We Found the Best Office Chairs After a Decade of Testing

Office chairs under $300

As part of our ongoing mission to recommend high-quality office chairs at different prices, we have considered a number of chairs under $300 that met our criteria for adjustability (lumbar support, height, seat depth, armrest, and tilt/tension) and that also had a warranty of at least five years.

We dismissed the Staples Hyken Mesh Task Chair and the Office Star ProGrid Mesh Manager’s Chair for the lack of seat-depth adjustability. And we eliminated the Staples Kroy Mesh/Fabric Task Chair over concerns about its too-high minimum seat height (over 18 inches).

The AmazonBasics Mid-Back Mesh Office Chair is the least expensive model we’ve tested, with fixed armrests and a one-year warranty. Our petite-size testers had difficulty sitting in this chair comfortably and getting full back support because of the seat-pan depth. Others complained about the firm seat and the limited recline. Ultimately, we think you’re better off saving for a more comfortable chair that will last longer.

The IKEA Markus was universally reviled by our testing panel. Shorter testers said the high back made them feel like a kid sitting on a throne, while taller testers said the non-adjustable arms were far too low to be comfortable.

Office chairs over $300

The Branch Verve is a generally comfortable, flexible chair that comes in eye-catching colors like coral pink and sage green. But starting at $599, it costs much more than Branch’s own $359 Ergonomic Chair, which offers a wider range of ergonomic adjustments and can be outfitted with a head rest. We found the seat’s gentle forward slope (which Branch told us is an ergonomic feature) slightly unsettling, since it gave us the vague feeling that we were about to slide off. And we didn’t like the arm design, either. If you pull on an arm (say, to move the chair), it easily extends to its full height. The problem is, this is also how you unlock the arm, which sends it sliding all the way back down to its lowest position. For us, at least, that meant we were constantly readjusting the arms to our preferred height.

We had a similar experience comparing the HON Nucleus to its sibling and our budget pick, the HON Ignition 2.0—the more expensive Nucleus didn’t seem to offer significant advantages over the Ignition 2.0 except for coming in a couple of pleasant, neutral colorways. The Nucleus’s foam seat sits on a mesh-covered frame, which the company says offers a hammock-like feel; it’s comfortable to sit in especially if you like firmer support, but we didn’t experience the implied suspended bliss of the seat design.

The HON Convergence’s seat is too squishy, with thin fabric, and its mid- to upper-back support was not as good as that of the HON Ignition 2.0.

The HON Ignition 2.0 Big & Tall Task Chair came with a missing chair lift cylinder, so we were unable to test it.

We found the FlexiSpot C7’s seat comfortable, but the chair was more difficult to adjust than our picks, its protruding lumbar support section was awkward to sit against, the fold-out footrest felt flimsy, and the chair rolled everywhere on its own while we were sitting in it.

The X-Chair X3 ATR Management Chair with Elemax has a lot of interesting-sounding features, but it’s just an okay chair. The backrest and lumbar support didn’t adjust high enough, and they were prone to slipping out of position. There’s a free kit that allows users to screw the lumbar support in place (video), but this seems like a less-than-ideal solution for a chair that’s nearly $1,000. Testers also found that the dual-mode massage function didn’t work very well.

The Herman Miller Cosm Chair (available in low-, mid-, and high-back versions) is designed to shift and move with you. It costs about the same as the Aeron, and our panelists scored it well for comfort, back support, ease of reclining, and overall appearance. But in all those categories, the Aeron still edged out the Cosm by a hair.

The Steelcase Silq’s design philosophy is similar to that of the Herman Miller Cosm. But we found the Silq to be less comfortable than other, comparable chairs to sit in for long periods of time. One size C tester found that the Silq pushed them forward in an uncomfortable way and that the armrests dug into them.

Humanscale’s Freedom Task Chair is compact and offers plenty of finishes, but our panelists rated it just average across most of the categories, including comfort, back support, and adjustment ease. It also has a very firm seat.

The Autonomous ErgoChair Pro combines a mesh back and a foam seat for a relatively low price, yet it was our panelists’ least favorite chair. One tester said that sitting in it for 90 minutes “felt like an eternity,” and another remarked that this chair might motivate them to get a standing desk. The back pushes you forward more than is natural, the headrest is uncomfortable, and the adjustments are difficult to control.

IKEA’s Hattefjäll comes in a variety of colors and has a fun, curvy design. But we found the foam seat too firm and potentially prone to collecting excess dust, lint, and other detritus. Because of its size, this chair is also best suited to petite people.

The Steelcase Leap is an excellent chair with ample adjustments and a comfortable back. But most of our testers didn’t find anything about the Leap that separated it from the Steelcase Gesture or the Herman Miller Aeron.

The Haworth Fern was the favorite of a couple of testers. But because of its high back, others couldn’t get comfortable in it, no matter how hard they tried.

Herman Miller’s Embody Chair is a strange-looking model, yet it’s comfortable, highly adjustable, and high-tech. However, its starting price is even higher than the Gesture’s, and it lacks the Gesture’s arm adjustability and fabric variety.

The Herman Miller Mirra 2 Chair is a good office model, and it’s priced comparably to the Aeron. But we think the Aeron is a better chair, with a more comfortable seat and better tilt controls.

The Steelcase Amia ranked highly for some testers, but its unremarkable design and limited features keep it from truly excelling.

The Steelcase Think is similar to the Amia in that none of our testers found it terrible, yet only one person put it in their top three. It’s inoffensive, and because it has a mesh back, it will be breathable in the heat. However, we think most people should get the similarly priced Gesture instead.

None of our testers liked the Steelcase Series 1. They complained that it was too short, the arms were too tall, and it was generally uncomfortable to sit in for longer than a couple of hours at a time.

This article was edited by Ben Keough and Erica Ogg.

Melanie Pinola, a Wirecutter senior staff writer, died in October 2024.