We just got our first theme approved on the HubSpot Template Marketplace. It's called Summit, it's free, and it's the same base theme we've been starting client sites from for a while now.
We'd published a few standalone modules before (baby steps), but a full theme is a different animal. Here's what my team and I learned along the way: how we found the time, what we put in, what tripped us up, and what we'd do differently. If you're thinking about submitting your own theme, I hope it saves you a few headaches.
We'd wanted to build a marketplace theme for years. Like most agencies, we'd get busy, and client work always won.
What finally worked was treating it like a client project. We set realistic deadlines, blocked out time when we knew we'd have it, and delegated pieces to the team. Whenever there was a gap in client work, Summit became the downtime priority. Instead of dreading the gaps, the team started looking forward to them.
We didn't start from a blank page. We picked modules based on three things:
The result is 13 page templates, 20 modules and 10 drag-and-drop sections.
We went back and forth on how much design and content to include, and how much to give away. We landed on a cleaner design and flexible modules, and skipped anything complex.
Part of that was practical. Summit is free, and every complex module is something we'd have to maintain. Simple turned out to have another upside, too. I think it made the review process smoother.
Before submitting, we used Summit as the base for a couple of client sites. Nothing shows you what's missing like building something real. Every rough edge we hit became a fix before launch.
If you don't have client projects to test on, install it in a test or sandbox account and build a few pages from scratch.
I kept one running list, split into three buckets:
That list kept us honest about what actually had to ship, and it gave us a ready-made roadmap the day we launched.
I also experimented with applying brand changes and building pages using the Claude connector together with the HubSpot CLI. It worked really well, and I'll be showing how in an upcoming webinar.
I used Claude to scan our repo against HubSpot's marketplace requirements. It's a huge time saver, with one big caveat: make it read the actual documentation, and read it yourself too.
I was chomping at the bit to get this out and skipped that step (yes, I know). Without the real docs in front of it, the AI filled the gaps with confident guesses:
Once it was working from the real requirements pages, the advice got much better. Treat AI like a fast junior teammate: great for the first pass, and someone needs to check its work.
HubSpot's CLI has a marketplace-validate command, and you should run it often. But "no errors" doesn't mean you're ready:
A few requirements caught us by surprise:
Our theme started life as "Vaulted Summit". An innocent choice, and a really annoying one to undo.
When we renamed the theme folder, we found out that switching a page's template doesn't repoint the modules already on it. Every demo page kept pointing at the old theme, so we had to rebuild the whole demo site from scratch.
The Claude connector for HubSpot saved me a lot of the pain. With the base module content and a map of how each page was laid out, it rebuilt the pages for me. It was still a detour I'd rather not repeat.
It's also worth knowing that HubSpot doesn't allow your company name in the listing name either. Pick a theme name that stands on its own from day one.
I'd braced for a long list of fixes. We got two:
There was one twist. The reviewer suggested renaming them to plain "Button" and "Form", but the validator rejects any label that matches one of HubSpot's own default modules. We went with "Styled Button" and "Form with Heading" and explained why in our reply.
After that, resubmitting and publishing was easy. Keeping the theme simple really did seem to make the review simpler.
We redid our screenshots several times. Every design tweak meant another round. Save yourself the trouble and capture everything right before you submit. (I still haven't recorded our walkthrough video, because I didn't want to record it twice.)
When you do capture them, watch for these:
Have a few people ready to download the theme as soon as it's live, try it, and give you honest feedback.
And don't leave promotion until the end. Plan these alongside the build:
Building Summit was a great exercise in figuring out what makes a really good starter theme: what to include, what to leave out, and what makes it easy for someone else to pick up. We're already working through our v1.1 list, and we're excited to build more of these.
If you want to try it, Summit is free on the HubSpot Template Marketplace. And if you've been through the review process yourself, I'd love to hear what they flagged for you.