Although the ergonomic office chair market is currently dominated by chairs with armrests, many people continue to swear by armless office chairs for a variety of reasons. There are some definite advantages that armless office chairs offer over those with armrests, but there are also some clear drawbacks. It’s up to you to decide if those advantages or disadvantages apply to your situation. Here are some of the things you’ll want to consider if you’re thinking about going for an armless chair.

What are armless office chairs?

In a nutshell, armless office chairs are any chair without armrests designed for use in an office. For the purposes of this article, we will focus on ergonomic armless chairs, as we really would not recommend non-ergonomic chairs of any kind for office use due to their inability to prevent fatigue or discomfort after prolonged use.

Advantage

The key advantage offered by armless office chairs is space conservation relative to chairs with arms. This can be beneficial in several ways. If things are a bit cramped in your office, a chair without arms can make a big difference, as the arms can end up being one more obstacle for you to move around. They can also be moved more easily.

Likewise, armless chairs are more likely to fit right in with your desk, regardless of its design. If for some reason you like to sit very close to your desk, a chair with arms can make this impossible, so an armless chair is probably the way to go. This is especially true if you use desk accessories like a keyboard tray.

Depending on the type of work you do, an armless chair may give you more benefits. If you need to move around your office regularly, a chair without arms will allow you to do so more easily, without having to get up as often.

All things being equal, a chair without arms will almost always be substantially more affordable than a comparable ergonomic chair with arms. In fact, with many high-end chairs, the arms are the most engineering-intensive aspect of the chair, thus contributing more to the cost of the chair than you might expect. Of course, armrests provide significant benefits on their own (more on that in a minute), so the extra cost is usually worth it, but if you feel like you can do without them, it might well be worth the savings. provided by armless office chairs.

Armrests tend to be some of the most easily damaged parts of a chair, so in a sense, armless office chairs are more durable. Also, if you like to move around in your chair, the arms can damage other furniture when you do so, so having an armless chair can also help prevent damage to other things in the office.

Disadvantages

The main disadvantage of armless chairs is that, unsurprisingly, they cannot offer the benefits that a pair of well-designed armrests can. Depending on your preferred posture or sitting positions, having an armrest can be an absolute necessity, and this is the main reason chairs with armrests continue to be the standard.