The best monitor arms and monitor mounts allow you to position your display at exactly the right height, angle and distance. But which one should you buy?
At Creative Bloq, we're not just experts in tech, we're all day-to-day users of monitors ourselves. So we've drawn on our personal experience of working with computers over many years, to bring together a list of the best monitor arms and monitor mounts. Whether you use a light or heavy monitor, or multiple screens, the best monitor arms and monitor mounts will help you avoid eye strain and bad posture.
The best office chairs for back pain and the best standing desks can help with your posture too. Note that all the options below use a standard VESA mount. If you're not sure whether your monitor supports this, check the back for a square arrangement of four screw holes.
The best monitor arms available now
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The best budget monitor arm overall
Max monitor size: 32in
Max monitor weight: 25lbs / 11.3kg
This monitor arm from AmazonBasics is a premium product that just happens to be sold at a budget price. Sturdy, lightweight and flexible, you can clamp it to any desk between 0.4 and 2.5 inches thick. The cable management system is a bit basic, but it still works fine.
The sturdiest budget monitor arm
Max monitor size: 32in
Max monitor weight: 8lbs / 3.6kg
Want something robust and durable? This monitor arm offers exceptional build quality, and there's a real sturdiness to it that's comforting. Plus whether you're pulling or pushing, movement is effortless. Note there's no wall-mount option, though.
The best budget monitor arm for looks
Max monitor size: 24in
Max monitor weight: 15.5lbs / 7kg
This stylish looking monitor arm is perfect for lighter monitors (which means the vast majority). Coming in three finishes –
polished aluminium, silver with grey trim and black with black trim – the M2 offers great angles, and it's super-easy to install.
The best heavy-duty mount for dual setups
Max monitor size: 27in
Max monitor weight: 22lbs / 9.97kg
If you're looking to support more than two monitors, this is a solid choice. And we do mean solid – the steel construction is impressively sturdy. Once it's all fixed in place, you can rig up dual monitors of up to 27 inches in size and 9.97kg in weight.
The best monitor arm for heavy screens
Max monitor size: 32in
Max monitor weight: 30lbs / 13.6kg
If you have a heavy monitor, this arm is capable of supporting screens up to 30lbs / 13.6kg. It's nicely adjustable, too, with 18.6 inches of vertical adjustment and horizontal extension up to 19.5 inches. Plus, because it's hollow, you can run cables inside it.
The best cheap monitor arm
Max monitor size: 30in
Max monitor weight: 19.8lbs / 8.9kg
Looking for something cheap? This stand is a little basic, with chunky build quality and a paucity of cable management options, and it's no good for anyone with a larger, heavier display. But overall, it does a good job of holding a standard monitor.
The best dual arm for smaller monitors
Max monitor size: 24in per arm
Max monitor weight: 19.8lbs / 8.9kg per arm
Have two monitors, both on the smaller side? This can hold dual monitors up to 24in in diameter, and up to 19.8 lbs / 8.9kg of weight. It offers height adjustment of 12 inches and an arm extension of 29 inches, plus you can rotate both monitors from landscape to portrait.
The most flexible dual-monitor arm
Max monitor size: 24in
Max monitor weight: 20lbs / 9.1kg per arm
If you have dual monitors but don't necessarily want them side-by-side, this monitor arm gives you lots of versatility. You can have them next to each other if you want, but you can also stack them vertically, or in a completely different arrangement. Note the maximum monitor size of 24in, though.
The best monitor arm for tall people
Max monitor size: 34in
Max monitor weight: 25lbs / 11.3kg
If you're well over six feet tall you'll find most monitor arms don't go high enough for you. So here's a version of the Ergotron LX Dual Stacking Arm (number 8 on our list) that increases the height adjustment range by an extra 6.25in / 15.8cm, in addition to the 13 inches of the original arm's range.
How should I choose the best monitor arm?
There are several things we look for when choosing the best monitor arm – all factors that we've considered when making our selection above. Firstly you want a monitor arm that's going to be solid and sturdy enough to support your monitor and allow you to move it without it feeling unstable (always check the max monitor weight, which we've listed for each item). This is even more the case if you use a touchscreen monitor.
A good monitor arm should also be adjustable in terms of height, swivel and tilt in order to allow you to position it in exactly the right angle for where you'll be sitting. Finally, although not essential, it's worth looking for monitor arms with cable management systems, which help keep those cables in order and avoid clutter at the back of your desk.
How do you set up a monitor arm?
Most monitor arms are fairly simple to setup, but make sure you check the instructions that come with them. In most cases, they'll attach to to the back of your monitor with a VESA mount, which is a square arrangement of four screw holes. Different arms have different bases and mechanisms for attaching to your desk (or a wall), but in most cases the options we've chosen attach to your desk using a clamp system that doesn't require any work on the desk itself.
How did we pick the best monitor arms for our guide?
Alongside our sister sites Techradar and Tom's Guide, Creative Bloq regularly tests and reviews a wide range of tech products. In our case, we focus more specifically on hardware, software and accessories that serve for creatives. Many of our reviewers and contributors also work in the creative sectors as designers, photographers and artists and use the equipment that we review in their daily work. We also compare online reviews from the general public.
