HubSpot comes with a large set of default properties for contacts, companies, deals, and tickets. But most teams eventually need to track information that HubSpot’s defaults don’t cover — a subscription tier, a region code, a product vertical, or a preferred language. That’s where custom properties come in.
Custom properties let you store any structured data you need inside HubSpot, attach it to the right object type, and use it across workflows, segmentation, reports, and integrations. Once set up correctly, they become part of how your whole team works with the CRM.
In your HubSpot portal, click the gear icon (Settings) in the top navigation, then select “Properties” from the left sidebar. You’ll see all existing properties organized by object type.
Use the “Select an object” dropdown to pick which object you want to create the property for: Contact, Company, Deal, Ticket, or a custom object if you have one.
Hit the “Create property” button in the top right. A panel will open asking for group, label, description, and field type.
Pick the field type that matches how you’ll use the data: single-line text, dropdown, checkbox, number, date, or calculation. Choose carefully — you can’t change a property’s type after it’s created.
For enumeration types (dropdown, radio, multi-checkbox), add all the valid option values. Keep them consistent — inconsistent values cause segmentation errors later.
Save the property. To populate it, add it to a form, include it in an import template, set it via a workflow action, or let your integration write to it via the API.
What field types are available in HubSpot custom properties?
HubSpot offers several field types. Choosing the right one matters because it controls how you can filter, segment, and report on the data:
- Single-line text — free-form short text, good for IDs, codes, or unique identifiers. Can be used in filters with “contains” / “is exactly”.
- Multi-line text — longer notes or descriptions. Less useful for segmentation; better for internal context.
- Dropdown select — one value from a fixed list. Best for categories, tiers, regions, or stages. Enables clean filtering and reporting.
- Radio select — same as dropdown but displayed as radio buttons on forms. Functionally equivalent for workflows/reports.
- Checkboxes — one or more values selected from a fixed list. Use this when a contact can belong to multiple categories (e.g. product interests).
- Number — numeric value. Can be used in calculations, scoring, and numeric filters (>, <, between).
- Date picker — a specific date. Useful for trial end dates, contract start dates, or last review dates. Enables date-based enrollment in workflows.
- Calculation — a computed value based on other numeric properties (Sales Hub Professional and above). No manual entry required.
- Score — used for lead scoring; automatically calculated from criteria you define.
How should you organise custom properties into groups?
Every property belongs to a property group. HubSpot’s default groups (e.g. “Contact Information”, “Deal Information”) are useful for standard fields, but custom properties benefit from their own groups.
Create a dedicated group named after the data domain — “Product Data”, “Contract Details”, “Subscription Info”, “Regional Fields”. This keeps the Settings view organised and makes it much easier for new team members to find relevant properties without scrolling through hundreds of defaults.
Group naming matters most on record pages. When you customise the record view (by going to a contact or deal, clicking “Customize record” in the sidebar), you can surface specific property groups as columns. A well-named group makes that much faster to configure for different teams.
How do custom properties connect to workflows and automation?
Custom properties are fully first-class in HubSpot workflows. You can:
- Enroll based on a custom property value — for example, trigger a workflow when “Subscription Tier” is set to “Trial”.
- Set a custom property in a workflow action — use “Set property value” to update a property when another event occurs, such as setting “Last Contact Date” to today when a meeting is booked.
- Branch on a custom property — use “If/then branch” to send contacts down different paths based on a dropdown value or a number threshold.
- Clear a property value — use the “Clear property value” action to reset a field when a stage changes.
For Southeast Asian teams, a common use case is storing the LINE user ID as a custom contact property. This allows workflows to use the LINE ID for personalised messaging integrations — the property acts as the bridge between HubSpot’s contact record and the external LINE platform.
Which object types can have custom properties?
Custom properties can be created on any standard HubSpot object:
- Contacts — the most common. Store individual-level data like preferred language, subscription status, or region code.
- Companies — store account-level data like industry vertical, contract value tier, account manager, or renewal date.
- Deals — store deal-level context like deal source, product category, estimated go-live date, or approval status.
- Tickets — store service context like escalation reason, product module affected, or SLA tier.
- Custom objects — if you use Operations Hub or Sales Hub Enterprise, you can create entirely custom object types (e.g. “Subscriptions”, “Locations”) with their own custom properties.
What are common mistakes teams make with custom properties?
- Using text fields instead of dropdowns for categorical data. Free-text entries drift: “Bangkok”, “bangkok”, “BKK”, “Bangkok, Thailand” all mean the same thing but won’t segment together. Use a dropdown so options are controlled.
- Creating duplicate properties. Two properties called “Lead Source” and “Traffic Source” doing the same job splits your data. Audit before creating.
- Not populating properties systematically. A property that only 5% of records have is nearly useless for segmentation. Define how and when each property gets populated before creating it.
- Creating properties nobody uses. HubSpot has no soft limit on custom properties (practical limits are high), but a cluttered property list slows down team onboarding and record customisation. Review and archive unused ones periodically.
- Using calculation properties for data that won’t update. Calculation properties recalculate dynamically. If you want a snapshot value that won’t change, store it in a number field instead.
How do you use custom properties in segmentation and lists?
Custom properties are available as filters in Active Lists and Static Lists. You can build segments like:
- Contacts where “Subscription Tier” is “Pro” AND “Region” is “Southeast Asia”
- Companies where “Contract Renewal Date” is within the next 30 days
- Deals where “Deal Source” is “LINE” AND “Stage” is “Proposal Sent”
These lists feed directly into email campaigns, workflows, and reports. The more consistently your properties are populated, the more precise your segmentation becomes.
For teams importing data from an external system, the best pattern is to populate custom properties during the import. Export your external data, map each column to a HubSpot property (custom or default), and import via Contacts > Import. Any custom property you’ve created will appear in the column-mapping step.
Can custom properties be used in reports?
Yes. In HubSpot’s report builder, custom properties appear alongside default properties. You can break down contact or deal counts by a custom dropdown, chart a numeric custom property over time, or cross-tab two custom properties.
For teams on Marketing Hub Professional or above, custom properties also work in campaign attribution reports and funnel reports. If you need to track which product line a deal belongs to, or which region a contact came from, building that as a custom property and using it as a report dimension gives you clean segmentation data with no manual work.
Frequently asked questions
Can I delete a custom property?
Yes, but be careful. Deleting a property removes all data stored in that field across all records. Export the data first if you need it. You can also archive a property instead of deleting — archived properties are hidden from forms and the UI but their data is preserved.
Is there a limit on how many custom properties I can create?
HubSpot has a soft limit of 1,000 properties per object type on most plans, which is far more than most teams will use. Properties on custom objects count separately.
Can integrations write to custom properties?
Yes. The HubSpot API lets any connected tool read and write to custom properties using the property’s internal name (the machine-readable slug). This is how LINE integrations, e-commerce platforms, and form tools push data into custom fields on contact records.
Do custom properties appear on forms automatically?
No. You have to manually add a custom property as a field on a specific form. Go to the form editor, click “Add field”, and search for your property by name.
What’s the difference between a property and a custom object?
A property is a field on an existing object (Contact, Deal, etc.). A custom object is an entirely new type of record with its own set of properties and its own list view — for example, “Subscriptions” as a custom object, with properties like “Billing Cycle” and “Plan Name”. Custom objects require Operations Hub or Sales Hub Enterprise.
This guide is an independent informational resource produced by a HubSpot Platinum Partner. HubSpot is a trademark of HubSpot, Inc.
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