Revenue Share Legacy Policy for HubSpot Solutions Partners

This legacy policy page guides existing partners through the revenue share (commissions) changes announced at Partner Kickoff 2023 and includes recent updates to how HubSpot will determine managed criteria on and after April 1, 2025 on an ongoing quarterly basis (see Ongoing Management).

Revenue Share (Commissions) Legacy Policy

Solutions partners help sell HubSpot software to solve for their clients, grow their services businesses, and earn Revenue Share. The Revenue Share (commissions) policy launched in 2010 and provided partners with 20% customer lifetime commissions. A lot has changed since 2010. When we rolled out customer lifetime commissions, HubSpot was a single-hub company. Since then, HubSpot has added four additional hubs and has become a connected platform. Although there have been additions of cross-sell commission in 2020 and up-sell from Starter in 2022, the Revenue Share policy hasn’t kept pace with these changes. We're making changes to continue to invest in solving for the customer and the partner community, we’re making changes.

For information on the new policy, visit the Sales Rules and Solutions Partner Policies pages.

The Legacy Revenue Share Policy

Effective April 1, 2023, HubSpot changed the duration of the Revenue Share (commissions) term for new MRR from lifetime to three years/thirty-six (36) months for deals closed on or after April 1, 2023. 

For Qualified Transactions closed before April 1, 2023, partners will remain earning Revenue Share until April 1, 2025, regardless of whether or not they are managing the customer as long as the customer’s subscription remains active.

Partners can maintain Revenue Share after April 1, 2025, as long as the customer remains an active HubSpot subscription and the partner continues to manage that customer, as designated by managed MRR credit. As a solutions partner, it’s important to understand how Revenue Share for Qualified Transactions closed before April 1, 2023, is impacted.

If a partner stops managing a customer after April 1, 2025, and then starts managing them again, their commissions will not be reinstated.

Note: If a partner joined the program prior to February 21, 2023 and sold deals prior to April 1, 2023, they receive 20% commission on these deals until April 1, 2025. After April 1, 2025, if they continue to manage these customers, they will receive ongoing commissions. If they stop managing, the commission terminates. If a partner joined after February 21, 2023, all deals will be three-year commissions.

Up-selling & Cross-selling
In general, if a partner sells HubSpot Starter to a customer prior to April 1, 2023 and then upgrades the same customer to HubSpot Professional after April 1, 2023, this qualifies for the legacy commission policy. In this case, the partner will continue to make commission on the deal until April 1, 2025 regardless of whether they are managing the customer, and HubSpot will begin monitoring managed criteria after April 1, 2025 — which is when the partner is required to manage the customer, designated per MRR managed credit, in order to maintain earning their commission. Learn more in the scenarios listed below.

If a partner sells Marketing Hub Professional in July 2022, then upsells in July 2023, they will continue to receive ongoing lifetime commission until April 1, 2025. Starting April 1, 2025, HubSpot will begin to verify if the partner is managing this customer in order to continue receiving lifetime commission on Marketing Hub Professional.

Upselling does not restart the three-year commission timeline. HubSpot will use the original sold date for the product line.

Because Sales Hub is a new product line, the partner will start making new commissions for three years on that product from the sold date in July 2024 (until July 2027).

Revenue Share Timeline

Legacy Commissions Timeline 2024 Detailed (1)

Before April 1, 2025: For all deals sold before April 1, 2023, HubSpot will continue to pay 20% Revenue Share for two (2) years until April 1, 2025, regardless of partner involvement with that customer and provided the customer continues to use and pay for HubSpot Subscription Services.

Starting April 1, 2025: After April 1, 2025, partners can continue to earn 20% ongoing Revenue Share on Qualified Transactions where they are actively managing the customer (as demonstrated by managed MRR credit) for deals closed before April 1, 2023.

This means regardless of a partner’s relationship with their current customers, they will still receive 20% Revenue Share until April 1, 2025, as long as the customer remains an active HubSpot subscription. Starting April 1, 2025, partners must actively manage their customers, per managed MRR credit requirements, to keep earning Revenue Share on a Qualified Transaction. 

Ongoing Management of Commissions [NEW!]

Beginning April 1, 2025, HubSpot will review managed associations in relation to legacy customers on a quarterly basis. Partners must be actively managing their legacy customers at the end of each quarter to avoid losing lifetime commissions on these legacy accounts. Talk to your PDM to understand the following quarter-end deadlines:

  • End of Q1- 2025: April 1, 2025 
  • End of Q2-2025: July 1, 2025
  • End of Q3-2025: October 1, 2025
  • End of Q4-2025: January 1, 2026 
  • Continued on a quarterly basis 

Note that if a partner is found to no longer be actively managing a customer during a quarter and then re-manages the customer after one of the quarter-end deadlines, lifetime commissions will not be reinstated. Lifetime commissions are forfeited indefinitely in this instance. HubSpot’s assessment of actively managing is at our sole discretion, and our decision is final.

Please contact your PDM to learn more about your lifetime commissions at-risk on your unmanaged legacy accounts.

How can partners ensure they are managing a legacy customer?

  • The deal was closed before April 1, 2023, otherwise, the customer is not eligible 
  • Make sure you are appropriately tagged in the customers’ portal (see below or check out this Knowledge Base article)
  • While HubSpot does not explicitly disclose a definite list of all managing activities that count towards managed MRR, activities that qualify are those that create a live change from the time you log in to the time you log out. Qualifying activities are also application-specific activities within the HubSpot product. Each application has its own set of qualifying activities based on what active engagement with that application looks like. As a high-level example, creating assets is considered an active engagement in almost all cases and would likely count towards actively managing a customer.
    • Some examples include publishing blogs, landing pages, campaigns, goals, lists, CTAs, surveys, etc in the client account.
    • Additionally, active interaction with emails, calls, zorse, events, conversations, custom reporting, deals, marketing and sales dashboards may qualify as managing activity. 
    • Note: The examples above are indicative only and may change at HubSpot’s absolute discretion. 
  • Please note that simply creating or editing a draft is not considered by HubSpot to be actively managing.

Note: While HubSpot recognizes that many partners provide ongoing HubSpot-related services outside their customers’ HubSpot portals, we are unable to permit such activity to qualify as actively managing for the purposes of qualifying for lifetime commission. Portal management activity tracking allows us to equitably measure and confirm a partner's record with HubSpot and reach with HubSpot customers.

Check out the video below on how to find your estimated amount of commissions from your legacy customers.

HubSpot Video

What is managed MRR credit?

Managed MRR credit is a measurement of the total HubSpot Subscription Services Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) value that partners are actively managing or servicing. It is determined based on the partner’s eligible activity within their customer's portal. Eligible activity is defined as active engagement with your customer's HubSpot products post login (e.g., creating and editing assets). 

How partners can earn managed MRR credit

1. Create a user on your portal and tag them as a Partner/Provider Employee
2. Assign the customer to your user, with the  customer’s permission
3. Have the customer create the same user in their account or do this with customer’s permission 
4. When the created user performs qualifying transactions in the customer's account, the partner will earn managed MRR credit

For more information, visit the Knowledge Base article.

Resources

Please see our Program Policy, Sales Rules, and Revenue Share resources for more information.
Partner Program Policies
Visit the Solutions Partner Program Policies to learn more about the new revenue share policy.
Visit the policies page
Sales Rules

Learn more details about the updated sales rules and operations.

Visit the Sales Rules page
Commissions FAQs

Questions about the legacy and new revenue share (commissions) policy?

View our most frequently asked questions

MRR credit

Learn about MRR credit changes and how you can earn MRR credit.
Visit the Knowledge Base