The town is a rail junction, located along two lines – the 97th from Skawina to Żywiec, and the 98th from Sucha Beskidzka to Chabowka.

In the early years of the 15th century, Prince Jan III of Oświęcim initiated a program of settlement of the sparsely populated forested areas in the Beskids.

In 1554, Stanisław Słupski sold the village to an Italian-born goldsmith from Kraków, Gaspare Castiglione, who changed his name to Kasper Suski.

In the 1610s, Piotr Komorowski funded here a parish church, and vastly expanded the castle of Kasper Suski, turning it into a residence.

Due to several royal privileges, Sucha emerged as a local trade center; the village prospered under Anna Konstancja Wielopolska, who owned it in 1693 – 1726.

The area of Sucha was one of centers of the Bar Confederation, and in 1772 (see Partitions of Poland), the village, with the population of 3,000, became part of Austrian-Hungarian province of Galicia.

Many Poles were dispossessed of their homes to make room for ethnic Germans who arrived in town from the east.

In 1956, for the first time in history, Sucha became the seat of a county, and in 1975, the town became part of Bielsko-Biała Voivodeship.

Since the beginning of the 20th century Sucha Beskidzka has been a tourist centre for the Beskidy Mountains (part of the Carpathians).