Short-travel switches have a short stroke and are therefore particularly suitable for applications where every millimetre of space is important. These include, for example, PCB construction in applications such as the automotive industry, mechanical and plant engineering as well as aviation technology, military technology or medical equipment. Here, assembly options as a surface-mounted device (SMD) or with through-hole mounting (THT) are available. Both methods require a slightly different design, which is why manufacturers usually offer several versions of the same short-travel switch.

Short-travel switches that have a tactile function can provide both tactile and acoustic feedback. In order to make it clear in which actuation state a short-travel switch is in, the components can be equipped with an illumination. The service life of a short-travel switch varies depending on the quality of the component and the area of application. It generally ranges from 10,000 to one million actuations.