Let me add another question to know the context of the first one. Do you need a HubSpot App or a HubSpot App Developer to build you an App?
Isn't there any app in the HubSpot Marketplace to suffice your requirements? Isn't the custom integration a decent way to get the app to work according to your way rather than developing a fresh one for you?
Are you a HubSpot developer agency that offers HubSpot development services and HubSpot app development services? If yes, then you need HubSpot developers in your team. Still, suppose your Business uses HubSpot services and you need a couple of things that are not possible through the traditional way. In that case, I recommend trying the custom integration path before getting yourself a new team of HubSpot app developers.
What is a HubSpot App?
Now, this is a good one. Let's see in how many ways can we define a HubSpot App?
- A HubSpot App to HubSpot platform is what Plugins are to WordPress
- It is what Hulk Buster to Iron Man's suit
- A HubSpot App is the icing on your cake
A HubSpot app allows you to improve certain features, functionality, and a section of your website or business process. For example, suppose you find Facebook's ad manager better and HubSpot is your CRM. In that case, you can always Integrate Facebook with HubSpot to manage ads using your favorite Facebook Ad manager but this time on HubSpot because it saves you tie jumping back and forth from one platform to another platform to set run an ad campaign.
Suppose you manage your projects on Asana or Monday.com. In that case, you can always integrate Asan HubSpot App or Monday.com HubSpot App with HubSpot and share necessary information between the platforms instead of manually updating them.
What are some common functions of HubSpot apps?
If you take a look at the HubSpot marketplace categories, you can easily tell the common functions of the HubSpot apps.
Marketing
You have apps for marketing that allow you to set up a marketing campaign on different platforms such as LinkedIn, Google, Facebook, Twitter, and others. For Example, Facebook Ads, and Google Ads, among others.
HubSpot Apps for Marketing also allows you to send emails, book meetings, schedule calls, events, and webinars, and even have interesting forms on your website. Examples include Gravity Forms, Typeform, Mailchimp, Zoom, Google Meet, and GoToWebinar.
The other areas the HubSpot Marketing Apps help you are Account-based Marketing, Analytics, Data, eCommerce, CMS, Lead Generation, Livechat, marketing automation, and website building.
Sales
HubSpot Sales Apps are more focused on managing, nurturing, scheduling the calls and booking meetings with the contacts, accepting payments, and preparing agreement documents. Apps like LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Calendly, Google Contacts, Google Meet, PandaDoc, and Salesforce.
HubSpot Sales Apps help you with sales enablement, partner relationship management, calling, data management, video, etc.
Customer Service
HubSpot customer service apps in the marketplace help businesses resolve the queries generated by their respective customers in the platform they like. For example, Businesses can let their customers reach out to them through WhatsApp, so WhatHub is available that integrates your HubSpot with WhatsApp. Facebook Messenger allows you to take your customer query-related conversation to Facebook Messenger from HubSpot. Similarly, we have apps like Survey Monkey for surveys, Google Sheets for ticket listing and status updates, JIRA, SMS, Intercom, Livechat for HubSpot, etc.
HubSpot customer service apps focus on customer success, data management, employee management, field service management, help desk, Knowledge base, ticketing, etc.
Productivity Apps
HubSpot productivity apps help you manage your projects and workflows better. Apps such as Trello, Airtable, teamwork, Asana, and Monday.com are all in that line. These apps generally cover project management, workflow automation, learning management systems, connectors, and ERP.
Finance
Last but not least, we have Finance Apps that manage accounting, bookkeeping, and payroll. Apps such as Xero, Quickbooks, FreshBooks, Zoho Invoice, and easy bill, among others, are in line with that.
What is the difference between a HubSpot Certified Developer and a HubSpot App Developer?
HubSpot Certified Developer is someone whose main task is to control and manage all the tasks related to the development of the website, handling the bugs, optimizing user experience, etc. Whereas HubSpot App Developer is someone whose main task is to develop apps, provide a user-friendly interface for the user, and build APIs to manage customer integration.
What kind of skills does a HubSpot App developer have?
One common skill across categories that a HubSpot app developer must have is the skill set of integrating two apps. All the apps are connected to HubSpot via integration and data sharing between the two said apps. So along with integration skills, one must also know about data management, mapping, and data transfer because it's the data that gets transferred from one to the other and vice versa in integration.
Another area where he/she must know is Timeline and Webhooks API.
Not only HubSpot but the HubSpot App developer must be able to read the API documentation of other systems.
The developer must be familiar with the interface functionalities of HubSpot and understand the prerequisites of getting the app listed on the HubSpot marketplace so that HubSpot users can access it to grow their business.
Since there are already many apps available in the HubSpot marketplace, we can still some more meeting new business processes and requirements. The standard native integration between the apps is inevitable. It only gives limited flexibility to the business owner whose complex processes and demands cannot be met through native integration.
Having hands-on experience on previous projects is a plus. Suppose the developer has worked on multiple projects and has experience. In that case, you should investigate the projects by asking project-related questions to know how they did that and overcame the obstacles.
You can find many HubSpot developers with high-quality skills and good previous projects. However, you also must look for soft skills to ensure that they will work well with your team or follow the work ethics.
Conclusion
You might need a HubSpot app expert, but you don’t have to hire one permanently in-house. You can either hire an integration expert who can let the other apps listed in the marketplace meet your needs through custom integration.
If you want nothing else but the HubSpot app developer, then get in touch with an agency that has HS app developers in their team and outsource the work.
