Now that more of us work from home, finding the best office chair for back pain is arguably the most important aspect of your office set up. (Although, if you’re looking for other home office essentials like a laptop, keyboard or WiFi extender, we have buyer’s guides to those, too).
But what makes an office chair ergonomic? “One that suits you,” says Lee Jones, ergonomic consultant at specialist retailer Wellworking. “In an ideal world we would all have a chair specifically made for us, but as that’s not realistic we need chairs that can be adjusted to suit our individual needs, especially as we tend to sit for prolonged periods at home or in the office.”
In practice, that means it offers back support or lumbar support and is easily adjustable. At a minimum, ergonomic office chairs – sometimes called ‘posture chairs’ or ‘orthopaedic chairs’ – should allow for seat height adjustment, pan depth adjustment, back support adjustment (tilt, tension, height, etc), and movement (letting you turn while seated, without straining).
Like office workers, many gamers look for a special gaming chair to keep them supported during long periods in front of the PC. These tend to be softer than office chairs and are designed for a more laid back posture, with support for the head as well as the lower back.
You can find more detail about what to look for in an ergonomic office chair at the bottom of this feature, after our reviews. But if you’re in a hurry, here’s a quick look at our top five:
What are the best office chairs in 2024? At a glance
- Best overall office chair – Herman Miller Aeron Office Chair
- Best value office chair – Hbada Ergonomic Office Chair
- Best budget office chair – SIHOO Ergonomic Office Desk Chair
- Best designed office chair – Humanscale Diffrient World Task Office Chair
- Best office chair for back pain – RH Logic 220 Ergonomic Office Chair
What is the best sitting position for working?
“You should adjust everything initially, but once you have set the chair to suit you and the desk you are working at, the height is something you’ll want to check regularly,” says Jones. “One of the most common issues for poor posture is incorrect sitting height.”
The functions of an ergonomic office chair help you get into the perfect seated position: knees a little lower than your hips, feet flat on the floor, and roughly 1-4 inches of space between the back of your knee and the seat’s edge (the ideal position for optimal leg support and blood flow).
If you find it painful to sit for long periods, you may find our guide to the best standing desks useful.
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How we tested the best office chairs
While Abi tested almost 20 office chairs in showrooms under expert advice from ergonomic consultant Lee Jones, Kulwinder ordered chairs to use in his home office for several weeks. They evaluated each chair for comfort, support, material, adjustability and ease to set up. We were looking for something that was both comfortable and posture-correcting.
Best ergonomic office chairs
1. Herman Miller Aeron Office Chair
From £1,399, John Lewis
Best overall office chair, 10/10
We like: it’s the best-engineered office chair you’ll find
We don’t like: it costs more than £1,000
- Seat height range 41-57cm
- 12 year parts guarantee
- 136kg maximum user weight
Expert recommended
The Herman Miller Aeron is “the most iconic ergonomic chair in the world, with a timeless design,” says Jones. This brand is the Rolls Royce of office chairs, and the Aeron was co-designed with industrial designer Don Chadwick using insights from the “science of sitting” to make it an ergonomic masterpiece. It has eight precision-engineered zones on the backrest and fully adjustable height, tilt and arm width and height for a fully tailored seat.
Plus, it’s made with an innovative material called 8Z Pellicle mesh on the backrest, which allows air and body heat to pass through for better temperature regulation. Available in three sizes, it’s undoubtedly an investment buy – but a worthy one that comes with a 12 year warranty.
2. Hbada Ergonomic Office Chair
£199.99, Amazon
Best value office chair, 9/10
We like: it’s well designed for the price
We don’t like: there are fewer points of adjustment
- Seat height range 43 - 53cm
- Three years warranty
- 120kg maximum user weight
Whilst more expensive brands like Herman Miller are the most well-known, it is possible to get a decent ergonomic office chair for less than £150. Case in point: this popular Hbada office chair, which has an adjustable headrest and lumbar support, a breathable mesh back and quiet casters designed to protect your hard floors. It doesn’t have as many points of adjustment as more expensive models, but it’s a decent choice at a very good price.
3. Boulies EP460 Hybrid Mesh Office Chair
£269.99,Boulies
Best midpriced office chair, 10/10
We liked: If you suffer chronic lower back pain, you’ll adore this one
We don’t like: Footrest is a bit of a token effort
- Seat height range 49 - 59cm
- Available in black or grey
- 2-year guarantee
- 130kg maximum user weight
Tested by Kulwinder Rai
Looking for all the world like a tribute act to the iconic Aeron chair, the equally sober-looking Boulies EP460 similarly features swathes of ventilation-enhancing, mesh fabric laid across all its surfaces; the only foam that’s present is in the bolster, underneath the front lip of the seat base. So far, so Hermann Miller…
Build and material quality tick all the right boxes for a chair at this price, with a lightweight, cast-aluminium wheelbase underpinning a tough, reinforced plastic frame. From an ergonomic point of view, the headline features are, of course, that separate mesh-covered neck pillow, and the lumbar support. The former swivels and can be moved vertically to one of seven notches, while the latter can be adjusted to one of three levels by grasping and rotating the lever that protrudes either side of it. Move the backrest to the highest point and it drops down like a stone.
The detachable armrests offer a thin but adequate amount of cushioning, as well as decent range of adjustability. Unusually, there’s also a footrest – mounted on a couple of chromed rails – that can be slid in and out for when you want to recline in the chair, say when you’re reading. The swivelling lumbar support is a godsend for anybody who finds more conventional chairs lacking in lower back support.
The mesh fabric does a great job in keeping you cool, allowing air to freely circulate around you and prevent overheating. Even after several hours sat in the chair – with regular breaks, of course – I didn’t feel remotely sweaty. The only real caveats I’d apply are that heavier than average users do ‘sink’ more deeply into the chair, inevitable given the mesh-backed design; over time that could lead to some deformation. And I found the neck cushion slid up and down of its own volition a bit too readily, particularly when taller users were in the seat.
But those minor failings have to be seen in context; the aforementioned Aeron chair costs four times as much as one of these. In my book, that makes the Boules EP460 the go-to option for budget-conscious back-pain sufferers.
4. Humanscale Freedom Headrest
From £1,107.01, Humanscale
Best office chair for flexibility, 9/10
We liked: extremely comfortable, genuinely innovative design
We don’t like: ‘floating’ backrest may not suit all
- Seat height range 45 - 55cm
- 15 year guarantee
- 136kg maximum user weight
Tested by Kulwinder Rai
Humanscale’s ingenious Freedom Headrest chair minimises the need for fiddly adjustments by employing a weight-sensitive, self-locking reclining mechanism that uses the weight of your own body to automatically adjust both tension and support.
The practical upshot is that the backrest automatically pivots as you lean backwards and forwards when seated, the armrests moving with it, instead of remaining horizontal. Recline the chair and the headrest will also move to stay in a vertical position, properly supporting the back of your cranium while you’re sitting back.
Humanscale has certainly achieved its design objective of reducing the need to fiddle with controls. Adjusting the seat, headrest and backrest is manifestly easier – and swifter – than it is on virtually all of its competitors, the ‘lift, tilt and lock’ armrest mechanism, in particular, feeling positively revolutionary.
But that’s nothing alongside the actual experience of sitting in this chair: it genuinely feels as if you’re floating, with little feeling of undue pressure on any part of your body. The only caveat to the unquestionable comfort provided is that some may find the backrest’s enormous degree of freedom a little unnerving, particularly when leaning back.
There is actually a simple solution, namely an adjustable tensioner on the seat’s underside (operated with an allen key). But you’ll have to source the key yourself as Humanscale asserts that its preset tension is ideal, and so neither supplies one with the chair, or even acknowledges, that the adjustment tensioner even exists.
If you’re wedded to the notion that a backrest should stay locked in a position that you decide upon, then this chair probably isn’t for you. Get past that hang-up, however, and I suspect you may find it hard ever to return to a more conventional design.
5. HAG Capisco 8106
£699, Back2
Best office chair for standing desk owners, 9/10
We like: ‘Horse saddle’ design encourages regular movement
We don’t like: Not a chair for those who take pleasure in slouching
- Seat height range 48.5 - 66cm
- 10 year guarantee
- 114kg maximum user weight
Tested by Kulwinder Rai
Made mostly from recycled materials, the HAG Capisco is one of the few office chairs that seemingly has been designed not to allow you get comfortable. HAG’s objective, instead, is to encourage lots of micro-shifting of position: the company also suggests you try sitting in it sideways, or even straddle it while facing backwards.
Mimicking, it’s claimed, the posture that horse-riders adopt, the design is a masterly deconstruction of the traditional elements of a chair. Rather than conventional armrests, for instance, the sculpted seat-back (adjustable for height) employs fixed wings that are better described as elbow-rests. Use them and your chest is automatically forced forward, allowing your mid and lower back to be correctly supported.
While it’s easy to tilt the chair, as well as adjust both the seat-base depth and the backrest’s height, this is definitely not a design that you can collapse into and doze off in. Its raison d’etre is solely to support you while you work.
The big bonus of the skeletal design is that it makes jumping on and getting off much easier than usual. As a result, you’ll find yourself doing that more often, particularly so if you use it in conjunction with a standing desk, as I did. This is an altogether good thing because the more you feel inclined to move and vary your working position, the less long-term stress you impose on your back.
The Capisco is self-evidently that rarest of creatures… an office chair that categorically makes you feel as if it’s doing your body good while you’re using it.
6. Techo Sidiz T50 Mesh Office Chair
£620.75, Office Chairs UK
Best office chair for adjustability, 8/10
We like: Comprehensive range of adjustment options
We don’t like: Lumbar support cushion is very firm
- Seat height range 46 - 55cm
- 10 year guarantee
- 125kg maximum user weight
Tested by Kulwinder Rai
Visually understated and sober looking in the extreme, adjustability is this well-built chair’s super-strength. So, while the seat height adjustment lever does what it says on the tin, it cleverly also integrates a ‘pull and rotate’ control, designed to change the seat tension you experience when leaning back.
Behind that is a seat depth adjuster while on the other side of the chair lives a ‘seat slope’ control paddle, designed to instantly tip the seat forward for a more comfortable pelvic angle. It’s certainly not something I’d use all the time, but it’s a great way to vary posture, always a good thing where office chairs are concerned.
Nice to see, too, that the S-shaped mesh backrest assembly is covered with a well- tensioned, free-breathing mesh that allows heat to escape, with an adjustable lumbar support at its base. All of that combined design nous translates into a chair that happily suits a wide range of body shapes and sizes.
The question is, does all that add up to a comfortable chair? Well, by and large, yes. The foam seat base offers a well-judged balance between comfort and support, catering well for all sorts of thigh lengths, while the curvature of the seat back feels very natural. The arm rests are more than sufficiently flexible and the lumbar support is generally effective, too, though it would be remiss not to mention a cautionary addendum on that last front.
The resilient - but firm - rectangular foam pad used is just 12cm high and, no matter how you adjust it, does feel little more noticeable than the usual effort. I found myself winding it back to its minimum setting and left me wondering if I needed it all on this particular design (happily, Sidiz also markets a version of the T50 without any kind of lumbar support).
By way of balance, I should out that my 6ft 3in tall son, who has a much broader back than myself (he’s a gym bunny), didn’t find the firmness of the lumbar support to be as much of an issue.
Ultimately, your choice will come down to personal preference but, whichever variant you consider, rest assured this is a quality chair that you’ll be able to adjust to the nth degree.
7. Herman Miller Verus Ergonomic Office Chair
£670, Herman Miller
Best ergonomic office chair for posture, 9/10
We like: iconic design at a slightly lower price
We don’t like: the backrest is plastic, unless you pay extra for a mesh option
- Seat height range 47 - 58cm
- 12 year warranty
- 159kg maximum user weight
Expert recommended
Jones’ second recommendation is also from Herman Miller. It offers “ergonomics on a budget,” he says – and although you may argue it’s still fairly expensive, it’s a slightly more wallet-friendly option from this leading brand. “It’s engineered with cost-effective materials to offer the Herman Miller brand and 12 year warranty at an affordable price tag,” he says. “In terms of adjustments, the Verus features lumbar support, adjustable arm rests, seat depth adjustment and tilt. It’s a chair that can be adjusted to suit individual requirements without having to select a size.”
8. SIHOO Ergonomic Office Chair
£159.99, Amazon
Best budget office chair, 9/10
We like: it’s good value for money
We don’t like: the back doesn’t come forward enough for proper lumbar support
- Seat height range 43 - 51cm
- Three year warranty
- 150kg maximum user weight
If you’re looking for a softer chair, this is your best bet. It is very similar to the Steelcase Leap, a cult ergonomic office chair that is rarely available outside of the US, but at a fraction of the cost. It has all the bells and whistles required to customise it, with five points of ergonomic adjustment and a sponge-y, W-shaped seat for reducing thigh and hip pressure.
9. Humanscale Diffrient World Task Office Chair
£849, John Lewis
Best designed office chair, 9/10
We like: it automatically adjusts to each user
We don’t like: you can’t adjust the backrest
- Seat height range 37 - 50cm
- 15 year guarantee
- 136kg maximum user weight
The Humanscale Diffrient is the gold standard in office chairs. Industrial designer Niels Diffrient created it with the hope of designing an office chair that adapted to each user automatically. The mesh backrest is fitted with a recline mechanism that adjusts to the weight of each user, and it also has seat height, depth and armrest height adjustments. It also has a sturdy metal base and castors that allow you to glide across the room without leaving marks on your flooring.
10. RH Logic 220 Ergonomic Office Chair
£1,580.40, Posturite
Best office chair for back pain, 8/10
We like: the supportive high-backed design
We don’t like: the high price is only justifiable if you have severe back problems
- Seat height range 41cm - 53cm
- 10 year warranty
- 150kg maximum user weight
The heavy-duty RH Logic 220 is not only extremely adjustable, leaving you with plenty of ways to maximise comfort, but was built with the company’s unique 2-Point Principle (2PP) to minimise back pain. Essentially, this means the chair is designed with the principles of “upright posture and active sitting” to keep your muscles stimulated and back supported even as you move slightly throughout the day. It has an extra high back for additional support.
Best wobble cushions
Introducing the affordable alternative to a posture-improving chair
With the ergonomic chairs above ranging from £150 to over £1,500, you’d be forgiven for wondering if there’s a cheaper way to improve your sitting posture. Wobble cushions, sometimes called balance discs, are partially inflated so that the air inside them moves around as you shift your weight. Constant small rebalancing motions keep your core muscles engaged, improving your posture and relieving back pain.
Usually made of tough PVC, they vary in price and appearance. The most affordable wobble cushion we’ve tried is by Core Balance (£14.99, also available at Amazon). It has sensory-input nodules on the top which are thought to help children with attention deficit conditions. They encourage you to keep making small, slight adjustments. At 33cm, the Core Balance is a little narrower than most bottoms which encourages movement around the core, but you may find that when you stand up there’s a tingly feeling between your buttocks that not everyone will appreciate.
Slightly more polite is Sissel’s Sitfit (£27 from BackInAction, also available at Amazon), the same size but without the nodules. Instead it has wavy ridges, also thought to be helpful in cases of ADHD. It comes with an exercise poster: you can stand on wobble cushions to add core-strengthening instability to any workout.
At the top end is the Pil & Ped from Denmark’s VLUV (£69 at BackInAction). It’s wider and covered in machine-washable upholstery fabric, which comes in various colours to match your office chair. This is the one to choose if you don’t want everyone asking you what you’re sitting on as they swing past your desk.
When using a wobble cushion, remember to have your feet directly under your hips and your shoulders directly above them. Bring your keyboard close to your midriff and have your monitor at eye level to get the most benefit out of this cheap but effective posture aid.
Office Chair FAQ
What is an ergonomic office chair?
An ergonomic office chair is one that supports the entire body and promotes good posture. Unless they’re custom made, ergonomic chairs should be highly adjustable. The aim is to achieve a posture where shoulders, spine and hips all sit over each other with no discomfort.
How do you choose an office chair?
Ergonomic consultant Lee Jones defines an ergonomic office chair as one that suits your individual body. The best way to guarantee this is to buy a chair with a high level of adjustability. Look for adjustable seat height, a tilt feature, adjustable armrests and an adjustable neck rest, if there is one.
The perfect ergonomic office chair will have your head to pelvis in a straight line, with your legs at a right angle and flat on the ground. Easier said than done.
Are ergonomic office chairs better than normal chairs?
Using a regular chair from your kitchen can put pressure on vertebrae and disks. Their shapes often also encourage slumping – where your spine isn’t aligned with your neck and pelvis. Sitting like this for at least eight hours a day can cause serious back pain. Ergonomic office chairs are designed to take pressure off your joints and muscles.
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