An expensive mattress doesn’t make sense for every living situation.
Most good-quality foam, innerspring, and hybrid (part coil and part foam) mattresses cost more than $1,000, which may be more than you want to spend if you’re outfitting a guest bedroom, heading to college, or simply on a budget.
But a lot of the cheap mattresses online are uncomfortable, low-quality, and saggy—and ultimately they could wind up being a waste of money and effort.
After testing dozens of budget-priced foam, innerspring, and hybrid mattresses, we found four that feel supportive (even luxurious), without the hefty price tag.
Top pick
This medium-firm foam-and-coil mattress has a supportive and springy feel, good motion isolation, and decent edge support.
The Zinus Cooling Comfort Support Hybrid Mattress has consistently won over testers with its supportive and springy feel, decent construction, and nicer-than-average details. If you prefer something with a little bounce, this mattress is an excellent choice.
It has a cloudlike pillow top that feels supportive and offers some pressure relief (though maybe not enough for side-sleepers). This mattress also offers a solid underlying firmness, so it’s easy to shift positions. The springs make this mattress noticeably bouncy, though not so much that it feels unstable or wiggly.
The Zinus Cooling Comfort Support Hybrid Mattress comes in 10-, 12-, and 14-inch versions. Zinus offers a 100-night free trial and a 10-year limited warranty.
Top pick
This medium-firm memory-foam mattress has a distinct body-conforming hug, along with solid edge support and motion isolation.
The all-foam Novilla Bliss Memory Foam Mattress has a body-conforming, memory-foam feel. With a quicksand-like hug that cradles your pressure points, this mattress is a good option if you want a Tempur-Pedic–esque mattress without the Tempur-Pedic price tag.
This mattress has solid edge support, and because it’s neither bouncy nor cushy, it offers great motion isolation.
The Novilla Bliss mattress comes in 8-, 10-, and 12-inch versions. Novilla offers a 100-night free trial, and this mattress comes with a 10-year warranty (PDF).
Top pick
This medium-firm hybrid mattress won testers over with its substantial, supportive feel and excellent edge support. Siena also offers the longest home trial we’ve seen.
The 10-inch Siena Premier Hybrid Mattress was a standout in our most recent round of group testing. More testers ranked the Siena Premier as their favorite than any other mattress, and it earned praise from side-, back-, and stomach-sleepers alike.
Testers found this mattress substantial and supportive. Its layers of memory and polyfoam and 768 pocketed coils offer a medium-firm feel with adequate pressure point relief and a bit of bounce. Its edge support was the strongest of the options we tested.
Siena offers a 180-night trial (one of the longest home trials of our picks) and a 10-year warranty on all mattresses.
Upgrade pick
For a (relatively) small increase in price, this medium-firm memory-foam mattress offers a big upgrade in both quality and feel.
A longtime Wirecutter favorite, the Costco-exclusive all-foam Novaform ComfortGrande Advanced 14″ Gel Memory Foam Mattress costs more than our picks, but we think it’s well worth the price.
This lofty, 14-inch mattress is made from layers of foam that are as dense (and probably as durable) as those found in much pricier mattresses, so it’s a great value. It offers solid edge support and motion isolation, resulting in a flexible yet firm supportiveness that lets you nestle in.
According to Costco’s policy, you can return the mattress for a full refund at any time, and the Novaform ComfortGrande comes with a 20-year warranty (PDF).
link