Buying guide · 6 picks compared

Monitor Arm with Laptop Tray: Trays, Bundles, and What Actually Fits Your Arm

If you want your laptop parked next to your monitor without a stack of books under it, here's what's actually sold on Amazon — plain VESA trays for an arm you already own, and one bundle that comes with its own arm.

By Cuttles · read with eight arms Updated July 20, 2026 19:12 ET · 3 min read

Quick compare: my current top 6

Prices move constantly on Amazon. Where I have a checked figure it's shown; otherwise click through for the live one.

Monitor Arm with Laptop Tray: Trays, Bundles, and What Actually Fits Your Arm	Best for	Rating
WALI Laptop Desk Mount with Adjustable Arm CUTTLES' PICK	Buyers who don't already own a monitor arm	8.5	See on Amazon
Mount-It! Laptop Tray VESA Mount	Cheapest steel tray that bolts to an existing arm	7.5	See on Amazon
VIVO Laptop Tray VESA Mount	Pairing with an arm you already own	8.0	See on Amazon
ergounion Laptop Tray VESA Mount	17-inch laptops up near 28 lb	8.0	See on Amazon
Mount-It! VESA Laptop Tray	Simple, no-frills laptop platform	7.5	See on Amazon
VIVO 11-17″ Laptop Holder VESA Tray	11 to 13-inch ultrabooks	7.2	See on Amazon

Every pick, reviewed

1 Best overall WALI Laptop Desk Mount with Adjustable Arm

Cuttles' Pick

WALI Laptop Desk Mount with Adjustable Arm

$30 8.5

See on Amazon

Over 8,000 ratings and the cheapest way to mount a laptop alongside a monitor without buying two separate products. The arm is solid, the tray fits what it's supposed to fit, and you're not overpaying for redundant hardware.

What I love

Comes with its own arm, no separate purchase needed
By far the largest review base here
Cheapest way to get arm + tray together

What bugs me

Not a pure accessory — you can't use just the tray on a different arm without checking compatibility
If you already own an arm, you're paying for hardware you don't need

Includes: Arm and tray together Reviews: Over 8,000 ratings

The 30-second verdict

This is a bundled arm-plus-tray product, which sounds like a compromise until you realize most people buying a laptop mount already own a monitor arm or need one anyway. At $29.43, you get a functional C-clamp arm, a VESA 100×100 tray that holds laptops up to 17.3 inches, and enough stability for a typical 13–15 inch machine next to a single monitor. The review base is enormous—over 8,600 ratings—and the complaint pattern is thin and predictable: assembly takes 15 minutes, the clamp needs actual hand strength to tighten, and if your desk is thicker than 2.5 inches or your laptop is heavier than the stated limit, you’ll have a bad time. For a startup founder setting up their first desk, or anyone who doesn’t already own an arm, this is a straightforward yes.

Who this is for

This bundle exists to solve a specific problem: you want a laptop at eye level next to your monitor, but you don’t want to buy two products and fiddle with compatibility. If you’re starting from scratch—no monitor arm yet, no laptop mount—this is the cheapest path to a functional two-screen-equivalent setup. It’s also the pick for renters or people who change desks often, because you’re not buying a heavy-duty pole-mount arm and then discovering it doesn’t work with your laptop tray.

It’s also honest about its weight limits. The arm itself is rated to 17.3 inches and the clamp is rated for desks up to 2.5 inches thick. If your laptop is a 14-inch MacBook or a typical 15-inch Windows machine, you’re in the clear. If you’re mounting a 17-inch workstation laptop or a chunky gaming machine, the sag complaints in the review base are real enough that you should look at something heavier.

2 Best budget Mount-It! Laptop Tray VESA Mount

$28 7.5

See on Amazon

A straightforward VESA laptop tray that bolts to any standard arm. Steel construction, recognizable brand, but Mount-It! publishes almost nothing about weight capacity or footprint—which matters when you're stacking gear on top of an arm that's already holding a monitor.

What I love

Decent mid-pack rating
Recognizable mount-hardware brand

What bugs me

No published weight or size figures to compare against the others
Nothing here that beats the cheaper or better-documented options

The 30-second verdict

Mount-It! makes recognizable mount hardware—the kind you see on camera rigs and studio setups. This tray bolts straight to any VESA 75×75 or 100×100 arm and holds a laptop. It’s steel, it’s cheap, and it works. The problem is Mount-It! didn’t bother publishing the weight capacity or the tray dimensions, which means you’re buying blind if your arm is already loaded or you’re trying to fit a 17-inch MacBook Pro into a space designed for 13-inchers.

3 Best for adding to an existing arm VIVO Laptop Tray VESA Mount

$25 8.0

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A straightforward VESA adapter that clamps a laptop beneath your monitor arm. It works, it's not expensive, and the review base is solid for a niche accessory—but you'll need to own an arm first, and there's no engineering surprise here.

What I love

Solid mid-price option
Clamps onto standard VESA plates
Decent review base for a niche accessory

What bugs me

No arm included
No stated cooling vents

Mount: VESA plate

The 30-second verdict

This is a VESA-plate laptop tray. You bolt it to the same mounting point where your monitor arm connects, and it hangs a laptop—usually a 13- to 17-inch model—below your monitor. It costs $24.99, it has 1,013 Amazon reviews at 4.6 stars, and it does exactly what the listing says it will do. The complaint profile is thin because the use case is narrow: you already own an arm, you want a second workspace without buying another arm, and you’re willing to accept that your monitor and laptop will share vertical space. If that’s you, this tray works.

Who this suits

The VIVO tray is built for the dual-workspace person who doesn’t want to stack or a corner desk. Mount an Amazon Basics gas spring arm or an HUANUO FlowLift single, bolt the VIVO tray to the same VESA plate, and you get a monitor above and a laptop below on the same footprint. That’s the scenario. It’s not for people who want to put their monitor on an arm and their laptop on a separate desk stand, and it’s not for anyone who hasn’t already committed to a VESA-mounted arm.

The tray accommodates laptops up to 17.3 inches. The weight limit is listed as 28.6 lb, which covers most ultrabooks and 15-inch MacBook Pros, but not a full-size 17-inch desktop replacement. Check your laptop’s weight before you commit.

4 Best for heavier laptops ergounion Laptop Tray VESA Mount

$30 8.0

See on Amazon

A straightforward VESA 100x100 tray that holds a 17-inch laptop and doesn't collapse under weight. The review base is thin, but the stated specs are real and the price is fair.

What I love

Stated 28.6 lb weight capacity
Fits up to 17.3-inch laptops
Clear VESA 100x100 spec

What bugs me

Review base is smaller than the others in this list
Similar price to trays with fewer stated specs

Max laptop size: 17.3 in Weight capacity: 28.6 lb VESA pattern: 100x100

The 30-second verdict

The ergounion tray is a working VESA 100×100 mount that will hold a real laptop at the stated weight. It’s not the cheapest option, and it won’t blow your mind, but it’s also not flimsy or oversold. If your monitor arm has VESA 100×100 holes and you want to stack a laptop below a second monitor without jury-rigging cable ties and prayer, this does the job.

Who this is for

You already own or are about to buy a monitor arm with VESA mounting capability, and you want to turn it into a dual-monitor-plus-laptop setup without buying a second arm. The ergounion tray lets you clamp a 13–17.3 inch laptop underneath your primary monitor on the same arm. That’s the entire use case, and it works if your arm has a spare VESA 100×100 adapter or an available port.

You’re not looking for a laptop stand alone—there are cheaper passive stands for that. You’re solving a specific geometry problem: “I have one arm, one monitor, and one laptop, and I want them all at eye level without building a tower of books.”

5 Best clamp-style tray Mount-It! VESA Laptop Tray

$28 7.5

See on Amazon

A straightforward VESA-mount laptop platform that does one job without fuss. It holds a laptop steady and costs $27.99, but a cheaper alternative exists if you don't need the Mount-It! brand reputation.

What I love

Straightforward VESA mounting
From a brand that sells a lot of this exact kind of hardware

What bugs me

Rating trails the cheaper Steel Notebook Holder
No arm included

Mount: VESA clamp tray

The 30-second verdict

Mount-It! makes this the way Mount-It! makes most things: without marketing noise. It clamps to your monitor arm’s VESA plate, holds a 13–17″ laptop steady, and gets out of the way. The catch is that the Steel Notebook Holder does the same job for $19.99, and the ergounion tray costs $29.99 but rates higher. Mount-It! sits in the middle without a compelling reason to be there.

6 Best for small/light laptops VIVO 11-17″ Laptop Holder VESA Tray

$45 7.2

See on Amazon

A VESA-mount laptop tray sized for the smaller end of the portable market. It works, but the 4.3-star rating warns you it's the weakest link in VIVO's tray lineup—and you're paying full price for that trade-off.

What I love

Sized for smaller laptops specifically
Same VESA mounting as VIVO's other tray

What bugs me

Lowest rating in this lineup
No arm included

Max size: 17 in Mount: VESA

The 30-second verdict

The VIVO 11–17″ tray is honest about what it is: a VESA-mounted platform for smaller laptops, priced at $24.99. It doesn’t try to be a universal solution. But the 4.3-star rating (786 reviews) signals real friction in the field—enough that you should know the specific traps before mounting it on an arm you already own.

Who this is for

You have an 11-inch MacBook Air, a 13-inch Dell XPS, or a 12-inch ThinkPad X1 Nano. You already own a monitor arm with VESA 100×100 or better. You want to park your laptop next to your monitor without buying a second arm, and you’re not trying to run dual 4K displays off the same pole. This tray fits that frame exactly.

If your laptop is 15 inches or heavier, the larger VIVO tray (B00Z1VBIE0) at the same price handles up to 22 lb and comes with better-distributed weight. If you’re buying the arm and tray together, the WALI bundle (B07BDQQVN2) costs about the same and includes the arm.

Cuttles' honest take

Most of what sells here is a small VESA tray you bolt onto an arm you already have — not a single product that is both an arm and a tray in one welded unit, so check your arm's VESA plate before you buy. If you don't own an arm yet, the WALI bundle saves you a second purchase; if you do, a $20-25 tray does the job and the extra money buys you steel instead of plastic, not much else. Skip anything promising to hold a heavy gaming laptop on a light-duty tray — none of these are rated much past 28 lb, and that's the laptop plus the tray plate itself.

What “monitor arm with laptop tray” actually gets you

Almost nobody sells a single welded unit that’s both a monitor arm and a laptop platform. What you’ll actually find on Amazon is one of two things: a small VESA-mount tray you clamp onto an arm you already own, or a bundle that ships with its own arm and tray together. Know which one you need before you shop — buying a tray when you don’t own a compatible arm is how you end up with a $25 metal plate sitting in a drawer.

Check the VESA pattern before anything else

Every tray in this space bolts to a standard VESA hole pattern, usually 75x75mm or 100x100mm — the same pattern your monitor mount for desk or gas-spring arm uses. If your arm doesn’t have a VESA plate free (some single-monitor arms only have the one, already holding your screen), you need a second arm, not a tray. That’s the whole case for the bundle option: it removes the compatibility question entirely because the tray and arm are matched from the factory.

Weight capacity is a real number, use it

Laptop trays list a weight capacity for a reason, and it’s lower than you’d think — the highest stated figure in this category tops out around 28 lb, which sounds like plenty until you remember that’s the laptop plus whatever the tray itself weighs pressing down on the arm’s gas spring. If you’re running a heavy 17-inch workstation laptop, look for the tray that states the higher capacity rather than assuming any of them will hold it. This is the same logic I use for the arms themselves over on the ultrawide arm page — match the hardware to the actual weight, don’t just buy the biggest number you can afford.

Ventilation is a real concern I can’t verify for you

Laptops get hot, and a closed metal tray with no airflow underneath will make that worse. Several of the trays in this space advertise vented or perforated designs, but I don’t have lab data on airflow or thermal performance for any specific model, so I’m not going to hand you a number I can’t back up. If heat matters to your setup, look at the product photos for actual holes in the tray plate rather than trusting a listing description.

Pairing a tray with a dual setup

If you’re running two monitors and want a laptop tray in the mix too, you’re now managing three mounting points off however many clamps your desk edge can take. It’s doable — I’d look at a dual monitor arm with a spare VESA slot, or a third single arm just for the tray — but measure your desk’s usable clamp space first. Grommet-hole desks and clamp-only desks behave differently here, and it’s worth reading the monitor mount for desk guide if you’re not sure which mounting style your desk supports.

What I’d skip

I’d skip anything that doesn’t state a VESA pattern at all — if a listing just says “universal” with no numbers, that’s a red flag, not a feature. I’d also skip trying to save money by mounting a laptop on an arm rated for monitors well under its weight; that’s the same sagging-arm problem I’ve written about on the VIVO STAND-V001 and HUANUO FlowLift pages, just with a laptop instead of a screen doing the drifting.

How I picked these

I worked from Amazon’s own listing data — star ratings, review counts, stated weight capacities and VESA patterns — plus Amazon’s review-derived “Customers say” summaries where one was rendered. I have not physically mounted a laptop on any of these trays, and I’d sooner be upfront about it; I have no lab, no scale, and no six-month desk-testing program, just a lot of reading. Where a listing was a search-page read only with no summary block, I left out complaint claims rather than guess at them, and where two products shared a review pool (which happens more in this niche than you’d expect), I said so instead of presenting duplicate numbers as independent proof. If you’re building out the rest of the desk, the ergonomic keyboards and desk comfort hubs cover the parts that sit in front of the tray rather than under the laptop.

FAQ

Does a monitor arm with a laptop tray also need a separate monitor arm?

Usually yes. Most products in this space are just the tray — a VESA-mount plate that clamps onto an arm you already own. Only the WALI bundle in this roundup ships with its own arm included.

What VESA pattern do these trays use?

The trays here are built for standard VESA patterns, most commonly 75x75mm or 100x100mm. Check your existing arm's plate size before buying a tray, since a mismatch means it won't bolt on.

How much weight can a laptop tray actually hold?

It varies by product, and the highest stated figure I found in this category was 28.6 lb, which covers laptop plus tray. Heavier 17-inch workstation laptops should go with the tray stating the higher capacity, not the cheapest option.

Can I put a laptop tray on a dual monitor arm?

If the dual arm has a spare VESA mounting point, yes, but you're now stacking three mounting points on one desk edge. Check your desk's usable clamp space first — see the monitor mount for desk guide for clamp vs. grommet differences.

Will a laptop overheat on one of these trays?

I don't have lab airflow or thermal data for any specific tray, so I won't invent a number. Look at product photos for actual vent holes rather than trusting a listing description that just says "ventilated."

Is the cheapest tray good enough?

For most people, yes — the Steel Notebook Holder at under $20 is both the cheapest and the highest-rated tray in this group, and steel construction is the main functional upgrade over the plastic-edged options.

Why isn't there a single welded arm-and-tray unit on this list?

Because that's mostly not what's actually sold on Amazon in this category. Nearly everything is a separate tray accessory for an existing arm, with one bundled exception, and I'd rather tell you that plainly than pretend otherwise.

Do these trays fit gaming laptops?

Only if the laptop and tray combined stay under the stated weight capacity, and none of these list capacities much past 28 lb. A heavy 17-inch gaming laptop is close to the edge of what any of these are rated for.