The buyer's guide
Office Chairs
Reviewed by
Michal Zucker · Fitness, Movement & Wellbeing Editor
Expensive doesn't mean comfortable, and soft doesn't mean supportive. A chair has to fit your body and your hours.
A good office chair fits three things: your body, your desk, and the number of hours you actually sit. The traps are believing expensive means comfortable (a $1,000 chair in the wrong size is worse than a well-fitted $400 one) and believing soft means supportive (a plush seat that offers no structure is what wrecks your back by 3pm). The features that matter — seat fit, real lumbar support, adjustable arms, weight-sensing recline — aren't the ones on the showroom sticker, which is the case we make in features that actually matter.
For most home offices the Steelcase Series 1 is the smart pick: genuine Steelcase engineering, a back that flexes with you, and a 12-year warranty for $499 — the chair to buy before you spend Herman Miller money. On a budget, the Sihoo Doro C300 is the rare sub-$300 chair with self-adaptive lumbar and weight-sensing tilt, and the Branch Ergonomic Chair gives you most of a premium chair's adjustability for $389. The Herman Miller Aeron is still the all-day benchmark — if you get the size right — and we weigh whether its premium is worth it against both cheaper options in Aeron vs Steelcase Series 1 and Aeron vs Branch. Split your day between work and gaming? The Secretlab Titan Evo is the cushioned chair that's actually ergonomic enough to work in.
Not sure what fits you? Take the 60-second quiz, or read the full Aeron review on why fit beats prestige.
6 questions · about a minute
