This is a bit of a difficult article to write. Quite ambitious in some ways.

Let’s start.

Switzerland is often characterised as a “good place to make money as an employee at the cost of a boring city life”.

Which is mostly correct.

But: it’s also underrated for remote workers.

In short, that’s because the system works well:

Having said that, assuming you’re now curious about moving to Switzerland as a remote worker / online business owner…

Which canton, city and neighbourhood?

This will be the topic of today’s article.

I’m going to share the research I’ve been doing after going remote myself, and the insights I’ve gathered so far.

As you’ll see, for a lot of the research, I’ve used my own AI software Remote Compass - which you should check out if you’re looking for a great tool to jumpstart or deepen your relocation and international setup research.

Here’s a few testimonials from people who’ve used it:

(spoiler: can’t have all these things in just one place)

Close to airport, decent train connections.

We try…

Water in summer, mountains in winter, hiking trails in autumn/spring.

Cafes, restaurants, social life, activities.

Beauty, architecture, local culture, how people live and are, etc. Vibes.

Either English or Italian. Else, German > French. Cause I speak English, I’m Italian native, I speak some German, but unfortunately don’t speak French (although wouldn’t mind to learn it a bit).

Including health insurance costs.

What if I’m busy wrapping up an article like this, gf had a harsh day at work, and we got no easy to cook dinner at home?

Some yummy delivered food can save the day. Uh!

Maybe other things too that I’m forgetting right now.

Not pennies.

Context/caveat:

Healthcare-wise, Lugano is not the best deal, considering that the best Swiss hospitals and professionals are in Zurich, Bern and Basel.

That said, I have had good experience with healthcare providers in Lugano (got a specialist help me up with my TMJ). I think they can be more empathetic than “germanic” healthcare providers in Zurich etc.

In general: most healthcare specialists in Lugano are Italian. And Italian healthcare is generally good, and less “transactional” than in Switzerland (which works a bit like the US).

All in all, the difference in absolute cost is not huge: 100-200 CHF per months.

Food is Switzerland can be good/OK, but it can also be VERY BAD.

So you want to be careful not to end up in a spot where everything outside of your house is overpriced and disgusting.

Bern does quite well, food wise. Especially for its size.

The below site (raisin.digital) gathers restaurants, bars and shops that serve natural wine. In the food industry, from my experience, there’s often a somewhat high correlation between quality of menu and modern/tasty/organic wine list.

In general, quite often, restaurants and bars on Raisin have good food too (also from my experience trying them out).

It tells only part of the story (there’s plenty of good food places that don’t serve natural wine / aren’t featured here), but it’s one of the signals.

Bern has a lot of places for its size: 15.

Consider that Basel, a “modern and trendy” city in Switzerland, only has 3.

Zurich something like 40, Lugano around 4.

And the traditional restaurants and coffee shops options are also not bad.

(for Switzerland)

Airport connection worse than Zurich but doable:

Not the worst not the best

Not top-tier for an expat (Zurich, Basel and Geneva probably do better here).

As you’ve seen already from the above health insurance costs, Bern isn’t one of these “low tax cantons”.

But it’s also not too bad. It’s still Switzerland.

General overview (from remotecompass.ai):

Even smaller, even cuter, even better waters.

Even closer to the mountains. Can literally just take a lift from the city and go ski on lunch break.

One of the most beautiful (and also touristy) places in Switzerland.

From Remote Compass (old UI):

It’s here:

Basically in Interlaken:

Just a bit smaller, but also closer to Zug (interesting for business).

Maybe a bit better though - Bern is a bit more “communist” from what I’ve heard, and some people talk good about Luzern:

I’m not too excited about this:

It’s not bad per se. Especially for Zurich city (and Zug). But trains pass only every half an hour, and it’s still 40m or 50m depending on the train.

For comparison, towns in Zurich area (nearby Zurich) will be 20m/30m train rides, and be more frequent.

Otherwise it would be amazing. And still not bad all in all tbh.

Probably a very good option.

English is limited though I think, if you want to make friends (it’s a less big and international city than others here on this article). Could be good if you want to learn Swiss German and integrate for real.

Substantially less nice than Bern/Thun/Luzern.

One advantage is the local airport for EU flights.

Another pro is proximity to day trips in France (balanced by the con of being more far from Italy/Milan).

Could be better.

It’s not just that the water options are less nice, but it’s also more far from mountains.

People say among the best in Switzerland.

In general, people living there tend to like it:

One advantage is France Alsace (great for wineyards and cute small towns) and Germany’s black forests.

But, for me, it would feel a bit like a compromise.

Paying Switzerland high costs is already a compromise.

If I don’t get to have top Swiss nature at my fingertips, then it starts to feel less like a good deal.

I have a hybrid setup.

I’m OK sacrificing some social / city life (where Basel does well, relatively speaking for Switzerland, but still quite bad internationally - since this is not where Switzerland shines), if I get top Swiss stuff (infra, nature etc).

And then leave for spring, which kinda sucks IMO in CH, to be in bustling cities like Warsaw. And then spend the early summer in the mediterranean (when it’s still fresh and there aren’t too many tourists.

If I get bored during my Swiss stays, that’s when I do weekend trips in Europe or when I could do weekly trips abroad too.

It’s not that Lugano is a bad choice.

But I’m not too convinced on it yet.

Maybe an option for later on in life.

In a way it’s a bit like stepping out of Switzerland: if business scales, I’d have to relocate it there from Zug and go from 11.8% corporate tax rate to 19%, while having a bit worse infra than German-Switzerland, and while being in a small town still all in all quite far from Milan. Maybe a retirement option.

Life would switch to Italian. Pros and cons but at this time more a con than a pro.

Generally, probably better here than elsewhere in Switzerland.

A bit hard to quantify.

But in general people are less robotic in Lugano.

Also, it’s a small city but there’s few cute places to go out to, and you can easily reach all of them basically by foot if you live in the centre.

That’s quite appealing!

Can also rely on Milan for shopping, specialised groceries, events, concerts and more.

But, as of now, I prefer to hang out in other big cities than in Milano.

And therefore I’m not too sold on it yet.

So, if I don’t find a good flat elsewhere, I could end up here still.

It’s where I’m currently based, and where I’ve lived for more than 5 years (1 in 2018/2019 and 4.5 since 2021).

I’m currently in a very good studio flat in the city. But I’ve been trying to get a larger one for some time now, and since I have to move anyway, I’m also considering other cities.

Some Swiss cities, as mentioned above, are more chill and have better housing markets.

Not sure if worth it for remote workers.

You pay a premium, it gets crowded, plenty of corporate drones with a backpack going back and forth in the little Zurich streets all the time (it got genuinely overcrowded in recent years - while still being deserted after 10PM on weekdays, though xD), places to go out are very expensive.

I think it’s a pass for me.

I enjoyed it as a 20-something 200k a year software engineer, dating, going out, socialising, doing some office days etc.

But now I don’t see the point.

Probably you won’t be living in Zurich city also, mainly for tax reasons (I will expand on this in a deep-dive in the future).

And work remotely, then it doesn’t make sense unless you’re OK living in a studio / want to go out almost daily etc.

There’s a lot of interesting ones. Let’s go one by one.

I’ve spent some time here.

Nature is not bad: there’s very nice forests that you can easily reach at walking distance. Half of the pics here are in Schlieren forests. There’s also farms etc (this you have relatively often in Zurich area / Switzerland, even around Winterthur for example).

But there’s not much to do there, you’ll have to take a train for everything.

On the other hand, train to Zurich central station is like 10 minutes, which is great.

Prices aren’t that low at this point also, but better than Zurich city.

It’s a good option, all in all.

It seems boring but it’s actually a bit of a vibe (AGAIN: as always, relatively to Switzerland - one of the most boring countries in the world)

(we’ll discuss these other suburbs we’re comparing Winterthur with in detail later on in the article)

When with my gf we went there to check out a flat on a Saturday, the vibes were very good: large pedestrian area (I think one of the largest in all Switzerland), plenty of people chilling / brunching, more cool-looking / Berlin-like people than Zurich.

My gf in particular, who doesn’t like Zurich a lot, liked Winterthur very much.

Winterthur you lose this “healthy luxury” (as AI likes to call it lol) lifestyle: direct access to nature (water in particular), which IMO is one of the main advantages of Switzerland:

Not bad in Winterthur.

20-25m to Zurich HB, frequent trains.

I wouldn’t be against living in Winterthur if I were to find a good flat there.

Although probably not my nr.1 option.

Great for lake/nature and Zurich connection.

Zurich airport is ok, below it says direct but that’s just with a 30m bus (good, but personally I prefer trains/trams, especially if I have luggages etc).

You can reach the airport with tram+train if you do a hop in Oerlikon (<30m total distance).

You can bike to Greifensee nearby, which is a nice feature (that Opfikon doesn’t have).

Also an option: a bit of a spin on the below Silver Coast option: sacrifice lake access, get closer to Zurich and forest, a bit more complicated access to Zurich airport, a bit more affordable.

Technically Kilchberg is also silver coast but I wouldn’t live there. You pay Zurich housing prices and the lake access is also not that impressive. But not a bad area if you wanna be by the lake and be close to Zurich (although at that point I’d much rather live in gold coast like in Küsnacht).

Just want to add that the “restaurants in Horgen” are VERY mid and expensive. But at least Zurich is not far.

One advantage of going to Zurich from Silver Coast than nearby cities like Winterthur, is that trains have many stops in the city, and don’t need to go to Zurich central station and then, from there, go to where you want to go in the city.

For instance, most of the places I go out to are in Wiedikon (where most restaurants, bakeries, bars etc are), and trains from Silver Coast usually have a Wiedikon stop (which cuts a 20m commute if you need to hop from Zurich HB, to go to a restaurant in Wiedikon area).

There’s 2 Horgen station: one is close to lake, the other close to Zug (I prefer this second one cause anyway it’s 15m walk to lake, flat).

(in case you’re making much more than 100k per year, and it doesn’t make sense to pay yourself all profits as salary and prefer to leave them in the company to reinvest from there. Otherwise you can just pay yourself all profits through salary at single digit tax rates anyway… And reinvest it yourself personally at 0% capital gains)

Down the line on silver coast.

But honestly they are all good Thalwil/Horgen/Wadenswill - would all be top choices.

Probably the most practical and long-term feasible option. Good lifestyle. Close to everything: airport, Zurich city, Zug, etc. Beaches not bad (better than Kilchberg), comparable to Horgen. More expensive than Horgen though, I think.

Northeast of Zurich also very practical (and more affordable than Zurich proper):

Also not that close to Zug (vs Thalwil/Horgen).

Thalwil and Horgen are top locations probably, only ones that have it all (airport, Zurich HB, Zug, lake, forests):

Waedenswill has the most vibes of the south silver coast (apparently).

The further from Zurich you go, the more you lose here.

So, lets check them out.

Compared to in-city trips:

In city → 2.4 * 2 * 2.5 * 4 = 48 chf/mo

Oerlikon → 3.4 * 2 * 2.5 * 4 = 66 chf/mo

Thalwil → 3.6 * 2 * 2.5 * 4 = 72 chf/mo

Horgen → 4.7 * 2 * 2.5 * 4 = 94 chf/mo

Wadenswill → 5.7 * 2 * 2.5 * 4 = 114 chf/mo

Winterthur → 6.8 * 2 * 2.5 * 4 = 136 chf/mo

The main problem to shipping food to the Wallisellen/Thalwil/Horgen is the delivery fee (above 10 CHF per order). But most good restaurants in Zurich are part of the Uber One program: which means that if you sub to it (about 20 CHF/mo), the delivery fee will be 0.

Let me know if you’re interested in this aspect and what you want to learn in particular.