Why are enterprise and mid-market companies moving their websites to HubSpot's CMS from legacy platforms like WordPress, Sitecore, Webflow, and Adobe Experience Manager? The reason is simple: today's websites need to do more than just generate impressive traffic, capture high-form submissions, or boast strong conversion rates.
Marketing, revenue, and sales teams are now tasked with gaining better control over their websites—often the most critical digital asset a company possesses. Achieving this control usually involves integrating data across complex tech stacks so decision-makers can access detailed reporting and optimize processes. These improvements lead to better customer acquisition and enhanced user experiences.
Each CMS has its unique benefits and limitations. In this guide, we’ll explore some leading enterprise CMS platforms, highlight the strengths of HubSpot's CMS Hub, and explain why more organizations are transitioning to HubSpot CMS Hub Enterprise. Migrating to a new CMS or overhauling a website can seem overwhelming, but this comprehensive guide will give you a clear understanding of the migration process and the resources available to help business leaders streamline their operations and drive growth through an effective CMS switch.
A HubSpot CMS migration involves transferring your website from its current content management system (CMS) to HubSpot. This process can range from building and designing an entirely new website to simply moving your existing site to HubSpot without any design or structural changes.
When comparing traditional CMS platforms for larger organizations, a common challenge is the heavy reliance on IT and development teams to build, maintain, and optimize the site. This often includes tasks like content updates and site modifications, which can slow down business agility.
HubSpot's CMS Hub Enterprise stands out by reducing the need for ongoing IT and development support post-launch. This allows marketing, sales, and revenue teams to respond quickly to market changes and seize campaign opportunities without waiting for technical assistance. Additionally, HubSpot provides built-in reporting and attribution features that facilitate data-driven decision-making.
Here’s a breakdown of the key strengths and limitations of five leading enterprise CMS platforms:
Open-source: Highly customizable with an extensive library of plugins.
Flexible: Supports custom themes and design modifications.
Cost-effective: The core software is free, but costs can arise from hosting and premium plugins.
Intermediate ease of use: Traditional user interface with a moderate learning curve.
Community support: Large developer network for troubleshooting and enhancements.
Limitations: Security vulnerabilities and frequent updates are required.
Enterprise focus: Tailored for large businesses and complex digital ecosystems.
Personalization: Uses AI to drive content personalization and targeting.
Integration: Works seamlessly with other Sitecore products, including CRM and e-commerce platforms.
Scalability: Supports high-traffic, large-scale websites.
Customization: Offers extensive customization and adaptability.
Pricing: Higher price point aimed at enterprise organizations.
Limitations: Steep learning curve and a need for dedicated Sitecore developers.
Designer-friendly: Visual design interface with support for custom code.
Flexibility: Supports custom themes and designs.
Responsiveness: Streamlined tools for creating responsive websites.
Collaboration: Features built-in collaboration tools for teams.
Pricing: Follows a subscription-based pricing model.
Limitations: Limited capabilities for e-commerce and enterprise-level needs.
Enterprise focus: Comprehensive CMS for large-scale content management.
Integration: Deeply integrated with Adobe Creative Cloud and Marketing Cloud.
Personalization: AI-driven personalization for targeted content.
Scalability: Cloud infrastructure that scales to meet growing demands.
Customization: Highly customizable with a wide range of options.
Security: Strong security features and compliance standards.
Pricing: Higher cost tailored to enterprise needs.
Limitations: Complex platform with a steep learning curve and high ownership costs.
All-in-one platform: Combines CMS, CRM, and marketing tools into a single solution.
Ease of use: User-friendly interface with drag-and-drop functionality.
Scalability: Cloud-based infrastructure that easily scales with business growth.
Personalization: Offers AI-driven content personalization and interactive web applications.
Security: Includes built-in SSL, CDN, and DDoS protection for robust security.
Pricing: Subscription-based pricing model.
Limitations: Less flexibility for customization compared to other platforms.
Several common challenges lead businesses to migrate their website from one CMS to another, including:
Difficulty scaling due to disconnected data across critical platforms.
High costs associated with managing web administration.
Marketing teams in need of constant development support to update web content.
A fragmented code base that’s difficult to manage.
Outdated plugins that cause parts of the site to malfunction.
Delayed go-to-market efforts and campaign rollouts due to IT bottlenecks.
Increased security vulnerabilities.
Lack of vendor support when issues arise.
Server problems such as slow loading speeds and frequent downtimes.
These problems accumulate and create obstacles for marketing, sales, revenue, and IT teams, preventing them from achieving business goals.
One primary business goal driving CMS migration is improving user experience. Enhancing customer experience has a direct impact on revenue. According to the Temkin Group, companies with $1 billion in revenue can potentially earn an additional $700 million within three years by investing in customer experience.
Improving user experience is crucial for mid-market and enterprise organizations choosing to migrate to HubSpot CMS Hub Enterprise. The HubSpot platform offers various tools that can elevate customer experience, including:
Adaptive and A/B testing: These capabilities allow you to identify and address friction points that website and blog users encounter.
Smart content: Personalized experiences can be created based on a visitor’s lifecycle stage, device type, or geographical location.
Membership privileges: Specific users can log in to access personalized or private content tailored to their account, needs, and permissions.
Unified data: By integrating all your data into a single platform, HubSpot helps create a seamless customer journey from marketing to sales and customer service.
With HubSpot's unified ecosystem, marketers, sales teams, and customer service reps can work together effortlessly, delivering a positive experience throughout the entire customer journey.
HubSpot allows you to track key customer events, such as paid ad clicks that lead to landing page form completions, in real-time. You can automate workflows to trigger internal notifications, prompting your team to take immediate action or enroll new contacts in lead-nurturing email sequences using HubSpot's robust automation tools.
With HubSpot's easy-to-use CMS and CRM, you’ll never have to manually update reports or wonder how your team is progressing toward important business objectives. The platform’s automation and reporting capabilities keep you informed and on track to meet your goals.
Undertaking a migration to HubSpot CMS can seem overwhelming, but you don’t have to navigate it alone unless you prefer to. There are a couple of options for completing your HubSpot CMS migration:
HubSpot is committed to providing a top-tier experience for its users. This includes access to live customer support, a comprehensive knowledge base, and a vibrant user community.
For businesses seeking more personalized support, HubSpot can help set up the foundation needed to transfer your website content to their CMS. By using their professional migration services, companies can take advantage of HubSpot's expertise to design a custom theme that aligns with your current website and brand. The HubSpot team can also help build templates for various web assets such as webpages, blog posts, landing pages, and emails.
However, HubSpot's role stops short of migrating your actual data, content, and media assets. Your internal teams—whether IT, marketing, or development—will need to populate the framework and finalize the migration process by transferring data and integrating systems once the templates and theme are in place.
Note: HubSpot’s template setup, blog migration, and full website migrations are only available for CMS Hub Professional and CMS Hub Enterprise customers.
HubSpot has an extensive network of Certified Solutions Partners, where you can find partners that specialize in CMS migrations, like Inbound 281. With this option, a partner firm takes on the bulk of the work, including design, development, and the migration itself. If you select a partner experienced in Growth-Driven Design, they will manage all aspects of the migration, ensuring a smooth transition to the HubSpot CMS.
At Inbound 281, we use Growth-Driven Design principles and have a dedicated team of UX strategists, designers, developers, and content specialists. As a HubSpot Elite Solutions Partner, we have a strong track record of successful migrations that deliver excellent results for our clients.
By choosing this option, our expert team will work closely with yours to establish a migration timeline, set expectations, and assist with technical needs, such as:
Providing a secure staging environment and transitioning assets for automated systems.
Sampling your content to verify data integrity, ensuring proper formatting and mapping to maintain accuracy.
Implementing redirects to enhance the user experience and help search engines understand your new website structure.
Recommending digital marketing strategies to optimize existing campaigns and further improve performance.
For businesses with a skilled team of back-end developers and designers, handling the HubSpot CMS migration in-house can be a viable option. However, if your team is new to HubSpot, it’s highly recommended that they familiarize themselves with HubSpot's extensive knowledge base and consult with migration experts at HubSpot to ensure a well-structured project plan before getting started. Semrush also offers valuable resources for anyone beginning the website migration process.
Regardless of which migration option you choose, the following checklist will help you prepare for a smooth transition to HubSpot CMS:
One of the first steps in any HubSpot CMS migration is to create a detailed map of your website’s URLs. This process helps define the scope of the migration and ensures that appropriate redirects are in place after the migration so both users and search engines can easily find your content at its new URLs.
To get started, HubSpot suggests using a website crawler tool like Screaming Frog to collect the URLs and markup on your current site, giving you insight into how Google sees your content.
Your business has likely invested significant time and resources into creating the content on your website. Before migrating, it’s essential to audit this content to determine whether updates or deletions are necessary. Regularly refreshing or removing outdated or low-quality content is an important SEO practice that can reduce index bloat and improve your keyword rankings.
Low-quality content typically includes:
Filter combinations from faceted navigation
Disorganized archive pages
Overloaded tag pages
Pagination pages
Parameter-heavy URLs
Expired content
Non-optimized internal search results
Automatically generated user profiles with minimal content
Tracking URLs
Incorrect handling of HTTP to HTTPS transitions
Inconsistent use of www and non-www versions of URLs
Subdirectories that shouldn’t be indexed
On the other hand, high-quality content is characterized by:
Relevance: Content that meets the user’s intent.
Uniqueness: Offering information not easily found elsewhere.
Accuracy: Verifiable data, statistics, and facts.
Links: Including both internal and external links to reputable, relevant sources.
Engagement: Metrics that indicate users are interacting with your content.
Satisfaction: Content that successfully answers the user’s query.
Performance: Pages with fast load times and clean code.
Performing an honest assessment of your content is critical to determining what is valuable and what may need to be revised or removed. HubSpot offers a user-friendly guide to updating content, which can help guide this process.
After mapping your website URLs and conducting a thorough content audit, what comes next?
A critical part of the pre-migration process is creating a complete backup of your website content. This step ensures that, should any issues arise during the migration or if there’s data loss afterward, you’ll have a secure copy to restore from. Whether it's a server failure, hacking incident, or accidental file deletion, having a backup will give you peace of mind and prevent major setbacks.
Taking these precautions is essential for ensuring your data is safe and retrievable at any point during the migration.
Migrating a website requires careful planning, precise execution, and continuous adjustments as unexpected challenges arise. If you're considering a large-scale CMS migration, we’d be happy to discuss your business goals, walk you through the process, and provide insight into timeframes and measurable success indicators. As a HubSpot Solutions Partner and Certified HubSpot Trainer, we offer comprehensive support—whether you're looking for full-time assistance, training, or fractional HubSpot services.
To get started on your web migration project, schedule a consultation with one of our advisors today.