We’ve been testing mattresses since 2016. Over the years:

• We’ve visited mattress factories, stores, showrooms, and trade shows.
• We’ve interviewed experts—both in the mattress industry and in materials science—in order to better understand what makes a quality mattress.
• We’ve pored over good-quality online owner reviews to look for feedback trends, and we’ve read the fine print concerning the warranties and return policies backing each of our picks.
• We’ve tested some 120 innerspring, foam, and hybrid mattresses with dozens of testing-panel participants.
• We’ve also slept on most of our contenders for at least a week.

Shopping for mattresses can be a nightmare, but searching specifically for an innerspring model is its own special hell. There are hundreds of options, as well as often half a dozen more versions within each option. Plus, many brands offer essentially the same mattress under different names at different stores. Add pushy salespeople, and it’s no wonder online foam bed-in-a-box models are such a draw.

Nevertheless, if you like strong edge support and hate feeling sunk and hugged, it’s worth thinking outside that box. People often consider innersprings to be “traditional” mattresses, consisting mostly of bouncy coils with very little cuddle. But that’s not always the case anymore. The metal coils that traditionally act as the bones of an innerspring mattress now come in a lot more shapes, sizes (including tiny microcoils), and constructions. And they can be individually wrapped (pocketed) or not, to make the entire bed feel more or less jiggly.

In addition, it can be hard to tell an innerspring apart from a hybrid. Mattress makers are combining coils with more layers and varieties of foams, including judicious amounts of memory foam or latex. For the purposes of our guides, we designate a mattress as an innerspring model if it has a quilted cover (instead of a sock one, which is stitched or zipped over the entire mattress) and less foam than its other components. Those listed here with a more prominently foamy feel can also be found in our guide to the best hybrid mattresses.

Some innerspring mattresses also offer the option of a pillow top (an extra layer of padding on top of the cover) or a Euro top (a denser filling, under the cover). These features typically make the mattress both cushier and more expensive.

For more details, see our guide to mattress types.

Although all these options and varieties can be overwhelming, with an innerspring mattress you do have a better chance of finding something that feels just right.

Before you buy an innerspring mattress, keep the following points in mind:

• Because of the coils, innerspring mattresses are inherently more breathable than all-foam mattresses. However, depending on the amount and type of foam and the quality of the cover on the innerspring mattress, you still might experience a bit of heat retention.
• A good-quality innerspring mattress typically costs at least $500 for a queen. “You can’t put quality materials into a mattress that costs two or three hundred dollars,” said Buddy Delaney, co-owner of Best Mattress, a mattress maker and retailer in Columbia, South Carolina. Most of the sub-$500 mattresses we’ve tested for this guide, and for our guide to the best cheap mattresses, had so little cushioning that they felt spartan; with simpler coil constructions, such mattresses don’t contour much to the body, so they feel stiffer and lack motion isolation.
• The “sweet spot” for a decent innerspring is between $1,000 and $2,000 for a queen. At that price, a mattress typically has pocketed coils (which prevent motion transfer), enough coils (for conformity and pressure relief), and durable foams and fiber paddings—all of which add up to a mattress that can reliably support a person who weighs up to 200 pounds or more on each side. Spend more, and you’ll find nice-to-haves such as tufting, a type of heavy-duty stitching that replaces glue in holding the mattress layers together, higher-quality fabric covers, and more-durable and -breathable foams (such as latex).
• An innerspring mattress with a high count of sturdy coils is more durable than most all-foam mattresses or mattresses with a lower coil count. “The coils are helping to carry the mattress structure and the weight of your body, as opposed to relying only on the foam,” said Delaney. But even though sagging is less likely with a quality innerspring, the mattress can still be prone to body impressions (imprints caused by your weight in the spot where you sleep). “The industry doesn’t like to talk about [body impressions],” said Delaney, but they’re almost unavoidable, particularly with fluffy pillow tops and cushioning. To stave off those indentations, vary where you sleep on the mattress, or sleep in the middle when your sleep partner is away, and rotate it from foot to head at least every six months, said Terri Long, owner of Long’s Bedding & Interiors in New York City.
• Although coil counts may be helpful, they alone don’t determine the quality of a mattress. Cheaper mattresses have fewer coils (around 500 or less compared with 800 or far more in better-quality models), which in turn means less support and curve-conforming pressure relief. But coil construction, thickness, and height, as well as whether the coils are pocketed and how they’re pocketed, also affect the feel and durability of a mattress. We explain more about coils and gauges in our guide to buying a mattress.
• Innerspring mattresses, especially higher-end ones, can be too heavy for slatted bed frames, especially if the slats are more than 3 inches apart. Instead, you may need to buy a sturdy platform bed or a box spring and metal frame for support.
• If you’re purchasing an innerspring from a third-party retailer, don’t pay full price. Manufacturers provide a “suggested retail price” (SRP) for the mattress, but the final sale price is up to the retailer, who might mark up the price just to be able to slash it back down and claim they are offering a deal. So before you buy, check out the manufacturer’s or brand’s site for the mattress’ SRP, and use that to gauge whether a retailer is really offering a good deal.
• Innerspring mattresses sold by a third-party retailer are subject to the retailer’s return policy. Unfortunately, such policies are often less generous than those of mattresses sold directly from the mattress brand. That’s why it’s crucial to try a mattress before you buy it, if possible.

As we explain in our guide to the best foam and hybrid mattresses, it’s impossible to find a mattress that’s perfect for everyone. Any given mattress can provide one person a refreshing night’s sleep but give another a sore back. Your size, shape, sleeping position, musculoskeletal health, and personal preference all play into which mattress is just right for you. For more information on how to choose the best mattress, check out our mattress buying guide.

Top pick

WinkBed (Luxury Firm)

Good cushion atop an abundance of coils

A quilted cover, pocketed coils, and foamy top give this bed a pleasingly hefty hybrid feel. But there are no handles, so you’ll need help moving it up any stairs.

Buying Options

$1800 $1345 from WinkBeds

Use promo code WCBF24 (queen)

Who it’s for: The WinkBed in Luxury Firm should work for back- and stomach-sleepers as well as side-sleepers who rotate positions frequently or those who simply prefer a firmer mattress. The WinkBed also comes in a Softer version (designed especially for side-sleepers), a Firmer model (for stomach- and back-sleepers), and a Plus version (for those over 300 pounds).

How it feels: The Luxury Firm is medium-firm, with the top layer feeling more cushioned than fluffy. Some side-sleepers wished it were softer. If that sounds like you, we suggest the Softer, which offers more pressure relief and a more cuddly feel.

Why it’s great: We’ve group-tested the WinkBed in both the Luxury Firm (WinkBed’s medium-firm option) and Softer (its plushest offering), and each dominated the competition in popularity. Offering notable cushioning with only a muted springiness, the WinkBed feels more similar to a hybrid than a traditional innerspring, and our testers appreciated that. A crowd-pleaser when we compared it against 11 other innerspring mattresses, the Luxury Firm won votes for its billowy yet substantial feel. The Softer model also garnered similar praise when tested against other soft mattresses. “Cushy” on top but “supportive” at the bottom was a common refrain.

The Luxury Firm is topped with a 1-inch layer of quilted polyfoam, which is 1½ pounds per cubic foot, and covered with sweat-wicking Tencel. The Luxury Firm has a 2-inch non-memory-foam polyfoam layer, which is just under the quilting; the foam is a dense 2½ pounds per cubic foot, and it sits atop a support layer of 1,054 pocketed coils. The coils are a thick, supportive 14½-gauge, with a heavier 13 gauge along the rim, to provide adequate edge support.

During our sleep tests, the top layer of the Luxury Firm, while cushiony, felt stiff initially. But the mattress broke in after a week and a half, and it settled into a squarely medium-firm feel, with more give for the heavier parts of the body, such as the hips and shoulders, while still supporting the lower back.

The Softer version of the WinkBed features an additional inch of foam in its quilted pillow top and a softer foam in the 2-inch polyfoam layer below it. It offered a deeper cushioning, in contrast to the more-shallow cuddle of the Luxury Firm. If you’re a side-sleeper, this model is likely the better choice; the additional cushioning allows you to nestle right in, and more deeply, too. And with the same coil strength as the Luxury Firm, the Softer should still be supportive for stomach-sleepers.

When we tested the Softer against 11 other soft mattresses in early 2022, six of 10 testers liked it best in its price category (which included the Casper Nova Hybrid and Saatva Classic in Plush Soft). Overall, the WinkBed Softer felt more densely cushiony, while the similarly priced Saatva Plush Soft felt more pillowy and springy. (The more expensive Casper Nova Hybrid—which came in a distant second in its price category of the soft mattresses we tested—had a looser-feeling softness, with less edge support.)

The WinkBed’s top layer is made from less-dense foam (1½ pounds per cubic foot) and therefore may be prone to body impressions over time (like most pillow-top mattresses). This may be more pronounced with the Softer because of its extra inch of pillow top and softer foam in the support layer. For this reason, we don’t recommend it for people who weigh more than 200 pounds. (If you’re closer to 300 pounds or above, you might consider the WinkBed Plus, which we haven’t tried yet.)

The company says the WinkBed’s pillow top consists of a special “SupportCell” polyfoam, designed to feel springy and cool. However, we didn’t find the foam to be more resilient than that of other pillow tops we’ve tested, and I didn’t sleep particularly cool or hot. WinkBed also touts zoned support, but we think the effect is subtle, depending on your size and how you choose to sprawl out on the mattress.

Flaws but not dealbreakers: Given that the perimeter of the mattress is reinforced by coils instead of a foam encasement (as is the case with the Saatva), we expected good edge support, and indeed the mattress held our tester up when they slept on the edge. Surprisingly, though, sitting on the edge of both the Luxury Firm and the Softer caused a bit of sloping. The motion transfer is much subtler than that of the springier Saatva Classic, but it was still detectable for two people sleeping in a full-size bed.

WinkBed doesn’t have a showroom, and its mattresses are not available at national retailers, so you can’t easily try the mattress before buying (you can find a handful of online-mattress tryout locations that feature the WinkBed). This is especially vexing since it comes in multiple firmness levels, and the exchange process isn’t totally free (see details below).

Like all mattresses with thick pillow tops, the WinkBed will be prone to body indentations over time (and, generally speaking, the softer the surface, the more vulnerable it is). (Under the warranty, WinkBeds will replace the mattress if it develops indentations, but only if they’re more than 1½ inches deep; by contrast, Saatva requires only 1-inch-deep indentations for an exchange.) The company advises rotating the mattress every two weeks for the first three months, then every two months thereafter. This is a lot of rotating for a heavy mattress without handles.

Trial, shipping, and returns: WinkBeds offers a 120-night trial period, during which you can return or exchange the mattress for a different firmness level (you have to pay a $50 fee, though, and the new mattress comes with a 60-day trial). If you decide you want a different firmness level after those 120 nights have elapsed (or even years later, if your preferences change), WinkBeds will let you exchange the mattress for half the cost (with shipping and haul-away charges, and you can only exchange the mattress once).

The WinkBed is shipped rolled up in a box, and the package is heavy (as staffers, who’ve ordered this mattress for personal use, have mentioned). Basic delivery is free but doesn’t include any setup, or the removal of your old mattress.

Key specs
Materials: polyfoam, pocketed coils; Tencel cover
Thickness: 13½ inches
Firmness options: Softer, Luxury Firm, Firmer, Plus (for those over 300 pounds)
Return or exchange within: 120 nights
Warranty: lifetime

Top pick

Saatva Classic

Plush, with bounce

Offering a classic innerspring bounce paired with a cushy top, this bed is for those who want to nestle in without being engulfed. But it doesn’t have the best motion isolation.

Buying Options

$1,795 from Saatva
(queen)

Who it’s for: The Saatva Classic has a resilience that is likely to appeal to sleepers who rotate positions a lot as they fall asleep. But if you’re mainly a back- or stomach-sleeper, we think the Luxury Firm will prove plenty supportive for most people under 200 pounds (there is also a Firm, which we haven’t tried yet). Those who sleep mainly on their side will probably feel more comfortable with the Plush Soft, though many of our testers found it to be too bouncy.

How it feels: The Saatva Classic in Luxury Firm feels medium-firm. It has some bounce, along with an almost down-pillow-like, 3-inch-thick Euro top (a topper that’s sewn underneath the mattress’ cover). In our tests, fans of the Saatva Classic repeatedly noted that it had the “right” amount of bounce. They also liked the softness at the surface, describing it as cushiony, not “lumpy.” The Plush Soft has a more pillowy, springier feel than the Luxury Firm.

Why it’s great: The Saatva Classic delivers a little bounce along with a cushy Euro top, stylish design, and responsive customer service.

This classic innerspring has broad appeal. When we tested the Saatva Classic in Luxury Firm, it captured the second-highest number of top-pick votes (after the WinkBed) from our testers (nine out of 39) in the moderately priced category, which also included the Avocado and Parachute mattresses. Five of those nine testers liked the Saatva Classic in Luxury Firm better than any of the other mattresses in the test group that day, including those that cost twice as much; two of the nine chose it as their second-favorite model overall.

Whereas the similarly priced WinkBed looks and feels plumped up, the Saatva has a sleeker silhouette yet more pronounced quilting, which makes it feel cushy but not billowy. “It’s a little luxurious without being too suffocating,” a tester said of the Luxury Firm.

The Saatva company is less transparent about the materials it uses in its signature innerspring mattress than it is for its foam Loom & Leaf, a pick in our foam mattress guide. But judging from what we do know, the Saatva Classic’s construction seems solid and has good edge support. The quilted layer is composed of fibers and polyfoam, with a density similar to what’s offered in other mattresses in our test group. The company told us the density of the memory-foam layer was at least 3 pounds per cubic foot, so it should be durable for those who weigh under 200 pounds (and perhaps more, given that the memory foam lies well beneath the surface). In the upper portion, 884 individually pocketed 14.5-gauge coils provide body-conforming pressure relief.

The Saatva Classic in Luxury Firm’s coils make you feel buoyed up, yet the surface offers just the right amount of cuddle. The bed has some bounce, but not so much that you’re likely to be bothered by a sleep partner moving in bed.

We included the Plush Soft version in a small group test of soft mattresses, but it didn’t garner as many fans in its price category as the Luxury Firm had in our previous test—it just wasn’t as cuddly and aaah-inducing as the cushier Winkbed in Softer. The Saatva Classic Plush Soft also felt somehow bouncier than the Luxury Firm did—which was off-putting for many. “Perfect for those who like to sleep on trampolines,” one tester said, half-joking. It’s a good choice for those who insist on excellent edge support while also seeking a more-traditional-feeling innerspring and a looser pillowy cradle. Because of the somewhat assertive springiness, the Plush Soft would probably work best for people who have the whole bed to themselves. It may also be a good choice for those with mobility issues: Better resilience means the sleeper will have an easier time rolling from one position to another. And since there is the option of an 11½-inch thickness (instead 14½ inches), the bed is easier to crawl into, especially when paired with a low frame.

Flaws but not dealbreakers: One of the biggest complaints about mattresses involves body impressions. And mattresses with thicker pillow tops or Euro tops, like the Saatva Classic, are at greater risk of developing them. Not surprisingly, during our research we spotted a few owner reviews that complained about this. But it’s a necessary compromise if you want that plush feeling on an innerspring. Body indentations may be a bigger issue if you weigh more than 200 pounds, so rotating the mattress at least every six months is especially important in that case. (Saatva’s warranty covers body impressions of 1 inch or more.)

The Saatva Classic doesn’t have as many support coils as the WinkBed or the Charles P. Rogers Estate SE (nor as many as our cheaper picks, for that matter). It also has less motion isolation, likely because even though smaller coils near the surface are pocketed, the 416 support coils near the bottom are not. I didn’t mind that too much. But if you have a sleep partner and are sensitive to movement, the Saatva Classic may not be the best option for you.

The foam encasement around the mattress’ edge may not, in the long run, be as sturdy as a perimeter made of extra-firm coils, as in the WinkBed and other more expensive mattresses. But we haven’t yet found owner reviews that complain of sagging or softening around the perimeter.

Trial, shipping, and returns: Unlike the WinkBed, the Saatva Classic is delivered unboxed by movers, and this “white glove” delivery is free. Owner reviews report that Saatva’s customer service is responsive. The company offers a lifetime warranty on the Classic. You can try the mattress for 365 nights, but to return or exchange the mattress, you need to pay a transportation fee of nearly $100.

Key specs
Materials: polyfoam, memory foam, natural and synthetic fibers, coils; cotton cover
Thickness: 11½ or 14½ inches
Firmness options: Plush Soft, Luxury Firm, Firm
Return or exchange within: 365 nights
Warranty: lifetime

Top pick

Charles P. Rogers Estate SE

Super durability in a box

This flippable two-piece mattress is made with high-quality, durable materials—such as latex and extra-sturdy coils—that are rare at this price. But it’s heavy, and if you want help setting it up you’ll likely have to pay extra.

Buying Options

$1,800 from Charles P. Rogers
(queen)

$100 off w/code WIRECUTTER20

Who it’s for: The firmer side of the two-piece, flippable Charles P. Rogers Estate SE works well for back- and stomach-sleepers; the medium-firm side accommodates side-sleepers. The top layer’s latex foam (an inherently more-resilient foam made from the sap of a rubber tree plant) makes this mattress great for people who change positions a lot when they sleep, those who sleep hot, and those of all weights (including people who weigh more than 200 pounds).

How it feels: This two-sided mattress feels medium-firm on one side and slightly firmer on the other. The quilted latex-and-fiber topper (a separate piece) provides a cushiony surface without being too billowy. There’s “some sink but I feel nicely cradled,” said a tester weighing between 150 and 200 pounds. A lighter tester (under 125 pounds) described it as “nice and taut ... with just a bit of bounce.”

Why it’s great: The Charles P. Rogers Estate SE stands out because it combines comfort and ultra-high-quality materials (the company not only makes the mattresses it sells but also builds its own coils, a rarity in the mattress world) with the convenience of a boxed online-only mattress at a moderate price. We believe this mattress will prove durable for the long haul.

Among the mid-priced mattresses in our test (including those from WinkBeds, Saatva, Parachute, and Avocado), even though not many people picked the Charles P. Rogers Estate SE as their top choice, nearly half chose it as their second-favorite model (a result that suggests it has broad appeal).

The mattress comes in two parts, shipped in two separate boxes. One contains the flippable base, which is composed of the coil unit and three soft layers (two made of Dunlop latex and one made of a blend of Talalay latex and coconut fiber). And the second contains the topper, which consists of two layers of fiber padding and a 2-inch layer of Talalay latex zipped together into a quilted cotton cover. You can flip the base to choose between the two firmness levels (medium-firm and slightly firmer); the topper provides cushioning for either side. Testers who loved this mattress described it as having nice give without feeling too “pillowy.”

The Charles P. Rogers Estate SE is the only mid-priced mattress in this guide that contains Talalay latex. Talalay latex tends to be more supple, breathable, and consistent than other types of foam. And it avoids the overly springy or elasticky feel sometimes associated with mattresses made from the latex produced by the more common Dunlop process. Latex is also inherently more durable than other foams, so the Charles P. Rogers Estate SE is less likely to develop body imprints. The latex and breathable fibers in the padding should help you sleep cool on this mattress.

The 1,221 pocketed coils in the base (similar to the count found in more expensive picks) make for robust support and good motion isolation. Thicker coils around the perimeter allow for solid edge support. Altogether, as one tester observed, “this mattress did not feel cheap.”

During our sleep test, the firmer side of the support base didn’t feel drastically firm, but it is likely more suitable for back- or stomach-sleeping. Side-sleepers will likely prefer the softer side, which gives the sensation of melting into the bed. Either way, the top layer feels more supple than outright plush.

For those who prefer a softer feel, Charles P. Rogers recently introduced the Estate-SE-GL; it includes a gel foam layer that provides additional pressure relief.

We appreciated the little details on the Estate SE, such as the handles (which aid with flipping or moving the mattress) thoughtfully stitched on all four sides of the bed. The Estate SE is a heavy, substantial bed. And as with other heavier innerspring mattresses, with this one you’ll need a sturdy platform bed or a box spring with a metal frame for support.

The innerspring unit has a lifetime warranty, and the rest of the mattress has a 20-year warranty (twice as long as the typical 10 years of coverage). Unlike many online mattress sellers, Charles P. Rogers is an independently owned business that has been making its own mattresses since 1855, including its own coils. Along with the generous warranty, the company’s long history gives extra reassurance that it will be able to stand behind its product. If you’re not fussy about the differences between the two firmness levels, you can regularly flip the base, which will further lengthen the life of your mattress.

Flaws but not dealbreakers: Unfortunately, there are only three stores (in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania) where you can try the Charles P. Rogers Estate SE before you buy.

If you opt for the Estate-SE-GL, which has a synthetic (as opposed to latex) foam on top, it will probably avert body impressions as well as the original model. But you need to weigh how important that extra feeling of softness is to you. As we do for all mattresses with synthetic-foam top layers, we strongly recommend rotating the mattress every six months (or more frequently).

Trial, shipping, and returns: The mattress ships for free via FedEx, but you may need someone to help you with the two boxes, which weigh roughly 45 to 150 pounds each, depending on the mattress size. If you live within a 100-mile radius of Charles P. Rogers’s East Rutherford, New Jersey, factory, the company will deliver your mattress unboxed via its own trucks, usually for no extra charge. Otherwise, you can request white-glove delivery for $200. The company offers a 100-night trial, within which time you can return the mattress for a refund (but you’ll pay a $200 “recycling fee” and in-home delivery fee, if you chose that in lieu of free FedEx shipping).

Key specs
Materials: Talalay latex, DuPont Sorona fiber, pocketed coils; cotton cover (polyfoam in the Estate-SE-GL)
Thickness: 13 inches
Firmness options: Luxury Firm (flippable)
Return or exchange within: 100 days
Warranty: 20 years for the mattress; lifetime on the innerspring unit

Upgrade pick

Stearns & Foster Estate

Extra support with pressure relief

This lofty, upscale-looking bed updates the strong support you might expect from a classic innerspring with a memory-foam cushioning. Its prominent quilting style isn’t for everyone, though.

Buying Options

$2,399 from Stearns & Foster

Who it’s for: The Stearns & Foster Estate comes in a variety of versions for a variety of sleep positions, with and without incorporated toppers. We found that the Pillow Top Firm would work best for stomach- and back-sleepers. The much softer Pillow Top Soft is a good match for the pressure-relieving needs of side-sleepers.

What it feels like: The Pillow Top Firm feels firm, but the cushioning on top makes it veer toward medium-firm territory. Support is the overall sensation you get when you lie on this mattress, thanks to the coil structure and the tight stitching of the quilt pattern. The pillow top feels cushy but not outright plush. “Love that it’s firm without feeling hard” and “I’m sinking in and still feeling supported” were comments representative of most of the feedback from testers (in a range of weights) who liked this mattress. The Pillow Top Soft isn’t exactly plush, either. But, as a tester noted, “It’s soft without feeling engulfing.”

Why it’s great: The Stearns & Foster Estate offers luxurious looks bolstered by good (and, in the case of the memory foam, unique) materials—at a frequently on-sale price that’s similar to the price of many bed-in-a-box mattresses of lesser quality.

Stearns & Foster is Sealy’s high-end line, and the Estate in Pillow Top Firm is its most popular mattress. Although it’s not the line’s least expensive offering, it’s still half the price of the average mattress in the line. And yet it offers the added touch of memory foam (created by designers of the Tempur-Adapt, one of our recommended foam mattresses). One positive online review we spotted described the feeling as like a “solid cloud,” and we couldn’t agree more. It’s a mattress for firm-mattress lovers who know they should probably have more cushioning for their own good.

The innerspring support layer consists of 1,160 coils, which suggests good body conformity and support. The coils are also pocketed, which helps with motion isolation. The edge is reinforced with an additional 344 firmer coils—a plus for those who detest a perimeter prone to sloping. This mattress gave us a heavy-duty feel similar to that of the Charles P. Rogers Estate SE, but with a firmer, more traditional cushioning sensation.

In our group test, 21 out of 39 testers liked the Stearns & Foster Estate in Luxury Firm Euro Top best or second best among the selection in the high-end category, which included four other mattresses.

If you’re looking for more pressure relief, consider the Pillow Top Soft, which offers all the support of the Pillow Top Firm but with more pressure relief for side-sleepers, thanks to a different quilting pattern and softer foams. “There’s more body underneath,” said one tester, comparing it to other soft mattresses in our test (including the popular yet sinkier WinkBed Softer). Still, those who prefer a truly soft mattress probably wouldn’t call this one soft at all. In our 2022 soft-mattress group test consisting of side-sleepers and those who prefer side-combination, the Pillow Top Soft wasn’t nearly as popular as the more obviously plush WinkBed Softer. But it was a hit among those who preferred a pressure-relieving mattress without that extra cuddle.

Chances are good that you’ll find a store near you that carries some version of the Estate. We highly recommend trying before buying—you just may find that a different firmness level than you expected suits you better.

Flaws but not dealbreakers: The quilting on the Estate creates mounds that not everyone appreciated. As one in-office tester half-joked, “I prefer not to sleep on molehills.”

The foam isn’t as dense as that in the Sealy company’s Tempur-Pedic 4-pound-per-cubic-foot foam offerings, including our foam mattress pick, the Tempur-Adapt (Medium Hybrid). But as we mentioned earlier, innerspring construction is less straightforward. The coils support the bulk of the mattress and the person sleeping on it, so the foam layers aren’t doing as much of the heavy lifting, as with an all-foam mattress.

The three-star-or-below user reviews we spotted for both versions of the mattress tended to either complain of the feel being too firm or the surface being prone to body impressions. With that in mind, as with other pillow or Euro tops or soft mattresses in general, it’s especially important to rotate this mattress religiously at least twice a year (if not more often) and to sleep on as much of the surface as possible, to avoid body imprints. The warranty covers only indentations deeper than 1½ inches.

Trial, shipping, and returns: Because you must buy this mattress from a third-party retailer, shipping, exchange, and return policies vary greatly. For instance, Mattress Firm offers a 120-night sleep trial, but if you choose to exchange the mattress, you’ll owe a 10% “restocking” fee on the price of your original mattress (with a maximum of $250). And if you return it, you’ll owe 20% (with a maximum of $500). You’ll need to pay a $100 delivery fee in both cases. P.C. Richard & Son, by contrast, has a 90-day policy that allows for exchanges only at or above the purchase price, along with a $75 fee.

Key specs
Materials: pocketed coils, memory foam, polyfoam; Tencel cover
Thickness: 15 inches (Pillow Top Firm); 14½ inches (Pillow Top Soft)
Firmness options: Firm, Plush, Ultra Firm, Pillow Top Firm, Pillow Top Plush
Return or exchange within: varies
Warranty: 10 years

Mattresses can collect a lot of unwanted nastiness. From dust mites and dead skin to liquids (everything from water droplets to sweat and pee), your mattress is susceptible to stains and odors that may drive you to trash it before its expected shelf life is up. For step-by-step cleaning instructions, read our guide on how to clean your mattress.

Overall, innerspring mattresses are more difficult to comparison-shop for than foam mattresses. Innersprings come in different firmness levels, mattress makers often offer exclusive designs to different stores, and various third-party retailers charge different prices.

To decide on what to include, we listened to readers, dug into online mattress forums, and talked with mattress experts and retailers to learn about the mattresses people are curious about and the companies insiders respect. Once we narrowed the field down to 12 brands, we asked each company to recommend a model and feel that had wide appeal.

To make our picks, we considered the following:

• Quality materials: Unfortunately, relatively few makers of innerspring mattresses are as transparent as online foam-mattress makers about the components they use. We gathered as much information as we could both on and off the record, and then we determined our recommendations and reservations accordingly. Generally speaking, for a mattress, coil counts of at least 400 to 500 support coils and polyfoam densities of around 1.5 pounds per cubic foot are the minimum to help protect against sagging and body impressions, as well as to provide adequate support. Pocketed (or wrapped) coils keep motion transfer in check. Of course, it’s not just about the components but also about how they’re put together. So we kept that in mind, too.
• Decent edge support: We’d like to be able to sleep on a mattress without fear of rolling off the edge. Even better, we like a bed with a perimeter we can sit on to put on our socks without sliding off.
• Adequate motion isolation: Innerspring mattresses don’t isolate motion as well as foam mattresses do, but pocketed coils and foam layers can greatly minimize movement.
• At least a 10-year warranty: This length of coverage is pretty standard. We weren’t overly impressed by warranties longer than that, though, only because we know that companies can come up with reasons not to abide by them.
• Reasonable return policy: Companies that make innerspring mattresses aren’t usually as generous with free trials and returns as foam mattress companies are, but we looked for companies that provide a recourse if you’re unhappy with your purchase.
• Tester feedback: For our in-office test each of our testers spent several minutes to several hours lying on and considering the feel and function of each mattress. Mattress preferences are highly subjective, so we considered the results of our in-office testing not to be the final word in choosing our picks but instead as a helpful data point to be balanced with feedback from experts, analysis of online reviews, and all the other considerations on this list.
• Good customer service: We anonymously emailed, called, or live-chatted with each company’s customer service to gauge the speed and helpfulness of the response.
• Home test: We slept on each of the top contenders for a couple of days to a week.
• Owner reviews: We took a close look at good-quality owner reviews online, if available, to identify general trends in the mattresses’ weak points.

If you want a super-supportive, buoyant mattress: The Beautyrest Black Original L-Class in Medium may make you happy. This 13-inch-thick high-end mattress from Serta-Simmons has terrific edge support with very little sink-in sensation and a floating-on-top-of-the-mattress feel. Its coil counts and foam features are similar to those of the Stearns & Foster, but the Beautyrest feels less plush and usually costs a bit more. It’s a good mattress for stomach- and back-sleepers who are put off by plush and fluff, though. Although about as many testers liked it in the high-end category as the Stearns & Foster, not as many considered it their favorite mattress overall. There’s a pillow-top version (which we didn’t test), but it costs $800 more. This mattress is available directly from Beautyrest, and comes with a 100-night trial; if you don’t like it, you can return it for a full refund.

Parachute Eco Comfort Mattress: Parachute prides itself on its eco-friendly materials, using organic cotton and wool. In our tests, eight out of 39 testers liked the Parachute best or second best compared with the four other mattresses in the mid-priced category. The Parachute’s upper layers, with 4,267 microcoils, seemed to feel more wiggly than springy. And the transition from top to bottom (with 1,160 pocketed coils) felt a little less smooth. We concluded that the price tag was a bit steep for what this mattress was. But mattress feels are subjective, and you may want to try it for yourself in one of Parachute’s stores in select major cities.

This article was edited by Courtney Schley and Kalee Thompson.