16 Best Mattresses You Can Buy Online (2024)
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Buying a mattress online can be a waking nightmare, and picking the wrong one can literally cause bad dreams or kill your back. It doesn't help that the online market is flooded with options and that there are more dedicated mattress review sites than stars in the sky.
Years ago, we started this guide by filling a room with dozens of mattresses from top bed-in-a-box companies and spending several days examining, reclining, and even jumping on each of them. We've since upgraded our protocol to ensure we're conducting the most thorough real-life testing you'll find anywhere. Our testers now spend weeks or months sleeping on each mattress; we recommend only mattresses that WIRED reviewers have spent at least seven nights sleeping on in their homes. These are our favorites.
Be sure to read our other sleep guides, including the Best Mattresses for Side Sleepers, Best Organic Mattresses, Best Bed Sheets, Best Bed Frames, Best Mattresses on Amazon, and Best Sleep Trackers.
Updated August 2024: We've added the Saatva Contour5, the Allswell Supreme hybrid, and the Charles P. Rogers Estate Tradition Mattress, which is our new top pick for anyone battling back pain. There's a fresh note about Nectar, which has relaunched its lineup with new materials and has been removed pending testing. We have removed three of our alternate picks and updated pricing throughout.
- Photograph: Helix Sleep
Best Mattress Overall
Helix Sleep Midnight Luxe Hybrid Mattress (14-Inch)Former WIRED editor Jeffrey Van Camp tested several mattresses over the years, but this is the only one that put him to sleep immediately after just a few minutes of lying on it. Helix's Midnight Luxe has a plush cushion top and a medium-firm feel that's relaxing whether you're a side, back, or stomach sleeper. (He's most definitely a stomach sleeper.)
Helix mattresses are hybrids with a base of individually wrapped inner springs that are firmer in areas that need more support to prevent back pain, like your lower spine. On top is a stratum of cooling gel foam and denser foams. There are six layers in all and the mattress is more than 13 inches high. It's cozy, and Helix has a variety of other mattresses that cater to different sleeping positions and firmness preferences. Helix is almost vertically integrated—the springs are made from bales of wire cut in the company's Arizona factory, where it has recently started pouring its own foam.
- Photograph: Martin Cizmar
Best for Problem Sleepers
Leesa Sapira ChillLet’s face it: No one goes looking to buy a new mattress because they’re sleeping too well on their old one. Depending on what issues are disturbing your rest, the Leesa Sapira Chill may be the tonic for what ails you. That’s especially true if you struggle with a few interrelated problems—like getting too hot so you kick your covers off and roll over in the process, twisting your spine.
The Leesa Sapira hybrid was our longtime runner-up to the Helix and it’s still a mattress we endorse. But after two weeks of testing, the Sapira Chill won me over. Not only does it provide a nice dose of cooling thanks to a fabric cover that pulls heat away from the body, but it also delivers deep comfort via four foam layers and three different types of coil, which are artfully arranged in zones that gracefully align your hips. The Sapira's structure eliminated my periodic lower back pain in testing. (The next mattress I tested, the Magnistretch in the avoid section below, brought that pain back with a vengeance!)
The Leesa Sapira Chill is an affordable luxury mattress, with a plush quilted pillowtop and three available firmness levels. It has a little more springiness than other hybrids thanks to a bouncy responsive foam layer that takes the place of memory foam in many other hybrid mattresses. You also get premium touches like an outer ring of extra-firm springs for excellent edge support and a chemical-free and fiberglass-free barrier against fires. There’s a 100-night at-home trial with free shipping and free returns.
- Photograph: Bear
Best for Side Sleepers
Bear Elite Hybrid MattressMost people are side sleepers. The stats vary by study and how you define side sleeping, but between half and three-quarters of people sleep mostly on their side. It's important to find a mattress that strikes a perfect balance between cushion and support. The Bear Elite is a five-layer hybrid mattress that's 14 inches thick and firmer than most other side sleeper mattresses. Your initial impression might be that a squishy memory foam mattress is better—my experience is that sinking too much gets old after a while.
The Bear's top layer is a quilted pillowtop made from a cooling fabric that sits above a layer of cooling copper-infused foam. There's a single layer of springs of varied rigidity so your hips can sink a bit without your back coming out of alignment. It's a sturdy mattress and comes with a 120-night trial period (plus a lifetime warranty).
The Bear Elite is now my daily driver—I've been sleeping on this mattress for six months any time I'm not testing another mattress or traveling—and it's the pick I suggest to anyone who tells me they're a side sleeper unless they have other sleeping problems they're looking to address. Read our Best Mattresses for Side Sleepers guide for other picks.
- Photograph: Plank
Best Firm Mattress
Plank Firm MattressWIRED reviewer Adrienne So likes a firm mattress. And by “firm” she means “rock hard.” She finds sleeping on a quarter-inch of foam over dirt to be both relaxing and good for her back. The Plank's high-density support foam took a few hours to fully inflate, which left both So and her spouse with a misleading initial impression of too much softness. But after a few days, the mattress firmed up considerably. The 0.75-inch quilted top is barely perceptible. It's like sleeping on a clean wooden floor (this is a good thing for her).
If this is too much for you, you can flip it over to sleep on two inches of comfort foam on the underside. But let’s be honest, if you’re ordering a mattress called the Plank, you probably don’t want to do that. The foam also doesn’t move laterally, meaning kids can hop in and out of the parental bed with minimal shaking. Her one complaint is that the edges could use more support; she has slipped off the sides a few times while putting on her socks.
★ Not quite so firm: After two months of testing, WIRED reviewer Louryn Strampe was struck by the firmness of the Brooklyn Bedding Aurora Luxe Cooling Mattress ($1,586). It's not as firm as the Plank (which is also made by Brooklyn Bedding), but that could be a good thing depending on your sleeping preferences. As a side sleeper, she thinks a plush topper would be a fantastic addition to the mattress, but her back-sleeping partner (who often complains that the mattresses she reviews are too soft) is a big fan. The hybrid bed is available in three firmness levels and the cooling features of this mattress are also effective. The top layer feels cold to the touch, even through layers of sheets. Her only complaint is that those cooling fibers are so slippery that her fitted sheet kept slipping off.
- Photograph: Melissa Krused/Avocado Mattress
Best Organic Mattress
Avocado Green Organic Hybrid MattressThe Avocado Green hybrid mattress is the only mattress WIRED reviewer Scott Gilbertson and his wife agree on. She likes a soft mattress, and he prefers a firm one. This model somehow manages to be both without being too much of either. Despite more than a year of sleeping on it, there's zero sagging or other issues. If you prefer a soft feel, there's a pillow-top option.
The Avocado's best trick is that it's incredibly comfortable and environmentally friendly. It's 11 inches thick and is constructed in California from organic latex, organic wool, and organic cotton. It contains no polyurethane, fire retardants, memory foam, or chemical adhesives, according to the company. It offers a one-year trial, a 25-year warranty, and free shipping. Better yet, the company is also a certified B Corporation that's purchasing enough offsets to say it operates as a carbon-negative business. Read our Best Organic Mattresses guide for more sustainable options.
- Photograph: Cole Slutzky/Birch
Best Organic Mattress Upgrade
Birch Luxe Natural MattressBirch's high-end Luxe model is a great side-sleeping mattress, just like its standard model, but its medium-firm feel and structured support make it a more versatile pick for a variety of sleeping styles. It's also an organic mattress and is GOTS-certified, using natural latex with no polyurethane-based foams.
The Luxe mattress employs multiple layers of wool, plus a layer of individually wrapped coils, which provide support and some cushioning. It has a pillowy Euro top that helps with temperature regulation, and the coils provide full lumbar support while maintaining a satisfyingly stiff edge on all four sides. My sleep rings have been spinning themselves closed during my month of testing this mattress.
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- Photograph: Helix Sleep
Best Mattress Upgrade
Helix Sunset EliteOur top pick, Helix, has an Elite collection that consists of six new mattresses along a spectrum of softness. Those hybrid mattresses come in two separate boxes, each heavy enough to require help lifting. The firmness is dictated by the foam density of the upper layer, which zips into a larger support system. In theory, this makes the mattress adjustable if you end up regretting your order. The bottom section has two separate layers of tiny springs called microcoils. Helix says you need to pair this with a bed frame that has slats (not a traditional box-spring frame).
Helix advertises the Elite as "the tallest mattress on the internet," and at 16 inches, it is indeed the Shaq of boxed mattresses. I spent a month sleeping on the softest model from the Elite line, dubbed the Sunset, and appreciated the deep cradling effect. Most people prefer a mattress that cools them as they sleep—like many on this list, Helix claims to use a special fabric that dissipates body heat, and it indeed remains remarkably cool even when you're settled in. Helix offers a 100-day trial period on all of its mattresses.
- Photograph: Nena Farrell
Best For Back Pain
Charles P. Rogers Estate Tradition MattressThere’s a lot to look for when you’re battling back pain. If the source is a chronic injury or damage in your back, you’ll want plenty of firm support to help keep your back and spine supported and aligned. But if you’re also a side sleeper or have pain from pressure points in your back and side, you’ll also want something soft enough that you can sleep comfortably.
WIRED reviewer Nena Farrell suffers from near-constant back pain due to a combination of scoliosis and spondylosis (degradation of cartilage in the spine) and her favorite mattress to sleep on to keep back pain away is the Charles P. Rogers Tradition Estate Mattress. This Florida-made mattress is gently firm, with seven layers of gel, foam, and springs. The quilted top was soft enough that she could comfortably sleep on her side and wake up from zero pressure point pain. It’s also got a nice spring to it, making it easy for her to hop out of bed—and keeping her from hurting herself before the day even begins. Charles P. Rogers allows returns and exchanges within 100 days of delivery, and the mattress also has five years of complete coverage against manufacturing issues plus 10 more years of prorated coverage.
★ A softer option: If you’re looking for more pressure relief and something a little softer, the seven-layer Saatva Rx ($2,945) erases muscle aches and pressure pains with ease overnight. It’s a little too soft if you have a chronic injury like spondylosis, but still has a nice spring to it to make it easy to rise in the morning.
- Photograph: Saatva
A Traditional Side Sleeper Mattress
Saatva Contour5The Contour5 is a new mattress from Saatva, replacing the popular Loom & Leaf in the company's lineup. As with other Saatva mattresses, it is not roll-packed and comes delivered on a moving truck.
The Contour5 has two firmness options and updated cooling tech that uses airflow channels in its gel foam layer which is thinner than its predecessor, meaning it retains less heat. In my two weeks of testing, I found the Countour 5 was very good at remaining cool through summer nights which is extra impressive given that it uses very dense 5-pound-weight memory foam.
The Contour5 is soft enough for side sleeping without feeling like a saggy hammock and has excellent build quality which is impressive for an all-foam mattress without springs. I prefer a hybrid with microcoils, but Saatva is popular for a reason, and as all-foam mattresses go it has a true luxury feel—which it should given it's triple the price of the all-foam Casper below.
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- Photograph: Martin Cizmar
Best All-Foam Bed-in-a-Box
Casper The OneCasper put the American bed-in-a-box market on the map when it debuted in 2014. Its innovative marketing led to the complete corporate ride: multiple rounds of venture capital funding, an eventual IPO, then a private equity acquisition, and subsequent de-listing. If all this finance talk didn’t cause you to drift off to sleep, the newly launched The One probably will.
A decade later, Casper retired its core products and relaunched with The One as its base model in its five-deep lineup. I was a little skeptical, but The One impressed me after a week of sleep testing. This is an all-foam mattress that stands 11 inches tall. Because it's all foam, it’s on the light side, with a queen weighing an easily movable 66 pounds. One of the main issues with all-foam mattresses is that they get too hot, but Casper’s The One uses an open-cell foam layer called Breathe Flex Foam on the top, which makes it both pleasantly squishy and breathable. Two more layers of foam add up to a medium-firm feel, with the middle layer designed to cradle your hips, and the base layer designed to provide support. It's all wrapped in a knit cover so soft it’s a shame to cover it in sheets. As with any all-foam mattress, you sacrifice edge support, though these are decently stiff. The One feels like a classic Casper, but upgraded in ways that help it keep pace with the increasingly competitive mattress market. It's our favorite all-foam mattress at the moment.
- Photograph: WinkBeds
Best Mattress for Stomach and Back Sleepers
WinkBeds The WinkBedWIRED reviewer Julian Chokkattu sleept on the WinkBed for almost two years and he was quite happy in that time. His favorite perk? The edge support is fantastic so his partner never wakes when he slips into bed late at night. The plush pillowtop also adds a luxe hotel-like feel to a relatively firm bed. (He tried the Luxury Firm, but there are three other choices.) He is a stomach and back sleeper; his partner, often a side sleeper, says it's a bit too firm.
The WinkBed is a US-made hybrid mattress with an eco-friendly Tencel cover that wicks moisture and has individually wrapped coils for excellent support. The company says it works well with most bed frames (as long as there's rigid center support). There's a 120-night trial and a full-replacement lifetime warranty.
- Photograph: Purple
Best Cooling Mattress
Purple Restore Cool TouchWIRED contributor Nicole Kinning has slept on a half-dozen cooling mattresses in the past few months and says the Purple Restore Cool Touch mattress is the best on the market right now, providing effective cooling while being extremely comfortable.
Derived from the flagship Purple Restore, this cool version features the company's distinctive GelFlex layer, a rubbery grid beneath the mattress surface that provides just the right amount of bounce. That layer is supportive and not so bouncy that it’ll wake a sleeping partner. We’d also assert that this springy gel layer enhances the overall coolness of the bed, offering a refreshing sleep environment, especially when compared to foam-top mattresses that are more likely to trap heat. Beneath the GelFlex grid lies a dense and supportive polyfoam and pocketed cooling coils. This structure is enclosed by the signature eggplant-colored fabric bottom. The true star of the show covers the mattress’s interior: a lightweight yarn-woven surface, which remains noticeably chilly to the touch.
★ A softer cooling option: If you’re a smaller person or want a cooling mattress on the softer side, consider the Nectar Premier Copper ($1,249). It’s 14 inches thick, with a gel memory foam top layer that offers a lot of cradling. I’m a bigger guy and sunk in too deep for my liking while my 90-pound daughter floated comfortably on top. But even as I sank I never got hot—that’s thanks to the infused copper fibers that wick away heat along with what Nectar calls an “activeCool HD-infused phase change material” in the gel layer.
- Photograph: Martin Cizmar
Best Throwback Mattress
Serta Perfect Sleeper Cobalt Calm Plush PillowtopLike the Saatva we recommend for beating back pain above, this is another mattress that doesn't come roll-packed in a box. Serta is one of the nation's largest mattress makers and has been around for nearly a century. Its Perfect Sleeper (in the Ultimate support firmness with a plush pillowtop) strikes an excellent balance between softness and support. You will need to schedule delivery by truck, but unlike old-school mattresses, it does not require a box spring.
Serta's sister brand, Simmons, invented the woven wire spring mattress, and the heart of the Perfect Sleeper is an assortment of coils, arranged in three zones of firmness that are well engineered for both side and back sleeping. The mattress sits 14 inches high, among the tallest on this list. Serta has updated materials around those springs, using antimicrobial layers to prevent the mattress from getting stinky and a foam to keep it cool. On my week of testing, it felt refreshingly sturdy, with nice edge support.
★ A new classic: Cloverlane is the luxury label from Resident Home, which also makes the Nectar and Awara mattresses on this list. The Cloverlane Hybrid Firm ($1,399) is not a mattress in a box, but rather a 15-inch classic mattress that’s delivered by a moving truck. I spent a week testing the hybrid firm version. The Cloverlane has a unique spongy, devoted cloth cover with some heat-wicking properties. This mattress offers extreme motion isolation. I never felt like I even depressed the coils. And yet, it was comfortable as the foam layers provided plenty of cushion. I’m primarily a side sleeper but had my best sleep on the Cloverlane when I rolled over to my stomach. Given the luxury feel and high-touch service (the company called multiple times to arrange delivery and then again to check on my experience), this is the mattress I would readily recommend to my mother if she were shopping for a new bed.
- Photograph: Walmart
Best Cheap Mattress
Allswell 14-Inch Bed in a Box Hybrid MattressThe Allswell Supreme 14-inch hybrid mattress is listed as having medium firmness, but it was by far the most plush of the “medium-firm” mattresses I’ve tested. I’m a smaller person, so I imagine someone with a bigger frame or weight would sink into this and find it even more plush.
Considering it's less than $500, the mattress has an elaborate construction with lots of layers. The top layer is 1 1/2 inches of this Walmart house brand's signature quilted Euro top, which gives it a plush feel. There's also 1 inch of copper-infused memory foam which helps with moisture absorption to keep it cool, and 2 inches of “fast response” memory foam, which absorbs motion and bounces back into shape quickly. Below that you get 3/4 inch of high-density medium support foam to further absorb motion. The bulk of the bottom is 8 inches of encased coils, which means each coil is encased individually and moves independently to easier contour to the shape of your body. At the very bottom is 3/4 inch of shock-absorbing high-density foam.
My niece and nephew proclaimed it was the “bounciest” bed to jump on—they’re not wrong, as the mattress absorbs weight and movement before quickly springing back up. The soft plush top enveloped the curves of my body as a side sleeper without being too firm and causing hip or back problems, which happened when I tested other “medium firm” mattresses. One of the biggest cons was the lack of edge support. When sitting on the edge of the bed, the top layer completely buckled and met the top of the box spring support, and I could literally slide off the mattress if I wasn’t supporting myself properly. I like a softer mattress, so this was comfortable for me, but I think if I wanted something truly medium-firm I would be disappointed. It's a great value with free shipping, and was easy to get out of the package and quickly sprung up from its vacuum seal, although if you’re looking for something truly medium-firm, I think this mattress is too soft. —Molly Higgins
- Photograph: Amazon
Best Super Cheap Mattress
Linenspa 10-Inch Hybrid MattressYou're going to spend roughly a third of your life on a mattress unless you're plagued by bad habits and staying up late. In my opinion, that makes bedding a bad place to cheap out. But, if you're on a very tight budget you could do worse than the Linenspa hybrid mattress. This is one of those Amazon products with more than 100,000 reviews of questionable provenance. I was unable to make contact with the company directly, so I bought it. When I cracked the heavy (75-pound) box open to let the springs and foam breathe, my impressions didn’t improve. The Linenspa’s outer shell is baggy with bunching in weird places. The memory foam layer is uneven and in one corner seems to disappear. The edge support is also uneven.
I was surprisingly comfortable from the first night and held up fairly well for several weeks. Side sleepers will surely notice the springs are a little creaky, with no motion isolation. Sometimes those springs make you feel like you’re floating on an uneven cloud—pricier mattresses avoid this by varying the size of springs in different zones—but the overall feel is supportive and comfortable. Having spent weeks testing mattresses priced between $300 and $4,000, I can say you get what you pay for. But this is a fine option if you can't spend more.
- Photograph: Nectar
A Note on Nectar
Nectar Sleep MattressesNectar has been a staple of this guide for years, first as our top pick for side sleepers and later as the best pick for pressure relief. Nectar and the rest of the Resident Home portfolio was sold to Ashley Furniture in March 2024 and the lineup is relaunching with new materials and design. Because we have not tested the new designs, we have removed Nectar from our best mattress list pending testing of the new models.
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Photograph: AwaraHonorable Mentions
More Mattresses!There are a few mattresses we tested that don't stand out as much but are decent and worth mentioning, in case you're thinking about them.
Awara Hybrid Mattress for $1,049: This is a solid organic mattress made from organic latex, organic wool, and individually wrapped springs. WIRED reviewer Louryn Strampe found it springy and comfortable, especially for a single sleeper, though it's a floppier mattress that could benefit from a little more support.
Emma Hybrid Comfort for $659: This medium-firmness hybrid mattress has many of the same features as the hybrids we've picked above though it's not quite as comfortable. The zoned support sections are less noticeably different and I thought it slept a little too warm in my week of testing.
Naturepedic EOS for $3,499: Think of this as an organic cousin to the Helix Elite above, as it's also a big and sturdy mattress that comes in three boxes to be assembled. If you're looking for an organic hybrid mattress that allows customization, Naturepedic's EOS is a solid (if expensive) choice. I ordered this in firm to see how I slept after months of medium mattresses and it was indeed firm, with springs that only started to soften after three weeks of on-and-off sleeping and a lot of jumping by my 9-year-old daughter. You can swap out layers for free for 100 nights, which means finding just the right firmness. Note that it's a heavy mattress thanks to the natural latex layer but it's sturdy enough that the company offers a 25-year limited warranty.
Photograph: AmazonMattresses to Avoid
Bad BedsThere are some models you should avoid. Many of these beds are extremely affordable, and if you aren't picky, they may feel fine. In other cases, the mattress is decent but the price is not.
- The Magniflex Magnistretch 12 is Italian-made and advertises itself as stretching the spine. It’s endorsed by retired Italian soccer player Giorgio Chiellini and current pro basketballer Stefano Tonut, who plays for the Italian equivalent of the Boston Celtics. Well, the Magniflex definitely does something to the spine, though I found it very unwelcome. (It's worth noting that I am not the same Martin Cizmar who played a little pro soccer in Slovakia.) I lasted only two nights on the Magnistretch before crying uncle and limping over to my next mattress tester. The morning-after sensation was as if I'd slept on a hammock made of chainlink fence, and my lower back was left feeling weak and creaky—very possibly it was stretched, and if so, it turns out I don't like having my back stretched.
- The Sleep Number Climate360 Smart Bed (5/10, WIRED Review) can be temperature-controlled, which is amazing. The adjustable base means you can be comfortable when watching TV, reading, or sleeping. Unfortunately, the price tag has too many digits, and sleep experts recommend avoiding electronic usage before bed—advice the Sleep IQ app defies. Did we mention it costs as much as a used Buick and the weight is not far behind?
- The Amazon Basics mattress and Zinus mattress are made of cheap foam that isn't dense enough, causing too much sinkage. (former WIRED editor Jeffrey Van Camp had to return a Zinus for this reason.)
- The Parachute Eco Comfort Mattress just doesn't live up to its extravagant price. The model we tested didn't have enough proper padding above its coils.
Photograph: HelixHow to Pick a Mattress Online
You'll spend a third of your life on a mattress, which means picking the right one is important. Start with your preferred sleeping position and how much support you need. Here are a few tips.
Should you buy a firm or soft mattress? Generally, heavier people and back or stomach sleepers will do better with firmer mattresses, while lighter people and side sleepers enjoy softer mattresses. Temperature is also an issue: Softer mattresses sleep warmer since your body is sinking into a layer of fabric and foam. Keep in mind that all mattresses have a break-in period, and the way the mattress feels on your first night won't be how it feels after a week or two.
Do you want a hybrid or foam mattress? The next big question is whether you want a foam mattress or a hybrid model that layers foam with built-in springs. We tend to recommend hybrids because they are more stable and supportive, and they usually stay cooler. Hybrids are often slightly pricier. Foam mattresses tend to be softer, lighter, and cheaper.
What size mattress do you need? The prices below are based on the queen size, but almost all mattresses come in the standard sizes of Twin, Twin XL, Full, Queen, King, and California King. You'll want to buy a mattress based on the size of your bed frame.
How easy is it to set up a bed-in-a-box? Most of these mattresses are delivered in a box, vacuum-sealed, and rolled up. Some are pretty heavy—up to 150 pounds—so be sure you have someone to help you. After you unroll your bed-in-a-box mattress and cut the vacuum bag open, it'll immediately begin to inflate, so unbox it on your bed frame or near it. We have a helpful guide on how to set up the mattress you bought online with more tips. The mattresses are usually ready to go in a few hours, but most manufacturers recommend giving them two days to reach their normal state.
Should you wait for a sale to buy a mattress? Mattresses go on sale often. If you see one at full price, there's a strong chance you can save hundreds of dollars by waiting for the next big sale event (every few months).
What if you don't like the mattress you bought online? Most of the mattresses we have tested and recommend have at least a 100-night testing period and a 10-year warranty. You may want to look at the company's policy as you may be on the hook for a nominal return fee.
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