Standing Desks & Treadmill Desks

By far the most populous category of sit-to-stand products, electric standing desks are powered by precision, linear motor drives and easily change in height with the press of a button. They have a distinct advantage over most manually-operated desks in speed, convenience, and performance, but tend to cost a little more than their crank-operated cousins. Nevertheless, with dozens to choose from spanning a wide range of capabilities, feature sets, and price tags, it remains the active workstation of choice for homes and offices across the country.

When it comes to standing desks and standing desk converters, nothing beats made-in-America for component quality, precise machining tolerances, technology features, customer support and overall value over the lifetime of the product.

Our standing desk expert review staff has selected the top offerings in the market between $400 and $800 - check out these summaries and click through to our detailed lab test reviews of each of these top-rated desks.

As we frequently get requests from readers for a short list of the best budget sit-stand desks to consider, we asked our editors to compile their top picks for standing desks under $400.

Cornering Every Niche in Standing Desks

When standing desks first started appearing online en masse they were pretty much all rectangular affairs. Cubicle denizens and those who wanted to have a standing desk placed into a corner didn’t have too many options. Nowadays all that has changed, and there are now so many options that we had to actually break this category up into two subcategories: “corner standing desks” and “L-shaped standing desks.”

You might be wondering “what’s the difference between a corner desk and an L-desk?” This is another one of those situations where some standing desk purveyors intermix the two labels, [...]

Treadmill desks can come as integrated treadmill-plus-desk units or as mix-and-max setups that allow you to pair an office treadmill with the adjustable-height desk of your choice. Our expert review staff has reviewed them all, and in this comprehensive comparison review give you the synopsis on every popular treadmill desk option out there.

Planning to build a sit-to-stand desk or treadmill desk with your own desktop lumber? There are some great options available. We'll take you through the pluses and minuses of each model. Understandably, DIY'ers are always looking to find the lowest cost option for any components they need to buy versus make. In the case of electric height-adjustable bases spending a little more, as a rule of thumb, is going to buy you a quieter, faster, heavier-lifting, more reliable desk base, a longer warranty period, and a longer "stroke" (total distance between top end and bottom end).

If you're in the market for an adjustable-height desk and are willing to put in 20 seconds of elbow grease each time you want to switch from sitting to standing, then a manual desk will save you some coin. Unlike the more common electric-adjustable standing desks, manually-operated desks change height without motors, electronics or power cords. This makes manual desks slightly more affordable than electric models. The only tradeoff is that manual desks are generally slower to adjust and require more effort from the user to lift and lower. As with any category, there is a spectrum of quality among the different available products, with a few standouts that rise above the rest. We've [...]

While the jury-rigged DIY treadmill desk may have been the best option in the past for someone with a running treadmill just collecting dust in the attic, and possessing of good garage workshop hacking skills, the office fitness industry has now caught up with demand by offering a wide array of quality products all across the price spectrum. We've compiled the specs of all the major treadmill desks on the market today, to easily compare them against each other so you can find the right treadmill for your walking workstation. For a comprehensive review of the many desk options for pairing with a walking base, see our Comparison Review of Adjustable-Height Standing Desks.