Best Cheap Mattress for Your Budget in 2020

In this guide, we’ll review our 5 top-rated budget mattresses and help you understand how to find an affordable mattress without sacrificing on quality.

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Best Budget Mattresses

• Editor’s Pick – Tuft & Needle
• Best Budget Hybrid Mattress – Bowery Hybrid by Brooklyn Bedding
• Best Cheap Mattress on Amazon – Zinus Green Tea
• Best for Side Sleepers– Nectar
• Best Cheap Memory Foam Mattress – Casper Essential

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.

Tuft & Needle 

The Tuft & Needle mattress is a memory foam bed that’s suitable for all types of sleepers! Because its medium firmness level works for all, 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 comfort 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.

This mattress comes with the bed-in-a-box standard 100-night trial period and 10-year warranty.

Read our full Tuft & Needle mattress review.

Bowery Hybrid by Brooklyn Bedding

The Bowery Hybrid is a medium-firm hybrid mattress constructed with three layers of foam and one layer of pocketed coils for contouring comfort that also offers support, motion isolation, and durability at an affordable price point.

The gel memory foam topper combined with the coil spring layer keeps you from overheating, making it a great cooling mattress for hot sleepers. The high-density foam bottom provides extra support for people who sleep on their backs.

This hybrid bed scored particularly well on our spinal alignment test, scoring a 8.75 out of 10, meaning you’ll wake up feeling well-rested and keep your back pain-free each night. The Brooklyn Bowery also offers great durability, cooling, and responsiveness – all important factors to look for in a bed!

Read our full Bowery Hybrid mattress review.

Zinus Green Tea

The Zinus Green Tea is a quality all-foam mattress offered at a low price point. Choose between a 6, 8, 10, or 12 inch thick mattress, depending on your needs or body type; a thicker mattress holds off sagging for longer.

This mattress is more on the plush side, so it is perfect for people who love the feeling of a mattress that hugs them. Zinus also offers great motion isolation, perfect for couples or people who sleep with their pets. On top of that it scored well in our spine alignment, pressure relief, and responsiveness tests—essentially everything you need in a good bed.

Read our full Zinus Green Tea mattress review.

Nectar

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, pressure point relief, and support.

Read our full Nectar mattress review.

Casper Essential

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 budget-friendly price tag. This mattress will give you a good night’s rest, and it’s easy on the wallet!

Read our full Casper Essential mattress review.

Best Mattress for Your Budget Buying Guide

In this guide, we’ll go over the following:

• How Much Should I Pay for a Good Mattress?
• Shopping Considerations
• How to Save Money on a Mattress

How Much Should I Pay for a Good Mattress?

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. Mattress company 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 or bed-in-a-box mattress brand. (For comparison, a quality mattress from a mattress store will typically cost you between $3,000 – $5,000.)

Read More: Best Mattress for the Money

Shopping Considerations

We’ll help you figure out all the questions you should be asking when looking for a quality budget mattress online.

Temporary or Long-Term?

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 higher 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.

Who Will Use the Bed?

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.

Related: Best Mattresses for Couples

How Much Weight Will Be on the Mattress?

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. Heavy sleepers require a more durable, and usually more firm mattress, which may factor into higher costs.

How to Save Money on a Mattress

Us mattress pros know there are a few ways to do your wallet some good and save big on a mattress. We’ll let you in on our secrets.

Shop at the Right Time

There are certain times of the year that are ideal for buying a mattress. The best times to buy a mattress are

• Black Friday
• Cyber Monday 
• Presidents’ Day
• Memorial Day
• Labor Day 

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.

Choose the Right Materials

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:

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 mattresses offer 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).

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.

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).

Consider Your Mattress Size

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.

Read More: Best Queen Mattresses

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.

Recap: Our Top Picks for the Best Budget Mattresses

Summary

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.