Do you love the design of your website, but find the features of your current CMS lacking? With so many website hosting options, it can be challenging to decide which one is best for your business.
If you are seeking a robust, modern content management system, then HubSpot CMS Hub may be just what you need.
If you’ve decided HubSpot is right for you and you’re ready to migrate your website, you’ll have to decide if you want to work directly with HubSpot or with a HubSpot Partner to make the switch.
Media Junction is an Elite HubSpot Partner with over 25 years of experience in the web design space. We admit we may be a little biased towards suggesting that you work with a Partner for your migration since we have helped with many successful migrations in the past.
Collaborating with a HubSpot Partner will ensure you get the most out of the powerful tools the platform has to offer. We believe in the value of working with a Partner, but only if that works within your budget. One of our main goals as an Elite Solutions Partner is to empower users to get the most out of their investment in the platform.
In this post, we will compare the experience of a HubSpot-led website migration versus that of working with a Partner to help you choose the best path forward.
A HubSpot CMS migration is when you move your existing website into HubSpot from another content management system. Migrations are also known as re-platforming.
Migrations can vary in complexity—you may already love the look and feel of your site and simply want to move it as-is, or you may want to use the opportunity to refresh it.
No matter how you get there, you’ll enjoy the platform’s industry-leading tools.
While HubSpot makes building and managing your website easy, you will require a theme or template upon which to implement your content.
When trying to match your existing site, you will likely require the assistance of someone with coding knowledge. If you have the luxury of an in-house developer, they can dive right in and get started—HubSpot has great documentation for working with their CMS.
Realistically though, most teams are unlikely to have a dedicated developer at their disposal. Luckily, there are still two convenient paths to migration: HubSpot-led or Partner-led.
A HubSpot-led migration involves working with the HubSpot Replatforming team to get your site up and running on the CMS as soon as possible.
CMS migration services are available to customers with Professional or Enterprise level subscriptions of CMS Hub.
HubSpot offers three types of services in regard to migration:
Each service type offers a slightly different outcome, so you can choose the one that best fits your unique needs. With a HubSpot-led migration, you essentially entrust the Replatforming Team to handle the process for you.
Depending on your service level, the cost of a HubSpot-led migration can vary.
At the time of writing this post, template setup is available for a one-time fee of $250, and website migration requires a $500 setup fee as well as $20 for each page of content migrated.
Specific pricing for the consulting services option requires connecting with the HubSpot sales team.
As with pricing, the timeframe of a migration performed by the HubSpot Replatforming team will vary depending on your chosen service.
At the time of writing this post, the estimated time required for template setup is 1–2 weeks, and the timeframe for website migration is 2–3 weeks.
This reasonably quick turnaround time will get you up and running in HubSpot CMS as soon as possible with minimal effort on your part.
HubSpot’s migration services offer a relatively low-cost, fast turnaround solution for migrating your website onto the CMS.
It is a fairly hands-off approach, as you are entrusting the Replatforming team with doing the heavy lifting for you.
Working with the HubSpot Replatforming Team requires minimal time commitment on your end, making it a good option for customers with limited resources at their disposal.
The migration services available from the HubSpot Replatforming team are somewhat limited in scope as far as what’s brought over to the CMS.
If your site relies heavily on complex functionalities (such as database-driven content), you will need to figure out your own workaround to implement these functionalities in the HubSpot CMS.
Moreover, if your team is only just testing the waters with the HubSpot platform and is not yet ready to commit to higher-level subscription tiers (Professional or Enterprise) for CMS Hub, then working with the Replatforming Team is actually not available as an option.
Working with the HubSpot Replatforming team to migrate your existing website to HubSpot CMS may be right for you if:
More detailed information about website migration services offered directly from HubSpot can be found on the HubSpot Migration Services page.
Participating in a Partner-led migration to HubSpot entails collaboration with a HubSpot Partner. It presents you with the unique opportunity to draw upon the experience and technical expertise of a knowledgeable advocate for the platform.
Working with a Partner also takes a lot of the guesswork out of how to get the most bang for your buck from the CMS, as they’ll be able to strategically advise on how to best use the available tools (or implement custom-developed solutions) to meet your unique needs.
If you choose media junction as your migration Partner, our process includes a robust client onboarding phase in which we work together to create a strategic, methodical plan to migrate your website to HubSpot.
We can’t speak for other Partners, but our migrations typically start at $10-15k.
This may sound like a lot compared to working directly with HubSpot. However, with your new custom theme we include our proprietary HubSpot CMS framework that we've developed over our 25+ years of working with some of the biggest brands in the world. Our framework is made for marketers and let's just say, we go beyond out-of-the-box to out of this world real quick. It's one of the reasons our customers come back time and time again -- we've heard nothing else comes close in comparison.
Our framework empowers you to seamlessly build future pages and maintain your site without the help of a developer.
The timeframe of a Partner-led migration will undoubtedly vary according to the size and complexity of the site, but on average, we expect an 8–12 week time commitment if you choose to work with us.
This allows ample time to deep-dive into your migration goals, strategize which aspects of the CMS to utilize, assess what (if any) custom development work might be needed, and create a comprehensive migration plan to deliver the best results possible.
When you utilize a Partner to assist with your migration onto the CMS, you’re gaining a valuable resource for all things HubSpot.
Partners are certified experts in the HubSpot space who will be able to go above and beyond with your website migration.
Your chosen Partner will be able to create any sort of custom modules, templates, or other elements you might need and offer creative solutions to any advanced functionalities you require.
Working with a Partner will ensure that you get the most out of your investment in the platform.
A listing of all current Partners can be found on the HubSpot Solutions Partner Directory.
The only real disadvantage of choosing to work with a HubSpot Partner for your site migration is that the cost may be restrictive. It’s important to note that the added upfront cost gives you access to experience and insight to help you get the most out of the platform.
You are also forming a valuable relationship with a team who can then be your go-to for all things HubSpot, as your business goals or use cases may change over time.
Working with a HubSpot Partner to migrate your existing website to HubSpot CMS may be right for you if:
There are many things to consider when migrating your existing website to the HubSpot CMS, and the best path forward will depend on your unique business needs, timeline, and project budget.
We hope that as a result of having read this post, you’ll have gained enough knowledge to decide if it makes more sense for you to work directly with HubSpot or with a HubSpot Partner for your migration.
If you’re interested in partnering with media junction for your website migration, feel free to get in touch with our sales team.