The current permission sets for App Marketplace Access are binary. Admins must either grant users full access to the entire marketplace (security risk and lack over governance) or perform every installation themselves (operational bottleneck).
The problem
Super admin rarely have the account permissions needed in the 3rd party app to complete installations. This leads to:
- Insecure workarounds using “dummy” admin users to share credentials.
- Temporarily promoting users to Super Admins for them to connect, and then demote them.
- Bottlenecks and friction where super admins need to get admin rights in the 3rd party tool to handle installation.
Suggested solution: App-specific allowlisting
Instead of an “all or nothing” approach, a super admin ought to have the ability to toggle on/off installation rights to individual apps, and to have the “request to install flow” should include the option to ask for this.
The flow would mean:
- Admin review and approval: Super Admins can review and allowlist apps for the portal
- Delegate installations: Installation rights to a specific app can be set to a User/Team who have the necessary access rights in the other tool. Users can then complete installation using their own credentials for the 3rd party tool.
- Scoped safety: The installed app respects the user’s HubSpot data permissions (eg. if the user can’t access Deals from another team, the app cannot either).
Benefit
- Enterprise governance: Supports clear division of duties and data handling across complex global organizations.
- SMB velocity: Allows lean teams to connect tools without waiting for a central gatekeeper to join a screen-share.
- By removing this friction, HubSpot will see higher adoption of marketplace tools as departments can self-serve their integrations securely.
Caveats
I recognize that high-scope apps (requiring Super Admin on both ends) would still require manual Admin intervention, but this allowlisting would solve the majority of standard SaaS integrations.