HubSpot’s app marketplace is now bolstered by social proof

If you’re searching for the perfect app or integration to supercharge your marketing, sales, or service automation efforts, HubSpot now has an answer.

Ratings and reviews are now available in the HubSpot app marketplace.

In the early days, HubSpot integrated with a few, carefully-vetted major players, the likes of SalesForce, Stripe, and Zapier.

But, as the HubSpot user base has grown, so has the demand for more and more technology integrations. To meet this demand, HubSpot has allowed more developers access to its user base. That’s where the app marketplace comes in. 

The app marketplace within the HubSpot ecosystem

Launched at INBOUND 2019, the HubSpot app marketplace is the newest component of what HubSpot now refers to as the “ecosystem.”

As Brad Coffey, Chief Strategy Officer at HubSpot, puts it: 

“The HubSpot ecosystem is designed to combat growing complexity by giving businesses unified access to all of the partners, apps, and most importantly, the data they need to do their jobs — in one streamlined platform.”

Other components of the HubSpot ecosystem, such as the solutions directory and the asset marketplace, already include peer-to-peer review functionality, so adding this function to the app marketplace was just the next logical step. 

What do ratings and reviews really mean?

If you’re a marketer or a small business owner, the stakes are high when choosing your technology stack. 

Once you’ve decided on the core of your automation machine, you need to make sure the additional components you “plug in” to that machine are the right fit for your business — helping you work smarter not harder,  and definitely not causing damage to the integrity of the information in your database. 

But it’s important to keep in mind the limitations of the peer-to-peer review model. 

While user reviews are the core of how we comparison shop in the modern online marketplace, they’re not always reliable. 

You should always ask yourself, when looking at any review, if it provides valuable, unbiased information, or if it seems suspicious.

HubSpot, to its credit, has taken some steps to ensure that reviews in the marketplace are legitimate. 

Precautionary measures such as limiting the number of user reviews per company and ensuring that users haven’t uninstalled the app in the last two weeks are designed to create an even playing field — and an accurate library of reviews.

How you can do your part to improve the app marketplace

When you write honest and unbiased reviews, you help the marketplace become an even more trusted resource.

We are all stewards of the truth, and it is our job to make sure that other businesses succeed and learn from our past successes (or mistakes).

Because the review functionality is so new, few apps have more than a handful of reviews, and many have none. While the ability to leave reviews is currently live, not many HubSpot users have actually taken the time to share their thoughts or opinions (yet).

So if you’ve had an awesome experience with an app, shout it from the proverbial rooftops. If the app developers made grand promises but failed to deliver, share that experience. 

Your fellow marketers, small business owners, and solopreneurs need that feedback to make important decisions on how to grow their businesses.