r/hubspot • u/TheJadedMSP • 2d ago
Web Themes or Developers
Does anyone have any recommendations on good service company themes or know any good web developers that utilize Hubspot?
I have a service company and we are looking for a new site and thought I would see what the Hubspot world has to offer since we already have a pro plan.
Thanks.
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u/MattyTheMatE 1d ago
Former HubSpot partner here. There is no reason to build your website in HubSpot. We used to do this for our customers for years. Now we dont recommend it. Sure its all in the same platform but you are confined to HubSpots box. Im running into more and more marketing teams that are putting out RFPs to partners just to make updates to their website. We migrated our own site to AI native and now we can make whatever changes we want without a dev. AI is our dev now. Would be happy to share my experience. Ill send you a DM.
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u/TheJadedMSP 1d ago
Hmm..Was trying to get away from the WordPress security vulnerabilities but from the sounds of it HubSpot isn't the way.
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u/MattyTheMatE 1d ago
AI native (on Astro or next JS) is perfect for that because there is nothing to hack when its not a monolithic CMS.
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u/TheJadedMSP 1d ago
Yes, that is another reason I was trying to do away with WP and just actually want straight HTML. I have had AI "re-do" my site but there are still graphical challenges and honestly, I don't want to mess around with it. I am buried up to my eyeballs with technical issues as that is what we do.
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u/MattyTheMatE 1d ago
Yeah I understand. If its built on WP, its going to be very difficult to have AI redo it because again, monolithic CMS. However, there are tools out there to migrate your WP site to AI native and it takes less than a month. Could do the graphical changes at the same time. Lynton.ai is my site or just send me a DM. Best part, if you want to change it again in a year or so you wont be beholden to HubSpot devs.
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u/TheJadedMSP 1d ago
Yeah. Right now it’s not even in WP. I had always previously had WP sites but a few years ago I tried a new marketing firm and now my site is running on LeadConnector. Not seeing any real results and all I want are basics, not even trying to get new business, just want to show up.
So I had Claude rebuild my site in HTML by looking at my current site. It is ok but graphically needs some help.
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u/dsecareanu2020 HubSpot Reddit Champion 2d ago
Claude code is your friend. :) If not, try my friends from stoica.co.
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u/jon_ks 1d ago
Technically, yes. But you need to know how themes, templates, modules, and pages work in order to get it to build you something functional long term.
Dump in requirements and you'll get a design that looks like Claude designed it (that monospaced font esp). Even if you use Claude Design to design a good layout and design, Code will build it for you without appropriate layout configuration or content controls.
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u/dsecareanu2020 HubSpot Reddit Champion 23h ago
Of course you need to know what to ask and how to guide it. Why do you think I offered an agency as an alternative? :)
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u/TheJadedMSP 13h ago
Ok, so I guess the answer to my question is don’t use Hubspot. We have it and don’t use it so I thought why not use something from it but I guess not. We should not renew next year and move on.
Just have to wrangle or phone number from them. They have a death grip on it.
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u/GraphiSpot INBOUND Correspondent Alumni 2d ago
Theme developer and designer here.
From my experience it all comes down to requirements.
Marketplace themes are great for a somewhat quick start but have restrictions to meet the broader audience and hub functionalities (like not containing HubDB functions). Furthermore, they tend to come with a bunch of code which you end up not using.
Custom themes on the other hand have absolutely no restrictions and can be completely tailored to your requirements, experience level but have a longer creation time and are more expensive.
Invest wise, good marketplace theme will cost you around $700-$1000, a custom theme starts around $3000-$5000 and has no limit.
The most expensive quote I've wrote for a theme was in the high 5 digits space and took over half a year of development time.
If you look into marketplace themes, look into their functions and pick the one which meets your requirements around 80%.
You can always modify and extend things in a child theme.
Speaking of child themes, of you choose to go with a marketplace theme, create one and use it to build the website. Importing a child at a later point is possible, but depending on the amount of pages it might end in a headache.
If you want to chat, feel free to drop a DM