A Zoho to HubSpot migration moves two Zoho modules, Leads and Contacts, into a single HubSpot object, contacts. Anyone who exists in both modules, a converted contact who later filled in a form as a new lead for example, meets their other copy in HubSpot. HubSpot merges the copies only when the email addresses match exactly. Every other pair becomes two contacts on the first day.
The fix is to export Leads, Contacts and Accounts from Zoho, combine the people into one file, merge the duplicates in that file with a person reviewing every match, and load the result once. Each decision goes into an audit log, so when HubSpot shows fewer contacts than Zoho did, you can explain the difference line by line.
How the data moves from Zoho CRM into HubSpot
There are two common routes. The first is a file import: export each Zoho module as CSV and bring the files in through HubSpot imports. The second is the Zoho CRM data sync app in the HubSpot marketplace, which syncs Zoho Accounts to HubSpot companies, Zoho Contacts and Leads to HubSpot contacts, and Zoho Deals to HubSpot deals, one way or two way, and can bring historical records across. Custom field mappings in the sync need Data Hub Starter or higher.
Neither route is a cleanup step. Both copy what Zoho holds, and both decide whether a record already exists by a small set of identifiers. That is why the order of work matters: clean the Zoho data first, then run whichever route you picked.
| Zoho CRM module | HubSpot object | How HubSpot matches it | What slips through |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leads | Contacts | Email address | A lead with no email or a different email |
| Contacts | Contacts | Email address | The same person already imported from Leads |
| Accounts | Companies | Domain on import, name or domain in the sync | Accounts with no website, or two spellings |
| Deals | Deals | Record ID or a unique property only | Deals linked to an account you merged away |
How does HubSpot deduplicate records during a Zoho import?
On a file import, HubSpot deduplicates contacts on email address and companies on the primary company domain name. Deals, tickets and custom objects are not deduplicated automatically, and match only on Record ID or a custom property you set as a unique value. In the data sync, HubSpot matches contacts by email and companies by company name or domain, and it strips capitalization, punctuation and special characters from name fields before comparing them.
So HubSpot will merge Olivia Grant from Zoho Contacts with Olivia Grant from Zoho Leads when both carry the same address, even in different capitals. It will not merge Raj Patel at Bluecrest Logistics with Raj Patel at Bluecrest Logistics LLC when the lead has no email, and it never proposes near matches for you to review. That gap is what the file pass covers, and it is the same approach as HubSpot deduplication, applied before the data exists in HubSpot instead of after.
What a real Zoho export looks like after the pass
We combined a Zoho Contacts export and a Zoho Leads export into one file with a Zoho Module column, then ran it through the engine behind our browser demo. The columns were Zoho Module, Email, First Name, Last Name, Account Name, State and Created Time, the fields a Zoho export gives you by default. The table shows what came back, not a mockup.
| Rows in the file | What they had in common | Result | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Olivia Grant, Contacts and Leads | Same email, capitals differ | One cluster, the contact kept | High |
| Raj Patel, Bluecrest Logistics and Bluecrest Logistics LLC | Same name and company, no email on the lead | One cluster, the row with email kept | High |
| Erin Walsh, work and personal email | Same name and company | Left as two contacts | Not matched |
| Chris Nolan and Kris Nolan, two emails | Close name, same company | Left as two contacts | Not matched |
HubSpot would have caught the Olivia Grant pair on its own. The Raj Patel pair is the one it would have let through, and in most Zoho accounts pairs like it are the bulk of the problem, because web form leads often arrive with partial details. The same run turned Michigan, georgia, illinois and colorado into MI, GA, IL and CO, and resolved 03/14/2025 and 02 Feb 2026 to 2025-03-14 and 2026-02-02, so the state and date properties in HubSpot hold one format each.
The two pairs left alone are deliberate. Two different addresses usually mean two inboxes, and merging them by name would mean mailing one and silently dropping the other. Chris and Kris Nolan could be one person with a typo or two colleagues, and that is a judgment for someone who knows the account, which is why the reasoning behind every match is explained on fuzzy matching.
How to clean Zoho CRM data before migrating to HubSpot
- 1 Export from Zoho. Go to Setup, Data Administration, Export, and start an export for Leads, Contacts, Accounts and Deals. Zoho exports up to 200,000 records per module in one go as zipped CSV files, and the download link stays valid for seven days, so download the files the same day.
- 2 Build one people file. Paste the Leads and Contacts exports into one sheet, add a Zoho Module column, and keep the Zoho record ID on every row. Use plain headers such as Email, First Name, Last Name and Account Name, and leave the Lead Owner and Contact Owner columns out of the copy you deduplicate, so two reps creating the same person does not keep the copies apart.
- 3 Load the accounts file into the demo first, then the people file. Nothing uploads, both are matched inside your browser tab. Approve the clusters and the state, date and ZIP code fixes you agree with, reject the rest, and download the cleaned CSV with its audit log.
- 4 Repoint the children. Where two accounts were merged, replace the losing account ID with the kept one in the contacts and deals files, using the audit log as the lookup, and fill in the website on every account you keep. HubSpot associates and deduplicates companies by domain, so an account without one becomes a company HubSpot cannot match.
- 5 Import accounts, then contacts, then deals, or point the data sync at the cleaned Zoho data. Compare the record counts per object against the cleaned files before anyone starts working in HubSpot.
Is the Zoho CRM data sync app enough for a migration?
For moving the records, often yes. The sync handles field mapping, historical records and the ongoing two way link while both systems run side by side, and a HubSpot partner can configure it quickly. What it cannot do is decide which of two Raj Patel records is the real customer. It matches on the identifiers it is given, email for contacts and name or domain for companies, and it passes everything else through as separate records.
HubSpot itself recommends filtering the records a data sync brings across so that duplicates do not sync in. The simplest filter is a Zoho account that holds one record per person. If you are also comparing migration paths more broadly, the cutover plan for any CRM or ERP move is in data migration cleansing software, and the reverse direction, moving into Zoho, is covered in Zoho CRM data migration.
After the migration, keep HubSpot clean
The first weeks after cutover are when new duplicates are cheapest to stop. Route every list import through the same file pass before it goes into HubSpot, and review the duplicate suggestions HubSpot shows on paid plans on a schedule rather than when someone complains. The routine for keeping any CRM usable between projects is covered in CRM data cleansing.
If your reps run outbound sequences from a separate cold email software, send it the merged contact list as well. Otherwise the old Zoho duplicates live on in the sequencer, and the same prospect gets two first touches from two reps in the same week.
Where DataUntangler fits in a Zoho to HubSpot migration
DataUntangler does not connect to Zoho or to HubSpot, and it does not run the migration or the sync. It takes the exported files, proposes every duplicate cluster and every format fix as a change you approve or reject, and returns the cleaned CSV with an audit log for whoever signs off the counts. It runs on the Analyst plan at 59 dollars a month with unlimited files. If the move to HubSpot starts from Salesforce instead, the same work is laid out in Salesforce to HubSpot migration.