Your business is unique. You have specific workflows, proprietary data, and a way of doing things that doesn’t always fit into a neat, off-the-shelf box.
So when it comes to connecting Instagram to your HubSpot portal, it’s natural to wonder: “Should we just build this ourselves?”
The idea is tempting. A custom-built integration promises ultimate control, perfect alignment with your existing processes, and a potential competitive advantage. It’s the siren song for any ambitious, tech-savvy company.
But as a team of engineers who have spent years in the trenches of API development and HubSpot customization, we can tell you that this path is fraught with hidden costs, unexpected complexities, and significant long-term maintenance burdens.
Before you write a single line of code or assign a single engineering ticket, you need to have an honest internal conversation. This guide will walk you through the key questions to ask and provide a realistic framework for making the critical “build vs. buy” decision.
Let’s start with why building a custom integration is so appealing.
On paper, these advantages look compelling. But they come at a very steep price.
This is the part that most companies don’t fully appreciate until they are deep into the project.
Building even a basic, one-way integration that syncs DMs to HubSpot is a significant project. A conservative estimate would be:
And this is for a bare-bones, minimum viable product. This doesn’t include features like two-way messaging, a user-friendly interface for your team, or robust error handling. A truly feature-rich integration could easily cost $50,000+ in initial development time.
Compare this to a “buy” solution like HubBase, which costs $100/month. The initial build cost of a custom integration would pay for over 10 years of the subscription.
This is the hidden cost that kills most custom projects. An API integration is not a “set it and forget it” asset. It is a living product that requires constant care and feeding.
This ongoing maintenance can easily consume 5-10 hours of an engineer’s time every single month. That’s time they are not spending on your core product.
Before you can access the Instagram Messaging API, you have to submit your application to Meta for a formal review. This is a notoriously difficult and opaque process. You have to provide detailed screencasts, written explanations, and justifications for every permission you request. It can take weeks, and you can be rejected for reasons that are not always clear. An experienced integration partner has already gone through this process many times and knows exactly how to navigate it.
Choosing to buy a pre-built solution is not an admission of defeat. It is a strategic decision to focus your most valuable resources (your engineers’ time and brainpower) on the problems that are unique to your business.
The problem of connecting Instagram DMs to HubSpot is a solved problem. There are excellent, reliable, and affordable solutions on the market that have already invested the thousands of hours of development and maintenance required.
By buying a solution, you are:
Ask yourself these three questions:
Building a custom HubSpot-Instagram integration is a fascinating engineering challenge. But for your business, it’s almost certainly a strategic mistake. It’s a classic case of reinventing the wheel, and a very expensive, time-consuming, and rickety wheel at that.
Focus your precious resources on building a better version of your own product. Let a dedicated partner handle the plumbing.
If you’ve run the numbers and decided that your engineers’ time is better spent on your core business, we’re here to help. HubBase offers a robust, reliable, and affordable solution that you can set up in less time than it takes to finish your coffee.