When looking to furnish your office with essential appliances like workstations, cubicles, offices, desks, and the all-important coffee machine, it is quite obvious to be looking to buy office chairs as well. Office chairs are of many different shapes and sizes and prices. It all depends on what you are looking for in a chair. The chair is a single piece of furniture in the entire office that is designed to give you comfort and convenience. If you are on a budget and looking for the best office chairs under 200 then you need to make smart decisions and buy chairs that are not just within the price range but comfortable as well. Comfortability is the key effectiveness and efficiency in the office place.
Another important thing to keep in mind is the aesthetic value of the chairs. They cannot be a hindrance to look at. They have to look appealing and fashionable to give a look of style to the office.
Now, what makes an office chair good? The thing that is most important in an office chair is the level of comfort it gives. The ergonomic proficiency it gives. The number of adjustments that are available so that each individual can set it to his own convenience and preference. All of these things and of course the style and design of the chairs go into what constitutes a good chair for office work. With these points in mind, we have made a list of the best office chairs under 200. Without further ado let us begin with our number one pick.
1. Modway Jive Ribbed Office Chair
Modway is a well-known name when it comes to furniture, especially chairs and beds. Whenever you are looking for office or household furniture you are bound to come across products of Modway that are highly rated and recommended by everyone who uses them. A common feature of Modway products is the comfort they provide while being one of the most stylish and elegant products in the market. The Modway Jive is no exception to this and has been one of the, if not the top-rated office chairs under 200. This chair comes in several different colors to allow you to choose the one that fits in best with your office.
As you look at the chair it is easy to see that is of a sturdy build and is built to not give way under pressure. It has five dual caster wheels. These wheels allow easy movement of the chair across all kinds of surfaces as well as giving more stability to the chair. All five legs of the chair chrome-plated aluminum frame make sure it is as robust as it is while not compromising on the stylish look. The seats as well as the armrests are foam-padded. To round it off as a top-end chair that gives maximum comfort you have a high backrest that is able to support your weight when you lean on it. The backrest is firm and is not prone to giving way when you recline on it.
The Modway Jive Office Chair comes in a ribbed vinyl design giving it a nice look for an office chair. The high back allows you to have a positive and healthy sitting posture hence allowing you to sit for long hours in the chair and not feeling back pain or any such issues. High backrests are designed to give support to your neck and shoulders as well as the upper back. They also allow you to lean back and take a breather if you feel inclined to do so. The backrest of the Jive is also tiltable and can be set in a reclined position thanks to the adjustments that are possible on this chair. Along with these settings you can also change the height of the chair to your preference. Even if you are above 6 ft and weigh a good amount this chair will not give you any problems as it has a weight capacity of about 350 lbs. The high backrest allows for people of all heights to have a comfortable sitting on it.
In short, when you are looking to spend close to 200 dollars then you want a chair that can give you comfort and support you for long hours while being good looking and stylish, not something that looks as if you bought it in a flea market. The Modway Jive, being our first pick in this list of top 10 office chairs under 200 and is the best high back office chair under 200.
2. OFM Essentials Office Chair(ESS-2085-GRY)
OFM is an exceedingly familiar name when it comes to furniture. Furniture of all sorts whether it be household items or office chairs and desks are manufactured of OFM. As you might have seen when browsing through the plethora of chairs of different types and sizes that are available at OFM, the main priority is comfort. The designs of almost every chair are made with a clear goal to give as much comfort to the customer as possible no matter what sort of chair they want. The chair under scrutiny in this particular review is the OFM Essentials Office Desk Chair ESS-2085-GRY.
One look at the ESS-2085-GRY and you can tell that this chair also had the same goal during its formation as the rest of the OFM products. The double wheel casters allow for freedom of movement. That coupled with the 360 degrees swivel ensures you will not have a hard time moving about the chair or moving about in the chair. The chromium-plated base of the chair guarantees the durability of the base and makes sure the chair doesn’t break under the added weight. This is a mid-back chair designed for a home office or if you want to give your office a more homely or warm look. The grey color ensures it will fit into almost any office environment. Though it does come in other colors if you so prefer.
The height of the OFM Essentials Office Chair is adjustable according to your requirement. Being a mid-back chair, the ESS-2085-GRY provides support to your lower and mid-back but does not give support to your neck or shoulders as you might have noticed by its back-rest size. A plus point that some chairs seem to neglect these days is that this product has armrests. Office hours tend to put a strain on the shoulders and arms and armrests are really handy to help ease this strain. One thing to keep in mind when looking to buy this chair is that it is not necessarily made for large or tall people. As its weight capacity is 250lbs and it does not have a high back, a big framed person might have trouble when using this chair continuously.
One of the key features of this chair is its economic price. For a chair that is in the race for best office chairs 2020 under 200, this chair costs substantially less than what you might expect the common prices to be in this list. So, as long as the dimension requirements of the chair aren’t below your needs then you can really not do much wrong going for the OFM Essentials ESS-2085-GRY.
3. Flash Furniture Mid-Back Office Chair, BIFMA Certified
Going through the many different options for office chairs available by Flash Furniture there seems to be a pattern of manufacturing. Many of the chairs seem to have been made in a similar fashion. Whether this is intentional or just a coincidence that many of the chairs are similar in design we can’t complain. Their products are some of the finest and most reliable in the market. If you know what works you don’t have a need to start innovating in the hopes of making a breakthrough.
This mid-back office chair is BIFMA certified, meaning it is proven to be ergonomically proficient. The gold frame of the chair coupled with the gold arms gives a nice look to the chair. The seat and arms of the chair are padded with foam making it more comfortable. The height of the seat is adjustable according to your preference, likewise the recline of the backrest of the chair. The tilt tension allows you to hold the back of the chair in a reclined position if you so desire. The double wheel casters along with the 360 degrees swivel make for easy movement of the chair and not feel obstructed when you want to transport it.
Being a mid-back chair allows this chair to hold up your lower and mid-back regions effectively. This also helps in keeping an upright posture which is the most recommended sitting posture especially if you are going to be sitting for some time. The leather soft material gives durability and softness to the chair. Although, the leather soft fabric attempts to make this chair durable and the seat dependable for long term use, there have been complaints that this chair is not comfortable for regular office use. Regular office use comes with about 8-10 hours’ worth daily and this chair is just not suited for such a hectic schedule.
The Flash Furniture Mid-Back Office Chair attracts your attention as soon as you lay your eyes on it. It is elegant and stylish and is bound to lighten up the old office with its exuberant color scheme. Though there have been some complaints as to its durability and poor material they are still very few and this chair has been recommended by a large number of its users.
4. Homall Gaming and Office High Back Chair
Homall is a relatively popular manufacturer of chairs, desks, and furniture sets. A good portion of their products is made for computer enthusiasts. Whether they be gamers or office workers who like to upgrade their workstations to something more flamboyant or innovative. The Homall High Back Chair comes in several different colors to help you choose the one which fits in best with your office setup. This chair looks it is made for specifically gaming purposes but a product that is comfortable and stylish can be used for other purposes as well.
The double wheel casters of the chair are made in a racing fashion. An interesting fact is that these wheels have been tested for over a thousand miles worth of rolling to prove their durability and sturdiness. Needless to say, the wheels of the chair are not likely to give you trouble. The 360 degrees swivel accompanied by these wheels gives you easy transport and maneuverability. The material of the chair is a high-density foam, shaped according to the design of the chair. This high-density foam is tenacious and is fitted upon a thick steel frame made to last the test of time. The chair offers a back recline for the upright 90 degrees to about 150 degrees backward. So, if you are looking for a chair in which you can lean back from time to time this is the one. The height adjustments are a little on the low side and the arms of the chair are non-adjustable. So, it does not offer the most in the way of adjustments.
The foam of the chair has a spongy feel. It is thickly packed and unlikely to collapse or become flattened. This chair is one of the most comfortable in its price range. The back recline options of this chair are almost unmatched. Being a high back chair, the backrest of the chair supports your neck and shoulders and mid-back proficiently. The design of the chair is quite innovative and new in the market. You are bound to make a statement when choosing this chair for your office.
Homall is not particularly well known for their office products as their products tend to be more focused on gaming or household purposes, but gaming chairs are essentially just computer chairs that are more stylish and eye-catching while allowing you to have a comfortable time sitting in them for very long periods as well. None of these things are necessarily bad when it comes to buying items for your office. With this chair, you are making a statement of your office being innovative and up to date with the modern world.
5. OFM Essentials High-BackOffice Chair (ESS-3081-GRY)
Another product of OFM makes our list of the best ergonomic office chair under 200. As we have already discussed earlier OFM Essentials products are focused on the user’s comfort more so than being the most stylish or flamboyant. The same is true for the ESS-3081-GRY. It is not the most cutting-edge design and it is not exactly eye candy but it is definitely one of the most comfortable and ease giving chairs in this category. This chair comes in grey and tan color as well. However, the brown color seems to be the most preferred choice of this office chair.
The OFM Essentials High-Back Office Chair has armrests padded with foam. These armrests are fixed and cannot be removed or adjusted. The seat is able to recline and adjustments can be made to match the required height of the chair. The chair comes with an integrated headrest to give your neck and shoulders support. This is a high back chair so it focuses to brace your neck and shoulders to give you minimum stress when working. The microfiber material of the chair allows for easy cleaning and gives durability. This chair is a reliable product as it is not prone to break or make you uncomfortable.
With a 250lbs weight capacity, this chair is not for the largest people. One of the key features of this product is its convenient assembling. You can assemble this chair with little to no problems in half an hour. Most products cannot boast about this fact. As you know spending good money on a product that requires intricate steps and hard work to even set up is a bummer. OFM always makes it a point to keep the user’s comfort and ease in view making their products easy to assemble as well. The chair also allows the full swivel to give you more freedom of movement when doing your everyday office tasks.
I think it is safe to say that this chair is one of the, if not the most comfortable chair under 200 to sit in for long hours for people of almost all sizes. What it lacks in a suave and finesse it makes up for in comfort and convenience. Once again OFM shows us why it is such a popular and reliable brand when it comes to buying furniture for your office or home.
6. Modway Prim Ribbed Mid Back Office Chair
Modway is back with another product in our list of the best office chairs under 200$. This time it’s the Modway Prim Ribbed Mid-Back Office Chair. Though this chair is available in many different colors, like the previous product of Modway this too is most appreciated in White. The build of this chair is foam padded and ribbed design. There is no armrests. This chair is not as wide as needed to allow armrests. Adding armrests to this chair would have made it uncomfortably narrow. The leather cover of the chair gives it a smooth outlook and makes it durable.
There are five dual-wheel casters to allow for easier movement across the office. The five legs of the chair leading to the wheels are all chrome plated giving it a nice look and making it sturdier and more dependable enough to support large people as well. 360-degree swivel also makes it easier to handle. The seat of the chair is in a waterfall type of fashion. The height of the chair can be managed according to your preferences easily thanks to the lever. As the name states, this is a mid-back chair. Mid-back chairs are primarily focused to help keep your lower and mid-back in an upright stature. Though your neck and shoulders will not receive any support, your back will be quite fine in it.
To raise the height of the chair just pull the lever while not putting any weight on the chair and it will go upward. To make it go back down just pull the lever while you are sitting in the chair. There is also the option to tilt this chair and the tilt tension controls help with that feature as well. The polished chromium-plated steel frame gives it a decent look. The material of the chair is actually quite firm and not soft at all. So, if you are looking for a chair that is of a soft material then this is not the one for you. This chair is really easy to assemble and disassemble and is very sturdy.
The leather cover also gives it a solid covering. The steel frame makes it tough and tenacious. Though one flaw in the chair that people did complain about was the white color is not actually white it is more of off-white. Keep that in mind when buying this chair as if you are looking to buy it for the bright white color only then it will not satisfy your wants. If you do not mind having an off-white chair, however, then this is a very good option for a modern office or conference room swivel chair.
7. HON Volt Office Desk Chair (H5701)
When it comes to searching for furniture there are some common and familiar names that we often come across. HON, like OFM and Modway, is one of those names. Though the styles and designs of HON and OFM couldn’t be more different. Hon focuses on making products that are easy on the eye. Their products are made to impress by look, always innovating and creating new and graceful items of many different designs and promoting new fashion in the world of furniture of both home and office. Today we will be delving into the Hon Volt H5701.
This chair is not available in too many colors, i.e. only available in crimson, navy, and the standard black. Black, being a color that is used commonly in office settings is the most popular color of this chair as expected. The standard double wheel casters are also a part of this chair. Another standard feature for office chairs; the chair is able to swivel for a full 360 degrees. These two features work really well together and are easy to install in chairs so we see them in almost all chairs. The chair offers center-tilt instead of synchro-tilt so it is not as ergonomically proficient. Height is adjustable via a pneumatic lift. Tilt tension and tilt lock allow the chair to be fixed into the tilt position required of it. The arms of the chair are also adjustable in height.
As is common knowledge, synchro-tilt is much more useful ergonomically than center-tilt. This seems to have been overlooked in the manufacturing of the H5701 Volt. Synchro-tilt allows the backrest of the chair to recline while the seat remains in almost the same position as before. Whereas, in center-tilt the seat and the back recline together backward or forwards hence making for more uncomfortable sitting positions than the synchro-tilt, which allows the seat to remain relatively parallel to the floor but the back can be reclined. The height adjustments of the HON Volt are also quite limited as the chair can only go from 17 inches above the floor to 21 inches above the floor when adjusted. This is not close to the desired amount of adjustment required from an office chair.
The adjustable height of the armrests of this chair is a unique feature as we have not seen this in any previous chair so far. This is also a useful feature as the height of the armrests can often lead to the armrests being uncomfortable or you find yourself wanting to remove them due to their undesirable placement. The weight capacity of this chair is good. It is suitable for big framed people. All in all, this chair isn’t a bad option so long as you do not require sitting too high and are not in the mood to recline back too often. As far as office chairs go this chair will get the job done.
8. AmazonBasics High-BackOffice Chair
With the world being so heavily reliant on the internet to function in the modern age, it is no surprise that people have stopped going to markets and begun online browsing and shopping. Under these circumstances, there was a definite need for a distribution service all across the world for the products being bought and sold online. Amazon has fulfilled this need and become one of the biggest companies of this time. Along with distributing products of other companies, Amazon has started making its own items. Many of these are items of standard day to day use such as chairs, desks, computer peripherals, etc. One such product that we are looking into at the moment is the AmazonBasics High-Back Office Chair.
The chair has five legs with wheel casters all fitted for dual wheels and 360-degree swivel feature. These features make a great combo for easy mobility around the office. The material of the chair is bonded leather that is PVC upholstered. One of the good features of this chair is the amount of adjustability it offers in regards to its height settings as well as the recline options it gives. The chair can be fixed at a recline position or allowed to rock back and forth whichever you see fit to your needs. The biggest plus point of this chair however is that it is made for people who are looking for a comfortable chair on a very tight budget. This chair has its flaws but if you are willing to overlook them for the cheap price and level of comfort in that price along with the professional look it gives, this chair is a good catch.
The leather bonded covering of the chair is of poor material. There have been many complaints of tears and rips in the leather of the chair. The leather of the chair is often not able to hold up after some time of regular use. There also seem to be manufacturing flaws of one type or another in each individual chair. From the screws being too big or small to the back-support brackets and nuts being in wrong places and hence being unable to support the weight being put on it. The back of the support also ends up giving way due to the poor quality of material as well as poor quality of manufacturing. Last, of all, it is quite noisy. For an office chair, you want something smooth and noiseless to avoid distracting people who are hard at work and also not distracting yourself. This chair ends up making a lot of unwanted and unnecessary noise.
9. AmazonBasics High-Back Executive Office Desk Chair
Another product of Amazon has made it into our list of the top-rated office chairs under 200 in 2020. The AmazonBasics High-Back Executive Office Chair is BIFMA certified. This is a certification that this chair is ergonomically correct and does not cause physical problems for its users. The chair comes in all the standard colors of an office chair. The chair is made in a modern style, meaning it occupies a modest amount of space allows freedom of movement as well as easy transportability. It is also quite stylish and easy on the eyes.
The modest price of the chair and its good look attracts many customers to this product. The polished chrome-plated frame of the chair gives it its sturdy and solid base and structure. The toughness of this chair is one of its best qualities. Its maximum weight capacity is 330lbs. It is able to support heavyset people as well as petite people without giving way. The height of the chair is adjusted by a pneumatic gas lift. The freedom of movement and transportability of the chair is due to the dual caster wheels and all-around swivel features of the chair.
However, there are not as many adjustments available to this chair as one would want when paying more than a $100. The height can only be adjusted for four inches that is from 18 inches at the lowest to 22 inches. The center-tilt recline system of the chair means you cannot relax in the chair by reclining the back separately. When you recline the back the seat of the chair moves upwards, this is due to the fact that the back and the seat of the chair are connected and are not separate parts of the chair hence there is no synchro-tilt system available. If you want to recline and relax, this chair will not cut it for you. Lastly, there seems to be a lack of cushioning and padding to this chair. After a little time of use, the seat feels like a wooden stool covered with a layer of cloth.
To round off this brief review of the Amazon High Back Executive Office Chair it’s a decent looking chair and is quite brawny and tough for its price range but it is not as comfortable as one would want.
10. Flash Furniture Mid-Back Black Mesh Office Chair
The Flash Furniture Mid-Back Office Chair with black mesh comes in many different colors and designs. The one we are looking over at the moment is the mid-back design chair. This is a BIFMA Certified item. Hence, it is a standard ergonomically approved product. As we have grown quite familiar with over the course of this review, the chair comes with five dual-wheel casters and 360-degree swivel. These two factors combine to give the chair a lot of free reigns as far as maneuverability is concerned. The chair has a black mesh for aback. The mesh gives it an airy nature.
Due to this mesh, the chair is suitable for areas where the climate is hot. Having free-flowing air to your back is a blessing in a hot climate. No one likes to be sitting with their shirts clinging to their back due to the sweat accumulated by the office work done while sitting in the same chair for hours on end. The height of the chair is adjustable by way of a pneumatic mechanism. The back of the chair can also be reclined and set in a reclined position thanks to the tilt lock and tilt tension control features. It can also be set to rock to and from.
You can also flip the arms of the chair to an upright position beside the backrest if you so, please. This is a unique feature as many chairs do not have flappable armrests. For people who don’t like armrests or for whom the height of the arms is not complementary to their work desks or environment, they can flip up the arms instead of having to remove them and leave gaps in the chair for where the screws of the armrests are supposed to go.
The seat of the chair though is not nearly padded well enough as it should be. It makes for a rather shallow seating area. Almost as if sitting on the frame itself rather than on a foam padded chair. The build of the chair seems to be made in a very cheap way. The back of the chair and the lumbar support is flimsy and can break when pressure is put on it. The low cost of the chair does not seem to be a good thing in this case as they have compromised on the quality of the product. The whole seat seems to be made in a lower quality to match the lower pricing of the product.
Our Final Verdict
In the price range of under $200, there are innumerable chairs from which you can choose your office chair. In this short review, we have attempted to make a list of the best office chairs under 200 and help you choose which of these chairs is best suited to your needs. Whether you want the most comfortable chairs like the ones OFM has to offer or the more refined products of Modway. Perhaps you want something new and innovative like what HON has to offer. Maybe you are looking for a multi-tasking chair that you can use as in an office as well as in a gaming setup, and then the Homall High Back Office chair is an ideal product for you. Whatever the requirement of your office maybe this list is sure to give you a satisfactory answer to your queries in regards to the best office chairs under 200.