Best Mattresses of 2023

It can be difficult to find the best mattress for a particular person because comfort and feel are so subjective. For the best outcome, we recommend you lie on the mattress before committing. That said, CR’s engineers and survey teams assess every mattress that comes into CR’s labs for several objective criteria that can define a quality mattress.

Support.  A great mattress should help keep your spine aligned throughout the night. We chose mattresses that performed well in our support testing. But keep in mind that some mattresses offer better support for side sleepers and others for back sleepers.

Durability. Mattresses shouldn’t sag, soften, or provide less support after just a few years, so we highlighted those that score well in our durability test, which simulates eight to 10 years of use.

Stability. We look for mattresses with high stability scores, meaning they isolate motion well, so your partner’s movement on one side of the mattress won’t jostle you awake on the opposite side.

Comfort and owner satisfaction feedback. Our member survey ratings cover thousands of mattresses purchased in the last decade, allowing us to collect user feedback across dozens of brands and use that to determine comfort and satisfaction ratings.

We’ve tested over 200 mattresses to give them an Overall Score, evaluating their performance on each feature: sleeper support, firmness level, stabilization level, and durability. 

To test stability, for example,  we drop a 38.5-pound weight onto the mattress and measure the vibrations at the point of impact and across the mattress. This tells us how easily sleepers should be able to shift their weight without disturbing a partner. We also test how well the mattress keeps its shape over time by operating a machine that moves a 300-plus-pound wood roller across the surface of each mattress 30,000 times. 

We also include ratings for mattress comfort and owner satisfaction in the Overall Score, based on data from survey results on almost 67,000 mattresses. To learn more about how we test and rate mattresses, check out our mattress buying guide.

CR’s tests show that spending more doesn’t necessarily get you a better night’s sleep. While many of our top mattresses typically cost around $1,000, you can still find a great mattress for a few hundred dollars. In fact, one of the best affordable mattresses we tested costs less than $300. 

That said, we’ve seen some general trends as far as what mattresses tend to offer in different price ranges.

• Less than $600: A number of budget mattresses in our ratings earn high marks for durability and stabilization. Most of these consist of only one or two layers and generally do well in support tests.
• Between $600 and $1,000: These beds tend to do better overall than cheaper models, especially in support tests. You’ll often start to see more layers in this category, which give a mattress its unique feel.
• Between $1,001 and $2,500: These mattresses tend to include higher-quality materials than lower-priced mattresses and often have more layers. It’s not unusual to find mattress thicknesses of more than 12 inches in this category.
• Above $2,500: All of the adjustable air mattresses in CR’s ratings fall into this price range. The highest-end mattresses typically offer more customization, more layers, and extra touches like tufting, pillow tops, and handles.

Adjustable air mattresses can be inflated to your desired firmness level using a remote control or smartphone app. For queen or king beds, you can usually opt for separate chambers on each side. So if you’re sleeping with a partner, each of you can select a preferred firmness.

Innerspring mattresses are composed of steel coils topped with layers of cushioning made with either fiber-filled padding or foam. They’re typically a better choice than foam mattresses if you prefer a bit of bounce.

Foam mattresses consist entirely of foam layers. Latex foam mattresses have a somewhat springy feel to them; synthetic foam mattresses (memory foam in particular) tend to lack resilience. You’ll feel as if you’re sleeping “in” the mattress as opposed to on top of it.