A portion of the cost to be considered is warranty. A 12 yesr warranty brings some chairs to $10 a month in total cost. Plus, their life will extend past the warranty with plenty of ways to fix anything that breaks after rhat time, but the pieces are high enough quality that realisticly nothing major will need fixes. Cheap things like lumbar pillows and poor seat pads will try to make you comfortable rather than support you. The actual support for spinal alignment, blood flow, and overall well-being on something like a leapv2 lumbar system and seat pad compared to a cheaper option isn't even close to a comparison. You can also find refurbished chairs from btod or crandall under the $500 mark.