The name is a modern Polish version of Zliwitz, a West Slavic settlement east of the Brandendamm causeway across the Oder, mentioned in Frankfurt's city charter of 1253.

The Ascanian margraves of Brandenburg had purchased the Lubusz Land from the Silesian Duke Bolesław II the Bald in 1249.

In 1319 Wartislaw IV, Duke of Pomerania granted new privileges to the town of Frankfurt (Oder), which today's Słubice was already part of.

The two cities share many urban amenities and collaborate on various projects, such as a wastewater treatment plant in Słubice that serves both towns, as well as the Collegium Polonicum extension of some of the Viadrina European University's departments on the Polish side of the border.

On October 22, 2014, a monument to Wikipedia editors by Mihran Hakobyan was unveiled in the town, the first such honoring of the worldwide Wikipedian community.