The Best Office Chairs

The Steelcase Leap has the deepest reviewer support of any chair we looked at. BTODtv's Ryan, who has tested dozens of chairs across years of content, gave it his only S+ rating, calling it his "unicorn of office chairs" and the one he'd choose if he could only sit in one chair for the rest of his life. He has sat in every major chair on the market, and this is the one he settled on.

The backrest is the star. Greg from BTODtv calls it "without question the best back rest in the business," and Ahnestly independently confirms that the flexibility is "next to none." Unlike the Herman Miller Aeron's rigid frame that dictates how you sit, the Leap's backrest bends, flexes, and molds to your body as you twist and shift throughout the day. Active sitters who shift posture throughout the day will feel the difference within the first hour.

Then there's the durability story. BTODtv regularly pulls 20-year-old Leaps out of decommissioned office buildings and finds them fully functional. Steelcase, one of the world's largest office furniture makers, covers it for 12 years, and those decades-old office Leaps suggest that term is conservative. At $1,399 new, the Leap is expensive, but refurbished models from dealers like Crandall Office start around $600 with a 12-year warranty, which puts it within reach of far more buyers.

The S-tier 4D armrests, seat depth slider, and 400 lb weight capacity round out a chair with no weak spot in its core ergonomics. The only reason to look elsewhere is if you need a headrest (the official one is terrible) or require specialized pelvic support for severe lower back conditions.

Branch's Ergonomic Chair Pro is the chair that kept beating more expensive ones. WIRED, whose Julian Chokkattu has sat in more than 60 chairs for at least two weeks each, named it the best home office chair for most people and found the mesh back followed the curve of his spine. Forbes Vetted put it through a month with a seven-person panel and ranked it runner-up overall, calling it comparable in comfort, support, adjustability, and sturdiness to models twice the price.

The spec sheet explains why. At $499 you get a lumbar pad that moves in height and depth, 5D armrests, a seat-depth slider, and forward tilt, 14 adjustments in total. That is the Leap's core adjustment set on a mesh chair for about a third of its list price, and Branch backs it for 7 years.