Best Mattress in a Box for 2024

DreamCloud is a premium hybrid mattress with a plush pillow top that provides plenty of pressure relief. Thanks to the foam layers, it has plenty of pressure relief, and the coil system ensures responsiveness and support. When you lay on it, it won’t have the slow-moving feel many associate with memory foam. Instead, it has a neutral foam feel that appeals to most people.  

When we tested the DreamCloud mattress, we found it medium or medium-firm. It’s soft enough to cradle your shoulders and hips while supporting enough to promote spinal alignment. Medium firmness is the most accommodating to every sleeping position. The average person will be happy with the quality and comfort of the DreamCloud mattress. It's also available in an all-memory foam construction.

Read more on this bed in our full DreamCloud mattress review.

The Bear Original is a bed-in-a-box mattress unlike most others, and at the same time has a price tag lower than most of its competitors. This memory foam mattress is fitted with a Celliant-infused cover, a type of material that's meant to boost blood circulation and promote muscle repair. It was one of the first mattresses to use this technology and is popular among athletes like runners, weight lifters and swimmers.

You don't have to be an Olympian to enjoy this mattress. It offers great value; it's a quality mattress at a real wallet-friendly price tag. It's also comfortable. It has a mixed memory foam feel that nestles your body and offers pressure relief to your joints without giving you a sink-in feel. It's a bit more springy like neutral foam is. Its firmness level makes it great for back and stomach sleepers, but some side sleepers can get away with it if they're more like combo sleepers. 

The Bear Original mattress is available in all standard sizes. Prices start at $748 for a twin and go up to $1,284 for a California king. Bear and most online mattress brands run promos often so you can get the mattress for even cheaper.

For most side sleepers, there's nothing like the feeling of a plush, pressure-relieving Layla mattress. A firm mattress in a box can push into your side and throw off the natural curvature of your spine, so if you primarily sleep on your side (or sides), you typically want a softer mattress for your bed that'll cradle and contour your body's curves. 

Laying down on the Layla bed-in-a-box mattress makes soft, memory foam mattress lovers sigh in relief as they sink into the light and airy top foam comfort layer, which is why I had to add it to the best mattress-in-a-box list. I was also pleasantly surprised to find out it was flippable; both sides were meant to be slept on. One side of the bed has a softer profile, while the flip side has more of a medium-firm or middle-of-the-road feel. This gives you two chances to find your perfect sleep firmness level; if you don't like one side, all you have to do is flip it over. I preferred the "firm" side because I'm a combo sleeper, but the "soft" side is extra plush for strict side sleepers or lightweight body types looking for a softer mattress. 

The Layla bed-in-a-box mattress is available in sizes twin to California king, and its retail prices range from $1,099 to $1,699. 

Like organic produce or cosmetics, you can also find natural and organic mattresses that are safer for your body and manufactured more sustainably. The Avocado Green mattress made this list as the best mattress in a box made with organic materials and it's perfect for eco-friendly mattress brand shoppers. It also has a more organic, outdoorsy smell than other bed-in-box mattresses I've tested, which have an off-gassing odor right when you pull them out of the box. 

The bread and butter of this mattress in a box is its certified organic materials. You can find organic Dunlop latex foam in Avocado's comfort layer, which is made from the baked sap of a Brazilian rubber tree. It may sound strange, but this latex mattress foam is bouncy, supportive and breathable -- essentially the exact opposite of traditional memory foam. It also has up to 3,136 pocketed coils made from recycled steel, and the pocket spring layer tends to promote good airflow.

It's a firm bed in a box, so it's the most ideal boxed mattress for people who favor their back or stomach when they sleep. I think it'll be supportive for any body type, whether you weigh 110 or 240 pounds. Read more in our full Avocado Green mattress review or check out our list of the best organic mattresses to see more options. The Avocado Green mattress is available in sizes twin to California king and its retail prices range from $1,199 to $2,299.

The AS2 mattress is a firm mattress specifically designed with support in mind and is great for people who suffer from back pain for that reason. The AS2 lands on the firmer end of the scale around a medium firmness. It dubs it the best for back sleepers on its website and I'd have to agree. I'd also include stomach sleepers. Its foam-comfort layers mold around the curves of your body, but this hybrid mattress still feels firm enough to keep your spine in neutral alignment. 

The cherry on top of the AS2 Hybrid mattress in a box is its Celliant-infused and machine-washable cover. Celliant is woven into the cover's fabric, and it's meant to help boost blood circulation and increase sleep quality. Besides the Bear mattress, many of the bed-in-box mattresses I've tested don't boast this technology. I wouldn't say the cover and mattress are cooling, as it infers on the website. 

Overall, if you're a back or stomach sleeper with back pain, the AS2 Hybrid might be a good memory foam mattress option for you. Read more in our full Amerisleep mattress review. The AS2 Hybrid bed in a box is available in sizes twin to split king and its retail prices range from $899 to $2,048.

There are a lot of hybrid mattress-in-a-box models out there that suit larger and taller sleepers, but Helix Plus stands out as one of the best for a number of reasons. For one, this hybrid mattress bad boy is one hefty memory foam mattress bed, standing at 13 inches tall with extra supportive coils in the foundation layer. If you weigh over 230 pounds, support and durability are characteristics that should be high on your mattress type list. The Helix mattress checks both of those boxes. 

Often, thick and supportive hybrid mattresses get a little pricey. This bed-in-a-box mattress has an amazing value (especially if Helix is running a promotion). The feel was also really comfortable and neutral; it wasn't like memory foam where you slowly sink into the layers and create a body impression. It's bouncy, responsive and pressure-relieving, making it easy for combination sleepers to switch positions without feeling "stuck" in the foam mattress layers. 

Read more in our full Helix mattress reviews or check out our list of the best mattresses for heavy sleepers to see more options. It's available in sizes twin to California king and its retail prices range from $849 to $1,899.

Finding a mattress in a box that's perfect for you is hard enough, let alone a bed that accommodates two different sleepers. The trick is to find a comfortable, widely-accommodating mattress like Helix Midnight Luxe. Helix Sleep set out to make a mattress for everyone and even has its own Sleep Quiz to match you with one of its 10-plus beds. This model contains six layers and stands at 14 inches tall. This makes it a comfy mattress for any body type, regardless of how much your significant other weighs.

The Helix Midnight Luxe hybrid bed in a box mattress has a middle-of-the-road firmness level that will appeal to all sleeper positions: back, side, stomach and combination. I'm in love with the feel of this Helix mattress bed. It's not like memory foam, which some couples don't find mutually agreeable, but it's responsive and soft. The large pillow-top on Helix Midnight Luxe gives it a fluffy, luxurious feel and look that you just want to dive into. Read more in our full Helix mattress reviews.

The Helix Luxe is available in sizes twin to California king and retail prices range from $1,099 to $2,299.

When you are a hot sleeper, there's almost nothing worse than waking up in the middle of the night with a moist shirt and a sweaty forehead. It also doesn't help that a significant number of mattress brands falsely market their mattresses as cool-sleeping. I'm happy to report that the GhostBed Luxe is actually a cooling mattress. When I touched the top of the mattress for the first time, it felt definitively cold. Your sheet on top will neutralize the feel a little, but that cooling sensation still peeks through.

Aside from its cooling abilities, this is one of the thicker foam mattresses on the market, sitting at 13 inches high. This means most people (including heavier sleepers over 230 pounds) will get more longevity and support from this than other foam mattresses, which are typically 10 to 11 inches tall. I also believe it has a medium firmness level, because it offered good pressure relief for my hips and shoulders when I slept on my side, but it also felt supportive enough when I was on my back or stomach. 

The top layers are made with memory foam so you do get that conforming, quicksand-like feel on this bed. Unlike a lot of traditional memory foam mattress models, this top-layered foam mattress should keep you feeling much cooler. Check out our list of the best cooling mattresses to see more options. The GhostBed Luxe bed in a box is available in sizes twin to California king and retail prices range from $1,198 to $2,595. 

I know some die-hard memory foam mattress fans love the hugging, conforming feel that memory foam provides. Nectar Premier, the brand's upper-level foam option, does just that. This Nectar mattress is dense and takes a few seconds for your whole body to be cocooned by the material. While this Nectar mattress is not as soft as Nectar Lush, the bed that Nectar Premier was designed to replace, it feels really pressure-relieving against your joints. 

The Nectar Premier is 13 inches thick, made entirely out of foam, and it's one of the thicker foam beds we've tested out (the average is around 11 inches). I think this foam mattress is best for individuals who weigh under 230 pounds, but with that said, some larger body types can get away with it if a foam bed is what you're after. It'll also suit most sleeping positions, including back, stomach, side and combination. It's supportive, but that contouring memory foam feel gives it a cozy, plush feel we didn't necessarily expect.

The Nectar Premier is available in sizes twin to split king and retail prices range from $799 to $1,698. Keep in mind, Nectar is usually running a promotion that adds free accessories and drops the price around $500. Read more in our full Nectar Premier mattress review or check out our list of the best memory foam mattresses to see more options.

Editor's note: The US Product Safety Commission recently issued a recall for Nectar Premier king and queen-sized mattresses manufactured on Sept. 24, 2021. Look for a model number CHILL and Prototype ID:ECS2003RHCH on a tag on the bottom of your mattress to find out if yours has been recalled. We have reached out to Nectar for comment and will update the story if they respond.

Aside from being one of the most beautiful beds I've ever seen, the WinkBed is also very comfortable and reminiscent of a luxury hotel mattress. It combines two mattress characteristics everyone wants: support and pressure relief. The foundation layer is made with strong pocketed steel coils with zones meant to be softer and firmer where you need it. Then, the several foam layers and fluffy pillow top make it feel plush and incredibly inviting. 

There are three firmness levels to choose from, giving each sleeping position a chance to cater to their specific needs. Side sleepers can opt for the "Softer" option, which feels more like a medium-soft, while back and stomach sleepers will probably find the "Luxury Firm" or "Firm" models more comfortable. The firmer the mattress, the more support it's going to offer. Whichever you choose, your bed will come with a lifetime warranty, an impressive offer that speaks to the durability of the mattress. Read our full WinkBed mattress review.