HubSpot Logo PNG
The company’s software captures users and engages them with the developer’s business clients. The HubSpot logo conveys orderliness, control, and process management. For this, we considered all possible approaches.
HubSpot began with Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah, who met at MIT Sloan. Halligan had worked with tech startups and had seen companies waste money on cold calls, email blasts, and banner ads. Shah had sold Pyramid Digital Solutions in 2005 and built a startup blog that attracted thousands of readers through useful content, without paid advertising.
In June 2006, they founded HubSpot in Cambridge, Massachusetts. They called their method “inbound marketing,” meaning companies should attract buyers through blogs, SEO, social media, and helpful content rather than pushing ads. They deliberately left the term open for everyone to use, allowing the concept to spread alongside the company’s name.
HubSpot’s first major tool was Website Grader, launched in 2007. It scored websites on SEO and marketing factors. In its early years, it analyzed more than 3 million sites, giving HubSpot a steady stream of leads. In 2009, the company launched an agency partner program that allowed marketing agencies to resell the platform. Revenue grew from $255,000 in 2007 to $15.6 million in 2010.
In 2011, HubSpot held its first INBOUND conference in Boston. While Salesforce focused heavily on large corporate clients, HubSpot aimed at small and midsize businesses. In 2014, it launched a free CRM and went public on the New York Stock Exchange under HUBS, raising about $125 million. Later deals included Kemvi in 2017, The Hustle in 2021, and Clearbit, which was announced in 2023 and closed in early 2024.
Meaning and History
HubSpot isn’t standing still; it’s continually expanding by buying up promising competitors. For example, it has added the app store Oneforty, the artificial intelligence developer Kemvi, and the newsletter service The Hustle. Despite the growth, the company is in no hurry to carry out a global rebranding. The only change to the logo in 2016 was almost invisible because the designers kept the font as small as possible. Of course, you can tell the difference between the old and new versions: the two use different shades of orange and gray. The proportions have also been slightly modified.
2006 – 2016
Like the current one, the first logo contained the inscription “HubSpot.” All letters were dark gray, except for the orange “o.” And the latter stood out not only for its bright color but also for its unusual shape. It had three lines, each ending in a dot. Because of this, the symbol was called a sprocket. The largest sprocket emerged from the top half of the “o” at a strange angle, and its free edge did not align with the center of the next “p.”
The designers used kerning to align the letters, so the spacing varied widely. Selecting spacing individually helped improve the text’s visual density. The font also lacked perfect proportions. The intra-letter spaces “o,” “p,” and “b” were not round. Rather, they resembled ovals.
2016 – today
Many people mistakenly assume only the color scheme has changed since the redesign: obsidian replaced gray, and orange took on a pink hue. But if you look closely, other changes become noticeable. HubSpot informed users that the circles inside the “o,” “p,” and “b” are now guaranteed to be round. At the same time, the longest Sprocket bar visually aligns with the center of the “o,” and its end point aligns with the middle of the “p.” All letter spacing is uniform.
Font and Colors
The most important element of HubSpot’s identity is the stylized “o,” which looks like part of a circuit. The circles in its composition symbolize the interconnected components of a certain system. This likely represents a set of CRM tools for attracting potential customers or helping customers interact with the company. From another point of view, the abstract figure resembles a cogwheel – a small and irreplaceable detail that drives a huge mechanism. This interpretation also fits into the concept of a platform focused on content marketing. In any case, whatever sprocket stands for, it looks modern and technological.
HubSpot’s typography is based on the Avenir Next font family. But the wordmark has an individual style: the designers developed it themselves, experimenting with the letterforms. Even if Avenir Next was the basis, they changed it beyond recognition. The lowercase letters “u,” “b,” and “p” have no short protruding strokes. The edges of the “S” are cut at about a 45-degree angle. The same applies to the “t”: its top is cut off, and the left side of the horizontal line is missing. The symbol, which replaces the “o,” looks like a futuristic abstract drawing. But the logo has flat kerning, which visually balances all the disproportions.
Although HubSpot’s main official colors are light blue Calypso (#00A4BD) and orange Lorax (#FF7A59), the logo uses only the latter. The designers chose another shade of blue, Obsidian (#2D3E50), instead of Calypso. The branding guide states that the company usually uses it for text, which means the wordmark is no exception.