Best under-desk cardio under $200

It is first because Stamina publishes the three figures that let you buy without guessing: 24.5 x 17 x 11.38 inches, 24 lb, and a 250 lb user capacity — 100 lb more headroom than the Cubii JR1's published limit. That combination is unique in this band; every other machine here is missing at least one of the three. The pedals also reverse and the frame is rated for standing as well as seated use. The honest cost is height: 11.38 inches is the tallest of the three ellipticals we track and the most likely to foul a low desk apron, so measure your clearance before you order this one specifically.

Every other maker here publishes a level count, which tells you how finely a range is divided and nothing about how hard it gets. DeskCycle publishes eight settings up to 39 lb of resistance — the only magnitude in the category — and a 10 inch overall height, which is what lets it live under a desk you already own. It also states a 27 inch desk suits a user 5 ft 8 in or shorter, which is the only user-height claim anyone in this category makes. The gaps are real: no published product weight and no published user weight limit, and at 24 inches wide it takes more floor than its height suggests.

9.5 inches is the lowest figure we have found published for any seated machine — half an inch under the Cubii JR1 and nearly two inches under the Stamina — and at 17.5 lb it is the lightest machine of any kind on this site, so it moves between rooms one-handed. For a desk whose apron is the binding constraint, that is the pick. Two caveats we would not skip: no user weight limit is published on Cubii's own page or on the retail listing we read, which is a real gap on a machine you put your body weight through, and Cubii's own product page publishes no dimensions at all — the figures above come from a retailer.

Named as the budget pick: it is the cheapest machine we track, and unlike most things at the bottom of a category it publishes the figures that matter. A 16 x 12 inch footprint is about 1.3 square feet — less than a quarter of what a walking pad needs — and the published 300 lb capacity is matched only by the DeerRun pad. Hydraulic cylinders mean no motor and no outlet. What it is not is an under-desk machine: stepping is standing work, so this is something you do between tasks rather than during a call, and Niceday publishes no product weight and no decibel figure.

It is on this page for one honest reason: at this price it is the lowest-risk way to discover whether a seated pedaler fits your working day before spending three figures on one. It is sold as a low-profile under-desk design, it works for arms on a desktop as well as legs on the floor, and it has Bluetooth connectivity at the bottom of the price range. It ranks last because Sunny publishes no pedal height, no dimensions and no user weight limit for this model on its own site or the listing — so the single most important number for an under-desk machine is simply absent, and light frames in this class slide on hard floors unless you brace them.