There are many reasons to buy a monitor arm, but for us over at iMore, it's all about comfort. The best monitor arms are ideal for posture, back, and neck health. Adjustable monitor arms also make it easy to elevate your monitor up and down or to turn it in different directions. This kind of setup is great for standing desks, or just to clear up some valuable real estate on your desktop for your best Mac computer.
Whether you're setting up an all new office, or simply want to make life at your current desk a little more pleasant, our top picks for monitor arms will help make your working life that little bit more comfortable.
Best for Macs
If it's a Mac aesthetic you're looking for, the StarTech Monitor Arm sports a metallic silver finish that looks slick alongside most Mac computers and displays. It's built to hold monitors up to 44 inches or 14 kilograms, so it can handle most monitors easily. The 360º rotating swivel is a nice added feature.
Upgrade pick
Ultrawide monitors call for an extra-sturdy hold, which is exactly what you can expect from the Ergotron HX Ultrawide Monitor Arm. This one is excellent for curved gaming monitors, and it can support screens of up to 49 inches. Keep in mind that this monitor arm is not cheap, but it is high-quality and comes with a ten-year warranty.
Manage your cables
EleTab's VESA arm features a full 90-degree up and down tilt, full landscape, and portrait swivel, and channels for holding your monitor's cables to keep your desk neat. It supports monitors up to 17.6 pounds and is a good choice for the new M2 MacBook we reviewed.
Beyond basics
This monitor arm attaches to your desk with a sturdy clip, lets you easily rotate your monitor between landscape and portrait orientation, and has a tilt range of 70 degrees backward and five degrees forward. It supports displays up to 25 pounds and works with all of today's best MacBooks.
Great budget option
This is a good stand at a reasonable price. The arm fully extends as you need it to. It provides 15 degrees of tilt in every direction, and 360 degrees of swivel, making it easy to orient your monitor between landscape and portrait positions. It also supports displays up to 22 pounds.
Heavy duty
This is a tough, heavy-duty monitor arm. Despite its strength, the arms are actually hollow, allowing you to run your cables through the arm to tidy up your workspace. It supports monitors up to 30 pounds, which should be enough to hold up the best 4K monitors and iMacs.
Dual-wield monitors
This is a great option if you've picked up two monitors and need to mount them both. It features a heavy-duty clamp, so the weight of two monitors won't cause it to tip over, and each arm is independent of the other, so you can adjust each screen to the perfect height for your needs. Each arm supports monitors weighing up to 19.8 pounds.
Manage every cable in existance
Like its one-armed counterpart, this dual-arm desk mount from EleTab offers detachable cable management clamps that let you cleanly route your cables behind your monitor. Each arm supports monitors up to 17.6 pounds.
Nowhere near basic
AmazonBasic's dual-monitor stand takes after the single-monitor version, with both arms offering a tilt range of 70 degrees backward and 5 degrees forward; a wide range of motion. The monitor attachment plates support both 100-by-100mm and 75-by-75mm. Each arm supports monitors up to 20 pounds.
Mount up
Utilizing a gas-activated mechanism, Jarvis' mounting arm will offer a sturdy platform for your monitor while still allowing for easy repositioning when it's called for. This option supports monitors with a weight of up to 19.8 lbs and comes in black, silver, and white color options.
Adapt your stand
The arms on the rest of this list primarily support the 100-by-100mm VESA size, a common size for the mounting bracket on a lot of monitors. If you've got a monitor with a larger mounting bracket, up to 200-by-200mm, this plate from Husky Mounts will let you adapt any of the arms on this list to hold your monitor.
Great for large monitors
The HUANUO Dual Monitor Stand will hold two monitors up to 35 inches each with double gas springs that minimize jitter and noise. You have two mounting options, using either a grommet or a C-clamp. The stand also provides cable management so you can keep your desktop clutter-free.
Our recommendations
You can always trust iMore. Our team of Apple experts have years of experience testing all kinds of tech and gadgets, so you can be sure our recommendations and criticisms are accurate and helpful. Find out more about how we test.
Every monitor arm on this list would be a good choice for most people, but we prefer the EleTab Single Monitor Desk Mount. This one provides a good combination of reasonable price and ease-of-use with wide tilt angles and built-in cable management. This is one of the best monitor arms you can get for the price and will work great alongside a USB-C monitor. No matter which product you choose, any of these monitor arms will prove strong and durable to hold up even large monitors.
EleTab also makes a Dual-Arm monitor desk mount for anyone who needs to mount two monitors, which lets you freely adjust both screens as you need to. Both arms can hold most flat-screen monitors under 18 lbs.
