Will sales stop while we move to Bitrix24?

The move is planned so that they do not. While we set up Bitrix24 and move the archive, the team keeps working in the old system. The switch happens over a weekend: we bring across the changes from the last few days, switch WhatsApp, telephony, email and forms, and on the next working day managers open Bitrix24 with the same clients and deals. The old system is not switched off until you confirm that everything is in place.

What moves from Kommo and HubSpot, and what does not?

Contacts, companies, deals with pipelines and stages, tasks, notes, files and custom fields move, and responsible persons and creation dates are kept. Automation does not migrate: Salesbot and the Digital Pipeline in Kommo, workflows and sequences in HubSpot are rebuilt with Bitrix24 automation rules and workflows. Reports are set up again as well.

Will we keep our WhatsApp number and chat history?

According to Meta documentation, a number connected through the official WhatsApp Business Platform moves to a new provider with no break in messaging: it keeps its display name, quality rating and messaging limit, and templates become usable once they have been copied. Chat history does not move with the number. Whatever the old CRM gives through export or the API goes into client records; the rest stays in the archive.

Bitrix24 · CRM migration in the UAE

Moving to Bitrix24 from Kommo, HubSpot or spreadsheets without stopping sales

Q: How much does a migration to Bitrix24 cost?

It depends on the size of the database, the number of sources and how much history is moved. The quote is fixed in dirhams after the review, before the work starts. Standard Bitrix24 CRM setup starts from AED 10,000, and after launch the system is maintained under support packages from AED 1,250 a month.

A CRM is not replaced in a day, and nobody pauses sales while it happens. While we set up Bitrix24 and move the data, your team keeps working in the old system. The switch happens over a weekend, and on the next working day managers open Bitrix24 with the same clients, deals and the migrated history. We migrate from Kommo (known as amoCRM until October 2022), HubSpot, Excel and Google Sheets

3 sourcescovered below: Kommo and amoCRM, HubSpot, spreadsheets

2 requestsper second is what the Bitrix24 cloud API accepts, so the archive moves in advance

5 yearsto keep business correspondence and invoices under UAE law

from 10,000AED standard CRM setup

What people fear when changing a CRM

Four fears that keep a migration on hold for years. Each one is dealt with by the way the work is sequenced, not by promises

Sales will stop for a week

The old system is switched off, the new one is still empty, and managers run clients from notebooks and personal WhatsApp. That happens when the move is done in a single day, without the two systems running side by side

History will stay in the old CRM

A client writes "as we agreed", and the agreement sits in a system nobody can open any more. Without notes, tasks and attachments the new CRM is just a list of phone numbers

The junk will move too

Duplicates, test deals, clients without a phone number and five spellings of one company. Move the database as it is, and reports in the new system are wrong from day one

Automation will message everyone at once

Greetings and reminders are already set up in the new CRM. Thousands of migrated deals land on their stages, and clients from three years ago get a "Thank you for your enquiry"

What moves and what is rebuilt

Data moves, automation does not: every CRM builds it in its own way, so we rebuild it for Bitrix24

Clients

Contacts and companies with phones, emails, addresses, company details and TRN. Phone numbers are brought to the international format with the country code; duplicates are matched by phone and email and merged before the move

migrated

Deals and pipelines

Open and closed deals with stages, amounts and currency: AED, USD, EUR. The responsible person and the creation date are kept, so reports by date and amount for past years work in the new system too

migrated

Work history

Notes, tasks, comments and whatever the old system exposes about emails and calls go into the client and deal timeline. A manager opens the record and sees what was agreed

migrated through the API

Files and documents

Quotes, contracts, invoices and attachments from the records. Whatever accounting needs also goes into an archive that stays with you

migrated through the API

Fields and lists

Custom fields, lists, tags and sources. Before the move we show how many records have each field filled in, and empty fields are not carried into the new system

migrated selectively

Automation and reports

Salesbot and the Digital Pipeline in Kommo, workflows and sequences in HubSpot, spreadsheet formulas and macros do not migrate. We rebuild them with Bitrix24 automation rules, workflows and reports

rebuilt

Where you are moving from

Every source has its own limits. It is better to know them before the switch date is set

Kommo and amoCRM

Since October 2022 the international version of amoCRM has been called Kommo. A deal there is called a lead, while in Bitrix24 a lead is a separate record that comes before a deal, so we first agree what goes where. The built-in export gives leads, contacts and companies in Excel and CSV. History and files come through the API, at no more than 7 requests per second. A free migration app for amoCRM exists in the Russian Bitrix24 Market but not in the international catalogue, so for accounts in the bitrix24.ae and bitrix24.com zones we migrate through the API

HubSpot

Contacts, companies, deals and tickets export to CSV or XLSX, and the download link lives for 30 days. Client activities such as notes and calls are not part of that export, so they come through the API: 100 to 190 requests per 10 seconds depending on the plan. The contact lifecycle stage (Lead, MQL, SQL, Customer) is mapped to Bitrix24 leads, contacts and deal stages, and tickets go to a separate pipeline or a smart process

Excel and Google Sheets

Bitrix24 imports leads, contacts, companies, deals and products from CSV. When contacts and companies are imported, it checks for duplicates: a matching record can be skipped, replaced or merged. Most of the work happens before the import: splitting clients and deals into separate files, bringing phones, dates and currencies to one format, and turning free-text statuses into pipeline stages

From Pipedrive, Zoho CRM, Salesforce and other systems with an open API we migrate the same way: a data map, a test run and reconciliation

How the move goes

The two systems run side by side until the new one is checked. The old one is not switched off or changed until you confirm that everything is in place

Review and data map

We look at the database and decide what moves, what gets cleaned and what stays in the archive. Records, fields, stages and users are mapped

Setup and test run

We build pipelines, fields and automation rules in Bitrix24, move part of the database and compare records with the source together with your head of sales

Main migration and training

The archive and history move while the team works in the old system and learns the new one. Every record keeps its ID from the old CRM, so a repeat run creates no duplicates

Switch

Over the weekend we bring across the changes from the last few days and switch WhatsApp, telephony, email and forms. On the next working day the team opens Bitrix24

What protects the move

Automation stays quiet. We load the data with the import methods of the Bitrix24 REST API: according to the documentation, automation rules and workflows are not triggered when records are added this way, and the creation date and author are kept
Limits are planned for. Bitrix24 cloud accepts about 2 requests per second, 5 on the Enterprise plan, with up to 50 commands in one batch request. So a large archive moves in advance and outside working hours, and only fresh changes are left for the switch day
Reconciliation by numbers. We compare record counts and deal amounts by pipeline and stage in the old system and in Bitrix24, then open a sample of records together with you
There is a way back. The migration only reads the old system and changes nothing in it. If something does not match at the check, the team keeps working as before and the switch date moves

WhatsApp, telephony and forms on the switch day

Sales stop not because of the database but because of the channels: the number is still tied to the old system, and website enquiries go to a CRM that is switched off. So we switch channels one by one, from a checklist

According to Meta documentation, a WhatsApp number connected through the official WhatsApp Business Platform moves to a new provider with no break in messaging. The number keeps its display name, quality rating, messaging limit and approved high-quality templates, but the templates become usable only once they have been copied. Two-step verification on the number is turned off before the move; this is done on the side of the old connection, so the date is agreed in advance
Chat history does not move with the number, which is also a Meta rule. Whatever the old CRM gives through export or the API goes into client records; the rest stays in the archive
If WhatsApp in the old system ran through a web-version QR code, the move is a good moment to switch to the official API. How we connect WhatsApp
The operator line and the PBX are connected to Bitrix24 in advance, and calls are tested before the switch day. Telephony in the UAE
Website forms, enquiries from portals and ad accounts, and mailboxes are switched from a checklist: every source is checked with a test enquiry

Client data and UAE rules

A client database is personal data. A migration is when you decide where it will live and what is worth moving at all

The personal data protection law (Federal Decree-Law No. 45 of 2021) applies to companies in the UAE and to those abroad that process data of people in the country. Such data may be transferred abroad to countries with an adequate level of protection or under Article 23, for example under a contract that binds the recipient to the same requirements or with the explicit consent of the person
Where the cloud lives. According to Bitrix24, accounts in the bitrix24.ae zone are hosted in AWS data centres in Frankfurt, and bitrix24.com accounts in the United States. If the database has to stay in the UAE, we install the on-premise edition of Bitrix24 on your server in the UAE
Companies in DIFC and ADGM have their own data protection laws, and the federal law does not apply to them
The law does not allow personal data to be kept once the purpose of processing is fulfilled. A migration is the moment to decide whether the new system needs five-year-old leads nobody has worked with
The archive is not deleted, though. Under the Commercial Transactions Law (Federal Decree-Law No. 50 of 2022) copies of business correspondence and invoices are kept for at least 5 years. Corporate tax records are kept for 7 years after the end of the tax period (Federal Decree-Law No. 47 of 2022). Before the old CRM is switched off we make a full export with attachments and hand it over to you

Import, app or API migration

CSV import fits a spreadsheet database or a small CRM, when you need clients and open deals and history does not matter
Migration apps in the Bitrix24 Market: for HubSpot, Pipedrive, Zoho and Salesforce in the international catalogue, for amoCRM only in the Russian one. They move the database as it is, so clean-up and duplicate merging are better done before the app is run
API migration is needed when history and files matter, there are several sources, the database is large or it holds years of accumulated duplicates
Whichever option is used, we start with a test run on part of the database: a field-mapping mistake is cheaper to find on a hundred records than on the whole database

What it costs

The cost of a migration depends on the size of the database, the number of sources and how much history is moved. The quote is fixed in dirhams after the review, before the work starts. Standard Bitrix24 CRM setup starts from AED 10,000, and after launch we maintain the system under support packages from AED 1,250 a month

Experience: from scattered places into one system

Performia is a training and recruitment company. Its sales, course delivery, account management and finance lived in different places and largely ran on manual work. We brought the whole cycle into Bitrix24: two sales lines, training groups, finance with instalments across five legal entities and four currencies, and a BI dashboard for management. The project took 110 working days; we trained the team by role and stayed with the launch for a month. The project ran in Moscow; for a company in the UAE the order of work is the same. Read the case

This is not legal or tax advice. The rules come from Federal Decree-Law No. 45 of 2021 on the Protection of Personal Data (Articles 2, 5, 22 and 23), Federal Decree-Law No. 50 of 2022 on Commercial Transactions (Article 29) and Federal Decree-Law No. 47 of 2022 on the Taxation of Corporations and Businesses (Article 56). Cloud hosting locations come from the Bitrix24 GDPR page, and system limits and capabilities from Bitrix24, Kommo, amoCRM, HubSpot and Meta documentation as of October 2026. Ask your lawyer what to keep, for how long and on what basis data may leave the country