How Can You Use HubSpot Custom Objects to Model SaaS Subscriptions, Usage & Churn?

You run or support a B2B SaaS business. You sell through subscriptions. You track usage, retention, upsells, and churn. You need more than “Contacts,” “Companies,” and “Deals.” You need ways to track subscription tiers, feature usage, and health scores.

That’s where HubSpot custom objects come in to make your job easier. When built right, these objects turn your CRM into a real-time system for recurring revenue and product analytics.

If you want to design or integrate them smoothly, professional HubSpot development services can help you create stable and well-structured objects that tie into your billing and analytics stack.

What Are HubSpot Custom Objects?

HubSpot custom objects allow you to define entirely new record types, with custom properties, associations to standard or other custom objects, and behavior in workflows. When you create a custom object and you choose:

• Which properties it holds, like text, number, date, and/or enumeration.
  

• Which standard or custom objects does it associate with, like Contacts, Companies, Deals, Tickets, or other custom objects
  

• Whether to expose it in the UI, include it in views, or use it in workflows.

You need an appropriate HubSpot subscription, either Professional or Enterprise, and API access to mention HubSpot custom objects. Also, mind that custom objects have limits, like quotas on the number of custom object types or total property count. Always check HubSpot’s quotas in your account.

What Are The No-Code Builder vs API Approach?

You can build custom objects in two ways:

1. Using the no-code Builder or 

2. Through the API.

1. No-Code Builder (in-app)

Let’s discuss the pros of the No-Code builder first.

• You can define a custom object via UI.

• Non-developers, like operations and RevOps, can make changes without new code.

• You can use workflows with custom object triggers and data.

However, this builder also comes with some limitations, like:

• More limited flexibility, like complex validations, bulk imports, and advanced error handling.

• API integrations might need more mapping glue.

• You can’t use complex logic in properties on creation except using workflows after the fact.

2. API Approach

Let’s discuss the benefits of using the API approach:

• You can create, update, and delete object instances and associations programmatically.

• You can impose custom validations, transformation logic, and bulk syncing.

• You can version your schema, migrate data, and fallback logic.

This approach also comes with a few drawbacks:

• Requires coding effort and maintenance.

• You need to handle error cases, rate limits, and retries.

• Changes in schema need coordinated deployment with code and workflows.

What Are Some Design Patterns for SaaS Use Cases?

Let’s think through three key custom object types often useful for SaaS:

1. Subscription or Recurring Revenue

2. Feature Usage or Metrics

3. CustomerHealth or Predictive Scoring

1. Subscription/Recurring Revenue Object

Properties to include:

• Plan Tier (enum)

• Start Date, End Date, Renewal Date

• Billing Frequency

• MRR / ARR (number)

• Statuses like active, trial, cancelled, or paused

• Add-ons count or revenue

• Discount, commission, etc.

What Associations To Include?

• Associate with the Company or multiple companies.

• Associate with Contact(s), like the account owner and billing contact.

• Associate with FeatureUsage or HealthScore records

Workflows:

• On renewal date, check status, send renewal reminders.

• On plan change, update properties.

• When cancelled, trigger churn signals.

2. FeatureUsage/Product Metrics Object

If you want to track usage metrics over time, you could create a custom object called UsageRecord or FeatureUsage.

Properties to include:

• Period

• Feature name or feature category, like enum or text.

• Usage count or value.

• Normalized usage, like % of plan limit

• Bucket

• Last updated timestamp

Associations:

• Tied to Subscription

• Possibly tied to Contact
  

Use in workflows:

• If feature usage is below the threshold for N periods, flag as “at risk”.

• Send “usage nudges” emails.

• Trigger upsell if usage is high and hitting limits.

3. CustomerHealth / Churn Prediction Object

You want a HealthScore or ChurnSignal object that stores algorithmic or rule-based scores. This is helpful when you want to audit changes in the score over time.

Properties to be included:

• Date of scoring

• Score numeric

• Risk level

• Contributions, like “low usage”, “multiple tickets”, or “no login past 14d”

• Flags or tags

Associations:

• Associate with Subscription or Company

• Possibly linked to UsageRecords

Workflows/triggers:

• When the score drops below the threshold, create an alert task.

• If risk is “High”, create a task for the account manager.

• If the score improves, remove “at risk” flags.

How to Integrate with External Data Systems?

Often, HubSpot is not the source of truth for usage data or billing data. You likely use:

• A billing system like Stripe, Chargebee, or Zuora.

• A traffic/analytics system or data warehouse.

• An event ingestion layer.

You need integration (ETL or middleware) between those systems and HubSpot.

What are the key patterns?

• Delta sync: push only changes like new subscriptions or usage deltas, rather than full data each time.
  

• Bi-directional sync: if HubSpot updates like subscription cancellation, you push back to billing or product systems.
  

• Data warehouse as central hub: compute usage summaries or health scores in the data warehouse and then sync to HubSpot custom objects.
  

• Use middleware/iPaaS: Tools like Zapier, Workato, or custom lambdas that mediate mapping, error retries, and schema translation.
  

• Deduplication & idempotency keys: Make sure that duplicate API calls don’t create duplicate records.
  

• Schema versioning: When you add a property or rename one, mapping logic should handle the old vs the new schema.

If you store raw event logs elsewhere, you don’t want to import every row into HubSpot; rather, aggregate them and import summaries. 

What Are Some Best Practices & Tips?

• Use consistent naming conventions: prefix custom object names, like. “Subscription” and “usage_record”.

• Avoid too many properties. Use associations instead.

• Use enumeration properties like dropdowns instead of free text when possible.

• Use indexing in your backend to look up by association IDs quickly.

• Respect HubSpot API rate limits.

• Use batch operations when possible.

• Use a staging HubSpot environment for schema and data testing.

• Version your integration code so that schema changes are deployable.

• Monitor error logs and set up alerts on sync failures.

• Clean up old or unused custom object records periodically.

Closing Thoughts

Tracking subscriptions, usage, and churn in a SaaS business demands more than basic CRM records. You need custom objects tailored to your revenue model, product usage, and health metrics. HubSpot’s custom objects let you build that structure. You can pick a no-code builder if you want ease and operational flexibility, or go full API for precision and scalability.

If you build this carefully woven system, you get actionable insights, earlier alerts, and better retention. The investment in custom objects and integration pays off in clearer decisions and smoother operations.

In case this seems too complicated or time-consuming for you to handle, you can always collaborate with a reputable HubSpot development service. They will guide you through the complexities and handle all the work themselves, so that you can focus on the other core components of your business.