Best Mattress for a Platform Bed

Platform beds are popular among lots of sleepers, and with good reason—they eliminate the need for a box spring and generally strike a nice balance between form and function. Not only can you find countless aesthetically appealing options at almost all bed heights and budget levels, but many platform beds also contain practical storage beneath, which makes them a particularly great option for smaller living spaces.

Once you’ve found a good platform bed frame, you’ll also want a mattress that works well with it and provides plenty of support. Here are some of our favorite mattresses for platform beds—plus what you need to know when shopping for one below.

Our Picks for Best Bed in a Box Mattress

• Best Mattress Overall – Saatva Classic
• Best Hybrid Mattress – Nectar Classic Hybrid
• Best Latex Mattress – Helix Dusk
• Best Memory Foam Mattress – Nolah Signature 12”
• Best Mattress for Back Pain – DreamCloud
• Best Mattress for Heavier Sleepers – WinkBeds Plus
• Best Value Mattress – Brooklyn Signature Hybrid
• Best Mattress for Athletes – Bear Original

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Saatva Classic – Best Overall

This hybrid mattress comes in three firmness options—plush soft, firm, and luxury firm—so you can get the exact comfort level you want for any sleep position.

To generalize, the plush soft and luxury firm work well for side sleepers, the luxury firm meets the needs of combination sleepers, and the firm and luxury firm provide good support for stomach and back sleepers. They’re all excellent choices for people with back pain, as they provide good spine alignment and support for your joints.

Saatva makes its mattresses out of eco-friendly materials in the USA, and designs them to hold up over the long term with no early breakdown of the foam or coils. This is what motivates the brand to eschew the bed-in-a-box model and ship its mattresses with white-glove delivery that includes removal of your old mattress.

The mattress comes in two different heights, 11.5” and 14.” Both of these options have the structure and support to work well on a platform bed, so you can choose one based on your size, your budget, and how tall you’d like your bed to be.

Pros

• Durable
• Eco-friendly
• Good spine alignment
• Pillow-top
• White-glove delivery

Cons

• Not the best option for budget shoppers

Read our full Saatva Classic review.

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Nectar Classic Hybrid – Best Hybrid

The Nectar Classic is a medium-firm mattress that works well for back sleepers and couples, due to good motion isolation and support around the edges of the bed. It’s designed to keep you cool at night, with gel-infused memory foam over an innerspring construction that allows for plenty of airflow.

This construction gives it a bouncy feel that makes it easy and comfortable to change sleep positions. It also earned high marks in our testing for pressure relief, particularly when sleepers are lying on their backs. Side sleepers with sensitive hips might want to try a more forgiving mattress.

The Classic Hybrid is 12” thick and has good structure and support for pairing with a platform base or slatted frame. Best of all, it’s a great option for budget shoppers—not just because it’s well-priced for the quality, but also because Nectar offers a 365-night sleep trial and lifetime limited warranty.

This means you have plenty of time to make sure it works well for you and can have it replaced if a defect arises in the first 10 years.

Pros

• 365-night sleep trial
• Lifetime limited warranty
• Good price
• Responsive

Cons

• Makes some noise when you move around on it

Read our full Nectar Classic Hybrid review.

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Helix Dusk – Best Latex

Latex gives a bed a bouncier feel with natural cooling properties. This latex and foam hybrid mattress blends the benefits of the two, so it has the body-contouring support of memory foam without trapping body heat.

In our Mattress Advisor testing, the Dusk earned high marks for pressure relief and spine alignment, making it one of our top picks for those with back pain. It also works well for most sleepers in general, thanks to a medium level of firmness that supports all sleep positions and a high-quality construction designed to last a long time.

The Dusk is 11.5” thick and scores well in our tests of edge support, suggesting that it maintains its structure well at the edges and you should have no trouble spreading out on it or sitting on the corner of it. It also isolates motion well, which makes it a good pick for couples.

It’s an excellent mattress to pair with a platform bed, though it also works with a boxspring.

Pros

• Excellent spine alignment and pressure relief
• Durable construction

Cons

• Mattress releases an off-gassing smell when you first unbox it

Read our full Helix Dusk review.

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Nolah Signature 12” – Best Memory Foam

If you cycle between different sleep positions at night, the Nolah Signature 12” might be the mattress for you. It has a soft cotton cover over multiple layers of breathable Airfoam, which gives it the contouring support of memory foam with less heat buildup.

This makes it easier to toss and turn or move around the bed without waking up a sweaty, sticky mess. As you might guess, the mattress stacks up to be 12” thick; its multiple pressure-relieving layers make it a winner with sleepers who suffer from shoulder and hip pain.

Not only is the Signature 12” one of our top picks for back sleepers, but we also found it to be a highly responsive bed—it earned a 9.5 out of 10 for responsiveness, which suggests you can move around the mattress and expect it to adjust. The mattress works well on a platform base, slatted base, adjustable foundation, or box spring.

Pros

• Excellent pressure relief for hips and shoulders
• Airfoam is more breathable than memory foam

Cons

• It doesn’t have the best edge support, which makes it harder to sit at the edge of the bed.

Read our full Nolah Signature 12” review.

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DreamCloud – Best for Back Pain

The DreamCloud is one of our top mattresses for back pain, thanks to its high marks for pressure relief and spine alignment. This suggests that you can collapse into the bed after a long day and feel confident that it will keep your body in a neutral position while also carefully cradling your joints when sleeping on your side or back.

The mattress has a hybrid foam and innerspring construction that sleeps cool and doesn’t store up heat. We found that its medium-firm firmness and high responsiveness works well for almost all body types in almost all sleep positions.

Our only caveat for the DreamCloud is that it’s a heavy bed due to five layers of memory foam and inner coils that measure up to be 14” thick, so not every foundation will be suitable for it. You’ll likely want a solid base foundation or one with sturdy slats positioned close together.

Pros

• Excellent spine alignment
• Sleeps cool

Cons

• Heavy

Read our full DreamCloud mattress review:

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WinkBeds Plus – Best for Heavier Sleepers

The WinkBeds Plus works well for plus-size sleepers because it’s built with plus-size sleepers in mind, with triple-zone pocketed coil system and high-density latex foam designed to provide excellent comfort and support. It’s also built to be ultra-durable so you shouldn’t have to worry about it sagging or losing its firmness and support for years to come. The mattress’s weight capacity is 900 pounds.

The bed is ideal for back sleepers, combination sleepers, and those who tend to overheat at night, due to its use of a breathable cover with gel-infused foam and innerspring coils.

Winkbeds recommends you support the mattress on a firm, flat surface like a solid platform bed, though a slatted bed frame also works if the slats are no more than four inches apart.

Those trying to achieve a specific bed height might want to note that this version of the mattress is 13.5” thick. The WinkBeds also comes in softer, luxury firm, and firmer models.

Pros

• Eco-friendly construction
• Made in the USA
• Extra durable

Cons

• Sub-par edge support makes it hard for those who struggle to get out of bed

Read our full WinkBeds Plus mattress review.

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Brooklyn Signature Hybrid – Best Value

The Brooklyn Signature Hybrid is another mattress that comes in multiple firmness options so you can choose what works best for you between plush, medium, and firm.

This makes the mattress a good fit for all sleepers and sleep positions, whether you like to sleep on your back, side, or stomach. It’s also an excellent option for budget shoppers—so much so that it earned a spot on our best mattresses under $1,000 list.

But that’s not all that makes it great. The Signature Hybrid is made up of five layers of foam and pocket coils, which provide a cradling sensation to relieve tension at those pressure points. The bed also scores highly for lumbar support and spine alignment, indicating it meets the needs of sleepers with back pain.

It also sleeps fairly cool—we often find ourselves recommending this model to hot sleepers looking for a more affordable cooling mattress. The Signature Hybrid is 11.5” thick and works well on a platform bed.

Pros

• Excellent pressure relief
• Good edge support for those who like to sit at the corner of a mattress
• Made from high-quality materials

Cons

• So-so motion isolation means you’ll feel your partner moving

Read our full Brooklyn Signature Hybrid review.

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Bear Original – Best for Athletes

If you’re an athlete or someone who works out a lot, you can benefit from a mattress with pressure-relieving qualities and even some added tech to help your muscles better recover overnight.

The Bear Original is our pick due to its high marks in our Mattress Advisor testing for pressure relief, spine alignment, and responsiveness. It also scored well in cooling, which is rare for an all-memory foam mattress.

Bear says the Celliant fibers in the mattress’s cover can reflect infrared light back to your body to encourage better blood circulation. All this adds up to a bed that excels for not just those with active lifestyles, but also back sleepers, stomach sleepers, and those with back pain in general.

The Bear mattress plays well with any flat or slatted platform bed due to its layered memory foam construction. The mattress is 10” thick and comes in a medium-firm firmness, so it might be too firm for some side sleepers when paired with a solid platform. It also might not be the best mattress for heavier sleepers due to its thickness and construction.

Pros

• Good pressure relief for back sleepers, stomach sleepers, and combination sleepers
• Celliant cover designed to improve blood flow and muscle recovery
• Very responsive for a memory foam bed

Cons

• Not the best option for couples due to its low score for motion transfer

Read our full Bear Original mattress review.