DomainFactory Homepage-Baukasten

What it is

The Homepage-Baukasten (homepage builder) is the website and online shop builder offered by DomainFactory, a domain and hosting provider whose site is in German. It is meant for small businesses, clubs, creatives and individuals who want a website, and optionally a shop, without programming: the page promises building "Ohne Expertenwissen und Vorkenntnisse" (without expert knowledge or prior experience) by drag and drop. The builder is one product among domains, web hosting, email, WordPress hosting and security services on df.eu. The company's home page says it has been "Ihr digitaler Partner" (your digital partner) for 25 years and lists 1,3+ million managed domains and 220.000+ customers, which are the company's own figures. The builder page says the Homepage-Baukasten is hosted in the USA and that hosting is included in the package.

What you build and how

You start from a design template. The builder page lists examples named Vacation, Product, Bakery, Exhibition, Academic Tutor, Blank One Page, Wedding, Winery Landing Page, Consultant Landing Page, Musician, Webinar Landing Page and Jane Photography, with a "Mehr anzeigen" (show more) toggle for the rest. The page says there is a fitting design whether you want to present a cafe, show large-format photography, write a blog or introduce a club, and all templates are responsive for desktop, tablet and smartphone.

Editing is described as simple. The templates give you a feel for the layout, and then "mit wenigen Mouse-Klicks fügen Sie dann intuitiv Farben, Bilder und Schriften ein und ergänzen Ihren Text" (with a few mouse clicks you add colors, images and fonts and fill in your text). You can change the background of the whole site or one section, drag in your own images or pick from a free gallery of stock photos, and edit images in the editor: crop, add filters, text or a frame. Images can be shown in a carousel or a gallery.

AI assistant. The builder now carries a "KI-Assistent" (AI assistant) that, according to the page, helps with texts, images, SEO and the creation of new pages or sections, "Vom ersten Entwurf bis zur Optimierung" (from the first draft to optimization). The plan table lists it in both paid packages.

Personalized content. You can show different visitors different content, depending on the time of the visit, the visitor's location, the device, how often they have visited, or the URL they arrived from. The page's examples are a newsletter for first-time visitors, an out-of-hours message on the contact page, or a coupon for visitors in your city.

Business extras. A click-to-call button for phone visitors, online appointment booking in cooperation with vCita, a restaurant menu you import from your old site, a CSV file or type in, a contact form, vouchers redeemable in your shop or premises, opening hours, and Google Maps with one or several locations marked. For specialists, a pro function lets you use HTML, CSS or JavaScript on a page, and the Business plan adds a developer mode for HTML and CSS.

Online shop. The shop is the second half of the product and the reason it also sits in the ecommerce category. The page says the shop templates let "andere Menschen Ihre Produkte und Dienstleitungen online kaufen" (other people buy your products and services online). The shop shows stock levels and discounts against the standard price, sets minimum or maximum order values, emails you when an item runs low, sells vouchers and digital goods such as e-books, and lets you customize the emails it sends, such as the order confirmation. You choose from over 30 payment providers, PayPal among them, and a carrier such as UPS or FedEx with options like standard and express, entering shipping costs yourself or having them calculated by weight. The shop automatically uses the same colors and fonts as your website. The FAQ says an existing product database can be imported in the formats LiteCommerce v2.x+, X-Cart v4.1+ and csv through the article management screen.

Practical rules from the FAQ. One builder holds one website, but your plan can hold several builders. You can connect more than one domain as long as one is set as the main domain, which the builder uses internally for widgets and modules. The Termly Pro app can be installed free from "Meine Apps" in the editor to generate legal texts from a question catalog and design a cookie consent banner; the page warns that you stay responsible for what you publish and should check the texts. Static data sits on a global content delivery network so the site loads quickly from any country.

The evidence

The plan table has three columns. Free costs 0,00 euros, offers "90 Tage kostenlos testen" (90 days free testing) with all features available, and you pay only when you publish ("Erst bei Veröffentlichung bezahlen"). Basic, "Für einfache Websites", is 6,99 euros a month. Business, marked as the recommendation and including developer mode, is shown as an offer at 9,99 euros a month, later 11,99 euros. Both paid plans include a free domain for the first year (.de, .com, .net, .org, .at or .eu), the AI assistant, an SSL certificate, web statistics (limited on Basic), a 10 GB email mailbox for the first contract term of up to a year, a data protection and compliance app, and no setup fee. Business adds data backup, device-dependent content and the HTML and CSS developer mode. The table names the data center as USA for both.

The footnote says the billing period is 1 month with automatic renewal and a notice period of 1 month, that all amounts include statutory VAT, and that after a promotion the regular package price applies (Basic 6,99 euros, Business 11.99 euros a month). The page adds that the company "erheben wir auf alle Pakete keine Einrichtungsgebühr" (charges no setup fee on any package) and that hosting of the website and the shop is in the monthly price. The company's home page lists a "60 Tage Geld-zurück-Garantie" (60-day money-back guarantee) and "87% geben uns 5 Sterne bei Trustpilot" (87% give us 5 stars on Trustpilot).

Support during building is described as free, with a phone line on the builder page, and the home page promises "Experten-Support aus Deutschland" (expert support from Germany). Security is an add-on: the builder page promotes Sucuri Website Security, with help within 30 minutes in an acute hacking case, and an "Essential" starter package at 0,99 euros for the first month.

Who it suits

This builder suits a small business, club or freelancer in a German-speaking market who wants site, shop, domain, email and hosting under one provider with plain monthly pricing. A bakery, restaurant, photographer or consultant can pick a matching template, take bookings and sell vouchers without a developer, and a shop with a product list in csv or an older shop system can import it rather than retype it. The 90-day free period lets you build the whole site before paying.

The caveats are about scope. One builder means one website, and the product is a template builder with apps and a shop rather than a platform for custom data or automation. Basic limits web statistics and leaves out backup and developer mode, so most businesses will look at Business. The site is in German, and the plan table names the USA as the data center location for both paid plans.