The 13 Most Comfortable Ergonomic Office Chairs

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Sitting at a desk all day—no matter where that desk is—doesn't need to wreck your body. Yes, we know sitting all day is bad for our hips and backs and necks. No, we haven't gotten a treadmill desk and at this point probably never will. Sitting is not inherently bad, anyway. As human people with human bodies, we should feel comfortable moving and being in all planes of motion, including sitting at a desk. The issues come about when we sit in suboptimal positions for long stretches of time.

Getting a good chair won't solve everything but it certainly helps. Sitting in a cheap chair with little to no support means gravity is pulling down on the parts of your body that slouch when seated, like pulling your neck forward or getting your back into a prolonged arch position. An office chair designed ergonomically means that its details are meant to provide support for the more vulnerable parts of your body.

Now, an intelligently designed office chair is a little bit like shopping for shoes that are actually good for your feet, which is to say that your options are perhaps not the most beautiful items you've ever seen in your life. But hey, there's nothing more beautiful than good posture and not feeling like garbage at the end of every day, right? Right??? We can hope so. Here, 13 of the smartest ergonomic office chairs to power you through another day.

Ergonomic Chair

Branch's ergonomic chair is one of the least expensive options here, which is great for people who want something gentle but aren't ready for a full-scale investment. There are eight points of adjustment (including height, tilt and tilt tension, and seat depth) to get you into your perfect positioning—and to move you into the next one once you start feeling achy. Excellent for fidgeters.

Drafting Chair Tall Office Chair

Primy's drafting chair is a great option for sit-to-stand desks. The high seat gives you access to a higher workspace or a place to lean when you're done standing but not ready for the full sit. This is a simple chair with solid lumbar support, adjustable arms, and a comfy place to put your feet.

Capisco Adjustable Standing Desk Chair

Task chairs are the kind of office chairs you're probably most used to seeing but ergonomic designs at their best push beyond that standard construction. You might get something like this: A chair with a smart shape. The seat leaves room for the legs so your hips don't get crushed upward and the back is open, which means you can use it as standard lumbar support or you can swing around and sit on it backward.

The materials are high-quality, too, with an eco-polyester fabric and 50% recycled material. The chair itself is 90% recyclable.

Ergonomic Kneeling Chair

Part of what makes sitting at a desk all day painful—especially on the back—is that most chairs don't require you to keep your core engaged. A kneeling chair relieves your legs from fatigue but gets your core in a position that requires it to stay engaged and protect your back from overuse.

This one is a bit harder to assemble than some of the others but with that work comes the unique shape is lightyears away from your standard desk chair.

Passo Office Chair

Article's seating options are always just exactly what you need: Simple, well-made, and pretty. This simple office chair is no different. It takes up a minimal amount of space, especially so because of its armless design—good for small spaces and for storing your chair under a standing desk when not in use.

You can get the chair in an upholstered gray, gold, or green fabric, or go with the same chair in a leather material instead. It doesn't have all the ergonomic bells and whistles that the others do but sometimes the best fit is something that doesn't do too much. This one offers just a basic foam pad to sit on; you'll have to do some of the ergonomic thinking yourself. Roll your shoulders back, tuck your chin in.

Rookie Task Chair

This little task chair is minimal and smart and great for just about every kind of office space. It might look simple but the back and seat have more bend to them than your standard chair does. That bend means you get some support but without turning off your muscle engagement completely.

Task Chair

Vari's task chair is an Internet favorite as far as ergonomic chairs go. The seat is wide and cushioned, the armrests adjustable, and the bendy mesh back as supportive as it gets. It has the features and function of a pricey chair at a more accessible price point.

It's just easy: the seat is soft and the mesh back is flexible. It's comfortable, but not so comfortable that it feels hard to get out of like how the driver's seat in your car should be comfy but not so comfy you go to sleep. Kinda like that.

Zeph Multipurpose Side Chair

Herman Miller reigns supreme in smartly designed office chairs. If you're ready to really go for it, you can't go wrong with nearly any of the brand's options. The Zeph chair is under $1,000, which is on the cheaper side of the brand's offerings, and still has the support and high-quality materials of its pricier picks.

This one doesn't have the same kind of cushioning as some of the others but for some workers, that's exactly what helps them focus.

Ryder Swivel Office Chair

In a scientific testing, this leather chair is probably not going to win for most ergonomic, when you compare it to meshy backs that bed and move as you do. But if you really can't stomach an industrial metal chair but still want something that isn't going to wreck your body, this West Elm leather office chair is a nice alternative. It has a high, supportive back with soft cushioning and a roomy base. It does take up a decent amount of room though, so make sure the space under your desk has enough space for this.

Aeron Chair

The Aeron office chair is the gold standard of smart office chairs that last a lifetime. In fact, there's a whole secondhand market of refurbished Herman Miller Aeron chairs for people who want the good stuff but don't want to spend $1,300 on a chair. But if you've got the budget, this is the office chair that will last.

This chair has tiny tweaks that make the whole sitting experience different: the seat is positioned so that your pelvis tilts a bit forward rather than crunching back. The flexible back mesh is made to stay in contact with your spinal flexion while also letting body heat and, well, sweat, pass on through.

ErgoStool

There are lots of ways to prevent the kind of pains that pop up with sitting at a desk and making sure your body isn't cramped up into one single position is the best way we have. This ErgoStool provides some relief from standing but not total relaxation, keeping your legs, hips, and core engaged. It moves around as you do, and you can use it to sit or to lean while at a standing desk. Sitting on the weighted dynamic base is quite unlike other sitting experiences but it also makes it kind of fun. If you tend to fidget or hate sitting still, this will keep that part of your brain occupied.

Freedom Task Desk Chair

Humanscale's desk chairs are virtually indestructible and meant to flex to your body and movement, rather than restrict you into it. It is pricey for sure but it will last you forever—and keep muscle pain to a minimum in that lifetime. It's Living Product Certified, too, which means all of those materials are made sustainably.

This one has the look and feel of some of those old-school, very elaborate leather executive chairs that maybe look soft but also don't look like they let you get all that much work done. This has all the extravagance with more of the motivation.

Gesture Office Chair

If you need support for your back and your neck while you sit, Steelcase's office chair has a headrest to support proper spinal alignment. You can adjust just about everything about the chair, and we recommend doing just that for consistent movement throughout the day.

Depending on where your desk is, you can get the right wheels to match, too, with carpet or hard floor casters.

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