There are several options and features we tested when picking the best standing desk in 2021 for our top 10 comparison. The staff at Gadget Review have all made the switch because we love the standing desk benefits, as it can help you burn calories, improve your posture, prevent heart disease and help your focus during tasks where your mind might start to wander. These desks are much more than just a laptop stand for your home or office. A height adjustable standing desk will improve your health. Aside from the health benefits you will feel mentally and physically better too.
After purchasing the top 20 standing desks and testing them out as a part of our daily work routine, it was easy to pick the Varidesk Pro Plus 36 as our winner. With plenty of surface area for two monitors, easy operation and an overall sturdy build, this desk converter is an excellent choice for anyone who wants to stick to a budget while still getting a premium standing desk experience. Keep reading to learn more about this Varidesk ProDesk and our other top picks.
Award: Top Pick/Best Desk Converter
WHY WE LIKE IT: If you’ve already got a solid desk that you love, the Varidesk Pro Plus 36 is a cheaper and easier way to add standing capability without much fuss for adjustment. Why? Because it goes on top of your desk, so you don’t have to move anything.
Read Full Review: Varidesk Pro Plus 36
The VariDesk Pro Desk Plus 36 is what’s known as a desk converter, which features a curious design that is made to latch onto the corner of a desk and move between a sitting and standing position at will. The idea is that if you want to spend some of the workday sitting, and some of it standing, you can switch between the two states in an instant. The adjustment points of the Varidesk monitor stand are particularly handy, allowing for a variety of set ups and multiple monitors, if required. You can also adjust the flexible keyboard stand to whatever height and angle you want, providing a lot of welcome customization to your working stance you won’t find in many other models.
That said, like many variable standing desk converters, according to some users the Varidesk suffers from the problem of complete sturdiness when extended to max height while installed on an already shaky-surface. If you go this route be sure that the desk underneath is rock-solid, otherwise you could experience a significant amount of sway during extended typing or gaming sessions on the Varidesk. Although it is much more stable than a full standing desk. It is a solid replacement for your existing desk and for those looking for gaming desks, you may want to try this one. Plus, it has a 30-day risk free guarantee, and a 5-year warranty. This is good for your home office. Still not sold? Well, at least you can get the best office chairs under $100. You can also choose the best standing desk chairs for those times when sitting is preferred.
Award: Honorable Mention/Best Motorized
WHY WE LIKE IT: If you’re looking for a motorized standing desk, look no further than the ApexDesk Elite 60. This adjustable standing desk features plenty of surface area and an easy-to-use control panels with plenty of height customization options.
Read Full Review: ApexDesk Elite
The ApexDesk Elite Series 60 is a minimalistic option, and the top standing desk if you want something motorized that doesn’t come with too many extra frills. To start, you can adjust this electric standing desk to any height you want (using the programmable controller with four customizable height presets) up to 48 inches. This allows for infinite adjustments to get you exactly where you’re most comfortable, while either sitting or standing. You can set up to four different height settings using the handy LED control panel included with the desk.
We were especially pleased with the overall minimalistic design of this standalone motorized standing desk. The construction of this grade steel desk frame coupled with a firm MDF desktop enables the desk to hold up to 225 lbs weight capacity to accommodate your workspace. It looks clean with its MDF desktop and feels sturdy with its solid steel frame. The ApexDesk does get a little wobbly at the highest height setting, but this is pretty common across the board with standing desks. If you need the highest setting, just be careful while working. With tons of surface area, you’ll be able to fit dual monitors and still have plenty of room here, which is something other options like desk converters tend to struggle with. If you want something big, minimalistic and electric, then you should definitely consider the ApexDesk Elite Series 60. If you want to sit and stand, check out the best office chair under $500.
Award: Best Budget/Best Dual Monitor
WHY WE LIKE IT: The Seville Classics AIRLIFT is an excellent standing desk converter that offers plenty of surface space without taking up too large a footprint on your existing desk. It’s perfect for anyone on a budget looking to use two monitors at the same time.
Read Full Review: Seville Classics AIRLIFT
The Seville Classics AIRLIFT is another one of our top standing desk converter options that gives you more flexibility if you already have a desk that you own and love using. You would love that it has a heavy duty steel desk frame. Perhaps the best part of this converter is its incredibly small footprint. Unlike some other desk converters, the Seville isn’t awkwardly shaped or overly large so as to take up the bulk of free space on your desktop. It is ideal for a 35-inch desktop size. We were also impressed at how much you could fit on the Seville AIRLIFT. There’s plenty of room for two monitors and it even includes a helpful, built-in tablet and phone stand so you can enjoy media there while using your monitors for work.
And while this isn’t a motorized standing desk, you can still lift the desk up and down up to 19.1 inches using the gas-spring mechanism. Unfortunately, the Seville is a little heavier than other converters, especially when fully loaded with dual monitors, which might make it harder for some users to extend fully. It has a weight capacity of 33 lbs, and in itself weighs 52.3 lbs. This wasn’t a huge problem in our opinion. Assembly is easy, as well, but the included assembly instructions aren’t super clear. We were able to get through it well enough, though, and since the physical act of putting the desk together was easy, we weren’t too worried about the instructions. Speaking of important office equipment, the best standing desk converters will turn an ordinary desk into something with more height.
Award: Best Value/Best Crank Adjustable
WHY WE LIKE IT: The Stand Up Desk Store crank adjustable standing desk is unique in the fact that you manually adjust the height using a turn crank instead of a motor or a gas spring mechanism. This gives you plenty of flexibility and tons of sturdiness, making it our best value desk on the list.
Read Full Review: Stand Up Desk Store Crank Adjustable Desk Review
The Stand Up Desk Store crank adjustable stand up desk takes a hybrid approach to lifting capacities. Instead of using a motor or hydraulic system to lift the desk, you can adjust the height up or down using the built-in hand crank. This does the heavy lifting for you but still requires some manual operation. Some might consider this a downside, but we were actually impressed overall with how easy it was to operate the crank. There’s not much effort involved and the desk slides up and down smoothly. That is nice considering this standing desk has an up to 154 lbs weight capacity. You will also want to read best office chair for lower back pain.
The overall design of this adjustable standing desk is something to be applauded, as well. Featuring a unique two-tier platform, you’ll have plenty of surface area for your monitors, laptop, keyboard and mouse, along with any other things you need to store on your desk. This Stand Up Desk Store desk is very sturdy, as well, which makes it heavier than most other options. This is important to keep in mind during assembly and transport. You do get casters with the desk, but you may find that they make things a little more unstable, so we recommend using the desk without the wheels if you want the ultimate stability. And speaking of necessary office equipment, one of the best paper shredders at your desk will save you some trouble.
Award: Best Single Monitor
WHY WE LIKE IT: The Cobra ESR800 is the cheapest option on our list, but that doesn’t mean it sacrifices too much on performance or quality. You get the best 360-degree protection on our list and a good variety of signal detection.
Read Full Review: Stand Steady X-Elite PRO Desk Review
If it’s simplicity you’re looking for in your stand up desk, you can’t go wrong with the Stand Steady X-Elite. Featuring one of the simplest designs on our list, this desk features a minimal footprint and is extra lightweight. It’s so simple, you won’t even need to assemble it out of the box. Of course, this simplicity in design leads to some sacrifices. Namely, you won’t really get any extras like keyboard trays or anything similar. However, this wasn’t such a big deal during our testing, since the Stand Steady X-Elite’s total surface area more than makes up for it.
You might not have enough room for a full dual-monitor set up with this standing desk, but we found that it offers plenty of room for a larger single monitor. Ultimately, we think the X-Elite is perfect for all-in-one desktop computers like iMacs. Raising and lowering the height is as simple as squeezing the handle on the side of the desk and moving it to the appropriate height. This isn’t as sophisticated as motorized desks or gas spring options, but it works in a pinch and for such a low price, we can’t complain. All in all, if you don’t want to complicate your life with an adjustable desk that needs extra assembly or a tutorial, the Stand Steady X-Elite is a perfect choice. The best office chair will give you a break when you do want to sit. However, if you want to remain standing for as long as possible, the best standing desk mat will help you do that.
Note: Other standing desks you could consider that are not on our list include the Changdesk Tall Ergonomic Standing Desk Converter with an adjustable height keyboard tray. The Chang extends tall, collapses low, and there’s no awkward motion in its vertical adjustment. With no installation needed, the Changdesk gives you a height range of 4.5-21.5 feet, and it’s lightweight and portable.
When choosing and testing the top standing desks for this list, we considered a variety of models, features, and prices to fit anyone’s budget, though the Varidesk meets a lot of this criteria.
First and foremost, it’s important to know there are several different styles of standing desk that can either “stand” on their own (pardon the pun), or can act as an attachment to your preexisting desk to impart additional functionality on top.
Standalone standing desks (last one) are desks that can transition between standing or sitting positions, using either a motor or a pneumatic handle to shift from one mode to the next.
Whether or not a desk was motorized was an important consideration, because the last thing you want to be doing while you’re at work is awkwardly trying to jack a desk into position while all your co-workers look on in pity. Motorized desks also tend to be more stable when compared to hand cranked versions, though this can vary from company to company and desk to desk.
Next, there’s testing the build quality of the desk itself. This includes various factors such as what materials both the top of the desk and the frame are made of (bamboo and aluminum generally do the job without driving up costs, though some manufacturers are starting to experiment with high-end materials like reclaimed wood and oak), as well as the sturdiness and overall stability of the desk at various heights (our #1 pick, the Jarvis, had excellent marks when it came to this). For any earth-conscious readers out there, the Jarvis Bamboo Standing Desk is an eco-friendly option made from sustainable bamboo grown with any pesticides or fertilizers.
One of the most annoying things about poorly made standing desks is a desk that won’t stop wobbling at full height, and while there’s no specific metric to measure the “wobbliness” scale of a product, all the desks we tested and picked on this list have been rated by users and reviewers as being extremely stable in any configuration. For another exceptionally sturdy desk, many reviewers rated the Uplift V2 as a great stand desk, sturdy and wobble-free at any height.
Wobbliness is a problem that plagues almost all budget desks, which is why we recommend that if you’re working to save a little cash that you run with an add-on stander that turns a regular desk into a standing desk, rather than dropping the full amount on a (if you’ll forgive the pun) “standalone” option. Finally, there’s the overall durability of the ultimate standing desks, and how that relates to price. As we mentioned in the previous section, cheaper materials like bamboo (compared to other woods and surfaces) can also take quite a beating if treated with the proper after-coatings, and won’t cost you an arm and a leg while lasting years at a time.
Given that most standing desks (and even standing desk add-ons) are designed to last at least five years (optimally around 10), you’ll want to make sure your desk can withstand the abuses and rigors of desk work without denting or warping in the first few months of ownership or less. On the scale of durability the ratings would likely fall into the following order (scaled by most durable to least): aluminum, reclaimed wood, oak, bamboo, high-pressure laminate, particle board.
While the actual health benefits of a standing desk are still hotly contested by scientists and doctors alike, there’s no arguing that standing while you work is a good way to get the blood flowing. As someone who has suffered from lower back pain since a tailbone injury at age 14, I know when something is helping or when it hurts because I’ll feel it sooner and more harshly than most.
Personally, I find that whenever I have a task that I need to focus on for long periods of time, standing through half or more of it will keep me more attentive, and give my restless legs a chance to stretch out. It also helps to alleviate some of the strain that my incessant slouching habit puts on my back, shoulders and hips – a pleasure that few desk workers get unless they’re getting up to go to the bathroom or grab a snack.
But how to stand at a standing desk is also key, as you should keep your keyboard and mouse at a 90° angle while standing (as doctor’s recommend) so you can improve your standing desk posture while also burning far more calories than you would by comparison to sitting down.
Depending on your build, it’s said that the average office worker can burn around 50 extra calories an hour while working from a standing position, which can really start to add up if you’re standing for more than three hours a day, five days a week.
That said, despite all the obvious benefits it’s generally considered a good idea to switch between standing and sitting postures about every three hours or so, which is what we did during our testing. This gives your body time to recover between both states, and doesn’t put an unnecessary amount of strain on your joints while you work (compared to just sitting or standing alone).
We also recommend moving around every now and again while you stand. This can include anything from stretches to dancing to your favorite music; whatever works best for you but also keeps the blood moving and prevents you from standing static for long stretches of time at once.
In short, if you’re someone who’s wondering how often you should stand up from your desk and wants to improve their posture, burn some calories, and improve their overall focus on specific tasks – then a new standing desk might be in the cards for you.
There are many brands and models to choose from like Varidesk exec, Ergotron workfit, Versadesk power, Ergo desktop kangaroo, the Ergo desktop kangaroo pro, Ergo desktop Kangaroo pro junior, the imovr ziplift, the Uplift standing desk, Stand steady xelite, Xelite pro, Flexispot m2b, the Varidesk Pro and more. Ergonomic office furniture like this became popular thanks to people like Ryan Bald.
There are clearly many standing desk benefits, but make sure you follow this standing desk guide on how to use it properly. And while our list of best standing desks is helpful, you might want to also read our standing desk reviews, which should as another point of comparison as well learn about some of the features to look for in a standing desk. They make great gaming desks as well.
Lastly, you’ll want to also take a look at our list of standing desk mat comparison to be sure you get the most comfortable surfaces to stand on as possible. These mats can reduce overall fatigue and keep you standing well beyond the normal limit that your co-workers might hit, and will also prevent you from wearing down your knees or straining your back as you might if you were standing on hardwood or carpet alone.
Ergonomic chairs are a good compliment to standing desks, but you can also buy specialized standing desk chairs as well with an adjustable height stand. Standing desk chairs have a lot of cool features and ergonomic chairs will keep you pain free. You’ll also want to start using an ergonomic mouse as well. And the best gaming chair is also comfortable.
Alternatively, you can opt for a treadmill desk or focus on desk conversion in other ways, like the cooper standing desk converter, which would be one of our standing desk converter picks, but really an adjustable standing desk is best. If you have to use a converter, an electric converter works well. An electric standing desk converter again, makes things easy. Some users like to use accessories like a monitor mount or monitor arms.
Keep in mind that they all have different weight capacities. You could buy an autonomous smartdesk or one that requires more work. Electric standing desks are best in any case. Nothing beats adjustable height desks. Electric adjustable height is just easier to use.
Always do your research whether you buy on Amazon or at a stand up desk store. A buying guide like this one will answer most of your questions. A bonus of shopping at a stand up desk store is that you can try everything in person.
Read standing desks reviews on Gadget Review so you can compare the different types for features, suitability, and cost. The best standing desks are not just an attractive piece of cool furniture but offer benefits like easy adjustment, rugged build, quick installation, energy savings, and scope for customization that lets you add keyboard trays, monitor arms, cable connections, etc. Singe-touch motorized controls let you set the height of these desks, so that you may sit down and work with your computer should you want to.
The best brands like iCraze, VARIDESK, Victor, and Winsome ensure that their standing desks are ergonomically designed and they back their products with a good customer service. Learn more about the different types of standing desks – stand only, sit and stand, desktop attachments, and portable standing desks. A standing desktop is a one-time gadget purchase that will have a bearing on your health and your work.
From weight management to preventing risks of cardiovascular attack, individuals who stand all day improve the overall health of the body. If you are from those who spend many hours at work while sitting and standing, then you must find the best standing desks that not only improve your posture but also suit your needs and budget. Gadget Review offers you reliable standing desk reviews that will help you find one that suits you perfectly.
Do not be deceived by the attractive furniture, instead find one that has a standing desk converter to allow you to easily switch your positions. iCraze offers you high quality sit to stand desks that improve your efficiency at work. With price tags on every desk, Varidesk is best known for quality adjustable standing desks with high adjustment speed. Get an adjustable height desk of your choice from the wide range of standing desks that Victor offers you.
Whether you need electric standing desks with dual monitors or a keyboard tray, Winsome has everything you need. Check if price points or a one year warranty is awarded and ensure the dual monitors are working perfectly before you make your purchase. Other factors to consider before buying a standing desk include a wire management system, lift capacity, and a fully functioning height adjustment system. If you are looking for the best Jarvis desk or one with bamboo tops, Gadget Review will help you with top reviews.
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