The best mattress in a box 2021: top bed-in-a-box brands reviewed

The mattress in a box industry is bursting with choice in 2021. If you want to buy the best mattress for your budget this month, some of the strongest options are bed-in-a-box mattresses. These are vacuum-packed foam or hybrid mattresses that can be bought online. 

Thanks to innovations in material technology, packaging and shipping, these mattresses can be rolled up then delivered straight to your front door in a box. Your job is to then unbox the mattress and let it decompress (inflate). Depending on the manufacturer’s instructions, it should be ready to sleep on within a few minutes or hours.

Here we’ve rounded up the best bed-in-a-box mattresses in the US – and happily, now is actually a great time to buy one. That’s because the Labor Day mattress sales are approaching, so many online mattress brands are already launching early discounts – you’ll find today’s best mattress deals below.

Even at full price, many of the best mattresses in a box are cheaper than their traditional counterparts sold in-store. And it’s easy to figure out why: bed-in-a-box brands don’t have the overheads of physical stores, so they can offer the same levels of comfort, support and durability for a lot less.

You’ll also have the chance to ‘test drive’ your newcomer too, as all of our featured models below come with at least a 100-night risk-free trial. And if you don’t love it, you’ll get a refund and the company will collect the mattress from you. During our research of the best mattresses in a box, we discovered that many queen-size models can weigh 70lbs or more when shipped, so you might want to enlist help or pay for white-glove delivery service if you need to carry it up steps.

The best mattress in a box in 2021

Nectar’s incredibly popular five-layer memory foam mattress has nabbed the top spot in our best mattress in a box guide because it’s exceptional value for money, delivering premium materials at an extremely competitive price. 

We tested the medium-firm mattress for two months and loved it. The memory foam offers a fantastic balance of softness and firmness, providing luxury comfort without the feeling of sinking into the mattress. When our reviewers lay down, the mattress contoured to their bodies, providing full, tailored support and helping align their spines, while cushioning pressure points like shoulders and hips. We also noticed good edge support and very little motion transfer – making it a particularly good choice for couples.  

You’re unlikely to overheat at night too, because this award-winning mattress has a quilted cooling cover on top, followed by a gel memory foam layer to help you sleep cool. There’s then a layer of hi-core memory foam for extra support so you don’t sink into the mattress. Finally, a base layer helps stabilize the sleeper, and a bottom mattress cover keeps it from slipping on your bed frame or floor. 

Where the Nectar Memory Foam mattress really stands out, though, is value for money. It’s often generously discounted, making it considerably cheaper than rivals including Casper and Purple. Right now, there’s up to $400 off – and it comes with $399-worth of free sleep accessories too (luxury pillows, a mattress protector and sheets). There’s also a generous one-year trial period to decide whether it’s right for you, and a lifetime warranty. When it comes to sheer value for money, we think it’s the best memory foam mattress you can buy. 

The GhostBed Luxe mattress is a premium all-foam mattress that’s jam-packed with cooling tech, making it one of the best mattress in a box options for anyone who overheats at night. GhostBed call it ‘the coolest bed in the world’ – and plenty of industry reviewers agree, voting it as the best mattress for hot sleepers. 

The cooling happens in two stages. On top, a luxurious quilted cover is made from cool-to-touch ‘Ghost Ice’ fabric and cooling fibres, with one-inch of gel memory foam to promote airflow and breathability. Under this, a two-inch layer of thermo-sensitive foam responds to your body temperature and adjusts to keep you cool all night long. The rest of the mattress is made up of responsive, contouring memory foam and supportive foam layers, which soothe pressure points and alleviate back pain, making you feel like you’re floating.

According to user reviewers, the Ghostbed Luxe has good edge support, so you can maximize every inch of the mattress, making this bed in a box feel wider than it actually is. Recurring comments include that the mattress feels extremely comfortable and luxurious, has helped with back pain, and is good at reducing motion transfer – so you won’t feel a partner moving around.

Bear in mind that the Ghostbed Luxe can take up to 24 hours to fully expand and adjust to your bedroom’s temperature. It’s also slightly softer than the original GhostBed, so if you prefer a firmer mattress you may wish to choose that version instead. (Like the sound of this but out of your budget? Try the Cocoon Chill Memory Foam mattress further down the page.)

The Helix Midnight Luxe mattress is a top-rated bed in a box that’s been designed with side sleepers in mind. It provides pressure relief to shoulders and hips, to help you sleep comfortably throughout the night on your side. (Like most bed-in-a-box mattresses though, it’s good for sleeping in all positions.) 

The Helix Midnight Luxe is two inches taller than the company’s standard mattresses. It’s a medium firmness, with zoned lumbar support for enhanced contouring, and a premium quilted pillow top with an ultra-breathable Tencel cover that aims to help aids airflow, so you sleep cool throughout the night. This hybrid bed-in-a-box mattress also boasts a layer of 1,000 wrapped coils for optimal spinal alignment and increased pressure relief. 

Users like that this premium mattress feels bouncy and balanced, and does a good job of contouring to the body. The Helix Midnight Luxe also gets high marks for its lack of motion transfer, and the extra support makes it a great choice for heavier people too. It isn’t cheap but users report that it is durable, so it should be a good investment. 

Alternatively, if you can’t stretch to the Luxe, try the standard version instead. It’s almost $400 cheaper and we loved it when we tested it – you can read our Helix Midnight mattress review for more.

The Cocoon Chill Memory Foam is easily one of the best budget cooling mattresses around. This mattress in a box is made by industry giant and household name Sealy – and it’s the perfect option for anyone who liked the sound of the luxury Ghostbed above, but couldn’t justify the cost. 

Designed to adapt to your body to provide tailored support all over, this medium-firm mattress has three different foam layers, including luxury memory foam for deep contouring, responsive comfort foam to reduce motion transfer and prevent you sinking into the mattress, and a durable support layer. 

However, the headline feature is Sealy’s advanced phase-change material, which is infused into a high-end, stretch-knit cooling cover. This does an excellent job of regulating temperature throughout the night – we slept on it for two weeks, and even our hot sleeper didn’t overheat once – and helps this mattress stand out from similarly priced rivals. Its high performance is also confirmed by many of the over 5,000 customers who have given it five-star reviews on the Cocoon By Sealy website (it averages an impressive score of 4.7 out of 5 from over 9,000 user reviews). 

At 10-inches deep the Cocoon Chill is a decent height, but bear in mind that its memory foam layer is one inch thinner than the Nectar Memory Foam mattress above – if you weigh more than 230lbs you may sink through to the firmer support layers. For most people, though, this won’t be an issue. Overall, we were impressed with the comfort and cooling abilities of the mattress, and gave it superior marks for motion isolation. There’s no denying you get a lot for your money here. If you’re looking for an affordable medium-firm memory foam mattress, there’s a lot to like about the Cocoon Chill. 

We’ll make this clear from the start: the Zinus Green Tea isn’t the best mattress in a box in our guide – it has few of the bells and whistles found in the other options here, and there are questions over its long-term durability. However, if you’re looking for a budget option, it’s one of the best low-cost mattresses out there.

The Zinus Green Tea is the top-rated memory foam mattress on Amazon, with an average score of 4.4 out of 5 from over 100,000 user reviews. It uses green tea-infused memory foam and purified charcoal particles to neutralize odors, and comes in a range of different thickness options: 6, 8, 10 and 12 inches. 

The cheapest is the 6 inch: you could get a queen-size delivered to your front door for around $200. We tested the 10-inch version – which starts from $217 – for three months and found it to be very comfortable and supportive, with good edge support and minimal motion transfer, so you won’t be disturbed by a restless partner. (In case you’re wondering, no, it doesn’t smell of tea…)

There are a few questions about long-term durability: we don’t know how this mattress will perform after a few years of use. It’s not the best choice if you overheat at night, either – a few of our reviewers became uncomfortably warm. But the fantastic price is, of course, where this mattress really stands out. It isn’t often you can buy a quality king size mattress for under $300. If you’re looking for a budget mattress in a box, the Zinus Green Tea Memory Foam mattress is worth considering.

The Purple mattress is one of the best-known mattresses in a box. It’s extremely popular, thanks to its innovative ‘Purple Grid’ technology, which is designed to flex under your body’s pressure points, providing tailored support right where you need it most. The Purple grid doesn’t just offer high-end support though. This hyper-elastic, gel-like grid (which looks like an empty ice cube tray) has thousands of air channels inside it, helping you sleep cool

Inside the Purple Mattress there’s two inches of the Purple grid, followed by a dual-layer comfort base for support. Many users comment that it took them some time to get used to the unique feeling of the Purple mattress – especially if they were previously sleeping on an innerspring mattress. Purple itself advises giving the mattress 21 days to get used to it.

Still, the Purple mattress has an excellent average score of 4.4 out of 5 from over 25,000 user reviews on the Purple website. It’s rated similarly on Amazon, with 4.3 out of 5 (from a much smaller user review pool). Many people report that it relieved their pressure points and eased joint pain, and lots of people say that since switching to the Purple mattress they’ve been sleeping far better than they were before. We think for couples, especially, and anyone who overheats at night, the flagship Purple mattress is one of the best mattress in a box options out there.

The AmeriSleep AS2 is our go-to mattress for back pain relief. This 12-inch medium-firm mattress is designed for back and stomach sleepers, and blends targeted, responsive support with contouring comfort to deliver enhanced pressure relief. 

Underneath a soft, ultra-breathable and cooling cover, the AS2 mattress uses a plant-based Bio-Pur foam to relieve pressure points. This open-cell foam is more breathable and responsive than traditional memory foam, so it’ll keep you cooler through the night while it supports your body. Next comes a layer of ‘Hive’ foam – lots of flexible foam hexagons grouped into comfort zones that ease tension and deliver extra support and cushioning under your head, shoulders, back, hips, knees, and lower legs. Finally, a durable base foam is designed to prevent sagging and keep you from sinking in. AmeriSleep puts its money where its mouth is here, with a 20-year warranty. 

The AS2 is highly rated on the Amerisleep site, with an average of 4.7/5 stars from over 3,000 user reviews, and 97% of respondents say they would recommend the mattress to a friend (March 2021). Some customers comment that they no longer have chronic back pain and many agree that it’s a high-quality product. 

If you’re a side-sleeper with back pain, you may find the AS2 doesn’t offer quite the right targeted support – we’d recommend the Amerisleep AS3 or AS4 instead. And if you prefer a softer mattress, the AS2 may be too firm – again, the AS3 will be a better choice. But if you’re a back sleeper, or suffering from back pain, the Amerisleep AS2 could be just what you need.   

If you’re looking for an eco-friendly, all-natural mattress, we think the Avocado Green is the best mattress in a box you can buy. The company uses quality, organic ingredients – there’s no polyester, polyurethane foams, or toxic fire retardants – to produce a premium mattress that’s GreenGuard Gold Certified, which means that it meets high standards for low emissions. 

Made from 100-per cent certified organic latex, wool and cotton, the Avocado Green mattress offers plush cushioning, and ranks highly amongst users for its strong support. A zoned, pressure-point support system gives proper back support, while recycled steel coils help align your back and distribute your weight. Plus, an optional organic wool pillow top version will help regulate your body temperature.

If you’ve got a higher budget and eco-friendly credentials are particularly important, then Avocado’s Latex mattress is the company’s most sustainable – it isn’t just 100% organic certified and non-toxic, but it’s biodegradable too. However, it’s more expensive (a queen costs $1,799 – that’s $300 more), which is why, on balance, we recommend the Avocado Green as the best bed in a box in the all-natural category.

Also read: