How to move from HubSpot Service Hub

To move from HubSpot Service Hub, export your ticket and conversation data from the admin settings into CSV files. Back up your contact records and knowledge base articles separately. Once you have your local copies, import the CSVs into your new support tool. Verify your email forwarding and chat widgets are active before closing your HubSpot account to ensure continuity.

I have spent eighteen years in the trenches of customer operations. I have managed two-location restaurant groups and dental practices with eleven different front desks. I know what it feels like to look at a software bill that grows every time you hire a new receptionist. I also know the fear of moving years of customer history from one box to another.

HubSpot Service Hub is a capable tool. If you already run your entire sales and marketing operation through their CRM, having your support tickets sit right next to your contact records is a major benefit. It requires zero integration work. That is a real advantage that I have seen help many small businesses stay organized.

However, the cost of growth is real. When I was running operations for a regional dental group, every new hire at the front desk meant another seat to pay for. In HubSpot Service Hub, once you move past their free tier for two users, the Starter plan begins at approximately $20 per seat per month. You should check their pricing page at https://www.hubspot.com/pricing/service to confirm the latest numbers.

How do I get my data out of HubSpot Service Hub?

The first step in any move is securing your history. You need to export your conversations from their admin settings. You will likely receive these as CSV files. I have seen managers get excited about a new tool and hit the cancel button on their old subscription before the export is finished. Do not do that.

You should also export your contact list. In my experience, the contact record is more valuable than the individual ticket. Knowing that a patient has called five times about the same billing issue is more important than reading the exact transcript of call number three.

If you have built a knowledge base, you will need to copy that content manually or through an export if available. There is no magic button that perfectly moves a help center from one platform to another. It takes manual work. I have spent many nights at 2am moving articles one by one because I wanted to make sure the formatting stayed clean.

What will I lose during the migration?

I am not a brochure, so I will tell you the truth: migrations are messy. No two support tools are built exactly the same way. When you move data from HubSpot to a tool like LastWorker, you will likely lose threading fidelity. This means a long back and forth email chain might look like a series of individual messages rather than one clean conversation.

Internal notes are another casualty. Most tools store internal team comments in a way that does not export cleanly. If your team relies heavily on private notes to track customer issues, you should prepare them for the fact that those notes might only exist in your backup CSV files.

Custom fields also rarely survive the trip. If you have spent years building custom data points for your dental patients or restaurant vendors, those fields will need to be recreated in your new system. I always tell my teams to keep the old data exports in a shared folder for at least six months. You will need to look something up eventually.

Why move to a tool without seat fees?

In the shops I worked with, the "per seat" model always felt like a penalty for being successful. If I wanted a part-time host to be able to answer a quick chat on a Friday night, I had to pay for a full seat. That does not make sense for a small business.

LastWorker does not charge per seat. Live chat and email support are free forever. You get unlimited conversations and unlimited teammates. You do not even have to put a credit card in to start. This is a massive shift from the standard market. Out of the twelve major tools we tracked, only eight offer a free tier. Most of those, like HubSpot or Freshdesk, limit that free tier to just two agents.

When you remove the seat fee, you can give every single person in your business access to the customer conversation. Your kitchen manager can see what customers are saying about the new menu. Your lead dentist can see the feedback on the new check-in process. That transparency changes how a business runs.

How does the AI pricing compare?

HubSpot bundles AI credits into their tiers. On their Starter plan, you might get 500 credits. On Professional, you get 3,000. It is a "use it or lose it" system.

At LastWorker, AI is off by default. We do not generate anything or charge you anything until you decide to use it. If you want a human to answer every single message, your cost stays at zero. If you decide you want the AI to handle a chat, an email, or an SMS, it costs $0.04 for that reply.

The phone side is where I have seen the most impact. I have watched good leads die in a voicemail box because the front desk was too busy to pick up. A missed call in a dental office can be worth hundreds of dollars. LastWorker can answer those calls for $0.01 per minute, including the carrier cost. A phone number costs $1 per month. Inbound SMS is free, and outbound SMS is $0.03 per segment.

How do I set up the new system?

Once you have your data exported, setting up your new home is a procedural task. Connect your support email address. Install the live chat widget on your website. If you are moving from HubSpot, you will need to remove their script and replace it with ours.

You can then import your contacts from your CSV file. This ensures that when a regular customer emails you, their name and history show up in the shared inbox. You can also set up your knowledge base and saved replies. I recommend writing your saved replies from scratch. Use the language your customers actually use, not the corporate scripts you might have inherited.

I have written phone scripts at 2am because I knew the next morning would be a disaster if I didn't. Having those scripts ready as saved replies or AI instructions is what keeps a business running when things get busy.

How do I test the move before going live?

Never flip the switch on a Monday morning. That is a recipe for a bad week. I always suggest running the two systems in parallel for a day or two.

Forward a small percentage of your email traffic to the new inbox. Put the new chat widget on a secondary page of your site. Let your most experienced receptionist spend an hour in the new tool and ask them to try to break it. They will find the gaps faster than any manager will.

Once you are confident that the emails are flowing and the chat is responsive, you can make the full switch. Cancel your HubSpot subscription only after you have verified that your new system is capturing every lead and answering every question. In my eighteen years, I have learned that the only thing more expensive than a software seat is a customer who cannot reach you.

Moving away from a tool like HubSpot Service Hub is a big step. It requires a few hours of manual work and a bit of patience with the data export. But for a business that is tired of watching their software bill grow alongside their team, it is a move that pays for itself immediately. You get the same communication tools without the overhead, and you finally stop paying for seats that only get used a few times a week.