As a fully remote editorial team, we know that a comfortable office chair is essential for a productive workday. To find the best office chairs to sit in comfortably for long hours, we recruited seven panelists to test 15 top-rated chairs for a month, scoring each one on key attributes like support, design and value. The Herman Miller Sayl Chair stood out thanks to its unusual gridded-back design, ergonomic construction, customizability and minimalist aesthetic. We also recommend the Branch Ergonomic Chair Pro, our more affordable runner-up pick, which performed just as well as more expensive models in terms of adjustability, comfort, support and durability.
All that said, there’s no one-size-fits-all office chair. We found additional picks to fit a range of needs, including the FlexiSpot Premium Ergonomic Office Chair (C7 2025 Model), a top choice for tall people, and the budget-friendly Mimoglad Office Chair, which rings up at well under $200.
To select the best office chair for your needs, you’ll want to consider comfort, adjustability and aesthetics. A piece of furniture like this can be pricey, but it is well worth the cost given the amount of time you’ll spend with it. “An office chair is like a mattress in that you use it for long stretches of time, it endures a lot of wear and tear and it can impact your orthopedic health and performance,” says Scott Star, product development leader at the design firm Gensler. “For all these reasons, a good office chair is always worth the investment.” Read more about each contender below to find the best office chair for your particular needs and preferences.
The Herman Miller Sayl Chair’s stiff, gridded backrest made of elastomer strands is its defining feature. It earned high support scores across testers representing a range of heights, and its smooth-adjusting armrests were among the best we tested. It offers firm but dynamic support—you can easily recline and move in this chair. It’s also more breathable and easier to clean than fully upholstered chairs, though some may prefer the cushier feel of extra padding.
The Sayl’s design is more striking than most of the chairs on this list, but its shorter, more open backrest takes up less visual space, making it suitable for smaller rooms and helping it to blend in to home offices better than larger, more imposing executive-style chairs. (One potential downside, however: While petite testers preferred the shorter backrest, some especially tall people may find it lacking.) The Sayl also has a higher weight limit than other top contenders on this list, offering a 350-pound capacity compared to, for instance, the 275-pound limit of the Branch Ergonomic Chair Pro, our runner-up. It also weighs more, at 54 pounds compared with the Branch’s 42. It arrives almost fully assembled, though (in just two pieces that fit together easily), which is a definite perk.
The Sayl’s customizable add-ons stand out compared with other office chairs we tested because the chair is adaptable for different heights and preferences. You can choose to add additional lumbar support and an adjustable-depth seat, and you can also opt for four-way arm adjustability options. These add-ons do cost extra, but Herman Miller often runs sales—and dialing in your comfort is key for a piece of furniture you’ll spend so much time in.
This chair comes with a generous 12-year warranty, one of the longest on the list. Although the Sayl’s frame is not made of recycled materials, the polyester upholstery fabric is, which is a nice feature if you’re interested in sustainability. Plus, Herman Miller says that at the end of the chair's life, up to 90% of it is recyclable.
Branch’s new Ergonomic Chair Pro edged out many more expensive office chairs in our tests, proving itself to be comparable in comfort, support, adjustability and sturdiness to models twice the price. The trade-off, however, is that this chair requires a significant amount of assembly, although it does come with all the tools you’ll need. Once built, the chair felt sturdy and soft in all the right places, according to our tester. The upholstered seat pad and mesh backrest strike a good balance of softness and supportiveness, and the reclining mechanism feels smooth.
The Ergonomic Chair Pro has adjustments for seat depth and height, lumbar height, recline resistance, forward tilt and tilt lock; you can also adjust the armrest in five different ways. The versatility of the armrests in particular, despite their slight wobble, helps the Ergonomic Chair Pro stand apart from other chairs in this price range. You can set the width by flipping the levers beneath the unit to push them wider or narrower, then you can adjust them further by pushing the pads around in any direction. This made it one of the few chairs in this price range to offer the same level of arm pad adjustability as the more expensive Herman Miller Sayl Chair—although the pricier chairs felt sturdier and slid more smoothly.
The Ergonomic Chair Pro has a more standard-looking design than many other chairs included here, but the fact that it’s available in a variety of colors and your choice of a black or white frame at no additional charge—as well as various leathers and faux leathers, for a premium—makes it adaptable to a wide variety of interior styles. Furthermore, this chair offers forward tilt, which is a good feature for gamers who like to lean into their desks. (There’s also an optional height-adjustable headrest, but all our testers preferred this chair without the headrest.) As Branch is a newer brand, it’s hard to say how its furniture will hold up in the long run. Still, the seven-year warranty is reassuring, even if it’s a few years short of the more established brands’ offerings.
We were surprised that the Mimoglad Office Chair is as good as it is, considering its low price. While it would never be confused for a Steelcase or Herman Miller model, we found it comparable to options like the Hon Ignition Task Chair 2.0 for less than half the price. Admittedly, for the affordability, you do have to give up some features, such as seat depth adjustability and adjustable armrests (though they can flip up and out of the way if the default position doesn’t work for you). But you still get tilt lock and adjustable lumbar height (the latter feature, in fact, garnered it a spot on our list of the best office chairs for back pain).
This chair requires full assembly—even the swivel base needs to be screwed together—and the lack of an external frame supporting the seat pad gave our testers some pause with respect to its long-term durability. However, it’s backed by an impressively long five-year warranty in case anything breaks or wears out. Overall, it feels like a chair that you could get a few good years out of but that’s unlikely to last for a decade or more.
If you are on a tight budget and looking for an office chair that will last, our research suggests that you may be better off buying a used model from a brand like Herman Miller or Steelcase, and shopping locally if you can swing it. You can often find refurbished secondhand chairs from these name brands at a discount (online retailers like Madison Seating offer them, too), and they can still be repaired for years to come.
If you’re looking for a high-end chair with just about every available ergonomic adjustment and a top-tier warranty, Steelcase’s Leap offers everything you need in its $1,299 base configuration. As a bonus, this chair is available in 23 color and upholstery options, including leather. You can also choose between two frame and base colors, and consider a $22 soft wheel upgrade for use on hardwood floors.
This chair is comfortable from the get-go: It’s soft in all the right places and, based on our testing, is supportive across a wide range of body sizes. It was the only chair to earn a rating of 8 or better from our testers across the categories of build quality, comfort and support; these testers ranged in height from 5 foot 2 to 6 foot 2, indicating that the chair can suit a number of body types. This universal appeal may have something to do with its “LiveBack” design, which brings the seat up ever so slightly as you recline in order to maintain an ergonomically supported position.
This was one of the best-constructed chairs we tested, full stop. There’s nary a squeak, creak or wobble to be found throughout the whole frame. Should anything go wrong, Steelcase’s 12-year warranty is among the best on the market. And the fact that this model is available both used and refurbished through many outlets is a good sign of its longevity.
When the Herman Miller Aeron Chair was released in 1994, it looked like nothing that had come before it. Even today, it stands distinct from the 14 other chairs we evaluated for this review—not only in its aesthetic, but in how it’s adjusted. Testers loved how instantly supportive it felt, but everyone was flummoxed by the positioning of its various dials and levers. Adjusting the armrest requires flipping switch locks at the point where they attach to the backrest, sliding it up and down, then re-engaging the locks.
But none of this really matters if you’re set on getting this classic chair. It starts at $1,825 new—that’s if you want all the adjustability features that come standard on a Steelcase Leap (the most basic Aeron you can get, without most adjustability features, starts at $1,350). This cost may be worth it to you, but you can often find a used or refurbished Aeron at a fraction of the price if you’re flexible on the configuration. While you may lose some durability over time with a used chair, the savings may be worth it for most home-office users.
If you’re a taller person looking for a comfortable model that cradles your entire back and neck, the FlexiSpot C7 is a great option. It is wider and taller than most of the chairs we tested and has a highly adjustable, but somewhat protruding, lumbar support that moves independently of the seat back. It offers more forward tilt than any of the other chairs on this list, making it a good option for gaming. Its armrests swivel in addition to adjusting in height and depth, which is a rarity at this price.
That said, the fact that it is specifically designed for taller bodies makes it difficult to recommend to a broad audience. While some testers really liked the lumbar support, others could not get comfortable with its prominence in any position. This chair also has a shorter warranty than some of the other winners on the list. (Check out our guide to the best big and tall office chairs for more options.)
The Steelcase Gesture takes the supportive “LiveBack” design, first developed for the Leap, and adds the most adjustable armrests we found in our research and testing. Simply by activating a switch, you can move the armrest to almost any position you could possibly desire. This lets you find a supportive position for when you’re fully reclined and scrolling on your phone just as easily as when you’re typing away on a keyboard. It also means you can move them fully out of your way if you decide you don’t want that support at the moment.
The seat pad felt a bit less cushy than the one on the slightly larger Leap, so it scored a point lower on comfort among a couple of testers. But once you’re seated for a while, you forget about that initial bit of firmness and settle into a highly supported position. One of our testers shared that, as with the Leap, they were able to work for hours on end in this chair without any back issues. As a bonus, these chairs are widely available to buy used and refurbished if you prefer to go that route.
The Generation by Knoll is a premium chair that proved to be the most springy, dynamic chair in our testing. Its flexible elastomer back and tilting seat that can accommodate shifting in weight while changing postures allowed our tester to stretch, lean and otherwise move around in basically every direction seamlessly throughout the day. It’s breathable, too. Our tester reported that they especially made use of the seat depth and tilt lock/limit configurations to move from sitting rigidly upright while writing to leaning back during a presentation at different points during their workday.
The Generation by Knoll was notably versatile for different sitting styles, and also for different body shapes and heights. We had people with heights of 6 feet and 5 foot 4 test out this chair, and both testers found comfortable configurations for seat height and depth, as well as armrest adjustments.
The only two downsides of this chair are its relatively bulky profile—it weighs 37 pounds and measures almost 30 inches wide, compared with some others on our list that are closer to 25 inches—and its high cost, which exceeds our top pick by over $500 for the most basic configuration. If you want specific lumbar support, you have to buy that separately, but the “springiness” we referenced above and the recline resistance (at its most resistant) provided adequate enough support for our testers’ backs. As a bonus, this chair has a long 12-year warranty should anything happen to it. You can also frequently find used versions of the chair.
If you just bought a standing desk in hopes that you’ll stand more than you’ll sit, the Håg Capisco 8106 (with the sit-to-stand height cylinder and foot ring add-on) is the perfect companion. We wanted to test this chair due to a lack of published reviews; we can now confirm that it’s extremely well constructed and helped our testers develop healthier sit-to-stand habits.
This chair was first released in 1984 and is inspired by a horse saddle design, which is to say, it’s meant to move. Indeed, removing the tilt lock and limiter allows it to rock around almost like one of those spring-loaded ponies you might remember from the playgrounds of your youth (which have since been removed for liability reasons). It’s a downright playful experience that makes moving around feel fun. This isn’t to say that it’s uncomfortable, but given the lack of backrest and armrest adjustability, it’s not the kind of seat that anyone will feel swaddled by for hours on end.
The problem with sitting in a really supportive desk chair is it’s hard to want to get up, so your standing desk just becomes a height-adjustable sitting desk over time. According to Star, this can be avoided if you invest in a chair like the HÅG Capisco that encourages movement by design. “An office chair shouldn’t unduly encumber your movement. You want the right balance of support and freedom of motion,” he says. Tanja Hwang, curator in the Department of Architecture and Design at The Museum of Modern Art, emphasizes this sentiment. “The office chair should allow you to change your position so that your muscles are not static,” she says.
Testers found the Håg Capisco 8106 well-suited to this task, making it a great value despite not being as adjustable or comfortable as other office chairs in its price range. “I’m able to sit/stand for longer periods in the height range between being fully down and fully standing,” notes one 5-foot-5 tester, who uses it at her standing desk. “It also offers several options for leaning while standing, which I find nice, since standing fatigue can set in relatively quickly.” This is especially true of the taller models available; there are other options you can purchase at different heights. Adding the optional foot ring allows you to sit comfortably with your feet supported while your desk is still at standing height.
Other Office Chairs We Tested
Our panel put five other office chairs to the test that didn’t quite make the cut. We’ve detailed each one’s pros and cons below, in case you find a chair more tailored to your needs.
Steelcase Karman ($1,099 And Up): This is basically a textile version of the Gesture minus the amazing armrests, though they are available for an extra cost. At $1,174, it is a few hundred dollars cheaper than the Gesture, but it’s still more expensive than the Herman Miller Sayl Chair, which offers a similar feature set. It’s a solid choice if you like the look and want a sleeker-looking chair that’s comparable to any of the above.
Herman Miller Embody Chair ($1,830 And Up): The Embody is a comfortable chair, but the back consists of many small, plastic panels that make annoying creaky noises as you shift around. It is highly adjustable but hard to recommend at its $1,830 starting price; this is because it didn’t feel noticeably more comfortable than our other, more affordable picks.
Branch Verve Chair ($599 And Up): This is a well-made, attractive and supportive chair that has frustrating armrests. You can adjust only the height, not the width, and the arm pads are the narrowest of any we tested. We also didn’t like that the height adjustment mechanism, a self-locking ratchet, resets automatically if you go beyond the tallest setting. The slightly cheaper Ergonomic Chair Pro is better in every way.
Branch Ergonomic Chair ($359 And Up): While the Ergonomic Chair Pro feels like a more affordable version of an expensive chair, this non-Pro version feels like an expensive version of a cheaper chair. It has all the features you’d want on paper, but none of our testers wanted to spend extended time in it. The seat looks cushy but is somehow rather hard to sit on, and the adjustment knobs and levers feel cheap. The mesh back is thin, causing the lumbar support to feel intrusive rather than supportive.
Laura Soho II Padded Management Chair ($350 And Up): Unlike the other chairs in this review, the Laura Soho II is the type of chair you buy more for its looks than for support. Other than a few sloppy-looking welds (that are not visible once assembled) and a wobbly tilt-lock mechanism, the handsome chair looks and feels every bit as nice as chairs that cost twice as much. Still, the only adjustments are seat height and tilt lock, so it’s not ergonomic by any stretch.
Why Trust Forbes Vetted
The Forbes Vetted team of remote editors and writers has published dozens of guides on equipping your home office based on research, testing and, of course, our WFH experience.
- In addition to the panel testing done for this piece, Forbes Vetted staffers have tested or personally used several office chairs on this list in their WFH setups. They shared personal insights on the Branch Verve Chair,Herman Miller Sayl Chair, Herman Miller Aeron Chair, Herman Miller Embody Chair, Steelcase Gesture, Laura Soho II Padded Management Chair and Mimoglad Office Chair for this story.
- For this article, we consulted medical experts, designers, engineers and curators. We spoke to two medical experts on what features make an office chair good for our posture and lumbar health: Dr. Rahul Shah, a board-certified orthopedic spine and neck surgeon, and Deborah McKernan-Ace, occupational therapist and former program director of the Occupational Therapy Assistant Program at the Rutgers School of Health Professions.
- To learn more about what makes a great office chair, we talked to Tanja Hwang, curator in the Department of Architecture and Design at The Museum of Modern Art; Scott Star, product development leader at the design firm Gensler, who has worked on office chair design for various brands; and Yingzi Lin, a professor and department chair at Northeastern University’s Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering. We also read the book A Taxonomy of Office Chairs by Knoll designer Jonathan Olivares to get a sense of the history of office chair design.
How We Tested The Best Office Chairs
Before conducting our official tests to determine the best office chairs, we took the following steps:
- We researched models from reputable brands like Herman Miller, Steelcase, Knoll, Branch, FlexiSpot and Hon.
- We sought out options that are resoundingly buyer-approved, with hundreds (if not thousands) of customer reviews and an average rating of 4 stars or higher.
- We consulted remote Forbes Vetted staffers who have previously tested or personally used high-quality office chairs to add to our pool of contenders to test and rate.
With research completed, our testing methodology progressed as follows:
- We recruited seven panel testers of varying heights and weights.
- We had 15 review units shipped to the Poultney Coworking Loft.
- There, our testers rated each office chair on a scale of 1 to 10 based on ease of adjustment, comfort, support and perceived value.
- The panelists were encouraged to give qualitative notes on what they liked and didn’t like about each model.
- We had one panelist test an additional Knoll chair separately, but using the same criteria as above.
Buying Guide: Best Office Chairs
Part of finding the best office chair for logging long hours starts with finding a model that fits you. Here are some key features to consider:
Height
No two bodies are alike, so when it comes to finding the right office chair for you, all the experts we spoke with recommended prioritizing height adjustability as a must-have feature. “The chair should be adaptive to different human postures,” says Lin. “There’s no one-size-fits-all when we talk about chairs.” Hwang echoes this sentiment: It’s key to find a chair that has “adjustability to different body types, different needs and support for the back in a dynamic way,” she says.
Fortunately, even some of the most basic office chairs offer seat height adjustment, which ensures your chair will fit comfortably under your desk and allow you to position your feet squarely on the floor. The splurge-worthy picks on this list, like the Herman Miller Aeron Chair and the Steelcase Gesture, are highly adjustable, adding various levels of tilt limit and armrest angles. But some direct-to-consumer brands are beginning to offer comparable adjustability at a lower price point, such as the Branch Ergonomic Chair Pro. No matter the level of adjustment on a chair, tweaking it should be easy. “Controls should be intuitive—understandable and usable without instruction,” says Star.
Lumbar Support
In addition to an adjustable seat height and depth, Shah says an ergonomic office chair should have “a tilting or reclining mechanism and back support” to help minimize the strain on your lumbar spine, or lower back, throughout the work day. Some office chairs also have a brace that supports your lumbar. While some chairs have a manual adjustment to change tilt, others integrate it into their design. “More advanced tilt mechanisms may have weight-activated tilt motion, obviating the need for manual adjustment,” says Star.
There are also certain items you can add to your setup to help you further customize your lower back comfort. “Accessories, such as a lumbar pillow, may also work to help the chair form fit to one’s body and help to support the muscles in the lower back,” explains Shah. The seat’s construction is also important: It should be wide enough to hold your entire lower body and back, which in turn helps provide support for your spine. The Herman Miller Sayl Chair particularly excelled in this category during testing because it has multiple upgrade features that let you adjust lumbar support and seat depth, not to mention a unique back that flexes with your body and the option of height-adjustable or fully adjustable arms.
Armrests
In addition to fitting your back, you want a chair that can accommodate your arms in a comfortable position regardless of how you’re sitting. “Armrests should be just beneath your elbows when [your] arms are relaxed,” advises McKernan-Ace. You’ll also want to consider how armrests affect your overall desk build-out: “People should avoid arms and arm pads with irregular shapes to the extent they make pushing the chair under a desktop or tabletop difficult,” says Star.
A sub-$500 chair typically offers some height and width adjustments. Spending a bit more gets you smoother adjustability, along with the ability to adjust depth and rotate the angle of your armrests (see, for example, the arms on the Steelcase Gesture). These features make a big difference to support your arms without tension through a workday. If you’re finding you can’t adjust your armrests to a comfortable position (or to fit under your desk), you can also usually remove them altogether.
Materials
An office chair’s material has a big impact on its overall feel and breathability. Some of the more common materials you’ll spot while searching for an office chair are foam, mesh and plastic. Here’s a breakdown of some of the pros and cons of different materials.
- Upholstered foam: Overall, foam offers extra cushion and support, whether it’s only in the seat or in both the seat and back (like the Steelcase Gesture), while upholstery lends softness. “Conventional fabric-on-foam cushion upholstery may be tactilely comforting,” says Star. However, this combination of materials can trap heat, an important consideration for anyone who gets hot during the workday. Higher-end chairs use quality foam that retains its supportiveness for many years, but cheaper chairs may wear down after only a few years. Based on our research, warranty length is a good indicator of life expectancy here.
- Mesh: There are several benefits to mesh. For one, says Star, “mesh works to dematerialize the chair, making it lighter and more agile in a workspace.” Plus, “mesh backs and seats can minimize heat buildup and ultimately wear better.” Furthermore, their slight amount of stretch contours to your body. It’s common for chairs to combine mesh backs for airflow with a foam seat for comfort (like the Branch Ergonomic Chair Pro), while some styles use mesh for the seat and back (like the Herman Miller Aeron Chair). Stiffer mesh, like you’d find on the Aeron, can last for decades, but softer, more fabric-like mesh may stretch and become less supportive over time.
- Plastic: More recently, rubbery plastic has become a popular option for backrests. This material combines the breathability and durability of mesh with the springiness of foam. It’s also very simple to wipe down, especially important in shared office spaces. The Herman Miller Sayl Chair’s elastomer backrest is breathable, sturdy and easy to clean; it’s also mostly recyclable, which not all plastic parts are.
Price
Office chairs range in price from around $100 to over $2,000, but experts agree that most options worth buying—ones from reputable brands with all the basic adjustability you need and that are backed by eight- to 10-year warranties—start at $400 to $600. Stepping up to the $800 to $1,000 mark gets you better build quality, a more striking aesthetic and a wider range of adjustability—especially with the armrests. Premium office chairs like the Steelcase Gesture and Herman Miller Aeron Chair (both priced over $1,300) are often made of more expensive materials, are highly customizable and fully assembled upon delivery. They also have some of the longest warranty periods; both of these upgrade-worthy picks have 12-year warranties.
Office chairs in the $300-or-under range can be comfortable enough to work from, but typically require a lot of assembly and use cheaper materials that won’t hold up as well over time. If you’re on a budget, look into used versions of the pricier options on this list since they’re often more affordable. We also recommend shopping locally from a secondhand retailer or individual seller to get a good deal on a pre-owned product.
Sustainability
Some of the best office chairs are designed to be more sustainable, whether by using recycled materials or offering longer warranties, indicating that they’re built to last, or having a recyclable design. “You want to make sure the product addresses indoor air quality and material health issues, that it makes use of recycled content, and that it’s designed for durability, repair, retrofit and recycling at the end of a long and useful life,” notes Star. Some brands, such as Steelcase, may also offer replacement parts. You can find refurbished office chairs at a discount at local stores, offering a sustainable way to shop at a more affordable price. Just keep in mind that buying a refurbished chair may change or void any warranties.
Aesthetics
“Aesthetics are important because we care about how our spaces look,” says Hwang. “There are these innovative chairs that allow for really interesting seating positions, but then they look super funky.” Some design features, like mesh backs or shorter backrests, help a chair blend into a live-work space better than large, solid-backed chairs. Finding a balance between a chair that’s adjustable without being an eyesore is also key if you’re furnishing your home office. “Opt for a commercial-quality chair with a clean design that provides comfort and support with minimal adjustability, meaning a minimum of equipment like knobs and levers,” says Star.
Aside from aesthetics, Hwang attests that chairs are an accessible way for designers to show off their visions and new technologies: “You clearly communicate that you’re concerned about lightness, you’re concerned about air, you’re concerned about movability super easily through a chair. Everyone can see it,” she says. There are some iconic office chairs made by famous designers available to shop, too, if you want a chair that’s also a display-worthy object: A Taxonomy of Office Chairs, by Knoll designer Jonathan Olivares ,offers a fascinating look at the history of this furniture category.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Coupons
Arhaus
Become An Arhaus Trade Member To Earn Commissions And Special Rewards
Timberland
Get Up To 15% Off Select Kids' Shoes Sale Styles