These Are Our Favorite Standing Desks to Liven Up Your Workstation

Other Standing Desks to Consider

Beflo Tenon Premium for $3,998: While incredibly expensive (and heavy!), this hardwood smart desk is both sturdy and well designed. Assembly was straightforward, and once the desk was up and running, I found all of the features (touchscreen controls, a built-in power strip, audio passthrough, and LED lighting) to work well, and in convenient locations. The touchscreen controls are intuitive (iOS-like), and features like a sit/stand timer and phone connectivity provide additional functionality. The desk supports over 200 pounds of stuff even when moving, and the height-adjustment motors will temporarily disable if they overheat, instead of risking damage to the desk. The table also looks fantastic, and a multitude of first-party accessories let you customize the desk to your specific needs. My largest issue with this table is the noise. While in no way loud, it was certainly more audible than the “whisper-quiet” descriptor Beflo uses in its marketing. Besides that, the lighting color adjustment had some difficulties creating specific colors using the built-in touchscreen, and the audio cable was too short to reach a desktop computer on the floor, even at the lowest height. However, the Tenon is still a great, if pricey, option to consider. —Henri Robbins

Herman Miller Spout Sit-to-Stand Table for $3,000: Herman Miller’s Spout Sit-To-Stand Table is lovely to look at. Like the Branch Four-Legged Desk, it looks like a normal desk with four legs, giving it a luxe look. Those motors in the legs rise smoothly, and it’s easy to raise and lower the desktop to my preferences with the button on the right. The motor does have a high hum to it, and is loud enough that I’d hesitate to use it when my husband is on a call in the same room, but not so loud it would disturb my son if he were sleeping a room away. Bizarrely, it doesn’t have memory presets, but I found it pretty easy to just adjust the desk to my preferred sitting and standing heights each time. You can add a cable tray underneath the desk to organize cords, but it costs extra. The only other item built into the desk is a single slim center drawer perfect for pens and notebooks. It comes in three desktop sizes and three finishes: laminate white, veneer walnut, and veneer ash. You can also customize the base color, with seven different colors ranging from your classic black and white to a gentle blue and olive green. While it’s gorgeous to look at and works well, it is disappointing that such a high-priced desk doesn’t have presets and uses veneers rather than real wood. —Nena Farrell

Flexispot E7 Pro for $400+: Standing desks can get pricey, but Flexispot routinely offers similar functionality at a lower price. At first glance, the E7 Pro looks much like the Herman Miller Jarvis, but look closer, and you discover the entry-level option has a shallow 23-inch desktop, the control unit feels a bit cheap, and it emits a high-pitched whine in operation. I also had some issues fitting larger power adapters in the cable tidy, and it can get wobbly when fully extended. But, even when fully configured, the E7 Pro is cheaper than many rivals. Minor flaws aside, it is a perfectly decent standing desk. —Simon Hill

Charcoal Standing Desk for $1,199: This desk is meant to remind you when to take breaks from work, so you have the mental focus to make it through your pile during the day. It uses your health and sleep data in an app, plus lights and haptic feedback, to track and tell you when to take a little rest. At first, this feature seemed interesting, but its function is not much better than a timer on your phone reminding you to get up and walk around. The build quality of the Swedish-made desk frame is excellent, with a smooth, quiet operation that goes nearly to the floor, which is perfect for those of us who like to sit on the ground and work sometimes. It has dual motors with three-stage columns and piezo sensors, so it won’t crush children. I like the rounded edges of the white rectangular top, which never accidentally nicks my hips when I walk by the desk, and the white plastic surface coating is easy to clean. At nearly double the price of a similar standing desk, I’m not sure it’s worth it—don’t buy it for the company’s “supercharging” claims—but you won’t be disappointed with the desktop. —Parker Hall

Ergonofis Sway Standing Desk for $1,495: Here’s another pleasant-looking solid-wood standing desk from Canadian brand Ergonofis. Like the Grovemade, there was so much packaging I was left with after I unboxed the desk that it was a little overwhelming. There were also a lot of parts, and the assembly was just plain weird. (I had to step on a part with my feet, which meant I had to put on shoes to finish the assembly.) It’s a gorgeous desk, but I also found the company’s control panel confusing to operate, and the desk wasn’t always responsive when I touched the panel to move it up or down.

Inbox Zero 47-inch Adjustable Electric Standing Desk for $180: This desk has every feature I need for just about $200. There are rolling casters so you can not only move the desk up and down, but also shake it all around. It has electric controls that have presets but also allow you to fine-tune the height—my actual use-case for standing desks, as I don’t like standing to work as much as I should, but I do like to adjust the height to accommodate changes in my posture when I’m typing versus Zooming. The split top that makes it easier and cheaper to ship doesn’t hurt the performance, but is less pleasant visually, and the little motor works audibly hard (tshunk, tschunk, tshunk) while raising the desktop. After three months of testing, I’d recommend it to someone who needs a budget standing desk with casters, but if you can spend a little more, you’ll probably be happier with something else. —Martin Cizmar

Standing Desk Accessories

Branch Clamp-on Power

Photograph: Julian Chokkattu

Branch Clamp-on Power for $89: This simple and elegant clamp attaches to your desktop and adds three AC outlets, a USB-C, and a USB-A, so you don’t have so many wires running down to the ground.

Monster Workshop Power Strip for $50: This heavy-duty power strip and surge protector from Monster is built to protect the Working Man’s expensive power tools, which means it can handle the needs of your cute yellow Mac. The reason to buy it for your standing setup is the integrated mounting handle, which can dangle off your desk with a C-clamp, keeping your connections away from the dirty floor without using valuable space. —Martin Cizmar

LumeCube EdgeLight 2.0 for $150: Why have a lamp take up valuable desk space when you can clamp the lamp to your desk? These task lights from LumeCube are great for illuminating the desktop and even your face during late-night Zoom calls. You can adjust the color temperature and the brightness.

BenQ ScreenBar Lamp

Photograph: Julian Chokkattu

BenQ ScreenBar Lamp for $139: Alternatively, you can place these ScreenBar lamps over your computer monitor, and it will light up your desktop, no clamping required. The ScreenBar Pro also has a motion sensor, so when you leave your desk, the lamp will turn off, and it will light up when you’re back. You can adjust the brightness and color temperature, and an automatic setting makes it adjust these controls based on the room’s ambient lighting.

Secretlab Premium Footrest for $89: I’ve been using this footrest for several years, and it’s excellent. The plush memory foam is cushy and a nice respite for my feet, and it’s easy to clean with a vacuum and a damp cloth. It hasn’t shown much wear despite years of use.

Monoprice Single Monitor Adjustable Gas Spring Desk Mount for $83: I’ve had a few of these WorkStream arm mounts for years, and they’ve reliably done the job. You can adjust the tension with a hex key and move the monitor around to your desired position. Just make sure you don’t go over the recommended weight load with a big and heavy screen.

Mount-It! Dual Monitor Arm for $280: This heavy-duty monitor arm holds up my ultrawide monitor and my vertical monitor, both of which have BenQ Screenbar lamps on top, along with my webcam. It handles the weight with no effort, and the clamp is accommodating enough to even work with the 5-inch Room & Board standing desk. There’s RGB lighting throughout, but it’s not bright enough to splash onto the wall, so it’s a little pointless.

Harber London Professional Desk Mat for $195: Keep your desktop protected with a large desk mat like this one. I’ve used several mats from Harber London over the years, and this latest model is my favorite. The pebbled leather is supple and soft, and the mat stays put. It’s easy to clean too.

Avoid These Standing Desks

Corsair Platform:6 Desk

Photograph: Julian Chokkattu

Corsair Platform:6 Desk for $1,400: Where do I start? I liked Corsair’s standing desk because it’s spacious, has a fun pegboard design to mount your tchotchkes, and even has an interesting rail system that lets you mount and slide things across the desktop, like your monitors. Unfortunately, several months after mounting two monitors on the included dual-monitor arms, this rail system has tilted forward due to the weight. (I’m also not the only one to experience this.) It doesn’t help that I never really found this rail to be all that useful. The standing function works well, and you get two presets, but sometimes the little screen would throw me an error message “rE5.” Pressing and holding the down button resolved it, but none of these are issues anyone should deal with considering the crazy-high price. That’s the real problem. It’s just so expensive, and the five-year warranty feels like a slap in the face.

ErgoAV Standing Desk for $2,200: I’ve wanted a standing desk for years, so I was extremely excited to try out this one from ErgoFx. For almost two grand, it comes jam-packed with features including a wireless charging pad that automatically lifts and rotates towards you, a five-outlet power strip, and a built-in drawer to put all your office supplies in. You can also control it via the companion app. It has a super durable laminated MDF desktop and a carbon-steel frame and looks sleek. Unfortunately, only a few months into using it, I started having issues where the desk would get stuck at a specific height. This would typically happen if I didn’t adjust it for a few days or weeks. The only way to solve this was by unplugging the power cord and plugging it back in. After each reset, it would work normally again. But this issue comes back every time, so that I’ve stopped trying to fix it. It’s become more trouble than it’s worth—especially at this price. —Brenda Stolyar

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