Best overall standing desk

 The Jarvis bamboo standing desks by Fully comes in nine desktop sizes, starting at a compact 30 inches by 24 inches and going all the way up to 78 inches by 30 inches. Three of those desktop sizes are also available with a curved front edge. A choice of three frame sizes will determine the height range of your desktop, going as low as 22.9 inches or as high as 51 inches. (Note that the default “two-stage” frame configuration on Fully’s website is recommended for people between five-foot-ten and six-foot-nine, so the most popular option is to pay $20 more for a “three-stage” frame with a greater height range.) You also have the choice of six different frame colors and no grommet holes on the desktop, or up to two grommet holes with powered grommets, depending on desktop size.

The wide variety of options is why the Fully Jarvis desk is praised by multiple staffers at our sister site the Verge. Deputy editor Dan Seifert has one of the larger sizes, which “has served me well for about four years now,” he says. “It’s a comfortable, stable, spacious desk that has more versatility than typical desk options.” According to news editor Nick Statt, this corner standing desk is one of the best work-from-home purchases he’s made. “Just having the option to sit or stand, when you’re cooped up in your room or home office all day, makes a big difference,” he says. Plus, “assembly was far less cumbersome than I thought it would be.”

News writer Jay Peters, who also owns a Jarvis desk, embraced Fully’s upgrade options to create a more custom build: “I highly recommend spending the extra $20 for the extended-range height, which lets the desk get lower for sitting and higher for standing, and the extra $35 for the programmable height switcher, which lets you preset heights that you can switch back and forth just by pressing a button,” he says. Peters also uses his Jarvis as more than just a desk: “I also sprung for the $29 casters so that I could wheel it around my apartment, which lets my wife and I use it as a mobile entertainment system,” he says. Fully sells a range of other add-on accessories, like a clamp-mounted surge protector, a monitor stand with a drawer, magnetic hooks that hold up to 35 pounds, even a bottle opener. You can also choose between a lighter or darker bamboo color for the desktop (or, if you don’t like bamboo, the Jarvis comes in other styles as well).

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 stand up desk. 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 standing desk with drawers 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 l shaped standing 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.”