Buying a mattress online is easy and efficient. A box comes to you with no need for a truck or professional movers. Just lug the bed-in-a-box inside, crack the cardboard, slash open the plastic wrap, and watch the mattress spring into shape. Want it extra fast, without having to make a new account? Order a mattress on Amazon! With Prime taking over the world, you can buy a relatively cheap mattress today and sleep on it tomorrow night.
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 Amazon 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 best-rated mattresses on Amazon—we’re looking for a great night’s sleep at a good value. It’s worth noting that we don’t think Amazon is the best place to buy a mattress—we go into our reasons below—but if your prime focus is cost and convenience, then you do have some good options. The prices below are based on the queen size.
Be sure to check out our other sleep guides, including the Best Mattresses, Best Organic Mattresses, Best Mattresses for Side Sleepers, and Best Sleep Gadgets.
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The Pros and Cons of Buying a Mattress on Amazon
Amazon is 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 cheaper on Amazon.
Most mattresses sold on Amazon tend to be on the cheaper side, which is the main draw. You can easily compare various versions of the same thing (i.e., memory foam or hybrid mattresses), plus you don’t have to make a new account. Best of all, you can get fast and dependable shipping.
Amazon’s 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 Amazon offers for most products it sells. 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.