Does developer portal exist in all accounts?

[JZhao]

Currently I have a developer account where I made all apps and integration with my backend services. That includes cards, webhook etc. Then I install the apps to different production customer portal accounts. So I assume there are two types of accounts, one for developer, the other is for real customers.

Redently I start looking at the new developer platform and I found there is a "Development" menu on all accounts. And under this Development portal, I can create projects, generate keys etc. My question is that do I still need two types of accounts? Does hubspot merge the two accounts into one account? 

[Anton · Accepted solution]

Hey @JZhao, 

after the introduction of the new developer-plattform (Sep/Oct 25), Dev portals were somewhat merged into live-portals and "old" Developer accounts got upgraded to a free version. (Very rough explenation)

Technically there's no need for a dedicated Developer portal anymore. 

The only real purpose of those was to create and test public app. You could create test accounts in such Dev portals, to test your app, but many users and devs (including myself) used them as CMS sandboxes as they were free Enterprise tier accounts with a few obvious limitations (couldn't connect a domain, not eligable for being used for public, I think you get the point )

After this change, there's no real benefit of them, as you can create project apps and legacy apps (private app & public app) as well as Project Apps in every portal, so again, technically there's no real need in those anymore. 

My personal setup is I have a few "old" Developer accounts for managing different business use-cases.

Dev account 1:
Almost every client gets a dedicated Test account/CMS sandbox where I develop everything before transfering it over to the live portal. This gives me a quality control instance and full control over everything. 

For instance, if omething should go south in a client project, I can compare it with the code in this instance - if there should be differences which I haven't done in the live portal (you have version control in the Design-manager as well), it's clearly the clients fault, I can prove it and therefore can charge for fixes. 
If I'd create such CMS Sandbox in a client portal - the client could delete it and I couldn't prove it that easy.

So in the end it's just my own way of creating somesort of something similar as GitHub repositories as I almost don't use GitHub for HubSpot themes.

Dev account 2:
Company internal accounts. For instance I have an idea for a cool app - I create a test account in this dev account to have a shiny new HubSpot portal which is not connected to anything else. 

Or I need a portal with specific tiers (Content ent, marketing pro, sales starter ...), I create it in this dev account.

In the end it's just to keep everything, that's not company related, out of my company portal.

If you're just getting started working on your own/beeing a freelancer, I'd say think about getting a dedicated portal for creating other test accounts to keep your main/live portal clean, but it's not required anymore

best, 

Anton

[kosalaindrasiri]

Hey @JZhao,

Yes, as I know you still need both.
The new Development menu simply means you no longer need a separate “dev sandbox portal” for things like private apps or UI extensions. But it does not eliminate the developer account or combine the two.

Regards,