Buying a chair can be a lot more complicated than it might seem. If you're a gamer, you might want to consider the best gaming chairs, and those on a budget may want one of the best cheap gaming chairs. For home office workers, checking out the best office chairs can be a good idea. However, if you struggle with back pain or simply discomfort after long sitting sessions, like those that often pop up when gaming, you might want to consider other options.

Below, you'll find our top suggestions for chairs perfect for long sessions without back pain.

  • HON Ignition 2.0 ergonomic office chair
    Best mid-range
Editor's choice
Steelcase Leap

Great features at a great price

The Leap from Steelcase is an excellent chair for gamers looking for top-tier ergonomics. This chair features a ton of customization options and colorways, a robust, solid design, and a sleek, minimalistic look. If you're looking for a top-tier chair but don't want to spend as much as a Herman Miller costs, check this out.

Pros & Cons
  • Lots of customization
  • Elegant design
  • Impressive value
  • Not quite as versatile as the top chairs

If you want a premium chair but don't want to spend nearly $2000 on a Herman Miller, for example, the Steelcase Leap is more than worth a look. The Leap features LiveBack tech that conforms to your spine, a bevy of adjustments you can make, height-dependent lumbar support, a flexible seat for a pressure-free experience, and the ability to kit out your chair how you like, depending on your budget and what extras you'd like.

Chairs like the Aeron and Embody are excellent options, no doubt, but pricing can quickly become a major turn-off, especially if you want all the extras, too. However, the Leap is an excellent competitor with these higher-end chairs that offers similar levels of comfort, support, and build quality that can be purchased for significantly less. If you want a great all-around chair that doesn't break the bank, the Leap is a fantastic choice, especially if you can find one on sale.

Premium pick
Herman Miller X Logitech G Embody Gaming Chair

Unique support system

Herman Miller's Embody Gaming chair is a big improvement over the original with a better cushion, but that's not all. This chair also features a unique support system that flexes and contours your back as you move thanks to its 'dynamic matrix of pixels' in its construction.

Pros & Cons
  • Advanced support system
  • Improved cushion
  • Premium build
  • Expensive

Herman Miller's original Embody is a worthy chair, but with an improved cushion on the gaming variant, the new and improved Embody is an even more compelling choice. This chair features a particularly unique back support system, too, that flexes and contours around your back as you move and reposition yourself thanks to a dynamic pixel matrix. In short, this means that regardless of your shape or how you sit, the Embody can provide some serious comfort.

The Embody also sports a wide range of customization, including arm height, arm width, seat height, tilt tension, tilt limitation, backfit, and seat depth. Combined with the support system mentioned above, the Embody can be tweaked to suit just about any person's needs and preferences. If you're a gamer who deals with back pain that needs a premium chair perfect for lengthy sitting sessions, the Embody Gaming chair is an awesome pick.

Best value
Staples Hyken Chair

Save tons of cash on a solid chair

The mesh Hyken chair from Staples features a contoured back, automatic synchro-tilt, and adjustable armrests. Plus, you can adjust seat height as well as lock the back to find the perfect position for you. The best part is that this chair only costs a fraction of what the most expensive options do.

Pros & Cons
  • Breathable design
  • Impressive value
  • Solid adjustability
  • Not the greatest reliability

If you need a solid all-around chair, but you don't have anywhere near the budget to afford the more expensive chairs on this list, Staples' Hyken chair is worth a look. This mesh chair features a breathable design, a contoured back, adjustable armrests, integrated lumbar curves, and a solid amount of customization to help you find the most comfortable position for you on your Hyken. Plus, you have a few colorways to choose from, too.

No, this chair doesn't outcompete a Herman Miller chair that can easily clock in at 10 to 15 times its price, but the Hyken does manage to provide some solid ergonomic features for folks looking for a good chair under $200. While this chair may not be built to last for 10 or 20 years, you can opt to spend a few extra bucks at Staples on a protection plan that will replace any broken parts.

Best mesh
Herman Miller Aeron

An excellent all-around choice

This premium chair from Herman Miller is a great option for those who deal with back pain. With a solid build, lots of reliability, and the adjustable PostureFit SL backrest for ample lumbar support, this chair is a great all-around choice regardless of whether you're sitting straight, reclining, or leaning forward.

Pros & Cons
  • Premium construction
  • Lots of customization
  • Great support
  • Expensive

If you're looking for a top-tier all-around mesh chair for back pain, Herman Miller's Aeron is an excellent choice. With a breathable mesh design, a seat and back divided into 8 zones of varying tension to expertly cradle your body, and tons of reliability, this chair can handle just about anything. Plus, with the remastered iteration of the Aeron, this already-popular chair has been updated with more refined tilt, better adjustability, and more robust tension.

It's also definitely worth considering an Aeron with a PostureFit SL backrest. This backrest sports individual adjustable pads that offer both stability and support perfect for reducing (or eliminating) back pain caused by longer sitting sessions. Also, keep in mind that there are three size variants, A, B, and C, so make sure to choose a size that's right for you. Altogether, if you can afford an Aeron, this mesh chair offers some impressive features.

Most adjustable arms
Steelcase Gesture office chair

360-degree arms

Steelcase's Gesture chair offers up solid customization, lots of lumbar support, a variety of colorways, and much more. A unique feature of the Gesture is its 360-degree arms that can be maneuvered into just about any position imaginable, making it easy to find the most comfortable setup for your arms.

Pros & Cons
  • Awesome arm customization
  • Solid back support
  • Premium build
  • Not the most comfortable armrest

If you're looking for a chair with some top-notch arm adjustability, the Steelcase Gesture may well be the chair for you. This premium chair features the 3DLiveBack system that's designed to mimic your spine's full range of motion, tons of manual adjustment options, a seat with flexible edges and adaptive bolstering, and a suite of add-ons you can choose from, including an armless variant, additional support, and different types of wheels for carpet and hard floors.

The unique selling point of the Gesture, though, comes down to its 360-degree arms. You can swivel the arms on the Gesture through a full range of motion to not only find the most comfortable position for you but to make space for whatever you're doing in your chair. Once again, this is a rather expensive chair, but if you can afford it, there aren't many other chairs that will give you as much versatility when it comes to arm rotation.

Best mid-range
HON Ignition 2.0 ergonomic office chair

Tons of build options

This ergonomic mesh chair from HON comes in a variety of different colors, synchro-tilt, a soft feel courtesy of a combination of fabric and mesh, weight capacity up to 300 pounds, and tons of customization to build your own perfect Ignition chair on HON's website.

Pros & Cons
  • Great value
  • Can build your own
  • Lots of features
  • Can get expensive with all the extras

If you're looking to spend more than you would on a Hyken but not nearly as much as you would on a Herman Miller, the Ignition from HON is an excellent chair. This chair can be customized in just about any way you'd like, with a choice of back, control, caster, mesh, fabric, lumbar support, base type, and frame color, or you can opt for a pre-built that's quite affordable.

Lots of chairs come with customization options, but the Ignition is especially robust in this area, so if you have the money, you can build out the exact chair of your dreams, if you're willing to do a little research. This kind of versatility is impressive, but the pre-built Ignition is impressive, too, with synchro-tilt, a contoured seat, solid adjustment potential, and lumbar support, making the Ignition an overall excellent choice of mid-range chair.

Best gaming chairs for back pain: Bottom line

Furniture is oftentimes expensive, so a primary concern when buying a chair is usually budget, but skimping on something you'll be sitting in for long periods may create health issues when it comes to back pain and posture, so investing in a good chair is a great idea.

If you can swing it, the Steelcase Leap is an all-around excellent chair. It features lots of customization, an elegant design, and tons of comfort-focused features, like LiveBack tech that conforms to your spine, many adjustments that can be made, lumbar support, a flexible seat, and more. Plus, this chair isn't nearly as expensive as the most expensive options, but it's a lot more premium than the cheapest chairs out there.

Regardless of what chair you end up with, though, remember to take regular breaks to stretch!

Editor's choice
Steelcase Leap

The Leap from Steelcase is an excellent chair for gamers looking for top-tier ergonomics. This chair features a ton of customization options and colorways, a robust, solid design, and a sleek, minimalistic look. If you're looking for a top-tier chair but don't want to spend as much as a Herman Miller costs, check this out.