Summary Hybrid simulation (HS) is a novel technique to combine analytical and experimental sub‐assemblies to examine the dynamic responses of a structure during an earthquake shaking. Traditionally, HS uses displacement‐based control where the finite element program calculates trial displacements and applies them to both the analytical and experimental sub‐assemblies. Displacement‐based HS (DHS) has been proven to work well for most structural sub‐assemblies. However, for specimens with high stiffness, traditional DHS does not work because it is difficult to precisely control hydraulic actuators in small displacement. A small control error in displacement will result in large force response fluctuations for stiff specimens. This paper resolves this challenge by proposing a force‐based HS (FHS) algorithm that directly calculates trial forces instead of trial displacements. The proposed FHS is finite element based and applicable to both linear and nonlinear systems. For specimens with drastic changes in stiffness, such as yielding, a switch‐based HS (SHS) algorithm is proposed. A stiffness‐based switching criterion between the DHS and FHS algorithms is presented in this paper. All the developed algorithms are applied to a simple one‐story one‐bay concentrically braced moment frame. The result shows that SHS outperforms DHS and FHS. SHS is then utilized to validate the seismic performance of an innovative earthquake resilient fused structure. The result shows that SHS works in switching between the DHS and FHS modes for a highly nonlinear and highly indeterminate structural system. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.