How to Create a Workflow in HubSpot (2026 Guide)
HubSpot workflows automate the repetitive work that happens after a contact, company, deal, or ticket meets a condition, sending emails, creating tasks, updating properties, notifying reps in Slack, rotating leads. The workflow builder got an AI rewrite assist (Breeze) and a redesigned canvas in 2025, but the underlying logic is the same: trigger → actions → goal.
Here’s how to build one in 2026.
1. Workflow Tiers and What’s Included
Workflows are a paid feature. The tier you’re on decides which object types you can automate and how complex the actions can get.
| Subscription | What you can automate |
|---|---|
| Free CRM, Starter Hubs | No full workflow tool. Limited Simple Workflows (1-step automations like form follow-up emails). |
| Marketing Hub Professional / Enterprise | Contact-based workflows, marketing email automation, list-based enrollment. |
| Sales Hub Professional / Enterprise | Deal-based, ticket-based, contact-based workflows. Lead rotation, deal stage automation. |
| Service Hub Professional / Enterprise | Ticket-based workflows, customer feedback automation. |
| Operations Hub Professional / Enterprise | Custom code actions, data quality automations, advanced webhooks. |
Workflows are part of the broader Automation tool. If you’re on Free or Starter and only see “Simple Workflows” in the menu, the full builder requires a Pro+ upgrade on at least one Hub.
2. Create a Workflow from Scratch
This is the standard path when you know what you want to automate.
- In your HubSpot account, go to Automation > Workflows.
- Click Create workflow in the top right.
- Choose From scratch.
- Select the object type the workflow centers on:
- Contact-based: most common; triggers on contact properties, form submissions, list membership, page views.
- Company-based: triggers on company properties, like funding stage or employee count.
- Deal-based: triggers on deal stage, amount, owner.
- Ticket-based: triggers on ticket pipeline, priority, source.
- Custom object-based: Enterprise only.
- Click Next, give the workflow a name, and click Create.
Set the enrollment trigger
- Click the Set up triggers box at the top of the canvas.
- Choose how records enroll:
- When filter criteria is met: based on properties, list membership, lifecycle stage, etc.
- When an event occurs: form submission, email click, page view, custom event.
- On a schedule: recurring date-based enrollment.
- Build the criteria (e.g., Lifecycle stage is Lead AND Email is known).
- Click Save.
Add actions
- Click the + below the trigger.
- Pick from action types:
- Send email: marketing email or internal notification.
- Create task: assign to an owner.
- Set property value: update a contact, company, or deal property.
- Send internal notification: email or Slack to a user.
- Add to / remove from list: manage segment membership.
- Branch: split the workflow based on conditions.
- Delay: wait a fixed duration or until a condition is met.
- Webhook: POST to an external URL (Pro+).
- Custom code: JavaScript actions (Operations Hub Pro+).
- Configure the action and click Save.
Stack actions, branches, and delays as needed. You can also save placeholder actions and fill them in later.
Review and publish
- Click Review and publish in the top right.
- Choose whether to enroll existing records that already meet the criteria, or only new records going forward.
- Click Turn on workflow.
3. Create a Workflow with AI (Breeze)
For straightforward automations, the AI builder is faster than dragging actions onto the canvas.
- Go to Automation > Workflows.
- Click Create workflow > With AI.
- Describe the workflow in plain English using the “When [this happens], then [do this]” format. Examples:
- When a contact submits the Request a Demo form, assign the contact to the round-robin rep and create a task to follow up within 1 business day.
- When a deal moves to Closed Won, send the customer onboarding email and create a Slack notification in #wins.
- Click Generate.
Breeze drafts the trigger, branches, and actions. Review the draft on the canvas, edit anything that’s off, and publish. The AI builder can produce branched, multi-step workflows, it’s not limited to one-step automations.
4. Common Workflow Templates
HubSpot ships templates that cover the patterns most teams build. Click Create workflow > From template to browse.
| Template | Use case |
|---|---|
| Lead nurturing email series | Drip emails to new leads over days/weeks. |
| Internal notification on form submission | Slack/email the right rep when a high-intent form fires. |
| Lifecycle stage management | Auto-move contacts from Lead → MQL → SQL based on behavior. |
| Deal rotation / lead assignment | Round-robin assignment to a sales team. |
| Re-engagement campaign | Email contacts who haven’t opened in 90+ days. |
| Welcome series | Multi-email onboarding for new signups. |
| Customer feedback survey | Trigger NPS surveys after a customer milestone. |
Templates are starting points, every one of them needs the trigger criteria, sender, and email content updated before it’s safe to turn on.
5. Re-enrollment, Unenrollment, and Goals
These three settings hide in the workflow’s Settings tab and decide whether your workflow actually does what you want over time.
Re-enrollment. By default, a record can only enter a workflow once. Toggle Re-enroll under Settings if you want a record to flow through again, for example, every time a deal stage changes back to Demo Scheduled. Note: a record currently enrolled cannot be re-enrolled until it completes the workflow.
Unenrollment. Define conditions that pull records out mid-workflow. Useful for stopping a nurture sequence the moment a contact converts or unsubscribes.
Goal. Define the criteria that counts as a successful completion (e.g., Lifecycle stage = Customer). HubSpot’s workflow performance report calculates conversion rates against the goal, which makes A/B testing the workflow much cleaner.
6. Things That Trip People Up
- Test before publishing. Use Test workflow in the upper right with a real contact’s record ID. It runs the workflow once with logging so you can see exactly what fires.
- Suppression lists. Marketing emails inside workflows still respect global suppression and unsubscribe lists. They won’t fire to unsubscribed contacts.
- Active vs. completed. Workflows can be turned off without deleting them. Toggling off stops new enrollments but preserves the canvas for re-use.
- Workflow limits. Each Hub tier has a workflow count limit (e.g., Marketing Hub Pro is 300 active workflows). Hitting the limit blocks new ones until you turn off old ones.
- Time zones. Date-based delays use the contact’s time zone if the property is set, otherwise the portal default. Worth double-checking for international sends.
Run Workflows You Don’t Have to Build
HubSpot workflows handle the patterns you can predict. The messy in-between work, replying to emails, scheduling, follow-ups, ad-hoc updates, is where time still leaks. Carly is an AI assistant that connects to 200+ apps including HubSpot and handles the repetitive work for you.
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