Prevent companies with the same domain from creating duplicates

[JKaufman]

Hi!

When going through my data in Hubspot, I sometimes find multiple companies with the same domain name that Hubspot is not catching as being duplicates. 

I want to make sure that when new contacts are uploaded (or companies) - that the upload is first checking our existing dataset for companies with the same domain and not creating new domains.

Can anyone explain:

1. How exactly this logic works?

2. If there is a way I can prevent new company creation if there is an existing company in our database with the same domain? 

Thanks! 

[Expertopinionsa]

Hi, glad someone brought up this question.. 

So, when I upload new companies or contacts into Hubspot, the system automatically checks if there are any existing companies or contacts with the same email domain. Think of it like the part of an email address that comes after the "@" symbol - that's the domain name.

For example, let's say I have two companies in my Hubspot database: ABC Inc. and XYZ Inc. Both of them have email addresses that end with "@example.com". So, the email domain for both of these companies is "example.com".

Now, let's say I try to upload a new company called "123 Inc." and their email address also ends with "@example.com". Hubspot will recognize that the email domain for this new company is the same as the email domains for ABC Inc. and XYZ Inc. So, Hubspot will check to see if 123 Inc. is a duplicate of either ABC Inc. or XYZ Inc.

If Hubspot finds a match, then it will merge the new record (in this case, 123 Inc.) with the existing record (either ABC Inc. or XYZ Inc.). This helps to keep our database clean and prevent duplicates.

However, if Hubspot doesn't recognize that the email domains are the same (for example, if one company has "www" in front of the domain name and the other doesn't), then it may not catch the duplicates.

To prevent new duplicates from being created, I can set up a workflow or automation rule in Hubspot that checks for existing companies with the same domain before creating a new record. This way, I can ensure that my data is accurate and up-to-date . Hopefully it helps you. 

[CTA9]

Hi @JKaufman,

HubSpot has a feature called "Company Domain Restriction" that allows you to prevent new companies from being created in HubSpot if their domain name matches an existing company's domain name. This can help prevent duplicate companies from being created.

Here's how to set up the "Company Domain Restriction" feature:

1. Go to your HubSpot account and click on the "Settings" icon in the main navigation.

2. Select "Properties" from the left-hand menu.

3. Click on the "Companies" tab.

4. Scroll down to the "Domain Restrictions" section and click on the "Edit" button.

5. In the "Domain Restriction" modal, select the checkbox next to "Prevent new companies from being created with domains that match existing companies."

6. Click on the "Save" button.

Once you have enabled this feature, HubSpot will check the domain name of each new company that is being created against the domain names of existing companies in your account. If there is a match, HubSpot will prevent the new company from being created and will display an error message.

Note that this feature only works for exact matches of the domain name. If a new company is created with a slightly different domain name (e.g., "example.com" versus "www.example.com"), HubSpot may not recognize it as a duplicate. In such cases, you may need to merge the duplicate companies manually.

Thanks

[AndreSuazo]

This feature is not available anymore. I've checked various accounts at various different levels. None with Operations Hub though. Is Operations Hub required now for this feature?

[ABeney]

Same questions as below - can you screenshot how to do this as I followed your instructions but I cant see a 'Domain Restrictions' option anywhere.

[jnet]

Hi there, could you share screenshots of this setting? I don't see anything on the knowledge base about it.

[BHydrean]

Hi, 

What if I merge 2 related companies with different domains together ?  Is there a way to set it that secondary company in the merge cannot then be added as a new company entirely?  

[MiaSrebrnjak]

Hi @BHydrean,

I wanted to chime in here. 

I'm afraid that this is a limitation of the tool; as you can see in this article, "secondary domains included as additional domains on a record  are not used to deduplicate companies." Automatic deduplication only works with primary domains.

You could, however, associate companies in a parent-child relationship (so they'd keep their primary domains): see how to do that in this help article. 

I hope this helps!

Cheers
Mia, Community Team

[JKaufman]

Unfortunately I'm not seeing this feature in my settings 

[karstenkoehler]

Hi @JKaufman,

Typically company duplicates aren't being created manually or via import but via integrations. Can you look up one or two examples of company domain names which exist on multiple records and check the values for Original source, Original source data 1 and Original source data 2 for each record?

e.g. you have three records for acme.com, which values for each of the source properties do they have?

Generally...

• HubSpot deduplicates company records by company domain name upon import
• HubSpot highlights to a user upon manual creation that a company domain name is already in use
• HubSpot allows for ignoring the notice upon manual creation and integrations can also create duplicates

Best regards

[NDKoralle]

Hi @karstenkoehler , 

In our current set-up we have the same issue. If we push new contacts to hubspot with different domains (@example.de and @example.com) - there are two companies subsequently created. Do you have any guidance on how to prevent this from happening? 

I saw you are a genius with hubspot. Cheers from my side!

[BérangèreL]

Hi @NDKoralle, I hope that you are well!

Thank you for asking the Community!

I found similar threads that might help you:

- The solution from @danmoyle on this post "Tool for catching same website different domains"
- The solution from @karstenkoehler on this post "Company with Multiple Domains Causing Major Duplication Issues"

Also, if anybody else has anything to add and/or share, please feel free to join in the conversation 🙂

I hope this helps!

Have a great day!

Best,
Bérangère

[JKaufman]

Thanks Karsten,

Stumbled upon a few where duplicates came from offline list uploads, so that makes sense, but also upon several where all of those fields are blank. I'm guessing they came from company uploads, but I would have thought that Hubspot would ensure not to create a new company record with the same domain.

Any advice on checking + cleaning up for this in a scaled/automated way?