The best office chairs are an essential accessory for being more productive and comfortable, regardless of whether you’re working from home or have returned to the office.
In addition to offering a more comfortable working experience, the best office chairs provide you with the necessary support your back needs while encouraging good posture. At the same time, they help prevent strain while allowing you to move around more freely while seated at your desk. Even then, you still need to take breaks from time to time and by pairing a great office chair with one of the best standing desks, you can work for longer periods at a time without putting unnecessary stress on your back and legs.
Whether you’re looking for an ergonomic chair to help your posture, a chair with a headrest or just a chair with a design that stands out to complement your other home office décor, there’s something here for every taste and budget. I've spent hundreds of hours sitting in all of the chairs on this list to see how well they hold up over time both at home and in the office. Besides comfort, I also evaluate every office chair we review based on their value, design and adjustability, so that you can find the best fit for you. These are the best office chairs available right now based on our own testing and in-depth reviews.
Anthony Spadafora has spent the past five years working from home exclusively and during that time, he's tested dozens of office chairs, standing desks and other work from home accessories. While he oversees all of our networking and security coverage at Tom's Guide, Anthony has a penchant for home office furniture and working on desk setups.
The quick list
Here's a quick overview of the best office chairs you can buy right now based on our testing and reviews. And keep scrolling if you want to see our in-depth analysis of the best office chairs for every budget.
The best office chair overall
The Branch Verve Chair is as comfortable to sit in as it is beautiful to look out. The 3D-knit mesh back not only keeps you cool but it also wraps around you while you're sitting in the chair. In addition to this gorgeous coral color, the Verve chair is also available in black, white, light green and light blue.
Best for back issues
The Steelcase Karman is an extremely comfortable and light office chair. It uses a proprietary textile called Intermix instead of mesh that can respond to your body's movements. The Steelcase Karman is also available in a wide variety of color combinations.
Best premium office chair
The Herman Miller Aeron is the best office chair if you can afford it. It's extremely comfortable with an iconic design. The Aeron is made entirely of mesh to keep you cool and you can adjust just about everything about it.
Best budget office chair
The Flash Furniture Mid-Back Office Chair shows you can still get a chair with a unique design without spending a lot. This budget office chair has a mesh back and is available in yellow, red, orange, black, white and gray. It lacks the adjustability of other chairs but still looks great.
Best design
The FlexiSpot Pro Plus Mesh Office Chair OC14 is a mid-range, mesh office chair that packs in loads of features for the price. Its hard plastic back gives it a unique look and there are seven different adjustment points. The OC14 is available in red, gray, light blue and black. FlexiSpot has since renamed this chair to the Exclusive Ergonomic Chair (C8) but its features haven't changed.
Best accessories
The X-Chair X2 K-Sport Management Chair is a full mesh office chair that comes at a premium price. Its a durable and well designed chair with a lumbar support that reacts to your movement. There are also some great optional accessories like a heat and massage unit.
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Best ergonomics
The Branch Ergonomic Chair is an attractive office chair that's still very affordable. It has an adjustable lumbar support as well as a mesh back to keep you cool. Unlike other chairs that are all one color, the Branch Ergonomic Chair has a white frame and a silver base for a unique look
Best for posture
The ErgoTune Supreme V3 is another mid range mesh office chair with plenty of features. Its highly customizable and available in a number of different colors. We really liked how the ErgoTune Supreme V3's lumbar support helped us improve our overall posture.
Best task chair
The Hon Ignition 2.0 is an ergonomic task chair that's available in a number of different configurations. The all black version is the most popular and won't be distracting at home or in the office. The Hon Ignition 2.0 has an adjustable lumbar support and there's also an optional headrest available.
The best office chairs you can buy today
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Best office chair overall
As the follow-up to the Branch Ergonomic Chair, the Branch Verve Chair immediately sets itself apart from the competition due to its unique design which won it an iF Design Award in 2022. Instead of a mesh back, it has a 3D-knit backrest that's extremely comfortable while also being breathable. Besides the Coral color seen here, the Branch Verve Chair is available in black and white as well as light green and light blue.
In addition to being pleasing to look at when pushed in at my desk, the chair's V-shaped suspended back also houses its adjustable lumbar rest. Likewise, its inward curving arms help the Branch Verve Chair stand out (in a good way) and I love how the base of the chair is the same color as its seat and backrest.
I found the Branch Verve Chair to be quite comfortable during testing and was impressed by how my body sunk into the chair. At the same time, its nylon casters also made a big difference and were much smoother when rolling around on my hardwood floors. The Branch Verve Chair features six points of adjustment and it feels really good when I leaned back while taking short breaks throughout my workday.
Read our full Branch Verve Chair review.
The best office chair for back issues
The Steelcase Karman goes beyond a traditional mesh office chair thanks to the company's proprietary Intermix textile. This office chair is available in a number of different colors and even color combinations since it's created using a weaving process where yarns and other filaments are injected into the weave.
The Steelcase Karman is also exceptionally light at just 29 pounds and unlike every office chair I have reviewed so far, it comes fully assembled. Under the chair's seat, there's a weight-activated mechanism that when combined with Intermix, literally wrapped around my body and supported me no matter which angle I was sitting at.
The Steelcase Karman may lack a dedicated lumbar support but in my own testing, I found I didn't need one due to how the chair responded to my body's movements throughout the day. This level of comfort and engineering doesn't come cheap though but Steelcase does back up the Karman with a 12-year warranty.
Read our full Steelcase Karman review.
The best premium office chair
The Herman Miller Aeron chair may be the symbol of dot-com excess, but there's a good reason for that: It is damn comfortable. I could adjust everything on this top-tier chair, including more esoteric things, like the tension of eight zones of the fabric (including the important lumbar support) and the tilt and angle of the armrests. It also supports working in two profiles: one for when you are leaning forward and another for when you are leaning back and reclining.
The mesh bottom and back of the Aeron also allowed for plenty of airflow, which was welcome on warm days when my air conditioning wasn't working as well as it should have. However, this came with a little tradeoff, as I didn't think the Aeron offered as much support as the Steelcase Leap, which has a firmer fabric bottom and back.
Check out our comparison of the Herman Miller Embody vs Aeron if you've having a hard time deciding which is best for you.
It's perhaps no surprise that all of this comes at a price, as the Aeron starts at more than $1,000. My advice is to look for sales of office furniture as companies clear out their buildings of unwanted items. You're bound to find an Aeron for a lot less used.
Read our full Herman Miller Aeron chair review.
The best budget office chair
One reason I liked the Flash Furniture Mid-Back office chair is that, in a sea of black and gray office chairs, it stood out with its bold blue and white color scheme (it's also available in gray, yellow, red, orange, white, and yes, black).
The price of this chair varies based on the color you choose as well as the style — you can opt for a mid-back, high back, and drafting chair — but ranges from around $120 to $210, making it a very affordable model if you're on a budget.
However, as with most budget office chairs, the Flash Furniture model isn't very adjustable - you can raise and lower the seat and adjust the tilt tension, but that's it. Still, I found it pretty comfortable when sitting for long periods of time. And, when I was ready to head home for the day, the chair's arms fold up, so that I could tuck it under my desk more easily. If you're looking for a cheap office chair that looks good, this is definitely a model to consider.
Read our full Flash Furniture Mid-Back office chair review.
The best office chair design
The FlexiSpot Pro Plus Mesh Office Chair OC14 strikes the perfect balance between price and features for an ergonomic office chair. Although it has a very premium look to it, it's actually a mid-range office chair available for $599 that punches above its weight.
One of the ways in which the FlexiSpot Pro Plus Mesh Office Chair does this is with its mesh backrest and seat, typically found on more expensive chairs. The fabric on the chair wrapped around me when I sat down and overall, it's a very comfortable chair to use. There are seven different adjustment points starting from the headrest all the way down to the armrests and the seat itself can be moved back and forth — something I don't usually see on chairs at this price.
The FlexiSpot Pro Plus Mesh Office Chair OC14 may lack adjustable lumbar support but it's hard/soft plastic backrest and the fact that its seat is also adjustable makes up for this. Besides being comfortable to use, this office chair has a unique design that will turn heads either at home or in the office and I found it complemented the Flexispot E7 Pro Plus standing desk in my office quite well.
Read our full FlexiSpot Pro Plus Mesh Office Chair OC14 review.
The best office chair for accessories
When I sat in the X-Chair X2 and turned on its optional heating and massage pad, it transported me back to the days when I would go to the mall and relax in the massage chairs at Brookstone.
Nostalgia aside, the X2 Chair is a very slick and very comfortable office chair. Both the seat back and bottom are mesh, which provides plenty of breathability, and the chair has a ton of adjustment points, so you can get it to fit you just right. The one downside is that it took me a good while to get everything just the way I wanted it.
I also loved the look of the X2; it's not quite as flashy as one of the best gaming chairs, but it's not as subdued as one of the thousands of generic office chairs you can find on Amazon. It's also sturdily built: part of the frame and the base are made out of metal, which has a shiny chrome finish
At around $900, the X2 is not cheap; it's about the same as you'll pay for a Herman Miller Aeron. But, it's a chair that will definitely keep you comfortable — especially if you buy the massage pad.
Read our full X-Chair X2 review.
The best ergonomic office chair
While sleeker than most other office chairs, there's nothing overly flashy about the Branch Ergonomic Chair, and maybe that's a good thing. Once I settled into this $300 office chair, I largely forgot about it as I sat on it while working from home. But isn't that the point of any good office chair?
The Branch Ergonomic Chair has seven adjustment points (the height and width of the armrests, as well as how far forward you want them, seat height, backrest angle, lumbar support, and position of the seat relative to the backrest). That's not as many as you'll find on more expensive models, but it's more than enough for a $300 chair like this one from Branch Furniture. Just as important: all of these adjustment points were easy to change. There's nothing worse than struggling to get a chair to fit just right.
My only real critique of the Branch chair — if you can call it that — is that its padded seat didn't feel as comfortable as mesh seats on pricier chairs, and is not as breathable. But all in all, this chair delivers excellent value.
Read our full Branch Ergonomic Chair review
Best office chair for posture
The ErgoTune Supreme V3 is an ergonomic mesh office chair that feels a whole lot more comfortable than its mid-range price would have you believe. Alongside this, the company also includes a 12-year warranty along with plenty of color options and even several different sizes depending on your height.
In terms of adjustability, the ErgoTune Supreme V3 features 12 different adjustment points which lets you tailor the chair's fit to your body type. Its seat has adjustable depth and height and its GyroBrace Armrest adjusts four ways and pivots up to 270 degrees. Besides an auto-adjusting lumbar support, the ErgoTune Supreme V3 has a headrest that's also adjustable which is something I always like to see on any office chair.
The third iteration of ErgoTune's Supreme office chair sports a number of improvements which allow it to punch above its weight - especially at a mid-range price. If you're looking to improve your posture while working from home, the ErgoTune Supreme V3 should certainly be on your shortlist.
Read our full ErgoTune Supreme V3 review.
The best task chair
The HON Ignition 2.0 is a mid range task chair that can be customized to your liking on the company's site though the black version is more readily available online. Besides an all mesh version, there's also a version of the chair specifically designed for big and tall people with a wider seat and a weight limit of 450 pounds.
The version of the HON Ignition 2.0 I looked had a contoured seat cushion and a mesh back. While my chair didn't come with a headrest, there is an optional one available. One of the best things about the HON Ignition 2.0 is its adjustable lumbar support but I also liked its more streamlined assembly process. The chair was quite comfortable to use throughout my work day and its wheels easily rolled across my hardwood floors.
The black version of the HON Ignition 2.0 is perfect for in the office or if you don't want a chair that stands out during video calls. You can pick from several different color variations on the company's site that stand out a bit more if that's what you're looking for though.
Read our full HON Ignition 2.0 review.
How long should you sit?
Even if you have the best office chair in the world, it's unhealthy to remain seated for hours on end. A number of studies have found that sitting for prolonged periods can have negative effects on your body, such as higher rates of heart disease, obesity, and cancer.
To that end, a number of experts recommend you stand up every so often. The Mayo Clinic, for example, suggests that you stand up every 30 minutes, or invest in one of the best standing desks, as well as one of the best under-desk treadmills. Either way, get up and stretch your muscles. One strategy I use myself is to set a timer; some of the best smartwatches, such as the Apple Watch, will also automatically remind you to move if you've been sedentary for too long. And be sure to check out our guide on the best exercises if you sit all day.
How to choose the best office chair for you
When it comes to picking out the best office chair for your needs, there are several factors that come into play which we go into further detail below:
Price
Office chairs range widely in price, from less than $100 up to $2,000. Ultimately, you should purchase an office chair that best fits with your budget. There are two main differences between budget office chairs and more expensive models. The first is materials: Less expensive chairs will often be made with cheaper materials, and may not have as big an emphasis on design. More expensive chairs will be more fashion-forward, and will be made from more premium materials, and may even provide you more options for customization.
The second difference between low- and high-priced office chairs is adjustability. Less expensive chairs can't be adjusted as much as more expensive chairs. For instance, an office chair that costs around $100 may only let you adjust its height. As you go up in price, office chairs will have more things you can adjust, such as their arms, lumbar support, seat position, and more.
However, if you see a chair that you like that's a little out of your price range, it's worth doing some digging to see if you can find a previously owned model for less. A lot of companies were forced to close or downsize their offices over the past few years which has resulted in a lot of office equipment being sold for pennies on the dollar.
Comfort
Comfort is pretty easy to understand: A comfortable chair should offer a seat that is yielding but that also provides some level of firmness. It should also wick moisture so you don't get sweaty on warm days. Seats and backs made of mesh tend to fare the best in this regard.
The seat should be wide enough that people of larger stature can sit comfortably on it and not feel like they are squeezing into a kids' chair.
The armrests should be contoured for the elbow and upper arm to lean comfortably on and be made of fabric or softer material that won't jar the elbow when you bump into it.
Lumbar support
Another critical feature is lumbar support. This piece of an office chair helps you maintain the curve of your lower back, so that you don't strain yourself by sitting for long periods (not that you should). Like other parts of an office chair, this should be adjustable so that you can move it up or down, or increase or decrease the amount it pushes out. I have also seeing some newer chairs like the Sihoo Doro-C300 incorporate lumbar support mechanisms that automatically adjust their lumbar support based on how you're sitting in them.
Material
What an office chair is made of can also have a big impact on your comfort. For the most part, office chairs are covered in some sort of fabric, with padding beneath. However, some have either a mesh back or seat, which can help with airflow, and keep you cooler throughout the day. And, if you want to make a statement, there's nothing like a leather chair.
But the materials go beyond the seat itself; pricier chairs will often use more metal parts in the base and elsewhere, whereas less expensive models will have more plastic parts.
Adjustability
Adjustability is the other major factor. The best office chairs should allow you to tweak pretty much everything, including the following:
- Seat height
- Seat angle
- Seat depth
- Armrest height
- Armrest width
- Armrest angle
- Backrest angle
- Backrest height
That's important because every person is different; getting a chair that allows you to adjust all of these things lets you configure it to your unique body shape. Generally, the more expensive the chair, the more things you'll be able to adjust. Chairs that cost less than $100 will usually only let you change their height.
How we test the best office chairs
In order to test the best office chairs to review them and see how well they stack up against one another, I spend a few weeks sitting in each one. During this time, I see how well each office chair supports my back, shoulders and arms and determine their comfort level. In addition to comfort, I also take a close look at how easy each chair is to adjust and whether or not the changes I make to a chair stay that way.
While I review many of these office chairs on my own from the comfort of my home, I also have family and friends of different weights and heights test them out too. This gives me a better idea of how well each chair will work with different body types and I can gauge someone else’s reaction to sitting in them for the first time. For the chairs that other members of the team at Tom’s Guide review, they do something similar when working remotely but if they’re in the office, other co-workers come and try out each chair.
During our testing process, I also take note of each chair’s design, appearance and how customizable they are. At the same time, I inspect their materials and parts and see how well they hold up over time. Since few people build furniture as often as I do, I take a lot of notes while building each chair to see how easy or difficult it might be for someone with less experience to build one. I assemble every office chair on my own but I point out in my reviews where having someone else to help during the assembly process can make it easier or speed up things by quite a lot.
Finally, I take into account the overall cost of a chair, the length and fine details of its warranty and how it compares to competing chairs in the same price range. For more information on our testing process, check out our how we test page for Tom’s guide.
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