Building a custom tool with Hubspot as the "back-end"?
Hi
I am working on a startup and i wanted to know if its possible both from a legal standpoint and via the Hubspot APIs if i build my own front end interfaces but used hubspot as the back office. I.e. my customers would see an experience the custom interfaces i build and then we as staff of the company would use Hubspot to update or edit any specific content etc?
As for marketing hub - i would like to create a custom interface in my tool and then use the 'backbone' of hubspot to deliver it and do all the analytics etc i.e. why re-create the wheel when it does the job so well!
Additionally my custom interface would be pulling and integrating with other SaaS platforms as well.
Does anyone have any experience with this and or has done a setup like this?
Building a custom tool with Hubspot as the "back-end"?
The answer is, it's complicated. I've come across this question many times with customers asking to use a CRM like Hubspot and whether it's the right decision. While there is some benefit to having the API tied to the app, I usually don't recommend it as a sole source of your data.
Foremost is data encryption and protection. The data in Hubspot is not meant to be secured such as storing passwords and/or payment processing information for your app. To my knowledge, the data that is stored in the CRM for Hubspot customers is not PCI compliant, nor are you able to encrypt data fields such as for passwords. While Hubspot processes your payment through a PCI-compliant system, this is expensive to add in for all Hubspot customers to extend that security.
Another thing to consider are the API call limits ( https://developers.hubspot.com/apps/api_guidelines ). Depending on how many API calls your app needs to make, staying in constant contact with Hubspot may not be feasible given their limits unless you speak with them about particulars in your contract. Sometimes it may be more efficient to keep data in sync, but not constantly use the data in your apps everyday operations to stay within the limits.
Those are usually the high priority decisions that come up from my experience with integrations. Hopefully that gives you a bit of a starting point to think about.
