Understand ways to group records in HubSpot

Within HubSpot, depending on your goal, there are multiple ways to group records. In this article, learn the differences between saved views, active segments, and static segments, including use cases for when to use each.

Views

Views can be used with all objects or assets that have an index page. This includes all standard objects (contacts, companies, deals, and tickets), objects that you can activate from the object library, activities (e.g., calls, notes), commerce objects (e.g., products, subscriptions, invoices), and assets within tools (e.g., workflows, marketing emails).

With views, you can quickly view a group of an object's records based on that object's property values. You can save views to revisit the same group of records later or share them with teammates.

You should create saved views if you only need to filter based on properties for that object, or if you don't need to use the group in other tools like marketing emails or campaigns. For example, to create a group of contacts you have a task to call, you can use a view. But if you want to create a group of contacts to send a marketing email, you should create a segment instead.

Learn how to filter records on an index page and how to save views.

Segments

Segments (previously called lists) can be used with fewer objects, but have additional filtering options compared to views. In addition to their own property values, segments allow you to segment your records with other criteria, such as another object's property values, page views, form submissions, and email interactions.

There are two types of segments:

• Active segments: automatically update, so records will join the segment whenever they meet the filter criteria and leave the segment when they no longer meet the criteria. For example, you can use an active segment when you want to send multiple email campaigns to a particular subset of subscribed contacts, and you want the segment to be updated with new contacts who meet the criteria over time.
• Static segments: do not update as new records meet or existing records no longer meet the criteria. They are a snapshot of records that meet a certain set of requirements when the segment was created and saved. A static segment can be helpful to gain an understanding of records that met a certain criteria on a particular date, for example, contacts collected from a trade show or a webinar. Records can also be manually added and removed from static segments.

Segments can be used in other HubSpot tools, such as marketing emails, workflows, custom reports, ads audiences, and customer satisfaction surveys. This means if your goal is to use the group of records in any of these tools, you should create a segment rather than a view.

Learn how to create a segment and how to determine filter criteria for the segment.