Before you go shopping for a Varidesk, one small thing: that company hasn’t been called Varidesk since February 2020. It rebranded as Vari, and knowing that will save you an afternoon of chasing reviews of products that have quietly changed names.
In brief
- Varidesk is now Vari. Same company, renamed in 2020.
- Converter or full desk first, brand second.
- French guidance suggests switching posture every 30 to 60 minutes.
- Desk depth matters as much as height. Aim for 50 to 70 cm of screen distance.
Who these two companies actually are
They arrived at the standing desk from opposite ends of the workshop, which explains a lot about the product ranges.
Ergotron was founded in 1982 in Minnesota by Harry Sweere, and the founding product was a monitor stand that tilted and swivelled. Everything since has been an extension of that idea: arms, mounts, medical carts, and the WorkFit range for offices. Ownership has moved around, from Nortek into the Melrose Industries group in 2016, then to The Sterling Group in 2022, but the engineering identity has stayed remarkably consistent. When you buy an Ergotron, you’re buying a mechanism.
Vari is much younger. It launched in 2013 in Texas with a single product, a desktop riser that turned any ordinary desk into a sit-stand one without tools, and it grew from there into a full workspace range before dropping the Varidesk name in 2020. When you buy a Vari, you’re mostly buying the removal of friction: it arrives assembled, you lift it onto the desk, you’re working.
Converter or full desk: the question that comes first
Answer this before you compare a single spec sheet, because it decides which half of each catalogue is even relevant to you.
A converter suits a room that isn’t only an office
A riser sits on top of your existing table and lifts the screen and keyboard together. It’s the sensible choice if your workspace is a corner of the living room, if you rent and can’t justify replacing furniture, or if you’re not yet sure you’ll stick with standing at all. Ergotron’s WorkFit converters and Vari’s riser range both do this job well.
The costs are real, though. A converter eats desk depth, since the mechanism needs room to travel. It raises the keyboard to a fixed relationship with the screen that you can’t fine-tune independently on every model. And it doesn’t disappear: you’re looking at a piece of machinery on your dining table every evening.
A full desk suits a room you’ve committed to
A height-adjustable desk moves the whole worksurface, so nothing is perched on anything and the aesthetics stay calm. It costs more, it’s a proper delivery, and it’s the right answer once you know the room is a workspace for good.
One detail worth insisting on: French occupational health guidance from the INRS notes that for easy switching between sitting and standing, an electric height adjustment is preferable to a crank. That sounds like a luxury until you realise the entire benefit of the desk depends on you bothering to move it several times a day.
The measurements that decide whether you’re comfortable
Neither brand can rescue a badly set up position, so get these right first and they apply whichever box you end up buying.
Screen distance and height. The INRS puts the top of the screen at eye level, at a viewing distance of 50 to 70 cm. That’s a depth requirement as much as a height one, and it’s the reason a deep, shallow-fronted worksurface beats a fashionable narrow one every time.
Elbows at roughly a right angle. Set the keyboard height to your forearms, then bring the screen to your eyes. Doing it the other way round is how people end up shrugging their shoulders for eight hours.
How often you change. The same guidance suggests alternating posture every 30 to 60 minutes rather than standing for one heroic stretch. Standing all day is not the goal, and it brings its own aches.
Weight capacity. Two screens, a laptop and a dock add up faster than people expect. Check the stated capacity against what you’ll really put on it, not against what you own today.
| Ergotron | Vari (ex-Varidesk) | |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | 1982, Minnesota | 2013, Texas |
| Started with | Monitor stands and arms | A single desktop riser |
| Strongest at | Screen positioning, multi-monitor mounting | Out-of-the-box simplicity, coordinated ranges |
| Typical setup effort | Assembly and adjustment expected | Largely ready on arrival |
| Worth checking before ordering | Which WorkFit models the European sellers carry | Delivery and after-sales cover for France |
The cheap upgrade nobody mentions
If the budget only stretches so far, spend it on a monitor arm before you spend it on the desk. An arm frees the screen from the worksurface entirely, so you can correct height and distance independently, and it hands you back the desk space the base was occupying. It’s the part of this whole category where Ergotron’s forty years of mounts genuinely show.
The second cheap win is storage that gets the clutter off the surface, which is the other reason home desks end up too shallow to sit at properly. A wall-mounted unit does it without stealing floor space, and my guide to making a modular and original shelf is the version I’d build rather than buy.
Before you spend anything
Is a standing desk worth it in a small flat? Often more than in a big one, because a converter lets a single table do two jobs. In a two-room flat, the alternative is a dedicated desk you resent for the space it takes.
Manual or electric? Electric, if the desk is one you’ll adjust several times a day and the budget allows it, for the reason the INRS gives: ease of change is what makes the change happen. Manual is fine on a converter, where the movement is a single lift.
Will one of these fix my back? No product does that on its own, and anyone claiming otherwise is selling. Moving regularly is the mechanism that helps, and the furniture is just what makes moving easy. Persistent pain is a conversation with a doctor or a physiotherapist, not a purchase.
What about summer? A practical local point: standing puts you higher in the room, which is exactly where the warm air is. If your workspace faces south, sort the shutters and the airflow before you spend on furniture, or you’ll blame the desk for something the sun is doing.
Desk sorted, room still gloomy?
Screen height is only half of eye comfort. The other half is what’s lighting the wall behind it.
