HubSpot license management with OpenLM

HubSpot is a leading Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform that unifies marketing, sales, and customer service into a single source of truth. Monitoring HubSpot is financially critical because its costs can escalate rapidly due to its tiered “Paid Seat” model and volume-based “Marketing Contact” limits; organizations often mistakenly assign expensive Sales or Service Hub seats to employees who only need free, view-only access.

OpenLM helps monitor these assets by tracking user engagement and login activity within the HubSpot portal. It enables Revenue Operations (RevOps) and IT leaders to audit the utilization of paid seats, ensuring that premium licenses are reserved strictly for active users who utilize the advanced automation and outreach features.

What is HubSpot: The “free vs. paid” trap

HubSpot’s architecture is modular, consisting of “Hubs” (Marketing, Sales, Service, CMS, Operations). While the core CRM is free, advanced functionality is gated behind paid subscriptions.

The “viewer” problem: A common inefficiency occurs when managers, finance staff, or executives are assigned full “Sales Hub Professional” or “Enterprise” seats ($50–$120/month) simply to view dashboards or deal pipelines. In reality, these users could often perform their duties with a Free Seat, which allows for viewing data without the ability to use automation tools.
Access sprawl: As HubSpot becomes the central data repository, access is granted liberally. Without a process to revoke licenses, companies accumulate “zombie” accounts for former employees or contractors, which poses a severe data security risk given the sensitivity of customer lists.

Licensing schemas of Google Workspace: What you must know

HubSpot operates on a hybrid model involving both User Seats and Contact Volume.

Paid seats (sales/service gub): These are per-user subscriptions (Starter, Professional, Enterprise). They unlock specific features like Sequences (email automation), Playbooks, and heavy-duty reporting.
Free tools users: Users who can access the CRM, view records, and make basic updates but cannot use advanced automation features.
Marketing contacts: A volume-based cost for the Marketing Hub. While not a “seat,” access to manage these contacts is controlled by user permissions.
The optimization challenge: The default behavior in many organizations is to buy a “Sales Pro” seat for every new sales hire immediately. However, if a rep is not using the “Sequences” or “Meeting Scheduler” features, they are effectively using a $100/month seat as a free viewer.

OpenLM’s solution for Google Workspace license optimization

OpenLM provides the analytics necessary to enforce a “Least Privilege, Least Cost” model. It helps you identify which users are truly “Active” and which users are merely “Passive,” allowing for aggressive rightsizing of your paid subscription.

OpenLM capability	Value for HubSpot licenses
Inactive “Paid Seat” detection	Identify users assigned a “Sales Hub” or “Service Hub” paid seat who have not logged in or modified a record in the last 30-60 days. These users can be downgraded to “Free” seats immediately.
Role and permission auditing	Audit the list of Super Admins. HubSpot allows unlimited Super Admins, but excessive admin privileges create security risks. OpenLM helps you track and reduce the number of users with “Export” or “Bulk Delete” capabilities.
License downgrade analysis	By analyzing activity (or lack thereof), OpenLM helps validate if a user actually needs their paid seat. If a user never logs calls or sends sequences, they likely do not need a Sales Hub Professional license.
Offboarding verification	Automatically cross-reference your HubSpot user list against Active Directory. Ensure that when a sales rep leaves, their access to the CRM is revoked instantly to prevent data theft (e.g., exporting the client list).

OpenLM advantages for Google Workspace license usage monitoring

OpenLM treats your CRM as a high-stakes financial asset, ensuring that your RevOps budget is spent on revenue-generating activities, not software waste.

Stop paying for “Viewers”: The quickest win with OpenLM is identifying the 20-30% of paid users who only use HubSpot to read reports. Downgrading them to free seats can save thousands of dollars annually without impacting their workflow.
Secure customer data: HubSpot contains your most valuable trade secrets (customer data). OpenLM ensures that “zombie” accounts are closed, closing the loop on employee turnover and reducing the risk of data exfiltration.
Unified revenue stack: Manage HubSpot alongside other sales tools like Salesforce, ZoomInfo, and LinkedIn Sales Navigator. This helps you correlate usage; if a rep isn’t using HubSpot, they likely aren’t using their other expensive sales tools either, signaling a performance or adoption issue.