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HubSpot Native Deduplication vs. Koalify: The 2026 Comparison Guide

Duplicate records are the "silent killer" of CRM health. What starts as a minor data quirk quickly scales into broken automation, skewed revenue reporting, and sales reps calling the same lead twice.

HubSpot includes native tools to detect and merge duplicates. Koalify takes a different approach: deduplication as an automated, HubSpot-native tool with more control over how duplicates are detected, merged, and retained, across more objects.

The 10-Second Verdict

  • Choose HubSpot if you are a small team (Starter/Pro) with low record volume, mostly merging one-by-one, and only need to clean Contacts and Companies.

  • Choose Koalify if you want automated bulk merging, support for Custom Objects/Deals/Tickets, fuzzy matching logic, or have a Salesforce integration.

 
Feature HubSpot Koalify

Primary focus

 Basic, built-in deduplication Advanced HubSpot-native deduplication

Ease of use

 ⭐⭐⭐

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Pricing

 Free Accounts with limited duplication 💲
 Data Hub Pro with basic deduplication 💲 💲 💲 💲 💲
 $800/month

💲 💲 
$5/10K records (yearly)
$10/10K records (monthly)
1. SECURITY & COMPLIANCE

SOC 2 Type II

✅ Yes

 ✅ Yes

ISO 27001

✅ Yes

 ✅ Yes

GDPR

 ✅ Yes ✅ Yes

EU/UK data residency 

 ✅ Yes ✅ Yes
2. HUBSPOT INTEGRATION

Review duplicates in HubSpot

✅ Yes

✅ Yes

Manual merge in HubSpot

✅ Yes

✅ Yes

Bulk merge workflows

❌ No

✅ Yes

3. OBJECT COVERAGE

Merge contacts & companies

✅ Yes

✅ Yes

Merge deals

⚠️ Manual only (1-by-1)

✅ Yes

Merge tickets

⚠️ Manual only (1-by-1)

✅ Yes

Merge custom objects

⚠️ Manual only (1-by-1)

✅ Yes

Merge leads, line items, orders

❌ No

❌ No

Companies with Salesforce

❌ No

✅ Yes
4. MATCHING LOGIC

Flexible matching rules

❌ No

✅ Yes

Fuzzy & similar matching

⚠️

✅ Yes

5. MERGE BEHAVIOUR

Flexible primary rules

⚠️ 5 predefined options

✅ Yes

Property retention rules

❌ No

✅ Yes

 

1) Duplicate detection: HubSpot native vs Koalify

HubSpot Native Detection

HubSpot can identify potential duplicates and, for many teams, it’s enough for basic cleanup early on. But as your portal grows, two things usually happen:

  • Rigid matching misses real duplicates (format differences, near-matches)

  • Loose matching creates false positives, which makes bulk cleanup risky

 

Koalify detection (what changes)

Koalify is rule-based and designed for day-to-day operations:

  • Create multiple duplicate rules per object

  • Use cross-field matching (e.g., mobile phone ↔ phone)

  • Use fuzzy matching where exact matches fail (names, company variants, phone formatting)

Koalify identifies likely relations with Fuzzy Rules.

 

2) Merging at scale: manual merges vs automated workflows

HubSpot native merge options (typical workflow)

In HubSpot, you must navigate to the "Manage Duplicates" screen and manually click "Merge" for every pair.
For a database with 500 duplicates, this is an afternoon of manual labor.

Koalify merging (operational model)

Koalify supports:

This is what makes deduplication sustainable:

  • Admins define the rules once

  • Workflows handle the repetitive merges

  • Your team stays out of manual cleanup mode

How to bulk merge HubSpot duplicates using Koalify workflow actions - Workflow Action

 

3) Merge behavior control: primary record + property retention

HubSpot native: limited merge behavior control

Native tools work well when you manually choose values while merging a single pair, but once you need consistency at scale, teams often want:

  • reliable primary record logic

  • predictable property retention

  • safe automation without overwriting critical fields

 

Koalify: merge behavior built for automation

Koalify adds two critical capabilities:

1) Primary record rules (waterfall logic)
Pick the “master record” based on your actual business logic (IDs, email presence, bounce status, lifecycle, etc.).

2) Property retention rules
Decide field-by-field how values should be retained during bulk merges (append multi-select values, preserve first-touch source properties, keep preferred owner logic, etc.).

This is why Koalify is better suited for automated merging: you’re not “hoping” the merge turns out right, you’re defining the behavior.

Best email & last activity primary duplicate default rule

When teams outgrow HubSpot native deduplication

Teams usually move beyond native dedup when:

  • duplicates come from multiple sources (imports, integrations, forms)

  • exact-match logic misses too many duplicates

  • they need dedup beyond contacts/companies

  • they want workflow-based bulk merging

  • they need stronger protection against overwriting important data

 

Final verdict

If your portal is simple and you’re okay with manual review, HubSpot’s native tools can work.

If you want deduplication to stay solved with flexible rules, automated workflows, and controlled merge behavior Koalify is built for that operating model.

For a broader review of other deduplication, see our guide to the best HubSpot deduplication apps.

 

🎥 Live Comparison: HubSpot Native Deduplication vs Koalify

Below is a real, live walkthrough from a HubSpot Admin community session, where Koalify’s founder demonstrates:

  • HubSpot’s native duplicate detection and merge behavior

  • Koalify’s rule-based detection, workflow merges, and merge control

  • Real-world edge cases admins run into at scale

  • How automated deduplication can be done safely inside HubSpot

 

 

FAQ

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