Plenty of B2B teams start on a flexible, sales-first CRM and are happy there for years. The point where it stops working is rarely the CRM itself. It's the moment marketing needs campaign attribution, service needs ticketing, and leadership wants one view of the customer from first touch to renewal.
That's when an Attio to HubSpot migration comes onto the table, and the challenge is less about volume than about structure: translating a data model your team built around its own process into a platform with its own logic for contacts, deals and pipelines, without losing the history that makes the data worth moving.
Here's how that translation works in practice, and where the gaps usually hide.
Why Teams Move from Attio to HubSpot
The most common trigger is growth beyond the sales team. According to HubSpot's own comparison of the two platforms, Attio focuses primarily on contacts, companies and deals, without native email marketing, a landing page builder, ticketing with SLAs, a knowledge base, or customer success features such as health scoring and renewal pipelines. Teams that need those capabilities usually add point solutions around the CRM, and customer data fragments across them.
The second trigger is setup effort. A CRM built to be customised from the ground up asks teams to design their own data model, relationships and automations, and for companies without a dedicated RevOps function that work never really ends. HubSpot ships with a ready structure for sales, marketing and service, while still supporting custom objects, custom properties and configurable associations for the parts of your business that don't fit a standard model.
Neither reason means your Attio setup was wrong. It usually means the business outgrew the scope the CRM was built for, which is exactly why the migration should be treated as a redesign rather than a copy and paste. It's the same principle behind every project in our HubSpot, Salesforce and NetSuite services.
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Explore HubSpot CRM DashboardsWhat Moves from Attio to HubSpot
Most Attio data has a clear equivalent in HubSpot. The table below shows how the core objects translate, and what to check for each one.
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People
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✓ContactsEmail is HubSpot's main deduplication key, so records without one need a matching rule.
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Companies
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✓CompaniesCompany domain drives matching and automatic contact association.
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Deals
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✓DealsEvery deal stage must exist in the target pipeline before import.
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Custom objects
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✓Custom objectsRequires HubSpot Enterprise. The schema is created first, then records follow.
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Attributes
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✓PropertiesField types must match, especially select and multi-select options.
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Statuses
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✓Pipelines and stagesEach status attribute becomes a pipeline, a stage set or a dropdown property.
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Record relationships
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✓AssociationsAssociation labels preserve what each link between records means.
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Notes and comments
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✓NotesComments are usually merged into notes on the parent record.
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Tasks
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✓TasksOwners are mapped to HubSpot users before tasks are imported.
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Email threads
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!Email engagementsOnly possible where the email data can be extracted (see the next section).
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The mapping that trips most teams up is lists. In Attio, a list tracks a process: each list holds records of one object type, and every entry carries its own list-level attributes, such as a stage or a priority that only exists inside that list. HubSpot lists are segments of records and don't hold per-entry data. So each Attio list needs a decision: turn it into a pipeline, move its attributes onto the record as properties, or model it as a custom object. It's the same question at the centre of our Zoho to Salesforce migration guide: what transfers as it is, and what has to be recreated in the new platform.
What Doesn't Move Automatically
This is where most migration plans come up short. Some data can't be exported through Attio's standard tools at all, and some logic has to be rebuilt in HubSpot rather than moved.
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Enriched data Attio's own documentation confirms enriched data can't be exported: those columns come through blank. Re-enrich the records in HubSpot after go-live. |
Email history Emails aren't included in Attio's workspace export. Decide whether and how history moves before cutover. |
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Meetings and call recordings Available only through Attio's API, not the standard export, so they need a scripted extraction. |
Webhooks Webhook configurations don't transfer. Every system listening to Attio events needs a new trigger from HubSpot. |
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Workflows and automations Attio workflows are recreated as HubSpot workflows, ideally reworked for the new data model. |
List entry data List-level attributes sit outside the parent record and are easy to miss if you only export object views. |
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None of these are blockers. They are decisions. The risk is discovering them after cutover, when the Attio workspace has been closed and the only copy of enriched job titles or last year's email threads went with it.
How to Plan an Attio to HubSpot Migration
A reliable migration follows the same six phases regardless of data volume. Skipping any of them is how teams end up with records that look complete but aren't.
Phase 1
Audit the Attio workspace
Inventory objects, attributes, lists, statuses and relationships. Remove duplicates and fields nobody uses.
Phase 2
Design the HubSpot data model
Decide what each list, status and custom object becomes, then create properties, pipelines and association labels.
Phase 3
Build the field mapping
Document every Attio attribute against its HubSpot property, including field types and select options.
Phase 4
Run a test migration
Move a representative sample into a HubSpot sandbox or test account and check associations, owners and stages record by record.
Phase 5
Run the full migration
Migrate in dependency order: companies, contacts, deals and custom objects, then engagements and associations.
Phase 6
Sync the delta and cut over
Capture records created or changed during the migration, validate counts, then switch the team to HubSpot.
The test migration is the phase most often cut to save time, and the one that prevents the most expensive fixes later. A record count alone won't tell you the migration worked. In a recent Pipedrive to HubSpot migration, every record ID matched and every deal, contact and organisation came across clean, yet forty custom fields were missing. Field-level checks in the test run are what catch that before go-live.
After Go-Live: Rebuilding Automations and Reporting
Once the data is in HubSpot, the work shifts from moving records to making them useful. Workflows replace Attio automations, pipelines replace list stages, and sequences and lead routing need to be set up around HubSpot properties rather than the old attribute names.
Integrations need the same attention. Any tool that was connected to Attio, from billing to product analytics, has to be reconnected to HubSpot through a native app or a custom API connection. That's the work behind our HubSpot CRM integrations, and it belongs in the migration plan rather than on a list for later.
Reporting is the final check. If pipeline value, deal counts and owner totals in HubSpot match what the team saw in Attio at cutover, the migration is done. If they don't, a mapping somewhere needs another look.
Planning a move from Attio to HubSpot?
Book a Free ConsultationFAQ
How long does an Attio to HubSpot migration take?
It depends on data volume, the number of custom objects and lists, and how much history needs to move. The data transfer itself can take a day or two for a small workspace and up to a couple of weeks for a large one. The full project, including data model design, a test migration and cutover, typically takes two to six weeks for small and mid-sized teams, and longer when workflows, integrations and reporting are set up at the same time.
What data can you migrate from Attio to HubSpot?
People, companies, deals, custom objects, attributes, statuses, record relationships, notes, comments and tasks all have HubSpot equivalents. Enriched attributes and email history can't be exported through Attio's standard tools, and webhooks and workflows need to be set up again in HubSpot.
Can you export enriched data from Attio?
No. Attio's documentation confirms that enriched data cannot be exported, so enriched columns come through blank while manually entered values are included. The practical fix is to re-enrich those records in HubSpot after go-live.
How do Attio lists and statuses map to HubSpot?
Attio statuses usually become HubSpot pipelines and stages. Attio lists need a decision per list, because each list entry carries its own attributes. Depending on what the list tracks, it becomes a pipeline, a set of record-level properties or a custom object.
Will email history carry over from Attio to HubSpot?
Not through a standard export, because Attio's workspace backup doesn't include emails. If email history matters, agree how it will be handled before cutover. Connecting team inboxes to HubSpot logs emails from go-live onwards.
How does Loncom handle Attio to HubSpot migrations?
We start with an audit of the Attio workspace and design the HubSpot data model before moving a single record. The migration runs through the API with a test migration, full validation and a delta sync at cutover, the same process behind our Zoho to HubSpot and Insightly to HubSpot migrations. As a HubSpot Diamond Solutions Partner, we also rebuild workflows, integrations and reporting, so your team goes live on a working system, not just migrated data.
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