I'll second the suggestion of Secretlab. Pretty sure mine was in the £400ish price range, and it's really nice for gaming.

Go part of the way through purchasing one, and then close the tab. Within a day or two you'll probably have a discount coupon. It's my favourite trick for buying expensive stuff.

The vinyl mesh seats you can get at staples have always been good to me. They're simple but they last forever and they feel great for hours https://www.staples.com/union-scale-flexfit-hyken-ergonomic-mesh-swivel-task-chair-black-un59460/product_990119

See if an office equipment seller is doing office clearances and you can get some office chairs for less than $100 most likely (I got one for £50)

Steer clear of anything that markets itself as being gaming focused. Plenty of middle-of-the-road office chairs provide decent back support and I'd even wager most are better for your long term health than a "gaming" chair. If there's a local office furniture store nearby then I'd check that out. Still might be a bit pricey but I'm sure they have some cheaper options. My current one was like $200 from one of those stores and it's served me very well. Super comfy, much better than my sibling's gaming chair.

I would steer clear of any chairs that

• function as a billboard for themselves (high back with a logo that's clearly visible on a twitch stream)
• are built like a bucket seat from a race car
• or are otherwise marketed toward "gamers"

I would try looking for a second hand expensive one. I found a guy on CL who restores Herman Millers; sold me a lightly used Aeron for like $300.

The one I used before that was the Ikea Markus (also purchased on CL for $100, barely used).

Forget about gaming chairs, they're overpriced for the sake of looking like a racecar seat.

Look at office chairs. For example https://www.autonomous.ai/ have good chairs at reasonable prices.

I got a used Herman Miller Sayl for $175. It's not the best chair in the world, but it's pretty good. There may be used office furniture stores in your area. I'd start there.

I have a Secretlab chair that I like. Which model is right for you depends on your size. I paid about $500 for mine. They often have $100 off coupons.

I often see some pretty comfortable chairs at Costco for < $300, if you live near one. The savings on the chair alone would more than cover the cost of a 1 year membership.

I got a IKEA Markus for like 150 euros before the pandemic started. Been sitting on it 95% of my working hours since, and honestly don't have any complaints.

Sure it's not very adjustable or comparable to 1k+ chairs, but pretty damn good for the price.

If you haven't looked into used office furniture stores near you, I would highly suggest it. Depending on where you live you could get anywhere from 40 to 80% off, and big name $1k retail chairs are built to last 10+ years and are often lightly refurbished at these stores (and they usually can order parts and do repairs in shop)

Forgive me if I am hijacking the thread, but does anyone have a recommendation for a chair that can accommodate a big dude? Like 330 lbs or so? I ordered one off Amazon, and it didn't last 6 months.

If you're in the US, the Workpro line from Office Depot are pretty good. I picked up the Momentum for about $260 during a sale.

I can't figure out why office chairs run so much more than easy chairs and are so much less-durable.

I got an easy chair quite some years back. I don't think it even ran $300. At some point, I finally managed to muck up the recliner mechanism, but I've probably gone through five office chairs since I got that, some of which cost considerably more than that. The back wouldn't stay up, or the the pneumatic cylinder would fail, or the mesh would weaken and the front of the chair would press up into legs. The office chairs generally didn't have a headrest.

Honestly, given that I don't actually work with paper at my desk, I'd kind of rather have an easy chair with some sort of mounting pole for the monitor and a keyboard/mouse tray.

Seems like you have a lot of good suggestions already, but more couldn't hurt.

I bought the following chairs (also from Staples coincidently) in 2022, and both have been great, but it looks like they've gone up in price.

TempurPedic 6400 Fabric Computer and Desk Chair Black TP6400BLK - $279.99 at time of purchase

TempurPedic Mesh Back Fabric Computer and Desk Chair Black TP6450BLKMB - 299.99 at time of purchase

Regardless of what chair you end up deciding on, the put it in your cart and wait a few days a trick is always helpful, and I would definitely recommend googling coupons for wherever you purchase it from.

Good luck!

I have a used Haworth Zody chair I found on eBay, have had it for going on eight years now and recommend it greatly. They're around $175-250 used.

Want to drop some info here, not related to your question since it's still out of your price range, but just for others who might be browsing, since I see HM chairs come up a lot in this thread and the other one.

A lot of these fancy ergo chairs work similar to other furniture and use a network of dealers. This is important, because dealers often sell for way less than MSRP, especially when they're buying for clients making big offers for office buildings buildouts. Some dealers can get you a great price by basically adding your chair to a big order for another client. I wanted a HM Embody and talked to 3 dealers in my area. One of them was able to get me the chair for about $1000, and this was also customized with the fabric that I wanted. Really shows the huge markup that MSRP is on this kind of item. Dealers are sometimes also willing to give you a loaner so you can try the chair at home before you buy.

I am right now sitting on a Steelcase Series 1, and while it doesn't have great lumbar support, it is far better than any shitty $150 "gaming" chair, and is right in your price range brand new.

Autonomous makes some nice chairs that are in your price range

I got a HON Ignition 2.0 a few years back for about $300. Don't let the name fool you, it's not a gaming chair. It's one of the best cheap ergonomic chairs I've ever used. You can get them lightly used from Amazon for about $360 nowadays, or $425 new. Between working from home and sitting in front of my computer gaming, I spend probably 8+ hours a day sitting in that chair, and have for the last 3 years. It's still in great shape and shows almost no wear and tear.

Got a refurbished steelcase for ~300 with no regrets.

Look into an office supply / overstock / reseller store around you. When businesses close up shop, they usually sell their desks, chairs, etc. to some kind of overstock store. You can usually go there and get very nice chairs for less then 1/4 of the normal cost

I got a Serta Lautner executive chair as a gift, normally runs about $300 off sale. It has adjustable air-bladder lumbar support and is so soft I've taken naps in it.

I recently accidentally sheared a bolt holding one of the arms on because I failed to check it every 6 months, I called the support group and the lady on the other end was kind enough to waive the cost of the replacement kit and shipping. Cannot recommend enough.

No idea about $$$ and if they even ship to your location but I got my hands on a Backforce One Plus for 500€ and that thing is day and night compared to my last. Arm rests are a little bit wobbly but the rest… dead gods I hope it lasts for the rest of my life.

That's from someone with a lot of back pain for… reasons.

Anyone have recommendations for an executive style chair with a high back? I assume the reason why I can't find them anywhere is a combination of them being a larger box by volume and something about ergonomics but I love reclining in a chair with a high slightly wide back that doesn't put all the weight onto my feet like 'racer' style chairs tend to do.

Maybe a cheap office ish chair?

I have an mti chair and its fine. The arm rests suck but if its under 100 euros its a good buy.

Why is 400 even considered for a chair???

I bought the SIHOO Doro C300 a couple of months ago, and I love it.

You must not have seen my reply in that thread:

My husband and I both have been using Tempur-Pedic office chairs for about 15 years. Starting in 2004, we both worked desk jobs from home (he still does, I only recently shifted careers) and both play video games so we have used the shit out of our chairs, and they are still good. I like that the seat is wide enough so I can fold my legs up under me if I want to.

I've been thinking about the same thing. I know that the chairs I'd like to get are like $700-1000, but I can't justify that cost while not consistently making money (full-time school for now).

I do spend a lot of time sitting at my desk, so I guess if you break down the price by hours in use, it's not ridiculous to pay so much for a chair that lasts a decade.

Hopefully I can find a solid refurbish for around $400 eventually... but probably not.