Understanding HubSpot Objects and Their Relationships

HubSpot’s CRM has evolved significantly, moving well beyond the traditional set of four objects—Contacts, Companies, Deals, and Tickets. The introduction of the Object Library and the Commerce Hub has expanded the available standard objects you can use. Instead of defaulting to custom objects to represent your unique business needs, explore these new and enhanced native objects to take full advantage of HubSpot’s rich data model.

Why Expand Your Understanding of HubSpot’s Object Ecosystem?

Many articles and tutorials have historically focused on the original four core CRM objects without highlighting HubSpot’s growing object set. As a result, there’s a common misconception that extra data tracking or specific use cases must rely on custom objects (often requiring Enterprise-level subscriptions). However, with the evolving Object Library and Commerce Hub, that’s no longer the case.

Understanding the full object ecosystem will help you:

• Maximise native functionality before creating custom objects.
• Reduce complexity and operational overhead.
• Build more robust reporting and automation workflows using standard objects.
• Better align your CRM structure with industry templates and best practices, as demonstrated in recent HubSpot video updates and feature announcements.

Revisiting the Core CRM Objects

To set the stage, let’s quickly recap the original four CRM objects:

• Contacts: Individuals interacting with your brand (e.g., leads, customers).
• Companies: Organisations associated with Contacts, useful for B2B relationship tracking.
• Deals: Potential revenue opportunities tracked through sales pipelines.
• Tickets: Customer service requests, enabling efficient issue resolution.

These remain foundational, but they’re far from the only objects now available.

The Object Library: New and Emerging Standard Objects

The introduction of the Object Library expands the range of out-of-the-box objects you can leverage. Within the Object Library settings, you can activate and configure objects to match your business model. Some newly available or recently highlighted objects include:

• Appointments: Schedule and track appointments directly in HubSpot, linking them to Contacts, Companies, or Deals for a more cohesive customer timeline.
• Courses: Ideal for education-based businesses or training programs. Use this object to manage curriculum offerings, modules, and enrolled customers without needing custom objects.
• Listings: Useful for organisations that need to track real estate, job openings, or product/service listings at scale. This object can integrate with Deals or Contacts for a more robust dataset.
• Services: Tailored for service-based organisations, this object helps you manage offerings, packages, and ongoing contracts without custom builds.

These new objects are especially powerful because they integrate seamlessly with HubSpot’s CRM, marketing, sales, and service tools. For example, you can:

• Activate these objects so they appear in your CRM navigation, pipelines, and reporting tools.
• Use them directly in workflows, lists, and reporting, enabling you to automate follow-ups, segment records, and gain deeper insights into your operations.

Commerce Hub Objects

In addition to the Object Library, the Commerce Hub provides objects specifically designed for managing products, revenue, and sales operations:

• Products: Manage the items or services you sell, including pricing details for quick quoting and deal creation.
• Line Items: Associate specific products or services to Deals or Quotes, detailing what’s being sold and at what quantity and price.
• Quotes: Present product and pricing details to prospects, making it easier for customers to review and accept your offerings.
• Subscriptions (where available): Track recurring revenue relationships, aligning your CRM with ongoing billing models.

These objects help you streamline and unify your commerce processes within HubSpot, removing the need for external systems or custom builds.

Beyond CRM and Commerce: Additional Native Objects

HubSpot also provides several other standard objects to enrich your CRM data and processes:

• Calls: Automatically log phone calls linked to Contacts, ensuring every conversation is stored and accessible.
• Tasks: Keep your team on track by assigning and tracking actionable items within the CRM.
• Notes: Add context and commentary to associated records without cluttering the main properties.
• Meetings: Track and manage scheduled events with prospects or customers.
• Marketing Events: Link webinars, workshops, or conferences to Contacts and Companies, providing a full picture of prospect and customer engagement.
• Feedback Surveys: Collect and associate customer feedback directly to CRM records, improving insights and service processes.

When to Consider Custom Objects

Before turning to custom objects, consider whether the Object Library or Commerce Hub objects can address your needs. Custom objects still play an important role when you have:

• Data models that don’t align with any native object types.
• Unique reporting or relational structures not covered by standard objects.

However, by first exploring the expanding native options—and keeping up with the latest feature announcements—many organisations find they no longer need to create as many custom objects.

Key Takeaways

• HubSpot now offers a broad range of standard objects beyond Contacts, Companies, Deals, and Tickets, thanks to the Object Library and Commerce Hub.
• New objects like Appointments, Courses, Listings, and Services can be activated to streamline specialised business processes, often removing the need for custom objects.
• All these native objects integrate with HubSpot’s core tools (Workflows, Lists, Reports) to deliver a cohesive, end-to-end CRM experience.
• By leveraging industry templates and new features highlighted in recent HubSpot updates, you can quickly configure and implement these objects for immediate impact.

Keep exploring HubSpot’s expanding object ecosystem, stay informed on the latest enhancements, and use standard objects to build a more efficient, scalable CRM that truly reflects your business operations.