Crafton is named after James S. Craft, a frontier attorney who was granted land near the "forks of the Ohio" in present-day Oakland. The sale of this land part financed purchases of land in the Chartiers valley. Charles Craft, son of James, divided the land into lots on the death of his father and submitted it to the Allegheny County Courthouse as Crafton. Following a period of building, the borough was incorporated on January 8, 1892, with Charles as the first burgess.

Crafton was linked to downtown Pittsburgh by trolley in 1896. The service ended when the Fort Pitt Bridge was built without trolley tracks.

Crafton has six land borders, including Ingram to the north and the Pittsburgh neighborhoods of Crafton Heights to the northeast, Westwood to the east, Oakwood and East Carnegie to the south, and Fairywood to the northwest. Across Chartiers Creek, Crafton runs adjacent with Thornburg to the west and Rosslyn Farms to the southwest.

The population was 6,099 at the 2020 census.