Courtesy: Wayfair
Others We Tested
Wayfair Sleep 8-Inch Medium Cooling Gel Memory Foam Mattress for $122: This super cheap cooling mattress consists of 8 inches of regular memory foam with a layer of cooling gel, charcoal, and green tea-infused memory foam (to aid with freshness and odor absorption), followed by a soft comfort foam on a durable high-density foam base to help with all-around pressure relief. The top layer has a breathable, woven jacquard design that helps keep the sleeper cool and has a tight enough foam top to help with reducing motion transfer. The mattress ships right to your door, is compatible with an adjustable base, has a 100-night trial, and a 10-year manufacturer’s warranty.
Wayfair Sleep 13.5-Inch Medium Cooling Gel Memory Foam Mattress for $280: This 13.5-inch cooling gel memory foam mattress is listed as medium-firm, but is by far the most plush mattress I’ve ever slept on. The top layer is 2 inches of gel-infused memory foam, followed by 4.5 inches of comfort foam, and the bottom is 7 inches of high-density base support foam. This in-a-box bed sprang up to size almost immediately, has low motion transfer, a 100-night trial, and a limited 10-year warranty. This behemoth of a bed was super comfy and literally enveloped my body, but I don’t think I’d want a bed with so little structure for the long term. If you are someone who loves a super-plush bed, then this is the mattress for you.
Wayfair Sleep 14-Inch Plush Cooling Gel Hybrid Mattress for $340: This 14-inch plush cooling gel mattress feels expensive without the price tag to match. It has a top layer of cooling gel that conforms to your body for comfort and has classic pocket coils below for structure and support, with layers of memory foam with varying thickness surrounding the coils (the coils and memory foam mixture helps with low-motion transfer, too). The knit cover and sides help with breathability and the overall “cooling effect.” This mattress is the most plush I’ve tested, but didn’t feel like it lacked structure because of its generous height and coils. I love a plush mattress, but I could see it maybe being a bit too plush for someone with a bigger body, since the first super-soft memory foam layer is on top of a coil system.
Wayfair Sleep Evan 10.5-Inch Plush Cooling Gel Hybrid Mattress for $280: The top is memory foam, then a plush poly foam, wrapped innersprings, and a bottom high-density base foam; the memory foam pillow top aims to relieve pressure points and help reduce motion transfer, it’s made out of hypogenic materials, and has a breathable knit cover to aid in the cooling effect. The bed is compatible with an adjustable base, has a 100-night trial, and a 10-year warranty. This was a super comfortable, true plush mattress. But it wasn’t as breathable as promised, so I wouldn’t recommend it if you sleep hot or want a noticeably cool mattress.
Wayfair Sleep 14-Inch Medium Memory Foam Mattress for $290: This 14-inch medium-firm memory foam mattress strikes a great balance with structured firmness and a memory foam top that contorts to your shape. It’s constructed from CertiPUR-US-certified foams and a cotton-based fire retardant for added safety. The adjustable base-compatible mattress has a 10-year manufacturer’s warranty, and a 100-night trial. Although I tend to go for more plush mattresses, it has a great balance between that medium-firm structure and the soft, contorting open-cell memory foam. This bed pleasantly surprised me and I’d definitely recommend it for anyone who likes a bit more of a medium-firm feel.
Wayfair Sleep 12-Inch Medium Memory Foam Mattress for $270: This 12-inch medium-firm memory foam mattress has a breathable jacquard pattern covering to help with airflow and a top 2-inch layer of green tea-infused memory foam to help with freshness and odor control, followed by 3.5 inches of high-density foam. The rest is 6.5 inches of more high-density foam. The top layer has a bit more give, and the memory foam contorts to the body’s pressure points while the bottom layers are dense (helping with the firmness). The mattress has good edge support, surprisingly low motion transfer, is adjustable base-compatible, has a 100-night trial, and 10-year manufacturer’s warranty. Like all others on this list, the bed comes in a box. However, it didn’t fully expand until 12-plus hours after unwrapping and is a bit firm for my taste.
One to Avoid
Wayfair Sleep 6-Inch Medium Memory Foam Mattress for $152: This 6-inch memory foam mattress from Wayfair Sleep is labeled as medium on the firmness scale, and looks and feels like a plush camping pad. I will admit, I was very worried when I took this from-a-box mattress out—it was vacuum sealed and didn’t spring up for nearly a day. Once it did, it was still very thin. I measured it and the pad is a little over 5.5 inches. If I put too much pressure on one area, I could feel my hard box spring underneath—I don’t think this would work on a frame without some type of structure below. I struggled with sleeping hot throughout a few of the nights, as the cover is made of polyester and the majority of the mattress is made of high-density foam without the aid of cooling gel or super breathable top fabric.
Like stated above, we don’t necessarily think skimping on this purchase is the best decision—after all, you’ll be spending roughly a third of your life on it. But, if you’re looking for a temporary bed, something cheap for your office or guest room, or somewhere where people won’t be sleeping everyday, going a bit more inexpensive makes sense. However, if you’re just on a tight budget and are looking for a bed under a grand, some of these really impressed me.
The Pros and Cons of Buying a Mattress Online
Online-only retailers like Amazon are a solid place to buy almost anything, but it’s less advantageous for mattress purchases than most other goods. That’s because domestic manufacturers dominate the bed-in-a-box game, and you can often get a better deal by buying from the mattress maker directly. Some of these brands throw in two pillows with your purchase or have other discounts, though this is not always true—a few mattresses in this guide are actually cheaper on Amazon.
Most from-a-box mattresses sold online tend to be cheaper than those sold in stores, which is the main draw. You can easily compare various versions of the same thing (i.e., memory foam or hybrid mattresses) and get fast, dependable shipping straight to your house.
Many online retailers’ terms for returning goods have an exception for mattresses. Once you open the box, you are at the mercy of the maker instead of being covered by the more generous terms these online retailers like Amazon offer for most products they sell. If you’re looking at mattresses below $500, you should not expect any test period or money-back guarantee (whereas that’s a reasonable thing to expect of any mattress above $1,000). Things vary widely in the middle zone.
The drawback to online shopping is you can’t test a showroom of mattresses until you find the perfect fit. Add in the fact that reviews can be gamed by bad actors, and it’s hard to know what’s worth your time and what’s not. WIRED has done the work for you, spending at least a week, if not longer, sleeping on some of the cheapest mattresses you can buy online—we’re looking for a great night’s sleep at a good value.
We slept on a variety of mattresses of differing firmness, materials, and filling to find what we consider to be the best mattresses at a budget-friendly price point for at least a week at a time. We slept with partners and without, in various temperatures, and even jumped on the bed to test things like low-motion transfer and edge support. Some of these cheap mattresses far exceeded expectations for costing roughly what you can spend on a fancy dinner.
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