The 4 Best Cheap Backpacking Chairs (Bought & Tested!)

What counts as a cheap backpacking chair

Cheap is my own line, not the brands’, because none of them prices their chair as the budget option. So here’s every backpacking chair I tested at its list price, next to what it scored.

Every price is the chair’s list price when I bought it, so a sale gets you in lower. The scores are from the 5 tests in my full roundup.

• Where the line sits: $35 to $70 at list price.
• How many qualify: 3 of the chairs I tested, with the Flexlite Air joining them whenever REI discounts it.
• The benchmark: my Helinox Chair Zero, the best chair in the lineup, costs 4 times what the Trekology does and scores 1.4 points higher.
• The special case: at its $100 list price the Flexlite Air costs more than the Naturehike and Trekology combined, which is nowhere near cheap-chair money. REI discounts it often though, and about 30% off lands it at the same money as the Quechua. That’s the only time I’d call it a cheap pick, and it’s the only reason it’s in this post.

What you actually get for the money

I plotted every chair I tested by what it costs against what it scored, then fitted a line through all the points.

Hover over any dot, or tap it on a phone, to see which chair it is. The five named in orange are the four in this post plus my premium benchmark, and the shaded strip is the cheap band.

• How to read it: the dashed line is the value line. A chair above it gives you more score per dollar than average, and a chair below it gives you less.
• Only one in-band chair beats the line: the Naturehike, and it clears it comfortably. That result is exactly why it’s the champion here.
• The Flexlite Air’s spot moves: at its $100 list price it sits below the line. REI’s sales change that: about 30% off lands it inside the band, where nothing else is anywhere near as light.
• A higher price doesn’t mean a better chair: the NEMO Elite costs $190 and lands on the same 7.1 as the $45 Naturehike.

Where the money goes: the poles and the fabric

The saving has to come from somewhere, and on a chair it comes out of the frame, the fabric, and the cover you get if something breaks.

The crown goes to the Naturehike for the strongest poles of the four.

• Poles: the Naturehike is the odd one out, with 7075 aircraft-grade aluminum at the cheap end of the lineup. The Trekology, Quechua and Flexlite Air all use regular aluminum.

• Fabric: the two cheapest chairs use 600D polyester, which is tough but heavy. The Flexlite Air gets 70D nylon ripstop instead, far lighter for the same strength, and that’s a good part of why it costs more.
• Warranty: this is where cheap really shows. Naturehike states no warranty at all, and the Trekology and Flexlite Air give you 1 year. The Quechua’s 5 years is the outlier.

The tradeoff: none of the cheap chairs is ultralight

Now for what the low price costs you.

Trail weight is the chair minus its carry bag.

• The pattern: the three in-band chairs all land over 2lbs.

• The exception: only the Flexlite Air stays near 1lb, and it’s only in this lineup because a sale drops it into cheap-chair money.
• Free savings: the carry bags weigh 1.13 to 2.82oz. Leave yours at home and save the weight.

So is a cheap backpacking chair worth it?

Three months of sitting later, here’s where I’d spend the money, and where I wouldn’t.

• Worth it if: your chair travels by car, canoe or a short walk-in. The three in-band chairs scored 6.8 to 7.1, within 1.4 points of the best chair in the entire lineup.
• Worth it if: you want a true ultralight and can wait for a sale. The Flexlite Air at sale money is the cheapest way in.
• Not for you if: you count every ounce. Nothing in the band gets under 2lbs, and the chairs that do cost premium money.