Creating a budget and sticking to it can be hard. Finding the right mattress within your budget shouldn’t be.
In this guide, we’ll review our top-rated budget mattresses and help you understand how to find an affordable mattress without sacrificing on quality.
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| Mattress | Type | Standard Price* |
| Tuft & Needle | Foam blend | $595 |
| Allswell Luxe Hybrid | Hybrid | $645 |
| Love & Sleep | Foam combo | $699 |
| Casper Essential | Foam combo | $595 |
| Polysleep | Memory foam | $795 |
| Nectar | Memory foam | $799 |
| Luxi One | Memory foam | $765 |
*Standard price is for a queen mattress and does not include discounts or Mattress Advisor exclusive deals.
Most queen-size, quality mattresses that you can order online cost at least $1,000. Therefore, we price a “budget mattress” around $700.
If your budget is even tighter than this, you can check out our guide on the best mattresses under $500. But, if you have a little more wiggle room in your wallet, you can see our guide on the best mattresses under $1000.
Standard Price: $595
The Tuft & Needle mattress is a memory foam bed that’s suitable for all types of sleepers! We recommend this “universal mattress” for anyone who doesn’t have particular preferences, the average sleeper, or someone who doesn’t really know what they want in a mattress.
This bed is built with an Adaptive Foam layer that contours your body, evenly distributes body weight, and provides pressure relief for a comfortable and healthy night of restorative sleep. This foam also mimics the bounce and breathability of latex without the higher price.
Standard Price: $645
The Allswell Luxe Hybrid is a medium-firm hybrid bed constructed with three layers of memory foam for contouring comfort and hundreds of individually wrapped coils for support, bounce, and durability. Finding a quality hybrid mattress at this low of a price point is nearly unheard of!
This hybrid mattress scored particularly well on our spine alignment test, scoring a 9.5 out of 10, meaning you’ll wake up feeling well-rested and keep your back pain-free each night. The Allswell Luxe Hybrid also offers great durability, cooling, and responsiveness – all important factors to look for in a bed!
Standard Price: $699
The Love & Sleep is a foam blend mattress made by Nest Bedding that is one of the most affordable in the memory foam mattress market.
This bed is available in two firmness options (medium and firm) so you can choose a customized level of comfort and support. The surface of the mattress provides get responsiveness that is said to feel like the bounce of a spring mattress, so you won’t sink into the bed. The foam is also designed to pull heat away from your body instead of trapping it in the bed so you can sleep cool.
Standard Price: $595
The Casper Essential is Casper’s budget-friendly, streamlined mattress model. It’s designed with three different foam layers (borrowing two from the Original Casper mattress) that provide durability, soft comfort, pressure relief, and support.
In our testing, the Casper Essential stood out for its outstanding edge support, great spine alignment, and overall bang for the buck. This mattress will give you a good night’s rest, and it’s easy on the wallet!
Standard Price: $795
The Polysleep is a medium-firm memory foam mattress that sleeps cool and dry. It’s topped with a liquid repellent cover, which makes it a great option for kids.
It’s also designed with ventilated viscoelastic hybrid foam for targeted pressure relief and airflow. Plus, it’s antimicrobial! With a 10-year warranty and a 100-night sleep trial, the Polysleep is a great value buy.
Standard Price: $799
The Nectar mattress is one of the best value mattresses we’ve ever tested and reviewed. Packaged with 365-night sleep trial (yes, a full year!) and a lifetime warranty, you can rest easy when you make this purchase.
In terms of quality, the Nectar does not disappoint. In fact, less than 3% of Nectar’s customers end up returning their mattress! It offers great edge support, responsiveness, cooling air flow, durability, comfort, and support.
Standard Price: $765
The Luxi One mattress is a medium-soft memory foam mattress that’s made with shape matching technology to perfectly contour to your body shape. This makes the Luxi One a great choice for people with joint pain or anyone looking for a comfortable night of sleep! It’s also designed with a series of air channels to avoid heat retention in the mattress.
In our testing, the Luxi One had great scores for edge support (9/10), spine alignment (9.25/10), and responsiveness (8.75/10).
The cheapest mattress may not be the same as the best mattress. If your social media feed is peppered with ads for mattresses at a crazy low cost that sounds too good to be true—it probably is. Ads often use a “starting at” price (which refers to their twin-size mattress price), and twin-sized mattresses will cost significantly less than a king.
The same goes for mattress stores; you may get to physically test out a mattress for a few minutes, but sticker prices can be overwhelmingly higher when (and if) you find one you like. When you buy a mattress from a mattress store, you’re also paying for much more than the actual mattress. Think showroom fees, warehouse markups, shipping and storage fees, commission-based salespeople…the list goes on.
But not to worry. With so many online mattress options available, it is possible to find a great, quality mattress within your budget. Today, you can find a high-quality mattress for around $1,000 or less when you buy from an online-only mattress brand. (For comparison, a quality mattress from a mattress store will typically cost you between $3,000 – $5,000.)
We’ll help you figure out all the questions you should be asking when looking for a quality budget mattress online. These include:
One important question you should ask yourself when shopping for a cheaper mattress is: Is this a temporary solution or a long-term bed?
If you’re looking for a quick fix, cutting on quality to spend less money isn’t as much of an issue. But if you’re looking for a mattress to support you for the next 10 years, it’s worth investing more in a high-quality bed.
Budget mattresses are well-suited for people who are looking for a temporary mattress for a rental in college, your guest bedroom, or if you’re looking to decorate your Airbnb. But if you’re shopping for yourself, you may consider stretching your budget a little more than you expected. Besides, you spend one-third of your life on your mattress so you want it to be comfortable and durable.
Similarly to the previous question, the type of mattress you need depends on who will be using it. If you’re purchasing a mattress for guests to use every now and then, you won’t need as high-quality of a bed since it will get much less use.
Kids, teenagers, and adults all have different needs in a mattress as well. Kids and teenagers spend much more time sleeping when they are young, plus they have smaller bodies, so you will want to consider the durability of the mattress and the size. While a twin is appropriate for a child, it’s not for an adult couple.
Which brings us to our next point: How many sleepers are you accommodating on your mattress? The more humans (or animals) that share the bed, the bigger size you will need. Plus you’ll want to consider special features like cooling (more bodies = more body heat), motion isolation (so you don’t wake each other up all night), and durability (because of the added weight).
Weight plays a significant factor as well. Heavy sleepers require a more durable, and usually more firm mattress, which may factor into higher costs.
Us mattress pros know there are a few ways to do your wallet some good and save (sometimes big!) on a mattress. We’ll let you in on our secrets.
There are certain times of the year that are ideal for buying a mattress. The best times to buy a mattress are:
Many brands have big sales during these holidays so you can get more bang for your buck and save money on a mattress.
P.S. You can always check our mattress deals page to look for active sales and coupon codes.
When looking for a mattress on a budget, you need to consider what you’re getting for that price. If you find a mattress under $500, it typically means the manufacturer cut corners or used cheaper materials (which means you’ll likely be waking up sore and achy, and looking for a new mattress in due time). But that might be fine if you’re looking for a temporary bed or something to put in your guest bedroom.
There are four different categories of common material used in mattresses, and determining what’s inside your mattress gives you an idea of how much it should cost. Here’s a quick rundown of the types of mattresses on the market:
| Mattress Type | Average Price Range |
| Memory foam | $350 – $1,000 |
| Latex | $900 – $2,000 |
| Hybrid | $1,000 – $1,900 |
| Innerspring | $2,000 – $5,000 |
Foam and memory foam mattresses curve to your body and offer lumbar support, pressure relief, and great motion transfer (if your sleeping partner moves around a lot, you won’t feel it).
Latex offers the longest lifespan of mattresses, so you get more bang for your buck. It provides the same benefits as foam, but with more bounce (and usually more eco-friendly materials).
Hybrid mattresses are a combination of memory foam and innerspring mattresses but can include other materials and combinations as well (like latex and memory foam).
Innerspring mattresses are the traditional mattress often found in retail and specialty stores. It is made with at least one layer of spring metal coils – offering great bounce and edge support, but not always the best pressure relief.
Mattress costs vary depending on the size of your purchase, so it’s important to consider what size mattress you’ll really need to help you stick to your budget.
If it’s just you and your pup sharing the space, a twin XL or full-size mattress may do the trick. If it’s you, your pup, and your significant other, a twin size may be a tight squeeze. The most common mattress size for couples is a queen-size mattress. It allows space for both people to sleep comfortably, and will fit in most bedrooms.
King-size mattresses have gained more popularity in recent years because they offer even more space for couples, plus some extra room for pets or squirmy kids. California king mattresses are not as wide as kings but are longer. So if you happen to be super tall or just prefer more space while you sleep, then a king or California king might be worth considering.
It is worth noting that you’ll find a wider range of sheets and bedding that are made for queen-size mattresses, so decorating your bedroom can be more affordable.
We hope we’ve helped guide you to the mattress of your dreams (without hurting your wallet). If you realized the budget you set wasn’t quite right, remember to check out our other budget guides on the best mattresses under $500 for a tighter budget or the best mattresses under $1,000 for a looser one.
Answer a few quick questions on your budget and sleep preferences to be matched with the mattress of your dreams.
Take Mattress QuizSo glad to see reasonable prices on mattresses!! Would def agree that Cocoon is worth the price—much better than expected.
Elaine – isn’t it great to know you can get a quality mattress without trading a limb?! We hear you on the Cocoon – it’s a great deal!
This is where it’s at. I thought I had to decide between a good mattress and a mattress that fit in my budget. But I guess I can have my cake and eat it too. 🙂 Will be ordering one of these soon!
Tyrone – we’re pumped for you and the new mattress you’ll be getting! (You deserve it!) And we agree – it’s great to know that you don’t have to blow your budget to get great sleep. Glad we were able to help you out!
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