Do You Really Need HubSpot Operations Hub?

HubSpot launched Operations Hub back in 2021, and it’s one of their fastest-growing products.

This year, they expanded the Hub’s data quality features, which is getting a lot of folks excited. 

Operations Hub is pretty different from the other Hubs and contains a lot of unique tools. Plus, some of these new tools are designed to make existing processes easier and eliminate long workarounds but achieve the same goals in the end. 

So our clients have been asking: do you really think I need this? 

Here’s what I’ve been telling them: 

What is Operations Hub?

Operations Hub is the fifth HubSpot Hub, alongside Marketing, Sales, Service, and CMS. It contains a bunch of different tools that can smooth out operational workflows between apps, teams, databases, and other Hubs. 

For example, the various product tiers give you access to features like two-way integrations, custom datasets for streamlined reporting, automated data cleaning, and custom code actions in workflows. 

Personally, I find the designation of Hub a little confusing. If you think of HubSpot like your house, each Hub might be a different room, and adding one is like building an addition. 

But Operations Hub is more like making your house a smart house, with connected plumbing, HVAC, lighting, and entertainment systems. 

Think of Operations Hub like the 1999 Disney Channel Original Movie “Smart House”

Operations Hub comes in four tiers ranging from free to Enterprise. That means HubSpot customers can pay anywhere from $0 to $2000 per month for access to these features. 

Do I need Operations Hub?

Unlike the other Hubs, it’s not simple to recommend Operations Hub purely based on the type or size of your business. Rather, it’s more about the way your business operates internally, your level of maturity with your existing tools, and the complexity of your sales and marketing strategies.

Need help deciding? Let the HubSpot experts at Salted Stone assess the situation. Contact us.

Here are some signs you might need Operations Hub:

• You already use at least two other Hubs
• You spend too much time building custom solutions for data silo problems
• You have issues with messy data, or rely on third-party data cleaning solutions
• You have 20+ workflows in HubSpot 
• You have a dedicated internal ops and/or RevOps team
• Your business model is complex or non-traditional
• Your team spends way too long building HubSpot reports
• You find yourself shouting “Gah!”, “Damn it all!”, “Oy vey!”, or “For cryin’ out loud!” at your HubSpot window 

This little fella probably needs Operations Hub

Really, the question isn’t if you’ll need Operations Hub, but when. If your business is growing and becoming more complex, at a certain point an issue will arise that will be best solved by one of the Operations Hub features. 

And when you decide you need operations Hub, the next logical question is: How much should I be paying for it?

Operations Hub features and pricing tiers

Like we mentioned, the monthly cost of Operations Hub can be anywhere from “furniture you found on the curb” to “luxury car down payment.” So what’s the difference between these tiers?

You can find all the specifics over at HubSpot, but to make it easier, I think it’s useful to focus on the most important features of Operations Hub and start from there. Each is available at a different tier, with more advanced tiers including everything from the basic ones. 

Two-way data syncing

Since Operations Hub launched, HubSpot has moved all integrations with third-party apps under the Operations Hub umbrella. Luckily, they’re still available for free. 

The real headline here is HubSpot data sync. These are 100+ integrations built by HubSpot that go above and beyond standard API connections, enabling two-way transfer of both future and historical data in real time (not trigger-based). 

Explore all data sync integrations in the HubSpot Marketplace

Data sync integrations include Mailchimp, Stripe, Microsoft 365, Airtable, RingCentral, Intercom, Square, Zendesk, and more. 

If you want to add custom field mappings for data integrations and not just use HubSpot’s default options, you’ll need the Operations Hub Starter (starting at $45 USD/month). 

Programmable workflow automation

Before Operations Hub, adding custom JavaScript to workflows involved cumbersome workarounds and API calls, which could slow them down. 

HubSpot has streamlined this process with the Programmable Automation feature, which lets you define properties for use in your custom code. You can use this feature to assign leads to reps on a weighted basis, dynamically update different Salesforce campaigns from one workflow, and more. 

An example of Programmable Workflow Automation

The idea is that you’ll have fewer workflows that create cleaner outputs and require less manual effort to create. This feature also includes the ability to add webhooks to workflows.

Programmable Automation is available starting in Operations Hub Professional (starting at $720 USD/month). 

Automated data cleaning

A.K.A. the feature HubSpot CRM users have been waiting for for ages. Data Quality Automation adds pre-made data cleaning actions to workflows without code. Do stuff like:

• Capitalize names
• Fix date formats
• Fix phone number formats
• Run calculations on numbers

…and output the results back to the contact record. 

The Data Quality Automation menu

You might have tried to do this manually or with a third-party tool before, but now you can quickly and easily clean all your HubSpot contact records. 

This feature is available starting in Operations Hub Professional (starting at $720 USD/month). 

Data Quality Command Center

The newest feature of HubSpot Operations Hub, Data Quality Command Center is a dashboard focused on the health of your data. 

As its name suggests, the command center gives you a birds-eye view of your data, and lets you know about problems such as duplicate records, formatting issues, stale properties, and integration bottlenecks. 

The Data Quality Command Center dashboard

This feature is currently in Beta and is available starting in Operations Hub Professional (starting at $720 USD/month). 

Datasets

Maybe the coolest feature in Operations Hub, Datasets are designed to make it easier to build reports. 

Basically, HubSpot has always told us that everyday users should be able to build reports in HubSpot. But if you’ve ever tried to build a report that’s even slightly complex, you know that the sheer amount of objects, fields, and metrics you have to sort through is deeply confusing. 

What ends up happening is that those users have to go to your analysts for help, and reporting becomes a time sink. 

A view of the dataset builder

The Datasets feature fixes this. It allows your analysts and technical users to build custom data tables with pre-selected fields and calculations and make these available to your everyday users, like your marketing and sales teams.

Ideally, this will let you free up your analysts’ time and perhaps even replace existing siloed BI tools. 

This feature is only available with Operations Hub Enterprise (starting at $2,000 USD/month).

Snowflake Data Share

If your business uses Snowflake, you’ll want this feature to pass data from HubSpot to Snowflake quickly and securely. 

Visual diagram of the Snowflake Data Share

This feature is only available with Operations Hub Enterprise (starting at $2,000 USD/month). 

The verdict

If reading about any of those features made you think “Wow that would make my life so much easier!" - you probably need Operations Hub.

In my work with clients, I tend to notice an inflection point where success is no longer limited by bandwidth or talent but by the capabilities of their marketing and sales software. 

Operations Hub is HubSpot’s way of ensuring that rarely happens, by giving growing businesses more customization options and control over their databases.