Best Standing Desk Chairs of 2022 (Reviews and Buying Guide)

Looking for the best standing chairs to pair with your standing desk? If yes, this guide will help you out.

Standing desks are a godsend invention that helps fight the problem of sitting in your office chair for long hours. They promote active sitting—keeping the blood flowing and boosting your productivity.

However, too much standing isn’t good for you either. It leaves you with aching feet, legs, and even sore back muscles.

This is where the standing desk chair comes in. It enables you to sit or lean while working on your standing desk. It also helps take some weight off your feet.

With the best standing desk chair, you can enjoy the comfort of sitting while getting all the benefits of standing.

In this guide, you’ll discover only the best standing chairs for standing desks and additional info you need to help you choose the right model for your needs.

Top 10 Best Standing Desk Stools and

Chairs Reviews:

This is our list of the highly-rated standing desk stools and chairs on the market today. These are ergonomic chairs with good construction quality and will serve you for years to come.

1. Best overall: Seville Classics Airlift 360 Wobble Sit-Stand Active Desk Stool

You can easily adjust the seat height between 20 and 28 inches. Thanks to the 360-degree adjustment lever and the pneumatic lift system integrated into this chair, the adjustment is smooth and quick.

Stability is at its best in this chair. It features a non-slip base that puts you in a stable position while supporting your weight. You won’t have to worry about falling off and finding yourself on the floor if you move too quickly while on this chair.

All the hardware and parts needed to build this stool are included in the package for hassle-free assembly. You also don’t need to use any tools when putting it together, making the installation even easier.

2. Best value: SONGMICS Standing Desk Stool

Its base is curved to allow for an unrestricted range of motion in all directions. It is also comes armed with anti-skid TPR to increase stability and ensure your own safety. This rubber pad also helps protect the floor from scratches.

Seat height is adjustable from 22 to 31.9 inches. This enables you to customize the standing desk stool to a comfortable sitting height depending on your body height. It supports users up to 242lbs, making it ideal for a wide range of users.

Underneath the seat, you’ll discover 3 slots that enable you to easily grab the stool and move it around. The installation is simple and fast and doesn’t involve any special tools. The included instructions make the whole process even easier!

3. Budget pick: Norwood Commercial Furniture Active Stool

The Norwood sit-stand active stool is designed to keep you moving for the time you’ll spend sitting on it. The seat is affordable and will appeal to all budget-conscious buyers looking for a perfect companion for the standing desk.

It comes with a comfortable cushioned seat with mesh upholstery to provide you with hours of comfortable sitting. This saddle seat promotes correct posture to minimize back issues.

You can easily tilt, swivel, or rock this standing stool. This enables you to engage more muscles to minimize fatigue and keep you focused while working.

The height adjustment range for this tilting saddle stool seat is 20 7/8″ – 26 1/2″. This is a good range that allows you to easily go from sitting to standing desk height.

With its sturdy and flat iron base, this active standing desk stool is sure to stay stable and support your weight safely. This ensures you enjoy excellent ergonomic support even as you change position.

4. Premium chair: LeanRite Elite Ergonomic Standing Desk Chair

You’ll like that you can make this seat tilt while you’re standing to support your lower body and offer you good back support. What’s more, you can fully flip the seat vertically to enjoy even better back support while standing.

You can bring the seat’s height down to the tailbone when you want to sit in an angled perched position. You can also alter its height to enable you to somewhat sit in an upright position. And you can lower it to assume a traditional sitting position.

Since this seat comes with a built-in anti-fatigue mat, it offers your feet ergonomic support. It keeps your legs and feet from aching due to long periods of standing in front of your standing desk.

5. Best back support: Harwick Evolve Heavy-Duty Drafting Chair

With Synchro-tilt technology, the backrest and seat move together whenever you tilt the back. This ensures your body gets excellent support regardless of the position.

The 360-degree feature lets you turn your seat in all directions. And the caster wheels allow for mobility across your office space.

Since this is an adjustable height desk chair (from 24 to 31 inches), you can easily raise or lower it to get the perfect fit. Like the other drafting chairs, it also presents you with a built-in footrest. This top-quality chrome foot ring adjusts easily to give you a more comfortable platform for resting your feet.

This stool is built to last and features upholstery made using high-quality, patented mesh called Duragrid. This material is not only highly elastic and high supportive but is also highly breathable.

On top of all this, the product is backed by a whopping 10-year warranty. This is the manufacturer’s way of showing they have great confidence in this chair’s quality.

6. Best kneeling: DRAGONN by VIVO Ergonomic Chair

The single-knee cushion allows you to easily move around and shift weight from one knee to the other. This cushion design also makes it easy for you to adjust for better balance in the chair.

We also like that this is height adjustable from 21 to 31 inches, so you can customize it for the most comfortable standing height for working on your standing desk.

Keep in mind that this chair features a sturdy metal frame that can support users up to 250 pounds. The chair’s base is then equipped with up to 4 wheels to enable you to freely move it around your office space.

7. Best for tall people: Vari Active Seat Standing Desk Chair

It’s armed with a commercial-grade airlift piston mechanism that makes the height adjustment simple and fast. It supports up to 20lbs heavy.

A perfect mate for your standing desk, this standing desk stool enables you to use it in the perched active seating position. This promotes good posture and offers you a wide range of motion to help engage your cores, legs, and back whether you’re sitting or standing.

This standing chair presents you with a fully articulating pedestal to let you lean in any position. Moreover, it features a tilt guard that keeps your seat from articulating more than 20 degrees forward.

You’ll also be pleased by how wide a seat this standing chair offers you. Unlike most stools out there, which feature a 14-inch wide, this Vari active seat has a wider 17-inch seat that accommodates even the big guys. The seat cushioning is foam and is covered by durable vinyl material.

8. Most stable: Learniture Active Learning Stool

Like the other standing desk stools we’ve featured on this list, this standing desk stool is height adjustable. It lets you easily raise its height from 18 1/2 to 28 inches for a comfortable working height. It is integrated with a pneumatic gas lift that ensures smooth and quick height adjustments.

Note that it comes with durable polypropylene, which is extremely easy to clean. This frame material gives the stool a lightweight and makes it easy to move around and store. The seat upholstery is vinyl which is also incredibly easy to clean.

The installation part is straightforward and doesn’t require any tools.

9. Best for heavy users: SOHO Soft Pad Drafting Chair

It boasts a sturdy and durable steel frame and aluminum wheelbase. This choice of quality materials gives it the strength to hold users as heavy as 400lbs. A steel foot ring is included to offer you a resting platform for your feet and increase your comfort.

Note that this chair also easily tilts and swivels. It features an adjustable gas lift system that operates smoothly and swiftly to help you move the chair’s height from 24.5 to 33 inches in no time. The seat is sent to you with removable armrests, so it’s upon you to decide whether you need them.

10. Best stability ball: Vivora Luno Exercise Ball Chair

When you use this ball correctly, it will help you build your core. But if you start slouching, it will rotate back with your movement and force you to correct your posture.

Because this ball is constricted from quality burst-free PVC and tightly wrapped in a sturdy cover, it will hold up to regular use. The built-in handle on the outer cover makes it easier for you to control the ball and easily carry it around with you to any place.

Keep in mind that this beautiful ball comes in 2 different sizes to enable you to pick the one that fits you the best. It also comes in a total of 11 color options, so you can choose a color that matches the rest of your office furniture.

Standing Desk Chairs Buying Guide

With hundreds of standing desk chairs and stools on the market currently, it will take you months to go through them and find the best model for you. You’ll also need to arm yourself with enough knowledge of these units to help you make a more informed decision.

Below, we list the most crucial factors to guide you when looking for a standing desk chair.

Build quality

One of the top things to consider when looking for a new standing chair for a standing desk is the construction quality.

Look for a well-built chair that will serve you for a couple of years. If you’re not careful, you can easily fall victim to low-quality stools that degrade pretty fast and lose their functionality. Such models will barely give you value for your money.

Make sure the chair is made using quality materials. You may also want to go through previous users’ reviews of the chair to see what users have to say regarding its sturdiness and longevity.

Stability

To enjoy using your new chair on your standing worktop, you also need to make sure it offers good stability.

This is for your own safety. A highly stable chair gives you peace of mind knowing that it won’t easily collapse or quickly move from side to side, causing you to slip off the chair and get injured.

The right chair for you should come with a solid construction as they usually offer better stability.

They will hold up to pressure applied above or from an angle without moving or collapsing. Again, previous users’ reviews will come in handy when determining the stability offered by a chair.

Seat comfort

Another key factor that will help you easily find a good chair for your needs is checking the seat’s level of comfort. Remember you want a chair that will support your lower body for long hours, whether you’ll be standing, perching, or moving around in the chair.

The most important thing to check here is the seat cushion. It should be adequate and comfy to give you hours of comfortable sitting experience.

If you go with a drafting chair, make sure it’s armed with an ergonomic backrest to provide lumbar support [1] and adjustable armrests as well.

Height adjustability

Height adjustability is also a determining factor when buying a new standing desk chair. How low or high a chair can go will give you an idea of whether you can set it to a comfortable standing height.

However, not all types of standing desk stools offer you the height adjustment feature. If you go for models like kneeling chairs, stability balls, and some active sitting chairs, you’ll need to use them with a height-adjustable desk.

Weight capacity

Like regular office chairs, the standing chairs also come with different weight limits. Therefore, you must choose a model that supports your weight. This is especially important if you’re a heavier person since most chairs are designed for users with average body weights of around 250lbs.

Other features:

Types of standing desk chairs

When shopping for a good standing desk chair, you’ll come across various types of chairs with varying styles and designs. It’s, therefore, good to familiarize yourself with the different chairs to give you an idea of how each model works.

Here are the most common types of standing desk chairs available today

Leaning stool

This is probably the most popular standing desk chair you’ll find on the market. As its name suggests, this chair is designed to let you perch while working on your standing desk rather than simply sitting.

It is designed so that it only supports a portion of your body weight as you lean back against it.

You’ll also find some standing stools that allow for an additional range of motion in the form of wobbling and rocking. These chair types will enable you to freely move around and stay active, all while you lean against them.

While you can also sit on a leaning stool, its height and angle can make the seat feel uncomfortable. Most people see this as a drawback. But it helps prevent you from falling back to a sedentary lifestyle.

Kneeling chair

Kneeling chairs also make a perfect companion for standing workstations. This chair is great because it engages the parts of your body that allow for proper posture.

This is better than chairs that put you in an upright seated position where you’re likely to strain your hips, neck, and back.

It’s also worth noting that these chairs are practical for use with height adjustable standing desks. People with varying body heights may find it impossible to use this chair and still work on the elevated worktop comfortably.

Drafting chair

A drafting chair comes in the design of a regular office chair. It has a backrest with lumbar support, seat cushion, and even adjustable armrests. It simply allows you to sit comfortably while working on your standing desk.

However, a typical drafting chair or standing desk stool varies from standard office chairs in that they’re taller and have a footrest. These two key features make them comfortable for use with a standing desk.

However, we don’t encourage getting drafting chairs if you’re serious about fighting excessive sitting.

This is because they have great comfort levels and let you retain the traditional sitting position while working on a standing desk rather than alternate between sitting and standing.

Active sitting chair

This type of standing workspace chair allows for active sitting throughout your workday. It usually comes with a flexible design so you can tilt, rock, wobble (hence the name wobble stool), bend, and even shift it [2]. This means you’ll remain in constant motion in the chair without a lot of strain.

These chairs are available in the form of chairs and stools with flexible seats.

Large stability balls are another perfect example of active sitting chairs. However, keep in mind that stability balls are more suitable for pairing with adjustable standing desks. They’re also less stable due to the high mobility they offer.

FAQs

Here are quick answers to some of the most commonly asked questions about standing desk chairs and stools. These answers will give you more insights into the standing desk chairs and help with your buying decision.

Verdict

Standing for long hours using your standing desk can leave you with aching feet/legs/hips and sore back muscles. That’s why you need a good standing desk chair to protect you from long periods of standing while still keeping you from going back to sedentary life.

When looking for a new standing stool, be sure to focus on important aspects such as seat comfort, stability, maneuverability, and build quality.

These factors will help you easily navigate the populated market of standing desk chairs and find a good chair for your unique needs.

Our recommendations for the best standing desk stools present you with some of the top-rated chairs and stools you can find on the market today.

These products tick the boxes for good build quality, ergonomic features, comfort and will dramatically transform your standing desk experience.