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You don’t want to feel like you’ve been folded up after sitting in a folding chair for a few hours. Outdoor Design Chair
After testing the top six models for build and comfort—and planting a wide variety of butts in the chairs in our offices and homes—we still recommend the flexible HDX Black Plastic Seat Foldable Folding Chair, our favorite since 2017.
Weirdly comfortable, even for long periods of sitting, this chair is wider than most folding chairs we tested, with a flexible, breathable—yet firm—plastic-mesh back and seat.
The HDX Black Plastic Seat Foldable Folding Chair is very comfortable and durable. It’s made of 18-8 steel and flexible, ventilated plastic that conforms to your back and legs and that can (reportedly) hold more than 600 pounds. (MityLite, the company that makes this chair for Home Depot, also sells it under the names FlexLite and Flex One at other retailers.) It’s an inch and a half wider than most of the folding chairs we tested, and it feels great to sit in, even after many hours. This nice-looking chair is currently available in all-black, all-white, and black with a silver frame, but it has also at times come in navy blue. The HDX has a 10-year warranty, by far the longest we found.
This chair has a surprisingly comfortable seat, given its smaller size, and it has the thinnest profile we found. A handle across the top makes the Nisse easy to carry and to hang.
The IKEA Nisse Folding Chair is an affordable, compact chair that’s remarkably comfortable—more so than any other plastic or metal chair we tested, aside from the HDX. It folds up even smaller than our main pick, which is something that may be appreciated by people living in small homes or by those who are short on space. It also looks sleeker than most folding chairs we found, so you won’t hesitate to pull these chairs out for extra seating at parties or during the holidays. And the Nisse has a convenient handle that makes it easy to move around or hang for storage. Compared with the HDX’s 600-pound rating, the Nisse’s rating is only 220 pounds (although we didn’t test this). It also has a smaller seat—about 3 inches narrower in both directions—and it doesn’t include a warranty.
Weirdly comfortable, even for long periods of sitting, this chair is wider than most folding chairs we tested, with a flexible, breathable—yet firm—plastic-mesh back and seat.
This chair has a surprisingly comfortable seat, given its smaller size, and it has the thinnest profile we found. A handle across the top makes the Nisse easy to carry and to hang.
Any folding chair can provide you with extra seating that’s easy to store, but few are durable and comfortable enough to use for prolonged periods of time. After considering dozens of chairs and reading their reviews, we narrowed our search to chairs using the following criteria:
Comfort: Folding chairs are notoriously uncomfortable, so we searched, above all else, for chairs that looked like they’d be tolerable to sit on for a decent amount of time. Materials and design (including seat size and shape) both play a part in how comfortable a chair is. We had a slight preference for wider chairs with flexible, forgiving backs and good ventilation.
Materials and durability: We considered chairs made from wood, steel, and plastic but overall preferred those made from polypropylene or any other flexible plastic, which we found to be much more comfortable to sit in. Although it may seem that steel and hard plastics would be more durable, the polypropylene chairs we’ve been using for years have held up just as well.
Size: We considered chairs in a range of sizes, but we preferred those that folded compactly. Some contenders with thick plastic seats took up too much space when folded (not ideal for an item that will be in storage much of the time).
Price and quantity: We looked for chairs that, ideally, were sold individually and cost about $30 or less. Most chairs we tested met this criteria, but some were sold only in two- or four-packs.
With these guidelines in mind, we considered chairs sold at Home Depot, Amazon, Target, and IKEA that had positive reviews. Over the past three years, we’ve looked at more than 15 chairs and tested the top six contenders. Our tests included repeatedly opening and closing the chairs, sitting on each one for an hour at a time, and generally trying to scuff them up.
In 2019, we retested, bringing in our top pick, the HDX Black Plastic Seat Foldable Folding Chair (formerly called the MityLite FlexLite) along with five new options: the Hercules and Trade Series Folding Chair, the Lifetime Black Plastic Seat Outdoor Safe Folding Chair, the HDX Earth Tan Plastic Seat Outdoor Safe Folding Chair, and the Cosco Vinyl chair.
Weirdly comfortable, even for long periods of sitting, this chair is wider than most folding chairs we tested, with a flexible, breathable—yet firm—plastic-mesh back and seat.
The HDX Black Plastic Seat Foldable Folding Chair is the most comfortable folding chair we’ve ever tried. We think most people will be happy using it for hours at a time, and we also think it’s ideal for parties or family gatherings. A wide seat and a back with a bit of give (which allows for some bounce) set the HDX apart from the competition. The tall, 9-inch backrest provides plenty of support. Because the seat and back are made of a plastic mesh (the chair’s frame itself is steel), you don’t have to worry about searing your thighs or sticking to the chair with a sweaty back if you’re using it in the summer heat.
Despite the extra width, each chair folds up into a super-slim 4¾ inches, and although the specs list a weight of 11 pounds, our chair weighed in at 7½ pounds on an at-home scale. As a result, these chairs are easy to move and store.
At $20 to $30 per chair, the HDX folding chair is more than twice the price of the cheapest models we tried, but we think it’s worth the investment, especially if you live in a small home and don’t have enough storage for bulkier chairs. This chair also has a 10-year warranty, which is far better than those for most other chairs we found, which had one-year warranties or none at all.
Special projects editor Ganda Suthivarakom uses HDX chairs in her home for dinner-party overflow, and they’ve held up beautifully for several years, without scuffing her soft bamboo floors or making screeching noises, like cafeteria-grade metal folding chairs do. One Wirecutter colleague has had a set since 2016 that she uses only at holidays and for the rare large gathering. She said they’ve “held up great. Guests always comment on how surprisingly comfortable they are.” We also used these chairs as backup seating for our New York City office for the past four years. They’ve held up well, and our staff members have always found them comfortable.
This may not be a chair you want to get for daily use. The few one-star reviews complain about the seating material tearing or breaking. And given how flexible the seat is, we don’t recommend standing on one when you need to reach a high place, as this reviewer did. However, in our experience with them—in the office and at home—we’ve never had a chair break.
This chair has a surprisingly comfortable seat, given its smaller size, and it has the thinnest profile we found. A handle across the top makes the Nisse easy to carry and to hang.
At 15 bucks a chair, the IKEA Nisse Folding Chair is a remarkably good value for a simple seat that gets the job done. It’s smaller and lighter than the HDX—only 3 inches deep when folded and less than 8 pounds. With a wide handle cutout that runs along the top of the back support, the Nisse is easy to pick up and to move around or hang. It’s one of two chairs we tried—and the only one we recommend—that has a handle. We also appreciate that, like the HDX, the Nisse is sold by the chair (rather than in two- or four-packs) and comes in three colors (black, dark blue-lilac, and white).
Although the Nisse’s seat isn’t as roomy as the HDX’s, it’s still remarkably comfortable. The plastic doesn’t have the same degree of flex, but it feels softer than the steel-and-padding or solid plastic seats on other chairs we tested. And the angle of the Nisse’s back is neither too upright nor too steeply reclined—it’s just right for long stints of sitting.
The Nisse lacks the ventilation of the HDX’s mesh and has a lower weight rating (220 pounds, compared with the HDX’s 600). Temperature wasn’t an issue for us during our testing, but this chair may be a bit sticky to use at summertime parties. Reviewers on IKEA’s site also like this chair—it has 4.6 stars across 34 for the black version (the ratings are fewer but similar for the other colors).
The IKEA Terje folding chair gets nods from several reviewers for its neutral, Scandinavian looks and excellent price. We tested the HDX folding chair against the IKEA Terje for comfort, and the HDX emerged as the winner, hands down. The Terje’s rigid slatted-wood seat is 2 inches narrower than the HDX’s, it provides no give, and the chair hits the middle of the occupant’s back in an awkward, uncomfortable way.
Flash Furniture’s Hercules and Trade Series Folding Chair is a decent alternative to our picks. It comes in seven colors, and it’s available as a single chair or in packages of two or ten. But the Hercules’s plastic was stiffer than that of our picks, and we didn’t find the angling of the back and seat pieces as comfortable.
There’s a lot to love about the Lifetime Black Plastic Seat Outdoor Folding Chair. It’s well reviewed and, like our top pick, has a 10-year warranty. But the Lifetime is available only in a four-pack, and we didn’t find its seat as comfortable as those of the HDX and IKEA chairs.
The HDX Earth Tan Plastic Seat Outdoor Folding Chair is relatively comfortable, but the stiff plastic seat isn’t as forgiving as the polypropylene seats of our two picks, and it’s bulky, even when folded up.
The Cosco Vinyl chairs are made of metal, with a lightly padded vinyl seat. They were woefully uncomfortable, heavy, and difficult to carry around.
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Metal And Plastic Chair Wirecutter is the product recommendation service from The New York Times. Our journalists combine independent research with (occasionally) over-the-top testing so you can make quick and confident buying decisions. Whether it’s finding great products or discovering helpful advice, we’ll help you get it right (the first time).