The Best Monitor Risers

Monitor Riser, Monitor Riser Stand or Monitor Shelf?

⁣The Jarvis Monitor Riser with natural bamboo and white frame.

Monitor risers exemplify an issue that’s prevalent with office fitness gear: The names can be confusing. Is a monitor riser the same thing as a monitor riser stand, a monitor stand or a monitor shelf? For clarity’s sake, we’re talking about an accessory like the Jarvis Monitor Riser in the photo to the right.

In its simplest form, a monitor riser is a shelf that you put on top of your desk. Moving beyond the simplest form, monitor risers can be large or small, have shelves or drawers, have USB ports for charging devices, or even adjust in height.

What do monitor risers do?

Monitor risers help you with storage issues and might help you get into a more ergonomic position.

Starting with storage issues, monitor risers do provide a small amount of extra storage underneath the shelf because the footprint of the monitor itself is now on the raised shelf. Some monitor risers, like the FlexiSpot Monitor Riser Stand, even have a built-in drawer or USB ports for charging devices. Creating enough storage space on a standing desk is a notoriously tricky issue, and using a monitor riser will help alleviate the problem.

The ergonomics of monitor shelves are even trickier. Working with a monitor that’s too low can cause you to slouch forward, which can in turn cause neck, shoulder and back pain. User craning their necks forward to look down at a laptop display that’s too low is a very common problem.

This is typically where we suggest an ergonomic monitor arm, which is far superior to a monitor riser based purely on ergonomics because it is adjustable. There are some monitor risers with a small amount of adjustability, but these still pale in comparison to a monitor arm.

When a monitor riser makes sense

Some situations do call for using a monitor riser instead of a traditional ergonomic monitor arm.

Monitor arms won’t fit on some standing desks that have built-in drawers and the resulting thicker desktop, like the FlexiSpot Theodore. In this case, a monitor riser at least addresses the issue of your display being too low and causing neck strain after long hours of working at the computer. Plus, it adds even more storage space.

And don’t forget the intangible quality of aesthetic beauty. Some people may just like the way a monitor shelf looks, especially one that matches or complements a desktop perfectly, like the limited edition, Scandinavian-design iMovR Ensign’s Desk with its “Fly Deck,” all made with top-grade authentic Baltic birch.

Of course, ergonomics will always prefer that standing desk users install an adjustable ergonomic monitor arm. When desks are placed against a cubicle wall or physical wall, adjusting a monitor arm up or down each time you switch from sitting to standing (as we do because our lower spines stretch out when we stand, compelling us to nudge the monitor up to 2 to four inches higher when we stand) and be problematic. Most monitor arms have an arcing motion, so if you had your monitor perfectly centered when sitting it can shift a bit to the left or right when raised standing.

The only way to avoid this arcing motion of a classic ergonomic arm is to have the arm’s “elbow” point straight back behind your desk. Some people just go with a monitor shelf at that point, and choose a middling height in between their ideal positions for standing or sitting, calling it “close enough for jazz.”

Finally, price is an important factor as well. High-quality monitor shelves will cost well over $100, but there are a ton of budget options available for less than $25, which is much cheaper than a quality monitor arm.

Don’t forget stability

You’ll want to make sure your standing desk shelf can stay put securely on your desktop. Many options clamp to the desktop and while this is the most secure option, you also need to be careful not to damage your desktop. For this reason, we don’t recommend clamping shelves with any real wood desktops, lest they leave an indentation in the surface. A clamp may also bump your desk out from the wall more than you’d like, depending on the design.

If they don’t clamp, monitor risers should at least have good non-slip rubber feet to prevent them from sliding off your desk and damaging your monitor. The hard rubber type can protect your desk from damage but make it too easy for the monitor shelf and everything on it to slide around if bumped. For the best protection of your desktop and your gear look for a shelf with good “tacky” rubber bumpers underneath.

Don’t forget weight capacity

Some large monitors can weigh quite a lot these days. For example, the popular LG 49” ultrawide panoramic display weighs 44 lbs. So you’ll want to consider how you’ll use your monitor riser and then pay attention to the weight capacity. This is especially important if you’re hoping to have two monitors on a single monitor stand.

We’ve broken down our roundup into two categories below. Standing desks that come with a monitor shelf and standalone monitor shelves.

Frequently Bought Together With Monitor Risers