Brain At Work

What Brain At Work does

Brain At Work is a German web agency founded in 1997 and headquartered in Leutkirch im Allgäu, operating as a full-service digital provider for small and medium-sized businesses. The firm serves tradespeople (Handwerker), medical practices, corporate groups, and — most recently — associations across Southern Germany (Allgäu, Oberschwaben, Bodensee) with adjacent reach into Austria and Switzerland, and maintains a team of 11-50 employees under managing directors Thomas Autenrieth and Thomas Fiener.

The company's core product is "bee.tools," a proprietary content management system the firm has developed and refined over more than 20 years. The platform underpins website creation, webshop functionality, SEO infrastructure, and online marketing, with an explicit positioning around GDPR compliance and privacy-by-design hosting. 2024 product releases include a QR-Code-Manager, an "Unternehmenserkennung" company-listing product featuring an AI chat interface, an association-oriented social web system ("Vereins-Social-Web-System"), and an automated translation workflow built on third-party AI translation services.

Brain At Work generates revenue through three streams: one-time project fees for website builds (€3,762-€21,912+ per project), recurring maintenance and subscription contracts (e.g., Unternehmenserkennung at €30/month), and value-added services such as AI training workshops. The firm claims 10+ year average customer retention and a 4.9/5 Google rating across 37 reviews. The business is founder-owned with no disclosed external funding, positioning it as a long-tenured, regionally focused, productized agency rather than a venture-backed scale-up.

Name

Brain At Work

Legal name

brain at work GmbH

Website

https://brain-at-work.de

Company type

Private

Founded year

1997

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Brain At Work is a German web agency offering website creation, webshops, SEO, and online marketing via its proprietary bee.tools CMS, serving tradespeople, SMEs, medical practices, and associations primarily across Southern Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Leutkirch Im Allgäu

HQ country

Germany

HQ region

Europe

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Website Creation Services: One-time project fees for website creation, including corporate websites, KMU websites, career websites, multilingual websites, and accessible websites. Prices range from 3,762 EUR for small websites to 21,912+ EUR for larger websites with content creation.
2. Webshop Creation Services: One-time fees for online shop creation, including B2B shops, end-customer shops, or combined solutions. Includes special programming and ERP/Warenwirtschaft integrations.
3. Recurring Services (Unternehmenserkennung): Monthly subscription service for company recognition (30 EUR plus VAT per month) with unlimited detections. No ongoing contracts required but maintenance contracts available if needed.
4. Website Maintenance and Support: Prepaid hour packages with discounts for ongoing support, SEO services, and additional special programming. Time does not expire and can be used for any service.
5. Hosting Provider Costs: Third-party costs passed to customers for webspace hosting (approx. 8 EUR/month depending on provider), not collected by brain at work.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

Brain At Work is a German web agency that designs, develops, and maintains websites, online shops, and SEO strategies for companies and associations. Its core offering is built around its proprietary bee.tools CMS (developed in-house for 20+ years), delivering corporate websites, B2B/B2C webshops with ERP integrations, multilingual sites, local SEO, and digital marketing solutions. Services are sold as fixed-price projects (3,762 EUR to 21,912+ EUR), subscriptions, or prepaid hour packages with 5-minute billing.

Product overview

Brain At Work is a full-service web agency offering a comprehensive portfolio of digital services centered around their proprietary bee.tools CMS platform. The core offerings include website creation (covering career sites, fixed-price options, corporate sites, SME sites, multilingual sites, and specialized sites for tradespeople and medical practices), online shop creation (B2B and B2C), and SEO services (local and technical). These are supplemented by modular add-ons including KI-Schulung (AI training), QR-Code-Manager (free from version 23), Unternehmenserkennung (company recognition with AI capabilities), barrierefreie Webseiten (accessibility compliance), and a new Open Source social web system for associations. The bee.tools CMS serves as the foundational platform providing unlimited pages, languages, editors, and built-in features like success tracking without external analytics. Pricing for small business websites starts at 3,762 EUR, with billing on a 5-minute unit basis using prepaid hour packages.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• bee.tools: Proprietary Content Management System and Shop System developed by brain at work. Features include full update capability, SEO optimization, integrated success control, cookie-free operation (GDPR compliant), unlimited pages, images, videos, downloads, languages, and editors.

Products and services

• Website Creation Services Professional website creation services for companies and associations, covering strategy, individual design, implementation, content integration, special programming, QA, and online launch. Includes corporate websites, career sites, fixed-price sites, SME sites, multilingual sites, and vertical-specialized sites for tradespeople and medical practices. Fixed-price projects range from 3,762 EUR (small) to 21,912+ EUR (large).
• Online Shop Creation Services Complete online shop creation services from consultation through design to implementation. Supports B2B shops, end-customer shops, or combined approaches, and includes special programming and ERP/inventory system integrations. Built on the proprietary bee.tools platform.
• SEO Services Search engine optimization services including local SEO, technical SEO, content SEO, and SEO monitoring with placement checks and reporting. Targets top Google rankings without paid advertising, with a claimed near-100% fulfillment of technical SEO requirements compared to WordPress or other systems.
• bee.tools CMS Platform Proprietary content management and shop system developed in Germany by brain at work. Fully update-capable without reinstallation, search engine optimized, integrated success control without external analytics tools, cookie-free and 100% GDPR-compliant. Server-independent, supports unlimited pages, languages, and editors.
• AI Training Services (KI-Schulung) Training services teaching clients how to use AI tools and craft effective prompts for online marketing activities. Sessions run approximately 1.5 hours with up to 5 participants per session.
• Company Recognition Service (Unternehmenserkennung) Monthly subscription service (30 EUR plus VAT) that identifies company visits on customer websites and webshops. Includes GDPR-valid detection, AI chat function for contact-strategy creation, and automated email reports. No contract lock-in and unlimited detections.
• Association Social Web System (Vereins-Social-Web-System) Fully open-source social web system for associations (Vereine) and clubs. Features collaborative website and archive management, event/tour/course planning and reports, public and internal news, and member communication.
• Website Accessibility Services (Barrierefreie Webseiten) Accessibility services for websites and webshops, including pain-point testing, optimization of websites/shops, and coaching for editors. Supports compliance with the German Barrierefreiheitsstärkungsgesetz (BFSG) and WCAG guidelines.

Quantifiable outcome

• Average customer retention of over 10 years
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers24 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles6 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration2 records

AI capability3 records

Feature6 records

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Others

• Hetzner Online: German hosting and infrastructure provider used by agencies and SMBs for web hosting. Adjacent infrastructure provider rather than a direct competitor — comparable as part of the German web services ecosystem supporting similar customer segments.

Broad incumbents

• GoDaddy: Global web services platform offering domains, hosting, website builders, and marketing tools for small businesses. Comparable SMB web-presence focus but as a broad incumbent rather than a specialized regional agency.
• Wix: Global website builder platform serving millions of SMBs including German market. Overlapping target customer (small businesses needing websites) but as a much broader, general-purpose incumbent rather than a regional German agency.
• Squarespace: Global website and commerce platform with design-led positioning. Overlaps in website creation for SMBs and creative professionals but operates at significantly larger scale and broader geographic reach.

Direct peers

• Mittwald: German hosting provider specializing in serving web agencies and CMS-driven websites (especially WordPress and Typo3). Comparable German agency ecosystem focus and Made-in-Germany positioning.
• Webflow: Modern visual website building platform used by agencies and SMBs. Comparable positioning as a website creation ecosystem with CMS capabilities, though operating as a global SaaS platform rather than a regional agency.
• 1&1 IONOS: Major German web hosting and website builder serving SMBs across Germany with domain, hosting, and website creation services. Directly comparable target market (German SMEs/Handwerker) and overlapping service portfolio including websites, shops, and online marketing.
• Strato: Large German web hosting and online services provider (part of United Internet) offering websites, shops, and marketing tools for SMBs. Comparable German SMB focus and bundled web presence offerings.
• Jimdo: German-headquartered DIY website builder specifically targeting small businesses, freelancers, and tradespeople. Overlapping customer base with Brain At Work's Handwerker and KMU segments, though operating via self-service rather than full-service agency model.

Regional players

• SiteGround: Web hosting provider with strong European presence and CMS-optimized hosting (WordPress, WooCommerce). Comparable SMB web infrastructure focus but primarily serves non-German-speaking markets, making it a regional rather than direct competitor.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookde-de.facebook.com/brainatworkgmbh
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/brain-at-work-gmbh

Compliance2 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Brain At Work