Set a Default Dashboard When Users Sign In to HubSpot

Quick Answer

HubSpot gives you two different "default dashboard" controls, and the one you want depends on what "land on" means. To change the page a user sees right after signing in, go to the profile picture → Profile & Preferences → Profile tab → Defaults section, and pick a default page from the dropdown — this is per-user and cannot be forced on others. To choose which dashboard opens inside the dashboards area, go to Reports → Dashboards → Manage dashboards, hover the dashboard, and use Actions → Set as default. There is no admin switch that assigns one landing page to every user in the portal — team-wide consistency comes from onboarding and dashboard design, which this guide covers, along with the rollout approach Vantage Point uses in HubSpot onboarding engagements.

Key Takeaways (TL;DR)

Per-user landing page: Profile & Preferences → Profile tab → Defaults → default page dropdown. Applies only to the user who sets it.
Default dashboard: Reports → Dashboards → Manage dashboards → Actions → Set as default.
No global enforcement: admins cannot push a sign-in landing page to all users; it is a per-user preference.
Team workaround: role-based dashboards plus a five-minute onboarding step where each user sets their own default.
Bottom line: two settings, thirty seconds each — the real work is designing dashboards worth landing on.

During CRM onboarding, this request comes up constantly: "When our team signs in, we want them looking at this dashboard — their pipeline, their queue, their numbers — not a generic home screen." It is a good instinct. The first screen a user sees sets what they pay attention to, and a role-relevant dashboard is one of the cheapest adoption wins available. HubSpot supports it — just not the way most admins expect.

How Do You Set the Page You See When You Sign In?

The sign-in landing page is a per-user preference, not an account setting:

Click your profile picture in the top-right corner of HubSpot, then choose Profile & Preferences.
On the Profile tab, find the Defaults section.
Use the dropdown to select your default page — the area of HubSpot you land in after login — and save.

HubSpot's documentation is explicit that this applies only to you. Each user picks their own landing page, which is why "set it once for the whole company" is not a button you will find.

How Do You Set a Dashboard as the Default in HubSpot?

The second control decides which dashboard is presented first inside the reporting area:

Open Reports in the left sidebar, then Dashboards.
Click Manage dashboards.
Hover over the dashboard you want, open its Actions dropdown, and choose Set as default.
Confirm in the dialog.

Pair the two settings and the experience is close to what stakeholders imagine: the user lands in the reporting area (their chosen default page), and the first dashboard they see is the default one. What you cannot do is reach into another user's profile and set either value for them.

Can an Admin Force the Same Landing Page for Everyone?

No — and the community threads asking for a global default home page make clear this has been a standing request. The practical consequences:

Onboarding is your enforcement mechanism. Add "set your default page and favorite your team dashboard" as an explicit step in every new user's first-day checklist. It takes under a minute per user and is the only reliable route to consistency.
Permissions still apply. A dashboard only helps if the user can view it — check dashboard sharing settings before you tell a team to land on it, or the new default is an error or an empty screen.
Defaults drift. Users change their own preferences, dashboards get replaced, and the dashboard you meant as the team's front door can be quietly retired. Re-verify the set-as-default dashboard whenever you reorganize reporting.

How Should You Design Dashboards People Land On?

Since you cannot mandate the landing page, make the intended one obviously worth using:

Build one dashboard per role, not per person. A sales-rep dashboard (my open deals, my tasks, my activity this week), a manager dashboard (team pipeline, aging, conversion), and a leadership dashboard (revenue, forecast, service health) cover most portals. Role-based design keeps the count low enough that "set yours to the rep dashboard" is a coherent instruction.
Name dashboards for the role, not the author. "Sales Rep — Daily View" gets adopted; "Jenn's Pipeline v2 FINAL" does not.
Lead with action, not vanity. The top row of a landing dashboard should answer "what do I do today" — tasks due, stale deals, unworked leads — with KPI charts below. A dashboard that only reports the past gets visited once.
Use filters over clones. Dashboard-level filters (owner, team, date range) let one dashboard serve a whole role instead of maintaining near-identical copies that drift apart.
Retire ruthlessly. Every abandoned dashboard is a wrong turn for the next new hire. Quarterly, archive anything with no viewers.

How Vantage Point Helps

Vantage Point builds role-based HubSpot dashboards, reporting architecture, and the onboarding checklists that make defaults stick as part of HubSpot implementation and optimization engagements. If your portal has years of dashboard sprawl or a team that never quite adopted reporting, our managed services team can run the cleanup and the rollout. Senior consultants only — no junior handoffs; the experts you meet are the experts who deliver.

Want Your Team Living in the Right Dashboard?

A working session is usually enough to design role-based dashboards, clean up the sprawl, and write the onboarding steps that make them the default in practice. Contact Vantage Point to schedule one.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I set a default sign-in page for all HubSpot users at once?

No. The default page is a per-user setting found under Profile & Preferences → Profile tab → Defaults, and HubSpot's documentation notes it applies only to the user who sets it. Admins cannot push a global landing page; the standard practice is to make it a step in your onboarding checklist.

How do I change which dashboard opens first in HubSpot?

Go to Reports → Dashboards → Manage dashboards, hover the dashboard, open its Actions dropdown, and choose Set as default, then confirm. That dashboard becomes the one presented first in the dashboards area.

What is the difference between the default page and the default dashboard?

The default page controls which area of HubSpot you land in after signing in — a per-user profile preference. The default dashboard controls which specific dashboard appears first within the dashboards tool. Setting both gives you the full "sign in and see my numbers" experience.

Why does a teammate see an error or empty screen on the team dashboard?

Almost always a permissions issue: the dashboard was not shared with them or their team. Check the dashboard's sharing and access settings before assigning it as anyone's landing view — defaults cannot override visibility.

Can users land on a specific contact, company, or record page instead?

The default-page preference lets users choose the HubSpot area they land in; deep-linking into a specific record is what bookmarks and the mobile app recents are for. In practice, teams that ask for a record-level landing usually want a role-based dashboard with filtered record tables, which the default page plus default dashboard combination handles.

How do we keep dashboard defaults from drifting over time?

Assign an owner to the reporting area, review dashboards quarterly, and retire unused ones. Re-check the set-as-default dashboard after any reporting reorganization, and re-run the onboarding step when roles change. Default drift is a governance issue, not a settings issue.

Sources

Vantage Point is a boutique CRM consulting firm helping businesses transform with Salesforce, HubSpot, and AI. Learn more at vantagepoint.io.