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.

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.

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.

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).

Not Quite Minute-Rice, But Pretty Darned Close

When it comes to the prospect of assembling a standing desk we find that our readers generally fall into two camps:

Dudes who love a good DIY project, have the proper tools, and wouldn’t dream of paying for someone else to assemble their desk, and Everyone else. Including people who dress nicely for work, who don’t have the patience or technical skills for an “IKEA project,” and those who don’t have the proper power tools to make the job go faster.

If you fall into Group 2, this article is for you. The rest of you dudes can go check out our DIY section and learn all about the best bases and desktops to use in constructing your [...]

When Only a Small Standing Desk Will Do

While 95% of standing desks sold are 30 inches deep there are times when that’s just too big for your available space, and what you really need is a desk with 24 inches of depth. Whether for a small Manhattan apartment, a dorm room or a “hot desk” area, these smaller desks are ideal for the laptop user who doesn’t plan to have a lot of external monitors (for focal depth, users with multiple LCDs will likely want that full 30″ depth in all likelihood). These are fundamentally the two standard depths for the office desk industry; anything shallower than 24″ or deeper than 36″ is considered very [...]

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.

Searching for the right anti-fatigue mat for your standing desk brings forth a daunting paradox of choice. They come in all sizes, colors, and quality of construction. Having analyzed many and written more fully-detailed product reviews on various standing mat offerings than any other expert review site, our simple advice to the reader is this: First figure out what quality level best suits your needs, then narrow down your choice of size, color, and shape. Read our full guide on anti-fatigue floor mats to choose the best standing desk mat for your office.

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 all corner desks and L-desks will fit into a corner there are significant differences between the two. To keep it all cleanly delineated we've opted to categorize all corner desks that are built with a single desktops as "true" corner desks and all those built with two desktops as "true" L-shaped standing desks.

How to upgrade a traditional L-Desk to an L-Shaped Sit-to-Stand Workstation

As popular as standing desks have become—and as many companies as there are producing them these days—so-called “Standing L-Desks”, “L-Shaped Standing Desks” or” “Height Adjustable L-Desks” have been the red-headed stepchild of the active workstation category. Until recently.

While there aren’t a plethora of L-shaped standing desk options compared to their rectangular brethren, there are now enough offerings in the market to ensure that regardless of your space requirements, budget or existing décor, there’s an electric L-desk out there that will likely suit your needs. And if not, [...]

Looking for a balance board that can provide enough stability to work at your standing desk? We've reviewed the top office products available in this relatively new product category. Improving on the design of balance trainers and physical therapy tools, these wobble boards are bigger, better-looking and functional when it comes to taking pressure off of your joints.

Balance trainers are a good way to improve your balance and stability, if you are looking to take on extreme sports like skateboarding or snowboarding or if you have an interest in surfing and dancing, but can they really replace sturdy, office balance boards?

Call it a desktop workstation, a sit-stand workstation, or a desktop riser, a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. Ah, well, let’s step back from that a bit and just say that some of these products are on the rose spectrum while others may be closer to skunk cabbage. As always, caveat emptor, and that’s where we come in and lab test these units to find out what they’re really made of.

If you're looking for a standing desk converter for under $350, you're in the right place. We've compiled a list of the top 18 models across all model types, including Z-Lifts, X-Lifts, Hovers, Post & Base, and Electric—as long as a desk converter is under $350, it qualifies. Of course, included at the bottom of this list are many products we'd never recommend, but at the top, you'll find the overall best value standing desk converters that we've ever set eyes on, and we've set eyes on 100+ over the last 5 years of our extensive research and testing.

Most of the electric stand desk converters use a Post & Base structure, which means they come with a monitor post built-in. No need to purchase a monitor arm separately, and that’s part of what accounts for their higher price--as well as the electric motors of course. (Monitor arms are used to keep your screens at an ergonomically correct position while you sit or stand.)

Call it a desktop workstation, a sit-stand workstation, or a desktop riser, a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. Ah, well, let’s step back from that a bit and just say that some of these products are on the rose spectrum while others may be closer to skunk cabbage. As always, caveat emptor, and that’s where we come in and lab test these units to find out what they’re really made of.

On cheaper X-Lifts, you’ll see tiny, inexpensive air pistons that aid little in the lifting process and basically put the burden of lifting on you alone. These will likely break sooner than larger, high quality pistons, and the issue is exacerbated when you’re adding multiple monitors. That’s why it’s so important to choose a unit with strong counterbalance force if you planning to put a lot of weight on your converter. We’ll assess each unit’s counterbalance force in our detailed reviews (as it’s not usually an advertised spec).

No need to buy an extra monitor arm with a Hover. Their design holds your monitor(s) at a proper height for ergonomic viewing. Most models cost extra for a dual monitor setup; it requires a crossbar that runs along the monitor pole. But these devices are very ergonomically adjustable; some provide keyboard tray tilt for proper ergonomic typing at a declined angle, and most also allow easy adjustment for your monitor’s angles--tilting, panning, and rotating with ease.

One thing you’ll want to consider when purchasing a Post & Base sit-stand converter is the way it handles your monitors. Can you adjust your monitors up or down on the monitor post? That’s important for finding your sweet spot while standing versus sitting. Can you adjust them back and forth for focal depth adjustment? That'll keep you from leaning in to see your monitors. And of course, can the unit handle more than one monitor? You’ll find the answers to these questions and more in our detailed reviews below.

Corner standing desk converters feature curved work surfaces that fit optimally on full-sized corner desks and l-desks. Their angled edges fit snugly in the back corner of your desk so you can maximize usable desk space, leaving plenty of room for your papers, devices, and other work accessories.

Varidesk has also stimulated the emergence of some sixty competitors' units, and counting. All of them attacking the market with better mouse traps—be it higher quality, better ergonomics, greater features, or just lower price than the Varidesk models.

Standing meetings are the future, offering significant benefits to employees' health and leading to generally shorter meetings as well. Adjustable-height conference tables empower an organization to conduct standing meetings without losing the ability to hold traditional seated conferences. Additionally, they offer unprecedented functionality for the home. Here, you'll find a comparison of sit-stand tables so you can decide which is right for you.

When standing desks first came into popularity, the kinds of materials used for desktops and the selection of shapes, sizes and colors were very limited. Fast forward to today and an online shopper can now find an absolutely overwhelming array of choices, from ultra-cheap to ultra-premium, depending on how much your pocket book can handle. Don’t worry, we’re here to help you sort through all the options.

Shopping for reclaimed wood desktop options is an entirely different process than shopping for desktops made of virgin hardwood. The quality control and stability (resistance to dimensional movement, warping and cracking) of these materials is highly variable, and thus we strongly recommend avoided lesser-quality reclaimed wood slabs if you're planning to place it atop a delicately-tuned standing desk base.

There's a fresh new wrinkle to the conventional anti-fatigue mat that goes beyond anything we've seen from the matting industry. Raised edges, topographic surface, and activity-promoting features take standing to the next level. We've gathered a round of progenitor mats along with their imitators and savvy competitors to show you the best of the non-flat mat category.

We’ve reviewed dozens of standing mats over the years, and beyond question, they significantly increase the amount of time users can stand in comfort each day, reduce injuries and keep employees happier at their jobs. But what if your job involves standing and moving around in a larger area than just in front of your computer, such as at a workbench, assembly line, large machinery, a pharmacy desk or even at a trade show? Such extra large standing mats fall into two categories: single-piece and puzzle-piece.

Single-piece mats are often the best deal if your area is small enough, but to go really large or to customize the fit to a specific irregular shape or even wall-to-wall [...]

What is an ergonomic keyboard tray?

An ergonomic keyboard tray is any keyboard tray that corrects two problems caused by placing your keyboard directly on your desk. The first is height—without a keyboard tray, most desktops are too high for strain-free typing, causing you to engage muscles that should be more relaxed. Just about any under-desk keyboard tray will alleviate this issue. The second problem is tilt. For your wrists to be properly aligned, your keyboard should be able to achieve a negative tilt of around 15° when seated, up to 30° when standing, and potentially more if working at a treadmill desk.

Ergonomic keyboard trays overcome the innate inadequacy of desks, [...]