Case Study
View Case StudyTray.ai
Migrating hundreds of thousands of pages, re-platforming and extending for the leading composable AI integration platform
From Agility CMS to HubSpot CMS
We are the Agility CMS to HubSpot CMS migration experts
Last verified:
Challenges with Agility CMS
Key pain points
The pricing is the elephant in the room. Starting at $1,249/month for the lowest tier, Agility is significantly more expensive than most headless CMS competitors. For smaller agencies or startups, that's a hard sell when platforms like Sanity or Contentful offer free tiers and more gradual scaling. If a client needs template customizations beyond what's available, those changes often require going through Agility's team at additional cost, which can slow things down.
The editor experience, while better than most headless CMS tools, still has rough edges. The content preview has a noticeable delay which frustrates editors used to real-time feedback. Component nesting can feel limited when building complex layouts, and creating unique page designs sometimes requires creating an excessive number of components as workarounds. The initial setup and configuration is also more involved than the marketing suggests, particularly for teams coming from traditional CMS platforms.
The ecosystem and community are noticeably smaller than competitors like Contentful or Sanity. There's less community-generated content, fewer third-party plugins, and Stack Overflow coverage is thin. When you hit an edge case, you're more reliant on the support team than community knowledge. The platform also lacks JSON field support in content models, which limits some advanced use cases that other headless CMS tools handle natively.
Expensive entry point
Starting at $1,249/month with no free tier, it's one of the priciest headless CMS options. Hard to justify for smaller projects or clients with lean budgets.
Slow content preview
The preview function has a noticeable delay before changes appear, making it less immediate compared to tools like Sanity or Storyblok that offer real-time feedback.
Steep initial setup
Despite marketing claims of simplicity, the initial configuration requires significant effort. Advanced features and custom setups demand real technical expertise.
Limited component nesting
Building complex, deeply nested layouts can feel restrictive. You often end up creating numerous individual components as workarounds for unique page designs.
Small community and ecosystem
Far fewer plugins, community resources, and Stack Overflow answers compared to Contentful or Sanity. When you hit edge cases, you're mostly on your own.
Missing JSON field support
No native JSON datatype in content models, which limits flexibility for advanced structured data use cases that other headless CMS platforms handle easily.
Benefits of HubSpot CMS
Key advantages
HubSpot whole ecosystem is designed so business users can update pages, run campaigns, and push content without ever Slacking a developer at 9 p.m.
It’s genuinely simple to implement, the drag-and-drop editor behaves, and the CRM integration does all the heavy lifting, from personalization to lead capture to automated follow-ups. You barely need a dev unless you’re trying to make something unusually fancy, because HubSpot’s whole pitch is: “Let marketing ship it themselves.”
But if you do want to build something more complex or need help figuring out where HubSpot fits into your stack, reach out. We can help you avoid unnecessary and very expensive upgrades, weird theme restrictions, and the classic “why is this locked behind Enterprise?” surprise.
Intuitive drag-and-drop interface
Non-technical teams can update pages, layouts, and content without ever pinging a developer. The editor is straightforward, visual, and fast, making day-to-day site changes painless.
Deep CRM integration
Forms, leads, emails, CTAs, and all of it connect back to HubSpot’s CRM automatically. This gives teams real personalisation power and a unified view of how users move from visitor to lead to customer.
Built-in SEO tools and analytics
HubSpot flags issues, suggests improvements, and provides performance insights without extra tools. It’s practical for teams who want clear SEO direction baked directly into the CMS.
Secure cloud hosting with SSL/CDN
Hosting, security patches, SSL, and updates are all handled by HubSpot. Sites stay fast and secure without anyone babysitting servers or worrying about downtime.
Lead tracking and management
Every form submission, chat, and CTA is automatically tracked. Marketing and sales teams get full visibility into user behaviour without setting up a separate tracking stack.
Live WYSIWYG previews
Changes can be reviewed in real time before publishing, which reduces mistakes and makes approvals easier. What you see in the editor actually matches what goes live
Common questions
Agility CMS to HubSpot CMS migration FAQs
Answers to the most common questions about Agility CMS to HubSpot CMS migration
How do we migrate away from Agility CMS?
Agility CMS content is accessible through their REST API, so extracting pages, content lists, and media is doable with scripted API calls. The trickier part is the page management layer. Agility's built-in sitemap and page routing don't have direct equivalents in most headless CMS platforms, so that logic needs to be rebuilt in your frontend. We typically budget 4 to 8 weeks for Agility migrations depending on how deeply the page management features are used.
Is Agility CMS worth the price?
At $1,249/month minimum with no free tier, Agility is one of the priciest headless CMS options available. For teams that genuinely need built-in page management, SEO tools, and generous API limits, the cost can be justified. But most mid-sized teams we work with find they can get the same results with a platform like Sanity at a fraction of the cost, especially when you factor in Agility's additional charges for template customisations that go beyond their standard offerings.
What are the biggest risks of staying on Agility CMS?
The small ecosystem is the long-term concern. With fewer community resources, plugins, and Stack Overflow coverage than competitors, you're heavily reliant on Agility's support team for edge cases. The preview delay frustrates editors who are used to real-time feedback, and component nesting limitations force workarounds as your design system grows. If Agility ever changes pricing or direction, the limited community means fewer migration guides and less shared knowledge to help you move.
How much does HubSpot CMS actually cost?
HubSpot CMS starts at $25/month for the Starter tier, but that's a teaser price. Most teams end up on Professional ($400/month) or Enterprise ($1,200/month) once they need features like custom reporting, smart content, or additional contact tiers. The real cost shock comes from the CRM side. HubSpot bundles CMS with its marketing hub, and adding seats or automation workflows pushes the bill up fast. We've seen mid-sized companies paying $30,000-$60,000 per year once everything is bundled. That's a lot of money for a platform that still makes you write HubL templates.
Can you move a HubSpot site to a headless CMS setup?
Yes, and we've done it multiple times. The migration typically takes 6-10 weeks depending on how many pages, forms, and CRM integrations are involved. The trickiest parts are replicating HubSpot's form-to-CRM pipeline (which most teams replace with a dedicated form handler plus CRM API integration) and extracting blog content from HubSpot's proprietary format. Design preservation is straightforward if you're rebuilding in a modern framework. We usually rebuild the frontend in Next.js with a headless CMS for content, which gives you better performance and full design control without HubL's limitations.
Will I lose my HubSpot CRM data if I migrate the CMS?
No. HubSpot's CRM is a separate product from the CMS, and you can keep using it even if you move your website elsewhere. We typically set up the new site to push form submissions directly into HubSpot CRM via their API, so your sales team's workflows stay intact. The only thing you lose is HubSpot's native smart content features (content that changes based on CRM data), but those can be rebuilt with a personalisation layer or server-side logic. Most teams find the trade-off worthwhile because the CMS limitations were holding them back more than smart content was helping.
What are the main reasons companies leave HubSpot CMS?
The top three reasons we hear from clients are design limitations, HubL frustration, and pricing escalation. HubSpot's theme system restricts what you can build visually, and the moment you need something custom, you're writing HubL, a templating language that only works inside HubSpot. Developers hate it because it's a dead-end skill. Then there's cost. Teams start on a reasonable plan, add features over 18 months, and suddenly they're paying enterprise prices for what is still a fairly rigid website builder. Moving to a headless CMS removes all three problems at once.
Get in touch
Fill out the form below and we'll get back to you
