Kriftel is also commonly known as "Fruit Orchard of the Anterior Taunus" (Obstgarten des Vordertaunus), because of the fields around it which are mainly used for producing strawberries.

In July AD 754, the track which carried the dead Saint Boniface rested in the village over night.

From 1945 up until the oil crisis in 1973, Kriftel experienced a population explosion due to massive immigration from urban sprawl and workers of the Hoechst-AG, who were offered cheap land to build their housing units.

During the mid-1970s, Kriftel fought for independence because Hofheim, the capital of the Main-Taunus district, wanted it to belong to it.

Kriftel lies at the federal motorway A 66 and the regional train line S 2 (From Niedernhausen over Frankfurt to Dietzenbach).