Best less expensive standing desk

Manual adjustment | 26 inches to 42 inches tall (not including wheel height) | Four desktop sizes starting at 46 inches by 24 inches | $
After buying a cheap office chair and struggling with back pain while working from home early in the pandemic, Strategist contributor James Lynch decided to look into standing desks. He didn’t want to spend a ton of money on a new desk, so he found a simple workaround: this height-adjustable workbench. “A workbench may not sound like the perfect WFH solution,” wrote Lynch, “yet it is now where I do all of my work.”

Lynch has the 52-inch-wide version, which he describes as “perfect for setting up a monitor, some speakers, and whatever else you keep at your workstation.” The desk also comes in three other desktop sizes, with the option to add drawers in some configurations. And since it’s designed to be used in a garage or workshop, the surface is made of solid wood, making it more durable than inexpensive corner standing desk you might find elsewhere with plastic or particleboard desktops. “It’s designed for the bumps and bangs of hammering, drilling, and sawing, so the occasional mashing of your keyboard will hardly make it flinch,” Lynch wrote.

After about an hour and 15 minutes of assembly time, Lynch had the desk fully built with the four included casters (you also have the option to leave those off if you prefer). His favorite feature is the manual hand crank that adjusts the height of the desk. “It’s supremely easy to raise and lower the desk from its top range of 42 inches high to its lower limit of 26,” Lynch explained. “All you have to do is turn the small crank on the right front corner and it smoothly raises or lowers the desk by any incremental amount. When you get to your ideal height, there is no complicated locking procedure. Just stop cranking. The desk is ready to go.”

Motorized adjustment | 29.4 inches to 48 inches tall | Three desktop sizes starting at 43 inches by 24 inches | $$

Devin McGhee, founder of the beauty brand Deon Libra, recommends this stand up desk from Autonomous (the maker of some of our favorite ergonomic desk chairs and stools). The SmartDesk Core comes in three different frame colors (white, black, or gray) with a choice of three desktop sizes: 43 inches by 24 inches, 53 inches by 29 inches, or 70.5 inches by 30 inches. Depending on what size you choose, the laminate top is available in up to nine colors, and all sizes come with at least one predrilled grommet hole. The default keypad on this motorized desk is programmable with up to four preferred settings — a nice touch, as adding programmable presets to other desks on this list requires spending a bit extra to upgrade the keypad. The desk height has a minimum of 29.4 inches and a maximum of 48 inches (a smaller range than some of the other desks on this list, so look closely at what measurements you’ll need if you are shorter or taller than average). “It allows me to move more and stay a bit more active with our new (more sedentary) Zoom work life,” McGhee says.

Strategist writer and home-design expert Lauren Ro told us about her husband Chang’s work-from-home setup, which includes this Uplift standing desk. He appreciates that it’s highly customizable. There are about two dozen desktop materials available, from more budget-friendly laminate or bamboo (which Chang has) to much more expensive options like solid walnut and live-edge pheasant wood. There are five desktop sizes (note that not every size is available in every material), some of which are available with a curved front edge. Configuring your standing desk with drawers involves choosing a desktop size and material, a base color and style, grommet covers for the desktop, and a keypad, among other things. Keypad options include a basic model with up and down buttons and an advanced model with multiple memory presets.

Depending on which frame style you choose, Uplift also sells an under-desk hammock that can attach to the frame for George Costanza–esque under-desk naps. The list of other potential add-ons and accessories is frankly longer than a diner menu, and includes everything from a bamboo desk drawer to a magnetic cable-organizing channel to power grommets that let you plug in a phone or laptop right on the desktop.

Strategist senior editor Jen Trolio has an Uplift l shaped standing desk, though she opted to purchase only the desk frame so that she could attach a custom desktop. “I didn’t want any predrilled grommet holes on the desktop, and it wasn’t an option to purchase a desktop from Uplift without them,” she explains, so she opted to have a solid maple desktop made by a local carpenter. Assembling the frame and installing the desktop took some time but was fairly straightforward and went smoothly thanks to well-written, easy-to-follow instructions, Trolio says, and she’s happy with the finished project.