HubSpot CRM vs Twenty: which to choose

When HubSpot CRM or Twenty is the better fit

HubSpot CRM fits better when the team wants someone else to run the platform and the business relies on bundled marketing and service tools. If your renewal is driven by a Sales Hub seat increase, the question is whether you would rather pay per seat for managed operations or take on hosting work to reduce that cost. HubSpot handles upgrades, uptime and the marketing Hub, Service Hub and reporting features that a small team would otherwise assemble from separate tools. Choose HubSpot if no one on the team wants to operate a database, a worker queue or a reverse proxy, and if email campaigns, forms and ticketing already run inside the same portal.

Twenty fits when the team wants a modern interface and needs to keep contact data on infrastructure it controls, for example to answer a data residency question or to stop depending on a vendor's tier limits for APIs. Its core supports custom objects and fields, workflow automation, email and calendar sync, and REST and GraphQL APIs, and the Docker Compose guide runs a server, a worker, PostgreSQL and Redis, with at least 2 GB of RAM recommended. Before committing, confirm that your SSO requirement fits the Organization plan, since SAML or OIDC SSO, row-level permissions and audit logs appear there, and that single-tenant isolation or SCIM provisioning, which sit in Enterprise, are not required.

The decision turns on three questions: whether your team has the hosting skills to run Twenty's stack and keep it patched, which HubSpot Hubs your business actually uses, and which Twenty plan features you need in writing before a quote. If the answer to the first is no, or the second depends on marketing and service tools Twenty does not bundle, HubSpot remains the simpler choice. If the team can operate PostgreSQL and Redis and needs its CRM data in its own environment, Twenty deserves a proof of concept against a sample of real records before you commit.

Which scenarios favor HubSpot CRM and which favor Twenty

This table matches common buyer situations to the platform that usually fits better and states the condition that flips the answer. Read each row against your own team size, data obligations and marketing needs before deciding. The main takeaway is that Twenty suits teams that want to own contact data and model custom objects, while HubSpot suits teams that depend on bundled marketing and sales tooling.

Scenario	Better fit	Reason and condition
Small team on the HubSpot free tier	HubSpot CRM	The free CRM costs nothing per seat and needs no hosting. Twenty becomes the better fit once you need to self-host contact data or add users, and its open source core can be self-hosted for free.
SaaS team that needs custom objects	Twenty	Twenty supports custom objects and fields defined as code, and its pricing page says all plans include unlimited custom objects, fields, views and records. Confirm the object model you need against the current release.
Team that depends on Sales Hub or marketing email	HubSpot CRM	Sales Hub seats and the Marketing Hub bundle sequences, email and forms in one product. Twenty covers CRM records, workflows and sync, so you must plan separate tools for campaigns.
Team with a data residency requirement	Twenty	Self-hosting places records in your own cloud account or data center. HubSpot stores data in its regional data centers, so confirm with HubSpot which region applies to your portal.
Team without DevOps staff	HubSpot CRM	HubSpot is operated by the vendor. Twenty's Docker Compose guide runs a server, a worker, PostgreSQL and Redis and asks for at least 2 GB of RAM, so someone must own upgrades and backups.
Team that needs Organization-level controls such as SSO or audit logs	HubSpot CRM or Twenty on Organization plan	Twenty lists row-level permissions, SAML or OIDC SSO and audit logs on its Organization plan at a per-user price. Confirm which features your needs require before comparing totals.
Team that wants to leave HubSpot with full data control	Twenty	Exporting from HubSpot is limited to 300 exports in a rolling 24-hour window and three running at once, so plan extraction early. Self-hosted data then stays under your control after migration.

Which Twenty features need Organization or Enterprise plans

The open-source core of Twenty is mostly licensed under AGPL-3.0 with an additional application exception, according to the Twenty LICENSE file. Files marked with an Enterprise license header fall under a commercial license, so a team should check file headers before assuming every part of the codebase is free to run and modify. The pricing page states that the open-source core can be self-hosted for free and that all plans include unlimited custom objects, fields, views and records, plus REST and GraphQL APIs and webhooks. For most HubSpot migrations, the features that matter for the data model, integrations and automation are therefore available on the free self-hosted core.

The Organization plan adds row-level permissions, SAML or OIDC single sign-on and audit logs. Row-level permissions matter if sales reps should see only their own accounts, or if regional teams must be kept apart within one workspace. SSO matters if your identity provider already enforces multi-factor authentication for the CRM. Audit logs matter when you need a record of who changed deal values or exported contacts. The Enterprise plan adds single-tenant isolation, IP allow-listing, SCIM provisioning and an SLA. SCIM is the control to check if joiners and leavers must be deprovisioned automatically from your directory.

Pricing changes, so confirm current list prices, per-user rates and plan contents on the Twenty pricing page before you build a budget. Map each control your security or compliance team requires to a plan, then ask Twenty or a reseller to confirm which of those controls are included in the plan you are quoting. If your self-hosted setup can meet a requirement through your own identity provider, reverse proxy or logging stack, record that option too, since it changes the plan decision. Our role here is to plan and implement the controls you choose; we do not sell Twenty licenses.

Where contact data lives and who can access it

For most regulated and security-minded teams, the choice between HubSpot and a self-hosted Twenty comes down to three questions: where contact records physically sit, who can sign in and with what identity provider, and what evidence you can produce about access and backups. The cards below take each question in turn and name the checks to run before you commit.

Data location and residency

HubSpot stores portal data in its own regional data centers, so your residency position depends on the region your account is hosted in and on HubSpot's contractual terms. A self-hosted Twenty instance runs in the cloud account, data center or air-gapped network you choose, which changes who controls the database, Redis cache and file storage. Confirm which regions HubSpot offers for your portal, and map where each Twenty component, including the server, worker, PostgreSQL and Redis, will run.

Identity and SSO by plan

Single sign-on is a plan decision in both products, so budget for it before you design access. Twenty's pricing page places SAML or OIDC SSO in the Organization plan, while Enterprise adds SCIM provisioning for automated joiner and leaver workflows. If your identity provider must drive deprovisioning, confirm whether SCIM is a requirement and whether the Enterprise plan is the only route to it. Ask Twenty to confirm SSO behavior for your specific identity provider before you assume parity.

Role-based and row-level access

Sales teams often need reps to see only their own accounts, while managers and finance need wider views. Twenty's pricing page places row-level permissions in the Organization plan, and its base feature set includes role-based permissions. Map each team's visibility rule to a role and a row filter before migration, because a rule that cannot be enforced at row level tends to become a shared view that exposes records. Test the rules with real user accounts in a staging workspace.

Audit logging and evidence

When an auditor or a customer asks who changed a deal or exported a contact list, you need a log that answers the question. Twenty's pricing page lists audit logs in the Organization plan, so confirm the events they capture, retention period and export format before relying on them. Send application logs and database audit records to your central log store as well, so access evidence does not depend on a single application screen.

Backup and restore ownership

HubSpot operates the platform and its backups, but you still own the exports you take and the decisions about retention. With Twenty, your team or implementation partner owns backups of the PostgreSQL database, file storage and configuration, and must test restores on a schedule. Define recovery point and recovery time targets in writing, and assign who runs restore drills. Your own backup routine should also cover data that vendor exports leave out, so check exactly what each path captures.

Compliance readiness work

Self-hosting shifts control evidence to you. Access reviews, change records, encryption settings, backup tests and vendor assessments all need owners and artifacts. DeployOpen can prepare systems, controls and evidence for a compliance assessment, but it does not issue audit reports or certifications, and independent auditors and certification bodies perform that role. Ask your auditor which controls they expect to test against and agree the evidence list before the Twenty build starts.

Choosing a Twenty hosting model

A single virtual machine running the Docker Compose stack is the simplest starting point and the lowest-cost one to run. The stack includes a server, a worker, PostgreSQL and Redis. Twenty's self-hosting guide asks for at least 2 GB of RAM because insufficient memory can crash processes, so treat that as a floor and not a sizing target. One host also means one failure domain, so the backup and restore plan carries most of the risk.

Operating effort: your team patches the host operating system, manages TLS certificates, rotates secrets and runs PostgreSQL backups.
Upgrade cadence: Twenty ships frequent releases. v2.48.0 came out on October 16, 2026, one day after v2.47.0, so schedule a recurring upgrade window and pin image tags instead of following the latest tag.
Skills needed: Linux administration, Docker, a reverse proxy and PostgreSQL backup and restore.
Headroom: size memory above the minimum if you expect more users, heavy workflows or large imports, and load test before go-live.

Before sizing, read the current Docker Compose guide and confirm the memory figure and the service list for the release you plan to run.

What HubSpot seats and self-hosting each cost to run

The main cost difference is who gets paid for what. With HubSpot CRM, you pay recurring fees per seat and per Hub tier, and the tier you need decides whether onboarding fees apply on top. Those subscription lines are predictable on paper, but they grow with headcount and with the number of teams that need access to the same contact records. Before comparing, pull your current invoice and list every seat type, Hub tier, add-on and onboarding charge, then note which of these scale with users and which are one-time. Also review the export and API limits in your plan, because a large data pull or an integration sync can hit them and push you toward a higher tier or a workaround. With Twenty, the open-source core can be self-hosted for free, so the license line disappears. The costs move to infrastructure and people. You will carry server or cloud hosting for the server, the worker, PostgreSQL and Redis, with Twenty's Docker Compose guide asking for at least 2 GB of RAM because insufficient memory can crash processes. Administration time covers user provisioning, upgrades (Twenty ships frequent releases, so plan a repeatable upgrade routine), backups of the PostgreSQL database and monitoring. If your team wants Pro, Organization or Enterprise features such as SAML or OIDC SSO, audit logs, row-level permissions or SCIM provisioning, those are per-user or annual plan fees to add, so confirm which features your roles actually need before choosing a plan. When you request quotes, including from DeployOpen, ask for each component as a separate line: hosting sizing and who pays for it, initial setup and data migration from HubSpot, backup and restore testing, upgrade effort per Twenty release, and ongoing support or retainer terms. Ask what is one-time and what recurs, and what changes if your user count or data volume grows. Confirm with Twenty which plan features your use case requires, and ask us to state assumptions about user count and record volume in writing so the comparison against your current HubSpot spend stays honest.

Cost components on each side and what drives them

HubSpot charges mostly through seats and Hub tiers, while Twenty's open source core is free to self-host and its paid plans are priced per user. The cards below separate one-time work from recurring spend, and name the driver that moves each line up or down.

Seats and plan tiers

On the HubSpot side, the recurring line is paid seats plus the Hub tier each team sits in, and higher tiers add onboarding fees. On the Twenty side, the open source core is free to self-host, and the recurring line is only a per-user fee if you choose a paid plan. Ask HubSpot for the seat and tier mix behind your current invoice, then price the same users on Twenty's Pro or Organization plan. Plan tier is the biggest lever on both sides.

Enterprise features that need a paid plan

Some controls you may need for a regulated team sit in Twenty's higher plans rather than the free core. Row-level permissions, SAML or OIDC single sign-on and audit logs are listed under Organization, while single-tenant isolation, IP allow-listing, SCIM provisioning and an SLA are listed under Enterprise. Confirm each control you require against the current pricing page before you budget, because these plan boundaries change.

Hosting and infrastructure

Self-hosting Twenty moves cost to the servers, storage, backups and network you run in your own cloud account or data center. Twenty's Docker Compose guide runs a server, a worker, PostgreSQL and Redis, and asks for at least 2 GB of RAM. Recurring cost grows with record volume, attachment storage and the number of environments you keep, such as staging. Ask your infrastructure team to price the production and non-production footprint separately.

One-time data migration

Moving records out of HubSpot is a one-time project whose effort depends on how much history you carry. HubSpot exports contacts, companies, deals, tickets and custom objects as CSV, XLSX or XLS with associations, but the export allows up to 300 exports in a rolling 24-hour window and up to three running at once. Large portals need a scheduled extraction plan, and the mapping of properties to Twenty custom fields is a separate task that someone must own.

Workflow and integration rebuild

Every HubSpot workflow, sync and connected app you retire needs an equivalent on Twenty or a replacement tool. Twenty provides workflow automation, email and calendar sync, and REST and GraphQL APIs with webhooks, but the integrations your team depends on for marketing email, forms or billing are not covered by the CRM. Count your active integrations before you estimate, since each one usually means a build or configuration task with its own testing and support.

Administration, backups and support

Self-hosting adds recurring administrative work: patching the application and its PostgreSQL and Redis dependencies, testing upgrades against Twenty's frequent releases, monitoring, and verifying backups. On HubSpot, these tasks sit with the vendor. Decide whether your staff, an internal platform team or a partner such as DeployOpen will own them, and ask any partner for a written scope covering upgrades, backup testing and support hours before signing.

How a move from HubSpot CRM to Twenty runs

The sequence takes HubSpot records out with their associations, maps them into Twenty objects and fields, rebuilds the sales process, and ends with a verified cutover. Each phase produces a check that the next phase depends on.

Inventory objects, properties and workflows
Start by listing every HubSpot object in use, including companies, contacts, deals, tickets and any custom objects, along with the properties, pipelines, lifecycle stages and workflows that depend on them. Sales operations and an admin who knows the portal should own this list, and a team member from each sales and support group should review it. The step is complete when each property is marked as migrate, rebuild, merge or drop, and someone who uses the data has signed off on the drops.
Confirm export permissions and limits
Check that the people running the extraction hold the export permission in HubSpot, because records can only be exported by users with that right. Note the vendor limits in the HubSpot Knowledge Base: up to 300 exports in a rolling 24-hour window and up to three exports running at once, so large portals need a schedule rather than a single pass. Confirm the file formats available (CSV, XLSX or XLS) and check with HubSpot whether your portal's associations and row counts fit the export as configured. The step is complete when a test export of each object has been received and opened.
Export companies, contacts, deals and notes
Export companies, contacts and deals with their property values and associations, and extract notes and activity separately if your export tool does not include them. Keep the exported files in a versioned, access-controlled location on your own storage, since they contain personal data. Compare row counts against HubSpot's reports for each object and spot-check association links, such as a deal pointing to the right company and contacts. The step is complete when counts reconcile and a documented sample of records matches the source.
Map properties to Twenty fields and objects
Build a mapping table that pairs each HubSpot property with a Twenty standard field or a custom field, and decide where custom HubSpot objects become Twenty custom objects. Twenty supports custom objects and fields defined as code, so agree on naming, field types and required values before importing. Record every transformation, such as splitting full names, converting dates or normalizing country values. The step is complete when the mapping is reviewed by the sales lead and a test import into a non-production Twenty workspace runs without errors.
Rebuild pipelines, views and workflows
Recreate deal pipelines and stages, the views that sales and support use daily, and the permissions that limit who sees which records, using Twenty's role-based permissions. Rebuild the HubSpot workflows that matter in Twenty's workflow automation, and confirm which HubSpot automations have no direct equivalent so they can be redesigned or dropped. Connect email and calendar sync for each user and test that logged activity lands on the correct contact. The step is complete when a test deal can move through every stage with the expected notifications and activity logged.
Decide where marketing email goes
Decide before cutover whether marketing email, forms and lead scoring stay in HubSpot, move to a separate self-hosted marketing tool, or are dropped. Twenty manages CRM records, so campaigns, consent records and suppression lists usually need their own system, with the consent status carried across deliberately. Confirm sending infrastructure and deliverability with the team that will own the mail stream. The step is complete when a written decision exists for each marketing function and the consent data to be moved has been identified.
Run a parallel period and reconcile
Run HubSpot and Twenty side by side for a period agreed by the project owner, with new activity entered in both systems or captured through a defined sync. Reconcile record counts, pipeline totals and open tasks each week, and log every discrepancy with its owner and resolution. Integration and API work should use Twenty's REST and GraphQL APIs and webhooks, and each integration should be tested against the parallel data. The step is complete when discrepancies are resolved or accepted in writing.
Cut over and archive HubSpot data
Freeze HubSpot edits, run a final incremental export, import the delta into Twenty, and switch users, integrations and email sending to the new system. Keep a read-only archive of the final HubSpot exports, with a retention period set by your records policy and the access controls you already apply to personal data. Confirm that the Twenty instance is backed up, since you now own that data. The step is complete when users sign in to Twenty only, integrations report healthy, and the archive is catalogued.

Questions buyers ask before switching from HubSpot CRM to Twenty

How much effort does a switch from HubSpot CRM to Twenty take for a team of our size?

Effort depends on the size of your HubSpot portal, how many custom properties and workflows you rely on, and how much of your pipeline history you need to keep. The main drivers are the number of companies, contacts, deals, notes and associations to map, the number of pipelines and views to rebuild, and the number of users to train. A small team with a clean portal and few custom objects will need far less work than a team with years of custom properties and automations. No duration is fixed by the product, so ask any implementation partner for a written scope that lists each object, integration and cutover step before agreeing to a timeline. Ask for the effort to be split into discovery, data mapping, build, test, cutover and training so you can see what drives the total.

Can one in-house admin run Twenty without outside help?

A single admin can run Twenty day to day if they are comfortable with Docker, PostgreSQL, Redis and basic server maintenance. Twenty's self-hosting guide uses Docker Compose to run a server, a worker, PostgreSQL and Redis, and it asks for at least 2 GB of RAM because insufficient memory can crash processes. Day-to-day admin work covers user access, custom objects and fields, workflows and views. Infrastructure work covers patching, backups, monitoring, restores and upgrades. Be honest with yourself about whether one person can cover the on-call and backup duties, since a single admin is a single point of failure. Many teams split the work between a product owner for CRM configuration and an engineer for hosting.

What do we need to provide for a Twenty implementation?

You will need to provide access to the hosting environment, a named data owner who can make decisions about fields and records, and a sign-off process for each phase. Hosting access includes the cloud account, Linux servers or the container platform where Twenty will run, DNS, TLS certificates and outbound email settings. The data owner decides which HubSpot companies, contacts, deals and notes are in scope, how properties map to Twenty fields, and which records are archived or deleted. Sign-off should be written and should cover the field mapping, the test migration results, the user acceptance test and the cutover date. Ask any partner to list these inputs in the written scope before work starts.

Can we move our HubSpot marketing email to Twenty?

Twenty is a CRM with custom objects, workflow automation, email and calendar sync and APIs, so it does not replace a full marketing email platform. Your CRM records, notes and deal history can move, but HubSpot marketing email campaigns, forms, landing pages and lead scoring are separate products and need a decision. Many teams keep marketing automation in a separate tool and sync contact and consent data into the CRM through APIs or webhooks. Before deciding, confirm which HubSpot marketing features you actually use, which consent records you must keep, and what sending service and deliverability setup you will own. Your sibling guides on marketing automation and the HubSpot Marketing Hub alternative cover those options in more depth.

Which Twenty plan do we need for SSO and audit logs?

SAML or OIDC single sign-on and audit logs are listed on Twenty's Organization plan, not the Pro plan. Twenty's pricing page lists Pro at 9 US dollars per user per month and Organization at 19 dollars per user per month, with row-level permissions, SAML or OIDC SSO and audit logs included in Organization. Enterprise, listed from 50,000 dollars a year, adds single-tenant isolation, IP allow-listing, SCIM provisioning and an SLA. Pricing can change, so confirm the current plan contents on the pricing page and in writing with Twenty before you budget. The open source core can be self-hosted for free, but the features above are plan-based, so check whether your identity provider requirements can be met without a paid plan.

How do we handle upgrades when Twenty releases so often?

Twenty ships frequent releases, and the GitHub releases page shows v2.48.0 released on October 16, 2026, one day after v2.47.0. Frequent releases mean you need a repeatable upgrade routine rather than occasional large changes. Pin the version you run, test each upgrade in a staging copy with a recent database backup, review the release notes for breaking changes to custom objects, API usage and workflows, and schedule production upgrades in a planned window. Decide who owns this routine and how far behind the current release you are willing to run. A retainer for upgrades and testing is one way to cover this work if your in-house team cannot.

Is the Twenty license compatible with our internal use?

Twenty is mostly licensed under AGPL-3.0 with an additional application exception, files marked with an Enterprise license header are under a commercial license, and SDK and UI packages are MIT, according to the LICENSE file in the repository. Internal use of the open source core is the common case, but the AGPL has obligations if you modify the software and make it available to users over a network. Have your legal or compliance team read the LICENSE file and the exception text, and check which files carry the Enterprise header before you enable any Enterprise-only code. Confirm the position for your own use case in writing.

How DeployOpen helps evaluate, implement and migrate Twenty

DeployOpen plans, implements, customizes, integrates, hardens, backs up, upgrades and documents self-hosted open-source platforms inside your own cloud accounts, data centers or air-gapped networks. For HubSpot CRM vs Twenty, the work starts with a written scope that defines which records, objects and integrations move and where Twenty runs.

How we scope

Confirm which HubSpot objects, properties and associations must move into Twenty custom objects and fields
Agree the hosting target, Docker Compose or other layout, and the memory and backup needs in writing
Define whether workflows, email and calendar sync, and APIs are in scope, and which plan features are required
Engagements are fixed-scope, with scope, deliverables and timelines agreed in writing before work starts

How we build

Deploy the Twenty server, worker, PostgreSQL and Redis services in your environment with documented configuration
Map HubSpot export files to Twenty fields, then test imports against a sample of records before full runs
Rebuild pipelines, views, roles and workflows, and test permissions and sync behavior against agreed cases
Run security testing on the application and its APIs before go-live, and document the findings and fixes

How we hand over

Deliver architecture, configuration, data mapping and runbook documentation for your own administrators
Walk your team through roles, workflow rebuilds, export procedures and the backup and restore process
Provide compliance-readiness evidence where your controls need it, while independent auditors issue any attestations
Confirm acceptance against the written deliverables before the engagement closes

How we support

Ongoing support, upgrades and continuous testing are available as retainers after handover
Retainers can cover Twenty release upgrades, security patches and backup verification in your environment
Ask for a written scope and quote that lists upgrade, support and testing responsibilities before committing
Confirm with Twenty which plan features your deployment needs, since they change the license and cost picture

HubSpot CRM vs Twenty