CRM Migration Services: How to Switch CRMs Without Losing Data
3 min read · By Hamza Amir · Updated November 7, 2026
A CRM migration moves your contacts, companies, deals, activity history, and automations from one CRM to another, or from spreadsheets into a CRM for the first time. CRM migration services are the planning and execution work that makes sure nothing is lost and the team keeps selling while it happens.
We recently moved a financial advisory firm from HubSpot to Pipedrive: six years of history, zero records lost, full cutover in three weeks with no sales downtime. This guide lays out the plan we follow and the mistakes it is designed to prevent.
Key takeaways
- Map every object and field before moving a single record.
- Clean and deduplicate before import, never after.
- Rebuild automations deliberately; they do not migrate themselves.
- Run old and new systems in parallel before cutover.
- Verify record counts after migration, object by object.
What CRM migration services include
- Audit: what is in the old CRM, what is used, and what can be left behind.
- Field mapping: matching every object, property, and lifecycle stage to the new system.
- Data cleaning: removing duplicates, fixing formats, and standardizing values.
- Migration: moving records and their relationships, plus notes, activities, and attachments where possible.
- Automation rebuild: recreating pipelines, workflows, and email sequences in the new CRM.
- Integration reconnection: forms, email, calendar, billing, and other tools pointed at the new system.
- Training and cutover: preparing the team and switching over safely.
A step-by-step CRM migration plan
This is the sequence we use:
- 1. Decide what moves. Not every old record deserves a place in the new system.
- 2. Map objects and fields, including how relationships between contacts, companies, and deals will be preserved.
- 3. Clean the data in the source system or in staging, so duplicates do not travel.
- 4. Run a test migration on a sample and check it with the people who use the data daily.
- 5. Rebuild automations and reconnect integrations in the new CRM.
- 6. Run both systems in parallel for a short period while the team trains.
- 7. Cut over and verify: compare record counts and spot-check important accounts.
In our HubSpot to Pipedrive project, the two-week parallel run in step 6 is what made a three-week cutover possible with no sales downtime. Nothing depended on a single switch-over day.
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Common CRM migrations
| Migration | Usually because | Watch for |
|---|---|---|
| HubSpot to Pipedrive | Paying for tiers the team barely uses; wanting a pipeline-first CRM | Lifecycle stages and marketing data that have no direct equivalent |
| Salesforce to HubSpot | Simpler administration for a smaller team | Custom objects and complex permissions |
| Spreadsheets to CRM | The team has outgrown shared sheets | Inconsistent formats and duplicate rows |
| Off-the-shelf to custom CRM | The data model does not fit standard tools | Designing the new model before moving data |
How to avoid losing data in a CRM migration
- Take a full export and backup of the old CRM before anything changes.
- Keep the old system available, read-only if needed, until the new one is verified.
- Check counts by object: contacts, companies, deals, and activities, before and after.
- Spot-check your most important accounts by hand.
- Confirm that relationships survived, for example that each deal is still linked to the right company.
DIY migration tool or migration service?
Built-in importers and migration tools work well for small, clean datasets with a simple structure. A migration service earns its cost when you have years of history, messy data, custom fields, automations to rebuild, or no room for sales downtime.
We handle migrations as part of our CRM automation work, including rebuilding automations properly in the new system. See also CRM implementation services, Pipedrive consultant, and HubSpot consultant, or book a scoping call.
A CRM migration moves contacts, companies, deals, activity history, and automations from one CRM to another, or from spreadsheets into a CRM, while keeping the relationships between records intact.
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