Struggling to make HubSpot truly yours? It turns out, giving your HubSpot CRM a personalized touch, beyond just custom fields, is a total game-changer for how your team gets work done. HubSpot UI Extensions are like that secret ingredient you didn’t know you needed, letting you build custom tools and interfaces right inside your HubSpot portal. Think of it: instead of jumping between a bunch of different tabs or external systems, your team can have everything they need, exactly where they need it, making their day-to-day tasks so much smoother and more efficient.

And if you’re a developer, or you work with one, then you know GitHub is where a lot of the magic happens. For HubSpot UI Extensions, GitHub isn’t just for storing code. it’s a vital part of the development process, from grabbing official examples to managing version control and even setting up continuous deployment. This guide is all about showing you how these two powerful platforms—HubSpot’s extensibility and GitHub’s development ecosystem—come together to let you create a CRM experience that feels truly custom-built for your business. We’re going to walk through what these extensions are, why they matter, how to get started building them, and how GitHub fits into the whole picture, ensuring you’re not just adding features, but genuinely improving your team’s workflow. So, let’s unlock the full potential of your HubSpot CRM!

One of my go-to tricks for supercharging HubSpot is into UI Extensions. These aren’t just minor tweaks. we’re talking about building completely custom interfaces right within your HubSpot CRM. It’s like getting to design your own mini-apps that live directly on contact records, company pages, or even custom objects, making your team’s life way easier. The beauty of it is that they blend right in, feeling like they’ve always been a part of HubSpot.

This kind of customization is a huge deal because it tackles a common pain point: needing specific tools or data that HubSpot doesn’t offer out-of-the-box, without forcing users to jump to another platform. By embedding custom components like cards, panels, or sidebars, you’re not just adding functionality. you’re streamlining entire workflows. And for anyone serious about development, GitHub is going to be your best friend throughout this whole process. It’s not just a place for code. it’s a hub for examples, version control, and even automating your deployment.

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Table of Contents

What Exactly Are HubSpot UI Extensions?

At their core, HubSpot UI Extensions are custom-built, React-based elements that let you enrich HubSpot’s interface. Imagine being able to add a custom form to a contact record that instantly submits data to an external database, or a specialized card that helps your support team quickly take action on help desk tickets. That’s what UI extensions make possible. They’re essentially little applications that live within the HubSpot ecosystem, designed to enhance user experience by providing extra tools, features, or customization options.

Beyond Standard Customization

You know how you can add custom properties and fields in HubSpot? That’s useful, but UI extensions take it to a whole new level. Instead of just displaying static data, these extensions let you create interactive and dynamic interfaces. This means your team can actually do things within the extension itself, like calculating custom pricing on a deal record without ever leaving HubSpot, or pulling in real-time inventory data from an external system. It’s all about creating an intuitive and efficient interface, making it simpler to navigate the application and get tasks done.

The Power of React in HubSpot

If you’re familiar with modern web development, you’ll be happy to hear that HubSpot UI Extensions are built with React. This is a huge win for developers because React is incredibly popular and flexible. It allows for dynamic, state-based interfaces that really boost user interaction. This shift to React components, moving away from older JSON-based custom cards, means you can create much more sophisticated and responsive designs. Plus, it lets you tap into the vast React ecosystem and open-source tooling, which is fantastic for front-end development. So, if you’ve got React skills, you’re already halfway there!

Why You’ll Want to Use HubSpot UI Extensions

Using HubSpot UI extensions offers some pretty sweet benefits, whether you’re a business owner looking to improve operations or a developer trying to build powerful integrations. People are always looking for ways to make their software work for them, and these extensions deliver on that promise. Mastering HubSpot User Permissions & the API: Your Ultimate Guide

Boosting Team Efficiency and User Experience

Think about it: how much time does your team lose by switching between different applications just to get one task done? A lot, right? UI extensions drastically cut down on that context switching. By embedding everything directly into HubSpot, you’re creating a truly unified experience. This means sales reps can qualify leads faster, support teams can escalate tickets more efficiently, and everyone can access the information and tools they need without ever leaving the CRM. This integrated workflow can lead to a significant increase in user satisfaction and a much smoother learning curve for new team members. Some businesses have even seen a 30% faster proposal generation and a 15% increase in deal closure rates after implementing custom UI extensions.

Seamless Data Integration

One of the standout features of UI extensions is how easily they let you fetch and display data from both HubSpot and external sources. This capability ensures that your users have all the necessary information right within the CRM interface, helping them make better decisions and work more efficiently. Whether you’re integrating payment platforms, quoting systems, or even logistics dashboards, you don’t need to jump tabs anymore. This ability to centralize data and streamline processes is invaluable, especially when you’re working with complex systems.

Cost Savings and Scalability

Before UI extensions, creating advanced custom functionality often meant building and hosting external web portals, which added complexity, cost, and time to the development process. With UI extensions, you can build highly functional, customized interfaces directly within HubSpot, often eliminating the need for those external portals or additional hosting costs. This not only saves you money but also simplifies the deployment process, allowing developers to create the desired front-end components more quickly and efficiently.

Getting Started with HubSpot UI Extensions: Your Developer Toolkit

Ready to roll up your sleeves and start building? Setting up your development environment for HubSpot UI extensions is pretty straightforward, especially if you’ve got some React and JavaScript experience under your belt. HubSpot Use Messages: Your Complete Guide to Engaging Customers

The Indispensable HubSpot CLI

The HubSpot Command Line Interface CLI is your control center for UI extension development. It’s what you’ll use to:

Update: Make sure you’re always on the latest version by running npm install -g @hubspot/cli@latest.
Initialize: Connect your local directory to your HubSpot account with hs init.
Create Projects: Scaffold new projects or clone examples with hs project create.
Develop Locally: Run a local development server with hs project dev to see your changes in real-time as you code. This is a must for quick iterations.
Deploy: Upload your finished or in-progress project to your HubSpot account using hs project upload.

Make sure you have Node.js version 18 or higher is recommended installed, as it powers HubSpot’s local development tools.

Diving into the UI Extensions SDK and React Components

HubSpot provides a robust UI Extensions SDK, available via npm as @hubspot/ui-extensions and @hubspot/ui-extensions/crm. This SDK is packed with pre-built React components, actions, and utilities designed to streamline your development process. These components range from simple text fields and buttons to more complex CRM object reports, and they all offer customization options through properties. Using these ensures your extensions maintain a consistent UI design and adhere to HubSpot’s guidelines, which is super important given the sandboxed environment they operate in.

To get the latest components, just run npm i @hubspot/ui-extensions in your extensions directory. Then you can import them at the top of your tsx or jsx file, like so:
import { Alert, Text } from '@hubspot/ui-extensions'.
import { CrmAssociationPivot, CrmActionLink } from '@hubspot/ui-extensions/crm'.

Serverless Functions and Data Handling

UI extensions often need to fetch and process data. Here’s where backend logic comes in: Mastering Email Marketing with HubSpot: Your Ultimate Guide

Private Apps: If you’re building an extension for a private app, you’ll typically use HubSpot’s serverless functions. These allow your UI extension to send and retrieve data to display in components, and HubSpot handles the backend for you.
Public Apps: For public apps, you’ll need to bring your own REST-based backend and use the hubspot.fetch API to fetch data. You specify the URLs your app can request data from in the public-app.json file.

This full-stack approach, where React components handle the frontend and serverless functions or your own backend manage the logic, makes the development process more modular and efficient.

Setting Up Your Local Development Environment

Getting ready to code involves a few key steps:

Install Node.js: Make sure you have Node.js version 18 or higher.
Install HubSpot CLI: Run npm install -g @hubspot/cli@latest.
Initialize HubSpot Config: Navigate to your project directory and run hs init to connect to your HubSpot account.
Create Project: Use hs project create to start a new project, perhaps cloning a template.
Install Dependencies: cd into your project directory and run npm install to get all the necessary packages.
Start Local Development: Kick off your development server with hs project dev. This command lets you test changes locally in real-time, which is fantastic for rapid iteration. You can even test in a new development sandbox directly from this command.

GitHub’s Role in Your HubSpot UI Extension Journey

For developers, GitHub isn’t just a nice-to-have. it’s a core part of the workflow, especially when building HubSpot UI extensions. It provides essential tools for collaboration, code management, and speeding up your development process.

Version Control and Collaborative Development

When you’re building anything, especially with a team, good version control is absolutely critical. GitHub lets you track every change, revert to previous versions if needed, and collaborate seamlessly with other developers. HubSpot UI extensions are built locally using their developer projects framework, and this framework is designed to integrate nicely with GitHub for version control. This means you can leverage all your familiar GitHub tools and workflows, whether you’re working solo or with a large team. Using HubSpot for Project Management: Your Guide to Smarter Workflows

Leveraging HubSpot’s Official GitHub Examples

One of the best ways to get a head start is by checking out HubSpot’s official GitHub repositories. They often provide valuable code examples and templates that you can clone and modify. For instance, the HubSpot/ui-extensions-examples repository contains a collection of working developer projects with custom CRM cards. This repository is a goldmine for seeing how different UI extensions are built, from a simple “getting started” card to more complex design patterns involving modals, panels, multi-step forms, and tables. There’s also HubSpot/ui-extensions on npm, which provides the React components and utilities you’ll use. These samples are constantly updated, often featuring new capabilities like displaying external sites in iframes or using modal and panel components to simplify complex UIs.

Streamlining with Continuous Integration CI

For a truly modern development workflow, continuous integration CI is key. You can connect a GitHub repository to your HubSpot project to automatically trigger project builds whenever you push a change to that repository. This means you can set up GitHub Actions to handle the deployment of your serverless scripts and UI extensions to your HubSpot sandbox and production environments. Automating these steps saves a ton of time and reduces the chances of manual errors, making your development and release cycles much more efficient.

GitHub Copilot: Your AI Coding Assistant

Even the most seasoned developers at HubSpot are using tools like GitHub Copilot to enhance their coding process. Copilot is an AI-powered extension that suggests code in real-time right within your editor. It can help you write better code, identify potential bugs, and even suggest documentation or tests. For building HubSpot UI extensions, this can mean speeding up development, especially when working with new APIs or components, and catching issues before they become bigger problems. It’s like having an extra pair of eyes that knows a ton about coding best practices.

Building Your First HubSpot UI Extension A Step-by-Step Overview

Alright, let’s get into the nitty-gritty of how you can actually build one of these fantastic extensions. It’s less intimidating than it sounds, especially with HubSpot’s developer tools. Mastering Account Management with HubSpot: Your Ultimate Guide

Prerequisites You’ll Need

Before you kick things off, make sure you have these essentials in place:

Active HubSpot Account: You’ll need a HubSpot account. For building private apps with UI extensions in a standard HubSpot account, you’ll usually need an Enterprise subscription. However, if you’re just trying things out, you can use a developer test account which is free! and enroll in the CRM development tools beta. Public app development also doesn’t require a paid subscription.
CRM Development Tools Beta: Make sure your HubSpot account is enrolled in the CRM development tools public beta. You can usually find this on the “Product updates” page in your HubSpot account settings.
Latest HubSpot CLI: As we discussed, install or update the HubSpot CLI by running npm install -g @hubspot/cli@latest.
Node.js: Ensure you have Node.js version 18 or higher installed on your machine.
Basic React/JavaScript Knowledge: While this guide helps, a basic understanding of React and JavaScript or TypeScript will make the journey much smoother.

Project Creation and Setup

Once your environment is ready, you’ll start a new project:

Navigate to Your Workspace: Go to the directory where you want to keep your project files.
Initialize HubSpot Config: If you haven’t already, run hs init to set up the HubSpot configuration file and connect your local directory with your HubSpot account.
Create a New Project: Use the CLI command hs project create. You can choose to create from a boilerplate template or clone an example directly from HubSpot’s GitHub repository like HubSpot/ui-extensions-examples. This command will prompt you for a project name and template.
Install Dependencies: cd into your newly created project directory and run npm install. This installs all the necessary Node.js dependencies for your project. It’s also a good practice to generate package-lock.json files to prevent issues during builds.

Developing with `hs project dev`

This is where the real fun begins!

Start Local Development: In your project directory, run hs project dev.
Choose Account: The CLI will ask you to select an account or create a new development sandbox to test your extension.
Real-Time Changes: With the local development server running, you can open your React files usually Example.jsx or Example.tsx in src/app/extensions in your code editor and make changes. The HubSpot CLI automatically picks up these changes on save, and you’ll see them reflected in your HubSpot account without needing to refresh the page or re-upload the project constantly. This “Developing locally” tag will appear on your extension, letting you know it’s in real-time sync.
View in HubSpot: Log into your HubSpot account, navigate to a contact record or whatever object your extension is for, click “Customize record,” and then “Default view.” Add your new extension card to a tab you might need to create a new one. Once added, you’ll see your custom card, and any changes you save in your local files will update instantly.

Deploying Your Extension

When you’re happy with your changes and ready to make them live or share with others, it’s time to deploy:

Upload the Project: Stop your local development server if it’s running and use hs project upload. This command builds and deploys your code to your HubSpot account.
Continuous Integration Optional but Recommended: For larger teams or production environments, set up GitHub Actions to automate this hs project upload step whenever changes are pushed to your main branch. This creates a smooth, automated deployment pipeline.

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Designing for Success: HubSpot UI and UX Best Practices

When you’re building UI extensions, it’s not just about functionality. it’s about creating an experience that feels truly native and intuitive within HubSpot. Nobody wants a clunky, out-of-place tool.

Understanding HubSpot’s Design Philosophy

HubSpot is known for its user-friendly and clean interface. When designing your extensions, try to match this aesthetic. The goal is for your custom components to blend in seamlessly, making them feel like a natural part of the HubSpot ecosystem. This means paying attention to things like layout, typography, color schemes, and interaction patterns. The design should feel consistent with what users already expect from HubSpot.

Using the Figma Design Kit

To help you achieve that native look and feel, HubSpot provides a Figma Design Kit. This kit is an incredible resource that offers a visual library of HubSpot UI components. It includes design patterns for common elements like buttons, forms including multi-step forms, modals, panels, and tables. By using these design patterns as a starting point, you can ensure your UI extensions are not only functional but also visually cohesive and user-friendly, without having to guess at HubSpot’s styling. You don’t even need a paid Figma account to use it. a free one will do the trick!

Component Usage and Layout Management

The UI Extensions SDK comes with a range of pre-built components like Alert, Text, Button, Icon, BarChart, and Table, among others. Using these HubSpot-provided components is a best practice, as they’re designed to work well within the sandboxed environment and maintain consistency. For managing the layout of your extension, you can leverage components like Flex and Box, which are inspired by CSS flexbox. These help you arrange your elements effectively, whether you’re placing important information in the middle column tab or less-frequently interacted items in the right sidebar of a CRM record.

Addressing Limitations and Ensuring Consistency

While UI extensions offer a lot of flexibility, there are some limitations to be aware of. The sandboxed environment they run in generally restricts direct DOM manipulation and the use of non-HubSpot component libraries. This means you should primarily rely on the components and customization options provided by the SDK. By sticking to these guidelines, you’ll ensure your extensions are robust, performant, and maintain that native HubSpot feel. Also, always implement comprehensive error handling in both your serverless functions and React components to provide a smooth user experience. Mastering Your Marketing Data with HubSpot UTM Tracking

Public vs. Private Apps: Choosing the Right Path

When you’re building a UI extension, one of the first decisions you’ll make is whether it’s for a public app or a private app. The core development principles are similar, but there are some important distinctions:

Private Apps: These are typically built for use within a specific, individual HubSpot account. They’re created on a per-account basis. For data fetching, private apps often use serverless functions, leveraging the app’s access token to interact with HubSpot and external data. You’ll generally need an Enterprise subscription for a standard HubSpot account to build private app UI extensions, though developer test accounts offer a free way to try it out.
Public Apps: These are designed to be installed across multiple HubSpot accounts. If you plan to list your app on the HubSpot App Marketplace, you’ll need to build a public app. The main difference in data fetching here is that public apps require you to provide your own self-hosted REST-based backend and use the hubspot.fetch API. Development for public apps typically happens in a developer account, and then the app’s install URL can be used to deploy it to other accounts.

Understanding these differences early on will help you set up your project correctly and choose the appropriate data handling mechanisms.

Real-World Applications: Where UI Extensions Shine

The possibilities with HubSpot UI extensions are genuinely endless. They bridge the gap between HubSpot’s powerful core features and your business’s unique operational needs. Master Your Communication: A Deep Dive into HubSpot Messaging and Beyond

Enhancing CRM Records for Custom Objects

HubSpot Custom Objects are fantastic for managing data that doesn’t fit neatly into standard objects like Contacts, Companies, Deals, or Tickets. But what if you need to do more than just view that custom object data? This is where UI extensions come in. You can create custom cards that appear on the record pages of both standard and custom objects, allowing users to visualize and interact with data in a highly customized way. For example, if you have a “Projects” custom object, an extension could display a dynamic timeline of project milestones, pull in associated tasks from an external project management tool, or even trigger specific project-related workflows directly from the record page. Before UI extensions, customizing custom object pages was a sticking point, but now it’s much more flexible.

Streamlining Sales and Service Workflows

Imagine a sales team that deals with highly customized product configurations. Instead of switching to an external calculator or spreadsheet, a UI extension could be built directly into the deal record, allowing reps to input variables and get live pricing recommendations. This can lead to faster proposal generation and improved deal closure rates. For service teams, a UI extension on a ticket record could display a customer’s entire purchase history, relevant knowledge base articles, or even a quick action button to issue a refund or free voucher based on predefined criteria. These kinds of integrations significantly boost efficiency and ensure crucial information is always at hand.

Bringing External Data Inside HubSpot

Many businesses rely on data from various platforms—ERP systems, external databases, specialized analytics tools. UI extensions make it possible to pull this external data directly into HubSpot. For example, you could have a card on a contact record that displays their recent activity from your e-commerce platform, or a company record showing their credit score from a financial service. This capability centralizes information, giving your team a holistic view of customer interactions and business operations without ever leaving the HubSpot environment. It means sales, marketing, and service teams can all work with the most up-to-date and relevant information, no matter where it originates.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the main benefits of using HubSpot UI Extensions?

The main benefits of using HubSpot UI Extensions include boosting team efficiency by reducing context switching, enabling seamless integration of external data directly into HubSpot records, and providing cost savings by eliminating the need for external web portals. They also greatly enhance the user experience by offering native-like, dynamic, and interactive custom interfaces.

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Can I use my existing React knowledge to build HubSpot UI Extensions?

Absolutely! HubSpot UI Extensions are primarily built using React for the frontend, making them highly accessible for developers already familiar with the framework. This allows you to leverage your existing React skills and the vast React ecosystem to create powerful and dynamic user interfaces within HubSpot.

How does GitHub fit into the development process for HubSpot UI Extensions?

GitHub plays a crucial role in managing HubSpot UI Extension development through version control, allowing teams to collaborate and track changes effectively. HubSpot also provides official GitHub repositories with sample code and design patterns to jumpstart development. Furthermore, you can set up Continuous Integration CI with GitHub Actions to automate the deployment of your extensions to HubSpot.

What tools do I need to get started with building HubSpot UI Extensions?

To start building, you’ll need the HubSpot CLI Command Line Interface, Node.js v18+ recommended, and a code editor. You should also enroll your HubSpot account in the CRM development tools beta and ensure you have an active HubSpot account, which may require an Enterprise subscription for private apps, or a free developer test account.

Are there any limitations when building HubSpot UI Extensions?

Yes, there are some limitations. UI extensions operate within a sandboxed environment, which means direct DOM manipulation and the use of non-HubSpot component libraries are generally restricted. Developers are encouraged to rely on the components and customization options provided by the HubSpot UI Extensions SDK to ensure consistency and proper functionality. Mastering HubSpot’s Tracking Code and API for Deeper Insights

Can UI Extensions be used with HubSpot Custom Objects?

Yes, UI extensions can be used to customize the UI for both standard HubSpot objects like contacts, companies, deals, and tickets and Custom Objects. This is a powerful feature that allows you to tailor the CRM experience for your unique business data and processes that don’t fit into standard object categories.

The Ultimate Guide to HubSpot UI Extensions and GitHub Integration