HubSpot is rolling out a genuinely meaningful admin update: users can now be assigned multiple permission sets at the same time. 👏
At first glance, this might sound like a small operational enhancement. In practice, it solves one of the more frustrating scaling challenges inside larger HubSpot environments.
For teams managing complex portals, evolving responsibilities, and cross-functional users, this is a major quality-of-life improvement.
As of May 2026, this functionality is rolling out in Enterprise portals, with some accounts already live and others seeing it in public beta. Full rollout is expected to be completed May 17, 2026.
(And honestly? I’d love to see this permission sets make their way into Pro portals as well.)
But First, What Permission Sets Actually Are
Inside HubSpot Enterprise, permission sets allow admins to create reusable access profiles that define what users can and cannot do within the portal.
Instead of configuring permissions individually for every user, admins can create standardized roles like:
- Sales Rep
- Marketing User
- Content Editor
- Campaign Approver
- Reporting Viewer
- RevOps Admin
- Customer Success Manager
Each permission set contains specific access controls related to:
- CRM object visibility
- Editing rights
- Workflow access
- Reporting permissions
- Publishing capabilities
- Admin functionality
- Tool-specific permissions
- Team visibility
- Data access
The goal is consistency and scalability.
Rather than manually configuring dozens (or hundreds) of users individually, admins assign permission sets based on responsibilities.
In theory, this creates cleaner governance and easier onboarding.
In reality… there has been a longstanding limitation.
The Old Problem: “Mostly Sales… Plus One Extra Thing”
Prior to this update, users could only have a single permission set assigned.
That meant admins constantly ran into scenarios like:
- A salesperson who also needed campaign approval access
- A marketing manager who needed limited workflow visibility
- A sales leader who needed additional reporting permissions
- A customer success user who occasionally needed access to deal pipelines
- An executive who needed read-only visibility across multiple hubs
Because users could only belong to one permission set, admins were forced to create increasingly specific custom combinations.
This often led to:
- Permission set sprawl
- Duplicate roles with tiny differences
- Confusing naming conventions
- Difficult user audits
- Ongoing maintenance overhead
- Increased risk of over-permissioning users
Over time, portals would end up with permission structures that looked something like:
- Sales Team
- Sales Team + Reporting
- Sales Team + Workflow Access
- Sales Team + Campaigns
- Sales Team + Forecasting
- Sales Team + Reporting + Campaigns
…and suddenly you have dozens of nearly identical permission sets that are difficult to maintain and harder to troubleshoot.
What HubSpot Changed
Now, admins can assign multiple permission sets to a single user.
HubSpot then applies the most permissive access automatically across the combined sets.
That means you can finally modularize permissions instead of building endless one-off combinations.
For example:
A user could now have:
- “Sales Team”
AND - “Reporting Access”
Or:
- “Marketing Team”
AND - “Campaign Approval”
Or:
- “Customer Success”
AND - “Workflow Viewer”
This is a much cleaner and more scalable model.
Instead of designing permission sets around every possible user variation, admins can create focused building blocks and combine them as needed.
Why This Matters for Admins
This update significantly improves long-term portal management.
1. Cleaner Governance
Admins can standardize around core functional roles instead of endlessly cloning permission sets.
This creates:
- More predictable access management
- Easier audits
- Better documentation
- Simpler onboarding/offboarding
2. Easier Scaling
As organizations grow, user responsibilities become more nuanced.
People work across teams.
Managers need broader visibility.
Temporary access needs happen constantly.
Multiple permission sets make it much easier to adapt without rebuilding your permission architecture every few months.
3. Reduced Administrative Overhead
This removes a surprising amount of repetitive admin work.
Instead of:
- Creating new permission sets
- Testing nearly identical configurations
- Maintaining duplicate roles
Admins can simply layer existing permission sets together.
Less friction.
Less clutter.
Less technical debt.
4. Better Long-Term Portal Health
Permission structures tend to become messy over time—especially in large Enterprise portals with multiple admins.
This change encourages a more modular, intentional access strategy.
That’s important because permissions are foundational infrastructure in HubSpot.
When permissions become inconsistent:
- Governance weakens
- Security risks increase
- User confusion grows
- Operational troubleshooting gets harder
This update helps bring structure back to an area that often becomes chaotic as portals mature.
Recommended Best Practices
If you’re managing a HubSpot Enterprise portal, this is a good opportunity to rethink how your permission sets are structured.
A few recommendations:
Create Core Functional Permission Sets
Build foundational sets around primary job functions:
- Sales
- Marketing
- Service
- Operations
- Leadership
Create Supplemental Permission Layers
Then create smaller add-on permission sets for:
- Reporting access
- Workflow visibility
- Campaign approvals
- Forecasting
- Content publishing
- Admin-lite access
This creates a more modular system that is easier to maintain over time.
Audit Existing Permission Set Sprawl
If your portal currently has dozens of highly specific permission sets, there’s a good chance some consolidation is now possible.
This is a great time for cleanup.
Document Your Permission Strategy
As portals scale, undocumented permission logic becomes a problem quickly.
Having clear documentation around:
- what each permission set does
- who should receive it
- why it exists
…makes long-term administration significantly easier.
Final Thoughts
This may not be the flashiest HubSpot release of the year, but for admins and RevOps teams, it’s a meaningful improvement.
It reduces friction.
Improves scalability.
Simplifies governance.
And helps large portals stay cleaner over time.
Those kinds of operational improvements tend to have a much bigger long-term impact than they initially appear to.
Really solid update from HubSpot. 👏
