HubSpot's transition to a seat-based pricing model, effective March 5, 2024, introduced a new structure where costs are directly tied to the number of user seats. When this model was introduced, HubSpot's announcement included the following text about what would happen to pricing for existing customers:
Source: https://www.hubspot.com/company-news/announcing-upcoming-changes-to-hubspots-pricing
We have recently seen the first few of our clients being migrated to this new model. We've been discussing the changes in HubSpot pricing model while assisting our clients to streamline their HubSpot licenses according to their needs and helping them to ensure that Core licenses are assigned for existing users to keep them from losing access. We've created the guide below to help you navigate the pricing migration and ensure that you won't get hit with reduced access and avoidable increases in license cost.
The key difference that affects existing HubSpot customers who are migrated to it's new seat based model.
Under HubSpot's previous pricing model, users could perform basic editing tasks without incurring additional licensing costs. However, with the introduction of the new seat-based pricing structure this has changed.
Key Changes:
Core Seats Requirement: Users who need editing capabilities now require a Core Seat, which grants edit access to purchased Hubs and HubSpot’s Smart CRM. This license is needed for users that need to make changes anything in HubSpot, e.g. editing a blogpost, sending emails, editing contacts, editing and setting up reports, etc. and who are not covered by a specific Marketing Hub, Sales Hub user license.
View-Only Seats: These seats are free and unlimited for paid portals but are limited to viewing data without editing privileges.
Impact on Costs:
For organizations with lots of users who previously performed basic editing in any part of HubSpot without a license, this change means that each of these users will now need a Core Seat to continue their editing activities. Consequently, this will lead to an increase in costs proportional to the number of Core Seats required.
Note: There are 3 levels of Core Seats that differ in price based on the specific packages purchased. If a customer has purchased Sales Hub Enterprise, then all Core seats needed will be charged at the higher enterprise core seat price level going forward.
For existing customers, HubSpot offers a "grandfathering" provision, allowing current users of existing customer HubSpot portals to retain their existing user access levels without the need to purchase additional core licenses. The grandfathering clause mainly affects users that previously had edit access to HubSpot but were not covered by any particular Sales or marketing Hub licenses. The new license model means that those users now need be assigned a paid core license.
Ensure your users are covered by grandfathering during the price migration:
Follow these steps before your portal is migrated to the new pricing model:
1. Understand the Grandfathering Process.
HubSpot's automated system assesses user activity to determine seat assignments during the migration. Active users—those who have recently logged in and made changes—are likely to be grandfathered into their current access levels. Based on our experience, this means that when the migration to the new pricing model happens, a core license should be generated for users that have recently logged in and made changes. These core licenses will be free of charge, however we'd recommend to check with your Hubspot Customer Success Manager (CSM to confirm this is the case. If you are not sure who your CSM is, or if don't have a dedicated representative, you may want to contact customersuccessteam@hubspot.com to discuss this further.
Note: For any users that require edit access that don't get a grandfathered core license assigned, a new core license will need to be purchased after the migration.
2. Create a list of users that need edit access to your HubSpot portal.
Any users that currently have and need edit access will need to be covered by a core license after migration to the new pricing model.
Review User Roles: Determine which team members require ongoing access to HubSpot's tools.
Assess Activity Levels: Identify users who have not logged in or made changes recently.
3. Ensure that there is User Activity Before Migration.
Prompt Logins: Ask identified users to log in to HubSpot.
Instruct users to perform simple tasks, such as updating a contact record, editing a property, updating a draft email, saving a change to a blogpost, etc.
There is no clarity as to how much activity will get a user grandfathered in but from our recent conversations with HubSpot CSM's we understand that the systems are checked for user logins and activity over the months previous to migration. We recommend that you have each user log in a few times and make minor changes when they do.
4. Monitor and Confirm Activity in your HubSpot portal.
Track User Engagement: Use HubSpot's user activity logs to ensure the necessary actions have been completed.
Verify Access Levels: Confirm that active users are recognized appropriately in the system.
5. Communicate internally.
Explain the importance of these actions and how they impact future HubSpot access and costs.
Provide Support: Offer assistance to users unfamiliar with how to make the requested changes to ensure the activity is logged against their accounts.
6. Speak with your HubSpot Customer Success Manager (CSM).
Ask your HubSpot account manager to confirm the migration date for the portal and discuss how it will impact you.
Discuss the amount of users that you would like to be grandfathered in for core licenses based on your inventory.
By proactively managing user activity before the migration, you can leverage HubSpot's grandfathering provision to maintain current access levels and control costs effectively.