It's essential to get the right posture when you're spending hours each day home working, and the best monitor stands can help. Also called monitor risers, these simple mini tables are similar to laptop stands and sit on your desk, elevating your monitor by a few inches so the top edge of the display becomes level with your eyeline. This in turn helps you sit up, resulting in a straighter back and hopefully less chance of back pain developing from sitting hunched over.
It's a very handy ergonomic benefit if your monitor's own stand lacks height adjustment. You could overcome that problem by swapping out your monitor's existing stand with a more adjustable monitor arm, but that's more complicated than simply raising your monitor on a monitor stand.
What's more, a monitor stand helps you reclaim a little extra desktop space underneath it - useful for sliding your keyboard and mouse under when it's not in use, or just tucking away a notebook, snacks, or other work essentials. Some stands even packs small in-built drawers and pots for additional oddment storage, while others can feature USB ports for smart device charging.
For the ultimate in monitor stands, go for a standing desk monitor riser. These not only lift your monitor, but your keyboard and mouse too, converting your regular desk into a standing desk. This makes for the best possible ergonomic posture.
The best monitor stands in 2021
It’s no secret that all a monitor stand really needs to do is lift up your monitor, and you don’t need to spend big bucks to achieve something that simple. This 37 x 23.6cm platform is plenty large enough for most monitors, and its 44lb/20kg weight capacity is also more than sufficent to support any screen. What’s more, despite being a budget stand, you even get three levels of height adjustment (9, 12 & 14cm). The powder-coated steel platform incorporates perforated mesh holes – ideal if you’ll be using this stand for your laptop, as it allows cooling air to pass through to any vents in the laptop's base.
If you’re after maximum possible height adjustability for your monitor, then look no further. Thanks to its scissor leg design, this stand is adjustable from a minimum 5cm height up to a towering 46cm. The top can also be tilted forward – particularly useful if you’ll be using the stand to support a laptop rather than a monitor. Inevitably for such a adjustable design, total payload is less than a fixed riser table at 5.9kg, but that’s still enough to support most smaller monitors, and pretty much any laptop. The 46 x 28cm platform size is also a very practical size.
This monitor stand has it all. For starters, you can adjust its width to suit the space available on your desk by folding one or both legs inwards, giving you the choice between 16.53-inch, 18.5-inch, 20.47-inch stand widths. What’s more, the stand also packs a USB hub containing two USB 3.0 Type A ports, and a single Type C port, with the latter supporting 18W fast charging. This is particularly useful as right alongside the USB ports is a pull-out cradle that you can use to support a phone or tablet, right underneath your monitor in the perfect place for ergonomic visibility. Alongside this is a neatly concealed slim drawer ideal for storing pens, memory cards or USB flash drives. Despite the folding leg design, this is still a strong stand, boasting a huge weight capacity of up to 50kg.
Raising your monitor using a basic monitor riser is a step in the right direction for ergonomics, but getting out of your desk chair and standing up is even better for your posture. A standing desk is ideal for this, but they can be pricey, and take up precious office space. But help is at hand, as this clever riser sits on your regular desk, just like any other monitor stand, but can lift up extra high, effectively creating a standing desk. Thanks to its clever lifting concertina scissor mechanism and gas lift strut, this stand can lift from 4.5 inches height (ideal for sitting), right up to 20 inches so you can stand in front of it and use your computer as normal. The integrated keyboard and mouse tray rises in sync with the monitor platform, and at 31.5 x 15.7 inches, the top surface is spacious enough to rest a large monitor and laptop alongside.
The standout feature with this monitor stand are its legs, which are height adjustable, so even if your desk isn’t perfectly flat, you can get a perfectly stable and level base for your screen. The height of each leg can be adjusted by up to 1.5cm, giving a platform height of between 11cm and 12.5cm, and each leg is finished with a non-slip rubber pad. The 63x25cm tinted tempered glass top gives a sleek, modern look, and it’s rated to support a whopping 40kg of load – enough for any typical flatscreen display or laptop.
At 82cm wide, this stout wooden stand is big enough to support two 24-inch widescreen monitors side by side, a laptop and a standalone monitor alongside, or a total weight up to 10kg. Height is fixed at 16cm, but that’s enough for an appreciable lift in monitor height, and creates enough space underneath for smaller desk essentials, or to tuck your keyboard and mouse away when not in use.
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