Stop the Duplicate Chaos: HubSpot’s Custom Dedup Rules Are Here

If you’ve ever opened HubSpot and seen three of the same company records, you know the pain.
One person imports data, another connects a list from trade show leads, and before long, your CRM looks like a digital junk drawer.

The culprit?
Default deduplication rules that never quite fit your data.

But now, HubSpot has finally done something about it.

What’s New: Custom Deduplication Rules in HubSpot

You can now set custom deduplication rules for both contacts and companies.
That means you decide which properties define a “match” - not HubSpot’s default email or domain logic.

Here’s what that looks like in practice:

For Contacts:

• Use email, phone number, or custom ID fields to flag duplicates

• Combine multiple properties (e.g., first name + last name + company name)

• Fine-tune rules per import, or apply them CRM-wide

For Companies:

• Move beyond just domain name deduplication

• Use Company Name, Address, or Custom Fields like “ERP Account Number”

• Create rules that actually reflect how your business identifies accounts

This is a massive deal for teams with complex data pipelines, legacy systems, or external integrations that dump data into HubSpot.

Why This Matters for RevOps and Small Business Teams

Let’s be real - bad data kills productivity.
When you’ve got multiple versions of the same company floating around, it means:

- Reps waste time updating the wrong record
- Marketing sends duplicate emails
- Deals get attached to ghost accounts
- Reports become meaningless

With custom dedup rules, you can finally stop playing whack-a-mole with duplicates and actually trust your CRM again.

That means your sales, marketing, and service teams work from the same clean, unified data.

And when your CRM data’s clean?

Everything - from workflows to reporting - actually works the way it should.

How to Set Up Custom Dedup Rules in HubSpot

1. Go to:
   ⚙️ Settings > Data Management > Data Quality > Duplicates

2. Choose “Manage Rules” under either Contacts or Companies

3. Select your fields:

   • For contacts, start with email, phone, or custom ID fields

   • For companies, use domain name, company name, or custom identifiers

4. Define the match logic:
   Choose “exact match” or “fuzzy match” depending on how strict you want it to be.

5. Save and test:
   Run a manual dedup check before applying globally.

Pro tip: If you have Operations Hub, you can even automate the cleanup using workflows or the Data Quality Command Center.

Bonus Tip: Use AI to Speed Up Data Cleanup

If you’ve got messy historical data, don’t suffer through it manually.
HubSpot’s AI tools (under Data Quality) can now help flag potential duplicates and even suggest merges.

Pair that with your new custom rules, and you can finally bring your CRM into order, once and for all.

The Huntscape Takeaway

If your CRM’s full of duplicates, you’re not “data-driven”, you’re just data-drowning.
HubSpot’s custom dedup rules give small businesses the control they’ve been missing for years.

Clean data means faster workflows, more accurate reports, and fewer mistakes.
And that means your revenue engine can actually run the way it’s supposed to.