the property in HubSpot before import.
No. Campaigns and sequences do not transfer as working objects. Document what each one does and rebuild it as a HubSpot workflow or sequence, dropping the ones that no longer serve a purpose.
Merge duplicates in Keap before export, match on email, and run a small pilot import to see how HubSpot treats matches. Check HubSpot's current import documentation for how it handles existing records.
Yes, for a defined period, with one master per field, a matching key and an end date. Decide which system sends which emails so the same contact is not emailed by both.
Carry consent and unsubscribe status across deliberately and test it on the pilot. Re-mailing a contact who opted out is the most expensive error in a migration, so verify this before any email goes from HubSpot.
Drafted with AI assistance (Claude). Published under Saveez Irfan’s name, who is accountable for it. Editorial policy