Cloud or your own server: what really matters for a Swiss SME

Rather filter for yourself? All 18 solutions with 26 criteria in one table Filter by profile and features, set a budget, read the columns side by side. This article gives the bearings — the table is the tool. To the comparison table →

The three operating models and what separates them

In the browser means: the vendor runs, backs up and updates. You pay monthly and work from any device; in return you have no access to the database and no choice about when an update happens.

On your own machine means: you run, back up and update — or somebody you pay to do it. The data is in the house, and so is the responsibility. That is not a disadvantage, but a task somebody has to own.

Hosted is the middle way: the same software as local, run at the vendor or in a data centre. For 4 of the 18 solutions that is an option. It settles the operating question and keeps freedom over the version.

Four questions that decide the operating model

None of them is a technical question.

1. Who works from where?

   If several people are to work from different places, the browser is the shorter answer — 14 of the 18 solutions run there. If everyone works in one place, that argument does not win.

2. Who does the backup?

   In the browser the vendor, locally you. A local installation without a backup somebody looks after and restores regularly is the most expensive variant of all — it costs nothing until it costs everything.

3. Does the connection reach everywhere?

   On a building site, in a basement store or abroad this is not a rhetorical question. 11 of the 18 solutions keep working without a connection, 7 are pure cloud.

4. Should the fiduciary be able to look in?

   Shared access removes data exchange as a separate step of work. In the browser it is a setting, locally a project.

What the law requires — and what it does not

The location is not prescribed. Article 958f of the Code of Obligations requires books of account and accounting vouchers to stay available and legible for ten years, and says nothing about which data centre they sit in.

Where the data sits is nevertheless surveyed and appears in the comparison table as a row of its own, with the three cases Switzerland, Switzerland/EU and EU. The reason is not the Code of Obligations but data protection law and the expectations of customers and associations — in both cases a question of requirement, not of legality.

More important than the location is the exit. The retention duty lasts ten years, a subscription cancels in a month, and what happens to your data afterwards rarely appears in the offer. That applies to both models — in the browser because access ends, locally because the software eventually stops running.

Frequently asked questions

Where the figures come from

Operating models

Vendor information, each value with a verification date. Multiple entries are possible and are the normal case — which is why the total exceeds the number of solutions. As of July 2026.

Legal information

Code of Obligations, Article 958f on retention. This post is orientation, not legal advice.