Kommo and HubSpot solve the same problem — sales management — through fundamentally different architectures. Kommo is built around the deal: one lead — one pipeline — one contact. HubSpot is built around objects: contacts, companies, deals, and activities exist independently and are linked arbitrarily. This difference goes unnoticed with short cycles and a simple product, but becomes critical when multiple stakeholders are involved in a deal or a single client is running several projects simultaneously.
If your team is starting to complain that working with multiple contacts on one deal is inconvenient in the CRM — you have likely hit this architectural boundary.
Quick Verdict
Kommo is the right choice for companies with up to 50 employees, short sales cycles, high lead volumes, and a single decision-maker on the client side.
HubSpot is the choice when a deal lasts more than 30 days, 2+ people make decisions on the client side, or marketing and sales need to work from a single contact database.
How the Data Model Works in Kommo
The Deal (Lead) is the central object of the system. Everything that happens in Kommo happens in the context of a deal: calls, tasks, notes, conversations — all attached to it.
A Contact in Kommo is secondary. It exists as an attribute of the deal, not as an independent entity. Technically it is possible to add multiple contacts to one deal, but the interface and automation logic (Digital Pipeline) are designed for one lead — one primary contact.
What this means in practice:
- If one client has two parallel projects with you, in Kommo these are two separate deals with the same contact — duplication is inevitable
- Communication history is stored within the deal, not with the contact. When the deal is closed, the history “leaves” with it
- Reporting is built around deals and pipelines — finding total revenue for a specific contact or company is difficult
- Digital Pipeline automations fire on deal movement through stages — a powerful tool for B2C, but limited for complex B2B scenarios
More on Kommo features and their real limitations.
How the Data Model Works in HubSpot
HubSpot uses an object-based model: Contacts, Companies, Deals, and Tickets are independent objects with bidirectional associations between them.
Specifically:
- One Deal can be associated with multiple Contacts — each with their own role (Champion, Decision Maker, Economic Buyer)
- One Contact can participate in multiple active Deals simultaneously
- Activities (calls, emails, meetings) are separate objects that can be associated with any combination of contact, company, and deal
- Custom Objects (Pro and above) allow creating new record types — for example “Project,” “Product,” “Location” — with their own properties, pipelines, and automations
The main consequence: communication history is stored with the contact, not the deal. When a deal is closed — the history remains. When the same contact appears in a new deal — you see everything.
HubSpot Workflows (automations) operate at the level of any object and any property: you can automatically create tasks for a salesperson when a contact opens an email, move a deal to a stage when a company exceeds a certain ARR, or notify a manager when a contact’s role in a deal changes.
Comparison Table
| Parameter | Kommo | HubSpot |
|---|---|---|
| Primary object | Deal (Lead) | Contact / Company / Deal are equal |
| Contacts per deal | 1 primary (+ secondary) | Unlimited, with roles |
| History per contact | No (per deal) | Yes, independent of deals |
| Simultaneous deals per contact | Duplicates, manual management | Native |
| Automations | Digital Pipeline (by stages) | Workflows (by any object/property) |
| Custom object types | No | Yes (Pro and above) |
| Reports by contacts and companies | Limited | Cross-object |
| Marketing + sales in one database | Via integrations | Native (Marketing Hub) |
| Entry price | From $15/user/month | Free CRM, paid hubs from $15 |
| Best for | SMB, short cycle, B2C | B2B, long cycle, multiple decision-makers |
When Kommo Is the Right Choice
Kommo outperforms HubSpot in specific scenarios:
High volume of inbound leads. If your sales involve 50–200 leads per day from messengers, forms, and social media — Kommo is designed for exactly this. Native integration with WhatsApp, Telegram, Instagram, and a fast lead-handling interface — here Kommo is faster and cheaper.
Single decision-maker, short cycle. B2C, retail, services — when one person makes the decision in 1–7 days. The “one lead — one contact” model works perfectly here.
Team of up to 15–20 people. HubSpot becomes economically advantageous at sufficient data volume and integrations. For smaller teams, Kommo is simpler to deploy and cheaper to maintain.
Fast messenger automation is needed. Digital Pipeline with stage-based triggers + native messengers — this is Kommo on home ground.
When Kommo’s Data Model Starts Getting in the Way
There are specific signs that a company has hit the architectural ceiling of Kommo:
- 2+ people from the client side are involved in the deal — procurement committee, technical director + financial director, buyer + department head. Managers start tracking contacts in notes or spreadsheets.
- One client runs multiple projects in parallel — in Kommo this turns into duplicated contacts or manual tagging.
- Marketing and sales work with separate databases — marketing sends emails from one tool, sales manages leads in Kommo, synchronization is via Zapier or manual.
- Reporting by client base is needed, not by pipeline — “how much revenue did this contact bring this year,” “which companies account for more than 50% of revenue” — in Kommo this is Excel.
- Deal cycle longer than 30–60 days — communication history becomes critical, and its attachment to the deal (rather than the contact) creates problems when a manager changes or on repeat sales.
When to Choose HubSpot
HubSpot makes sense when at least two of the following conditions are met:
- Average deal cycle — more than 3–4 weeks
- 2 or more people from the client side participate in the deal
- Marketing needs to work from the same database as sales
- Cross-object reports are needed (revenue by industry, company size, lead source)
- Sales team is expected to grow to 10+ people within the next year
When migrating from Kommo to HubSpot, the critical question is data transfer — especially activity history and custom fields. We covered what transfers and what is lost in detail in a separate article on migrating from Kommo to HubSpot.
What This Means for Migration
If you are currently on Kommo and considering a move, it is important to understand: this is not just an “interface change.” It is a change in the data paradigm.
In Kommo you have deals with contacts. In HubSpot you need to rebuild the object model from scratch: decide which contacts become independent records, how to organize companies, how to map custom pipeline fields to object properties.
The Kommo CRM overview with a description of all limitations will help you more accurately assess what you are already missing.
A typical Kommo to HubSpot migration in Exceltic.dev projects takes 3–6 weeks and includes: data audit, object mapping schema development, API-based transfer with activity history preservation, and validation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can Kommo and HubSpot be used simultaneously?
Technically — yes, via bidirectional sync. In practice, this creates data duplication and conflicts on updates. This setup only makes sense as a temporary solution during a migration period, not as a permanent architecture. Maintaining sync between two CRMs is more expensive than choosing one and configuring it properly.
Kommo vs HubSpot: which is cheaper?
Kommo starts at $15 per user per month. HubSpot CRM is free, but real functionality (automation, reports, sequences) starts with Sales Hub Starter — from $15 per user. With a team of up to 5–7 people, the cost is comparable. As the team grows, HubSpot becomes more expensive faster, but delivers proportionally more capabilities. Compare not the base price, but the cost of the functionality you actually need.
What is not transferred when migrating from Kommo to HubSpot?
Not automatically transferred: activity history (calls, notes, tasks), attachments to deals, custom fields that have no HubSpot equivalent, Digital Pipeline settings. Data on contacts, companies, and deals is transferred via API with mapping. Details — in the Kommo to HubSpot migration guide.
Is Kommo suitable for B2B?
Suitable for B2B with a short cycle and a single decision-maker — small service companies, agencies, consulting firms. Not suitable for enterprise B2B with long cycles, procurement committees, and complex reporting. The boundary falls roughly where a deal starts to involve 3+ stakeholders or lasts longer than 60 days.
Can Kommo be customized to the level of HubSpot?
Via API and custom integrations, Kommo’s capabilities can be significantly extended. But the fundamental lead-centric data model does not change — this is an architectural constraint, not a configuration issue. Customization extends Kommo’s useful life by 1–2 years as a company grows, but does not replace HubSpot when business processes genuinely require an object-based model.
Summary
- Kommo — best choice with high inbound volume, short cycle, single decision-maker, teams up to 20 people
- HubSpot — when multiple contacts per deal, cross-object reports, and a unified database for marketing and sales are needed
- The key difference — not features, but architecture: lead-centric vs object-based
- Migration requires rethinking the data model, not just moving records
If you are currently evaluating a move from Kommo to HubSpot — share your data volume and current stack. We will give an honest assessment of the complexity and what is worth transferring versus rebuilding from scratch.