Dynamics 365 to HubSpot Migration: What Enterprise Teams Need to Know

Dynamics 365 promised enterprise-grade CRM. For many companies, it delivered enterprise-grade complexity instead.

If your organisation runs Dynamics 365 alongside Microsoft 365, Teams, and SharePoint, the idea of switching CRM platforms feels like unpicking the entire technology stack. That perception keeps many companies on Dynamics long after they’ve stopped getting value from it.

But here’s what we see working with enterprise teams across the UK, US, DACH, and APAC: the switch is rarely as disruptive as people expect. The Microsoft integrations that feel like lock-in (Outlook email sync, Teams notifications, calendar and SharePoint document sharing) all work natively with HubSpot.

You don’t lose your Microsoft environment. You lose the parts of Dynamics that weren’t working.

This guide is for teams at companies with 200 or more employees who are either actively evaluating a move from Dynamics to HubSpot, or who know something isn’t working but aren’t sure what’s involved in changing it.

We’ll cover why companies leave, what the migration actually involves, and where HubSpot could improve, and you should know that before you commit.

If you are considering a migration from another major platform, such as Salesforce, you can also read our Salesforce to HubSpot migration guide.

Why Companies Leave Dynamics 365

The reasons tend to cluster around four themes. If any of these sound familiar, you’re not alone.

1. Licensing complexity that obscures real costs

Dynamics 365 licensing is notoriously difficult to forecast. Per-user, per-app, and per-module pricing, combined with attachment licensing, Team Member seats, and Power Platform add-ons, creates a cost structure that even procurement teams struggle to navigate.

Full-user licences range from $50 to $300 per user per month, depending on the module, and that’s before implementation, customisation, and ongoing support contracts (typically 15–25% of annual licensing cost).

Microsoft’s January 2026 licence enforcement changes made this worse, not better. Organisations running Finance and Operations now face proactive licence audits, with users losing access if they don’t hold the correct licence type.

Beyond the licence itself, maintaining a healthy Dynamics instance usually means ongoing work from a specialist Dynamics consultancy: one of the costs companies most consistently underestimate.

A 2026 benchmarking analysis by Redress Compliance found that role mapping alone, matching users to the right licence tier, recovered 15–28% of annual licence costs across the estates they reviewed, which suggests that a significant number of companies are overpaying without realising it.

HubSpot’s tier-based pricing is simpler. It’s not always cheaper; that depends on the specific modules and user count, but it’s substantially easier to forecast, which matters when you’re building a business case.

2. Marketing automation that forces a dual-platform stack

Dynamics 365 Customer Insights – Journeys (formerly Dynamics 365 Marketing) has improved in recent years, but it still falls short of matching HubSpot Marketing Hub in terms of ease of use, email tooling, and campaign management.

The result: many enterprise Dynamics users run a separate marketing automation platform alongside their CRM, such as Marketo, Pardot, Mailchimp, or something else entirely.

That dual-stack creates data fragmentation, reporting blind spots, and a constant reconciliation overhead between the two systems. One of the most common migration triggers we see is a marketing leader who’s tired of maintaining two platforms and wants to consolidate onto one system where marketing and sales data live together natively.

3. Low user adoption that undermines the investment

Across the CRM industry, user adoption is the single most common cause of implementation failure. Industry data bears this out: almost half of CRM projects fail because of slow user adoption, and only 46% of organisations achieve adoption rates above 90%.

With Dynamics specifically, the pattern tends to be sales teams who find the interface less intuitive than they expected, build workarounds in spreadsheets and personal notebooks, and gradually stop using the CRM for anything beyond mandatory reporting.

The symptoms are predictable: data quality erodes, pipeline forecasts become unreliable, and the CRM becomes a tool managers use to pull reports rather than a tool teams use to sell.

4. The Microsoft ecosystem feels like a trap

What many companies don’t realise until they start exploring alternatives is that HubSpot’s native Microsoft integrations cover most of the functionality they assumed required Dynamics.

HubSpot’s Outlook add-in logs emails bidirectionally, syncs calendars, and surfaces CRM data inside the inbox without switching tabs. Teams integration delivers deal notifications, ticket assignments, and form submissions directly into channels.

Calendar events sync bidirectionally. SharePoint and OneDrive documents can be shared and accessed from within HubSpot records.

You keep Microsoft for communication and collaboration. You move CRM to a platform that’s actually built for it.

What the Migration Actually Involves

Every migration is different, but there’s a general shape to how Dynamics-to-HubSpot projects work. Understanding this helps you build a realistic internal business case.

Decide what you’re actually migrating

“Migrating from Dynamics” rarely means ripping everything out on day one. In practice, most enterprise migrations move the marketing and sales layer, where HubSpot is strongest, onto HubSpot, while genuinely better systems are left in place (Dynamics Finance & Operations, or a separate ERP like NetSuite) stay where they are and connect back to HubSpot.

A native Dynamics connector, extended through HubSpot’s Data Hub where custom logic is needed, handles that integration, so the platforms coexist rather than compete. The first scoping question isn’t “how do we move all of it?” but “which parts of the estate actually belong in HubSpot, and what stays?” Not every financial contact needs to live in your CRM.

What moves and what gets rebuilt

Core CRM data (contacts, companies, deals, activities, notes) migrates directly. Custom entities in Dynamics map to custom objects in HubSpot, though the structure may need to be adapted rather than replicated one-to-one.

The area that requires the most thought is workflow translation. Power Automate flows and Dynamics workflows don’t have a direct equivalent in HubSpot; they need to be rebuilt using HubSpot’s workflow engine, which is more intuitive but handles logic differently.

Some translations are clean (lead assignment, deal stage automation, email sequences).

Others require creative solutions or third-party middleware, particularly where Power Automate was orchestrating processes across multiple Microsoft applications beyond CRM.

Data migration: the unglamorous critical path

Data migration is where projects succeed or fail. The typical challenges for Dynamics estates include deduplication (especially if Dynamics and an existing HubSpot portal have overlapping records), field mapping between Dynamics’ data model and HubSpot’s, and historical activity migration, deciding how much email and meeting history is worth bringing across versus starting fresh.

For companies with 200 or more employees, data volumes are significant enough that migration needs to be tested in a staging environment before going live. Rushing this stage is the single most common source of post-migration problems.

Phased vs. big-bang: why phased usually wins

A phased migration (moving one team, department, or region at a time) reduces risk, allows you to learn from early phases, and keeps the business running on stable systems throughout.

Big-bang migrations (everyone switches on the same day) are faster in theory but create concentrated risk and leave no room for course correction.

For enterprise teams operating across multiple regions or business units, phased is almost always the right approach. It also gives your change management process time to build internal champions who can support later phases, something that dramatically improves adoption outcomes.

Where HubSpot Falls Short

No responsible guide should tell you to migrate without telling you what you might lose. Here’s what’s worth knowing: on features and usability, HubSpot is clearly ahead of Dynamics for most sales and marketing use cases. That’s not just our view; it’s what we consistently hear from marketing and sales teams who’ve used both. But features aren’t the full picture.

ERP integration depth

If your organisation relies heavily on Dynamics 365 Finance, Supply Chain Management, or Business Central, HubSpot can’t replace that ERP layer. Dynamics’ native integration between CRM and ERP modules is smooth in a way that any CRM-to-ERP integration via middleware simply isn’t.

If your CRM and ERP needs are tightly coupled, migrating CRM away from the ERP stack introduces integration complexity you didn’t have before.

Power Platform extensibility

Power Apps, Power Automate, and Power BI give Dynamics users a low-code development environment that extends far beyond CRM. Organisations that have invested heavily in Power Platform (building custom apps, complex multi-system automations, and embedded analytics dashboards) will need to find alternative approaches on HubSpot.

HubSpot’s own automation and reporting are strong for CRM use cases, but they don’t replicate the breadth of Power Platform.

Microsoft bundle pricing

This is where Dynamics has its strongest commercial advantage. Microsoft bundles Dynamics with the Office suite at heavy discounts for organisations that already spend significantly across the Microsoft setup. In some cases, Dynamics CRM is offered at near-zero incremental cost for high Microsoft spenders.

If your organisation is in that position, the pure licensing cost comparison may genuinely favour staying on Dynamics, even if HubSpot is a better CRM on its own merits.

The decision then becomes whether the productivity and adoption gains from HubSpot justify paying a premium over what is essentially a bundled add-on.

When you should NOT migrate

If your primary pain is ERP integration rather than CRM usability, migrating CRM won’t solve the problem. If you’ve built extensive Power Platform applications that depend on Dynamics data, the rebuild cost may outweigh the benefits.

And if user adoption is the issue, it’s worth asking whether the problem is the platform or the implementation, because poor change management will undermine any CRM, including HubSpot. It’s also worth noting who is driving the evaluation.

Dynamics purchases are typically driven by IT teams in Microsoft-heavy organisations, while marketing and sales teams almost universally prefer HubSpot.

If your IT department selected Dynamics and the end users are the ones struggling, the conversation should involve both groups before a decision is made.

How Huble Approaches Dynamics Migrations

Huble has delivered over 500 HubSpot implementations across the UK, US, Germany, Belgium, Singapore, and South Africa. We’re a Triple Elite HubSpot Solutions Partner — the highest tier — and 2024’s Global Partner of the Year.

What matters more than credentials, though, is how we work. Three things distinguish how we approach enterprise migrations:

We’re one company, not a franchise. A multinational Dynamics migration that spans your UK, US, and DACH teams is delivered by one partner using the same methodology, not coordinated across separate agencies. That consistency matters when you’re migrating data, processes, and people across regions.

We handle the compliance layer. ISO 27001:2022 and ISO 9001:2015 certification across all our offices means we pass procurement and security reviews that block most other HubSpot partners from enterprise deals. For regulated industries: financial services, insurance, and healthcare, this removes a significant barrier.

We don’t hand off after go-live. The Huble Flex retainer model provides ongoing embedded consultancy after migration. Most implementation partners finish at go-live. We stay to ensure adoption sticks, data quality holds, and the platform evolves with your business.

This is where the real value of migration is realised: not on launch day, but in the six months that follow.

Our approach follows a defined sequence rather than a single cutover. Scoping and a sales-to-delivery handover come first, followed by a discovery phase, typically one to two months, where we define the project goals, map your business logic, and document every data model and data flow before anything moves.

Only once the solution design is signed off do we move into build, integration, and the data migration itself. That discipline early on is what prevents the problems that surface when teams rush straight to moving data.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does a Dynamics 365 to HubSpot migration take?

It depends on the scope. Most Dynamics-to-HubSpot migrations for enterprise teams fall in the 4–9 month range, with 6 months being the most common. Global rollouts across multiple regions can extend to 6–12 months, and timelines stretch further if the migration is part of a broader digital transformation project involving other systems beyond CRM. The data migration and testing phase is usually the longest single workstream.

Will we lose our Dynamics customisations?

Not necessarily, but they won’t transfer automatically. Custom entities map to HubSpot custom objects, and many Dynamics workflows can be rebuilt in HubSpot’s workflow engine.

Power Automate flows that orchestrate processes across multiple Microsoft applications are the hardest to replicate and may require third-party middleware or alternative automation approaches.

Can HubSpot integrate with Microsoft 365 and Teams?

Yes, natively. HubSpot’s Outlook integration logs emails bidirectionally, syncs calendars, and surfaces CRM data inside the inbox. Teams integration delivers notifications for deal changes, ticket assignments, and form submissions.

SharePoint and OneDrive documents can be accessed from within HubSpot records. You don’t need Dynamics to maintain your Microsoft ecosystem.

What happens to our Power Automate workflows?

They need to be rebuilt. HubSpot’s workflow engine handles most CRM automation use cases (lead assignment, deal progression, email sequences, task creation) but uses different logic than Power Automate. Flows that only touch CRM data translate well.

Flows that orchestrate across multiple Microsoft applications (SharePoint, Azure, Teams, etc.) may need middleware solutions or will need to continue running alongside HubSpot for non-CRM processes.

How much does migration cost compared to staying on Dynamics?

Migration has an upfront project cost (implementation, data migration, workflow rebuild, training) and then ongoing HubSpot subscription costs. Whether that’s more or less expensive than your current Dynamics estate depends on your licence structure, user count, and which modules you’re using.

Many companies find that Dynamics’ hidden costs — licence over-allocation, Power Platform add-ons, ongoing admin overhead, and support contracts — mean they’re spending more than they realise. A side-by-side TCO comparison is part of any migration scoping engagement.

Do we need to migrate everything at once?

No, and for enterprise teams, we usually recommend you don’t. A phased approach, by team, department, or region, reduces risk, allows you to learn from early phases, and keeps the business running on stable systems throughout. It also gives your change management programme time to build internal champions who support later phases.

Is Migration Right for You?

Not every company on Dynamics 365 should migrate to HubSpot. But if licensing complexity, marketing platform fragmentation, low user adoption, or perceived Microsoft lock-in are holding your team back, it’s worth exploring what a move would actually involve.

Huble offers a migration assessment that maps your current Dynamics environment, identifies what moves cleanly and what requires creative solutions, and provides a realistic timeline and cost estimate.

No commitment, no hard sell, just a clear picture of what migration would look like for your specific situation.