SummaryBase isolation has seen widespread application to buildings and infrastructures over the past four decades. However, there is a lack of methods for assessing the performance of a base‐isolated structure at the end of construction and during its service life. To this end, simplified methods are developed for verifying isolation design and evaluating seismic demands of rubber‐bearing‐supported base‐isolated buildings based on their free‐vibration response, which could be obtained using field (on‐site) testing. The base isolation layer consists of lead rubber bearings (LRBs) and linear natural rubber (LNR) bearings. For design verification purposes, analytical solutions are provided to benchmark the free‐vibration response of base‐isolated buildings, considering the general case of a multilinear hysteretic isolation response representing multiple LRBs with distinct mechanical specifications. In seismic demand evaluation, seismic capacity of an isolation system is estimated using free‐vibration response of various amplitudes that cover a range of expected seismic intensity of interest. Seismic demands are obtained when capacity coincides with an earthquake response spectrum at a compatible damping level. Procedures are developed for the potential use of snap‐back tests and verified using experimental and numerical data.