Attio vs HubSpot automation: workflows, limits, API and webhooks

HubSpot's workflows FAQ says a Professional or Enterprise subscription is required to use workflows. How many you can create depends on the edition:

• Marketing, Sales or Service Hub Professional: up to 300 workflows.
• Marketing, Sales or Service Hub Enterprise: up to 1,000 workflows.
• With the Brands add-on: 100 more workflows.
• With several hubs, the subscription with the highest limit sets your limit.

Only custom workflows built in the workflows tool count toward the limit. Simple automations in tools such as forms don't. By default, a record enrolls in a workflow only the first time it meets the enrollment triggers. You can turn on re-enrollment, but it can't use AND criteria and it doesn't enroll records retroactively.

Two actions matter most for integrations: 'Send a webhook' and 'Custom code'. HubSpot lists both for Data Hub Professional and Enterprise, the hub previously called Operations Hub. Custom code actions run Node.js or Python, must finish within 20 seconds and can use up to 128 MB of memory, so long jobs belong in an external tool such as n8n.

Attio meters workflows by usage. Runs draw on the workspace's shared credits, most blocks use one credit, and blocks that fail or never run use none. Admins can see credit usage per workflow in Workspace settings. The credits included differ by plan, so check Attio's pricing page and estimate blocks per run times runs per month.

To reach another system from an Attio workflow, use the HTTP request block, or build an app with the Attio SDK that adds its own workflow blocks.

HubSpot limits private apps per 10 seconds and per day. Free and Starter accounts get 100 requests per 10 seconds and 250,000 per day. Professional gets 190 per 10 seconds and 625,000 per day, and Enterprise gets 190 per 10 seconds and 1,000,000 per day. The 10-second limit applies to each app, and the daily limit is shared by all apps in the account. Over the limit, HubSpot returns HTTP 429, and its guidelines ask that error responses stay under 5% of your daily requests.

Attio counts per second: 100 reads and 25 writes, with HTTP 429 and a Retry-After header when you go over. Its List records and List entries endpoints also have score-based limits, counted over a 10-second window.

Both sign their webhooks, but differently. HubSpot's v3 signature arrives in X-HubSpot-Signature-v3 with X-HubSpot-Request-Timestamp. It is an HMAC-SHA256, base64-encoded and made with the app's client secret, over the method, URI, body and timestamp, and HubSpot says to reject requests whose timestamp is more than 5 minutes old. Attio's Attio-Signature header is a hex-encoded HMAC-SHA256 of the raw body, made with the webhook's secret. Attio also sends an Idempotency-Key header that stays the same across retries.

• If your support team already works in HubSpot's help desk, tickets, SLAs and ticket workflows live in the same account as the CRM, and workflows are included from Professional.
• If you use Attio as the CRM and a separate helpdesk, connect the two through the APIs and webhooks with n8n, Make or Zapier, which has an official Attio app.
• If your automations call other systems, budget for Data Hub Professional in HubSpot, or plan around the HTTP request block in Attio.
• If volumes are high, check the API limits above against your peak ticket volume before you choose where the logic runs.

TascaLab builds automations on top of the CRM and helpdesk you already use, with APIs, webhooks, n8n and Make, so you don't have to switch platforms. Custom Automation projects cost from $1,200. Most setups take 1 to 3 weeks, and every project includes basic documentation and 30 days of post-launch support. You can start with a free 30-minute Health Check call.