Our Budget Pick Office Chair Is the Best Ergonomic Chair You Can Get for Under $500

As recently as 2019, I bought a $100 no-name chair from Wayfair, mostly because the price fit my idea of what was worth spending, and because I liked the vibrant orange color of the mesh fabric back. A year later, the color still looked great, but the armrests had literally fallen apart.

Also, my back was an achy mess.

The Wayfair chair had no warranty, and replacement parts were unavailable. That meant I had a beautiful lump of vibrant orange garbage to take to the landfill.

When I started testing office chairs as an editor for our guide, the HON Ignition 2.0 was a clear standout both for its reserved, great-with-anything looks and its huge range of adjustability. Whereas other budget chairs I tested—such as the Fully Desk Chair—may make bolder aesthetic statements or use higher-end materials, the Ignition 2.0’s straightforward setup and ergonomic consistency make it more attractive in the end.

The Ignition 2.0 provides great lumbar support (assuming you select the model that includes it), and it also lets you adjust the seat depth, seat height, armrest height, and armrest width. For me, a 6-foot-1 dude, it was easy to get into a position that directly improved my posture and, by extension, my comfort over long workdays. My 5-foot-6 partner had no issues configuring it for her body, either, though significantly shorter people (say, around 5-foot-2) may struggle, according to our testing. And the seat cushion is thick and resilient: After being sat on every day for nearly two years, it still felt almost like new.

Despite its nearly all-plastic construction, this chair has decent heft and feels sturdily built. Compared with the arms on cheap office chairs I’ve owned, and even those on more-expensive chairs we’ve tested, the Ignition 2.0’s arms feel less wobbly, and the chair makes less creaking or flex noises when I move around in my seat. The casters roll smoothly, too. These are little things, but they’re what set this chair apart from the anonymous competition you’ll find at your local Staples. They add up to an overwhelming impression of quality that makes this chair a pleasure to sit in every day.

Finally, even though the Ignition 2.0’s warranty is not as comprehensive as the full lifetime warranties you get from higher-end brands like Herman Miller and Steelcase, this chair does come with a limited lifetime warranty, which protects against defective materials and workmanship.

We’ve been testing office chairs since 2015. Collectively, we’ve spent more than 175 hours sitting in dozens of different models to find the best ones. And then we sat in our picks for months or years, to see how they would hold up over time. Here’s why the HON Ignition 2.0 is our clear choice for a budget office chair.

• It’s been a Wirecutter pick since 2020, when it replaced the HON Exposure, and it has been saving my own back since then.
• It retails for roughly a third of the price of our top pick, but it offers nearly as many ergonomic adjustments.
• Its limited lifetime warranty is more generous than those of other budget-oriented ergonomic chairs, including close rivals like the Fully Desk Chair.

Read more in our full review of the best office chairs.

Chairs are simple to care for, as long as you use a little common sense. Avoid dropping yourself heavily into your chair when you sit down. To avoid staining your chair, don’t eat messy foods at your desk. And clean up any spills before stains can set.

On that last point, we have an in-depth guide to cleaning your office chair.

A previous version of this article was edited by Connor Grossman and Alejandra Matos. The current version was edited by Rachelle Bergstein.