Best Mattress in a Box

(Ad) Buying a new mattress used to be much more of an ordeal than it is today. Since mattresses are rather large — even twin-sized options — finding adequate transportation for your new purchase or paying extra for delivery could often delay new mattress purchases. Today, these concerns seem antiquated, thanks to mattress in a box styles. Now you can purchase a mattress in a box without worrying about strapping it to your car or arranging a delivery time.

You may think buying a mattress in a box limits you only to memory foam options. And while memory foam is a great material for most sleepers, if you prefer coil mattresses, this service may be of little interest to you. However, you can buy hybrid mattresses (half innerspring and half foam or latex) through mattress in a box services. And if you prefer a bit more bounce, you can even find latex mattresses in a box.

When you buy a mattress in a box, the mattress itself arrives compressed and will expand to its full size within minutes or hours, depending on the type and size. This allows the mattress to ship to you in a much smaller box, making it easier to transport and set up.

Here are our best mattress in a box recommendations for 2022!

Amerisleep offers a range of memory foam and hybrid mattress options, but the Amerisleep AS3 is a mattress in a box option that provides features that will appeal to most sleepers, according to Best Mattress Brand. Falling smack in the middle of the Amerisleep line, the AS3 is a more budget-friendly mattress in a box option that will provide a good balance between comfort and support. 

The AS3 offers breathability and cooling due to its advanced design and materials. It also has great motion transfer resistance, making it a good choice for couples or siblings sharing a bed.

This mattress falls in the middle of the firmness scale, offering a medium firmness that most sleepers will find both comfortable and supportive. It’s soft to the touch and allows for a certain amount of sink but provides adequate support for the spine and pressure points. The mattress cover is also soft and cushiony. 

The Amerisleep AS3 is composed of three layers and a cover: 

The mattress cover is made of breathable materials that eliminate heat from being trapped inside your mattress to keep you cooler at night.

Click Here to Learn More About the Amerisleep AS3

Zoma is well known for its mattress in a box beds designed specifically for athletes and those leading more active lifestyles. With an emphasis on pressure point relief, the Zoma Hybrid will suit most sleepers well, offering cushioning you can sink into but a solid support base of innerspring coils. Its top cooling layer will also keep most cool, but it’s not as cool as other options on this list.

This mattress is medium but a little bit on the soft side. While it still offers the support you’d expect, the 4 inches of foam allow you to sink into the mattress a bit more than other medium to medium-firm mattress types. While this is great news for side sleepers, it may mean that you don’t have enough support if you’re a stomach sleeper or over 200 pounds.

The Zoma Hybrid mattress has four layers:

Here’s what customers think about the Zoma Hybrid:

Click Here to Learn More About the Zoma Hybrid

Vaya offers two mattresses at more affordable price points than most mattress in a box mattress options. The Vaya Mattress is slightly more affordable, but the Vaya Hybrid offers better support and pressure point relief than the basic version. This mattress is great for most sleepers, including those who change positions throughout the night, and offers a good mix between comfort and support.

We rated this mattress in the middle of our firmness scale, leaning slightly toward the softer range. For this reason, most sleepers will find this comfortable yet supportive. However, if you’re looking for more firmness, you may find you sink into this bed a bit too much.

The Vaya Hybrid is made up of three layers and a cover:

Here’s what Vaya Hybrid customers think:

Click Here to Learn More About the Vaya Hybrid

If you’re indecisive about the type of mattress you like, the Spindle mattress offers a great solution. It comes with three adjustable mattress layers (two medium, one firm) that you can rearrange or remove as needed to suit your comfort level. 

You’re not locked in to a particular firmness, so you can change your mind over time or use this for a guest room for sleepers with all different preferences. Soft latex is also more cooling than many bed in a box options, though it may be less supportive than hybrid designs.

The feeling of this mattress will vary depending on how you stack the inserts. It ranges from soft to firm and can offer a more individualized experience depending on how you arrange the inner layers.

This mattress is composed of three layers that you can rearrange to suit your preferences:

All three layers offer cooling properties inherent to latex and are stacked inside an organic cotton and all-natural wool cover, which is great at wicking away moisture and distributing heat.

Click Here to Learn More About the Spindle

The Helix Midnight Luxe is a great hybrid mattress for couples, side sleepers, hot sleepers, and anyone with pressure point pain. It helps straighten the spine (for back and side sleepers) and offers a medium firmness that most sleepers will appreciate.

This mattress feels soft and plush while still providing adequate support. It’s a medium mattress but leans more toward the soft side, allowing you to sink into it more than firmer mattress types.

The Helix Midnight Luxe is made up of six layers and a cover:

All layers are wrapped in a breathable cooling cover to promote heat dispersal. 

Click Here to Learn More About the Helix Midnight Luxe

With three firmness levels, the Brooklyn Bedding Signature Hybrid is great for most sleepers, though its medium and soft versions offer great support and pressure point relief for side sleepers. It’s also less expensive than many mattress in a box options, with a helpful cooling layer designed to draw heat away from you while you sleep.

The firmness of this mattress varies. There are three options:

The construction of the Brooklyn Bedding Signature Hybrid varies with its firmness. Here’s what the medium version features in its design:

Click Here to Learn More About the Brooklyn Bedding Signature Hybrid

The Bear Elite Hybrid is a great mattress for athletes, heavy sleepers, and most sleepers, regardless of sleeping preference. It offers excellent pressure point relief that athletes, active individuals, and anyone with back pain will enjoy, while offering cooling features and customizable firmness options.

There are three different mattress firmness options: 

The Bear Elite Hybrid is composed of four layers and a cover:

The breathable Celliant®, polyester, and phase change cover further promotes cooling while offering additional plushness. 

Click Here to Learn More About the Bear Elite Hybrid

Deciding on a mattress firmness can be tricky — especially if you switch sleeping positions from time to time. It’s also a hard decision for a guest bed, particularly when you know your family members have very different sleeping preferences. The Layla Mattress aims to solve the debate between soft and firm by providing you with a soft side and a firm side, allowing you to choose your own mattress firmness. 

The Layla Mattress offers a soft, luxurious side that allows for deeper sinkage and a firmer yet still cozy side with more support. The feel depends entirely on which side of the mattress you’re using, but if you’re a side sleeper who needs a softer mattress or a stomach sleeper who craves more support, you’ll likely enjoy the feel of the Layla Mattress.

This mattress has four layers and a cover. When positioned soft side up, the layers are:

The Layla Mattress cover is made of polyester to help keep the mattress cool. The dark color is for the firm side of the mattress, while the lighter color wraps around the soft side.

Click Here to Learn More About the Layla Mattress

The Tuft and Needle Mint is another higher-line memory foam mattress in a box that will provide a luxuriously soft yet surprisingly supportive night’s sleep. Its cooling features are ideal for most sleepers, particularly for couples who have different preferences. All while offering pressure point relief to reduce waking up with aches and pains. 

We find this mattress to be a light medium-firm, leaning toward the medium/soft end. It allows for a bit more sink but still provides the support most sleepers — particularly side and back sleepers — will need. 

The Tuft and Needle Mint is made of three layers and a cover:

The Tuft and Needle Mint’s cover is designed with plush-knit fabric that contains antimicrobial protection to help keep it clean longer. It’s thick and luxurious to the touch but still breathable.

Click Here to Learn More About the Tuft & Needle Mint

A mattress in a box is a bed that is delivered to you in a box smaller than the overall mattress. The mattress is rolled and compressed so that it can fit into a smaller space, making it easier for you to transport or move from room to room before unboxing. This also makes mattresses in a box the best affordable mattresses to buy because they are cheaper to ship and return if needed. 

After you unbox the mattress, it will begin to spring to life, expanding to reach its full size. The process typically takes minutes but may take several hours, depending on the size and materials of the mattress.

Mattresses in a box can be cheaper, but there are also higher-end versions that can cost thousands of dollars. Still, buying a mattress in a box usually means taking advantage of online mattress prices, which are by far much lower than what you find in the average mattress showroom or big box store. For the best investment, get one of the best queen size mattresses so you and your partner can enjoy it for decades rather than having to worry about upgrading to another size at a later date.

There are some clear pros and cons that can help you decide if a mattress in a box is truly the best mattress for you:

Memory foam is easily the most popular type of mattresses in a box. This material can help isolate movement, making it better for couples who tend to wake up when their partner moves. Memory foam offers great support and contouring to the spine, providing better pain relief for most sleepers than other mattress types. Here’s our list of the best memory foam mattresses.

The main drawback to memory foam is that it often retains heat, though many newer models have heat dispersal features designed to keep memory foam cooler. It also does not offer much bounce and can be too soft for stomach sleepers. We find that memory foam works well as the best mattress for side sleepers.

This type of mattress is made up of rubber. Many latex mattresses, including mattresses in a box, are made of an all-latex material, but there are different types of latex that mattresses can be constructed with. A latex mattress offers much better bounce and cooling than memory foam mattresses.

On the downside, this means a latex mattress may stir a partner out of sleep when you get up at night. Latex is also not quite as conforming as memory foam, which means it doesn’t contour the body as much. This can create a “firmer” feel that may be more painful for side sleepers.

This type of mattress is a style you likely won’t find at most mattress in a box stores. Innerspring mattresses are made up of coils that compress when pressure is applied. This allows them to offer responsive support and spring back when you remove pressure. However, they’re relatively difficult to roll up inside a box, so most mattress in a box sellers offer other types.

Innerspring mattresses are great for heavier sleepers (those over 200 pounds) and provide good support for pressure points. On the downside, it’s not quite as bouncy as latex and does not last as long as memory foam mattress types. It’s also often a bulkier mattress, which could make moving it around more difficult.

Lastly, a hybrid mattress is a combination of innerspring and a cushioning material (which can be latex, foam, or memory foam). You can buy hybrid mattresses in a box, and it’s often a good compromise between couples who are debating between a traditional innerspring and memory foam mattress.

The pros and cons of this mattress type vary depending on what its top layers are made out of. But, the best hybrid mattresses tend to last longer than innerspring types. A hybrid can also offer more coolness and bounce than a traditional foam mattress. If you’re getting one of the best adjustable beds and a hybrid, make sure to check that your hybrid is compatible with adjustable beds.

The best mattress in a box will depend on your budget and sleeping preferences. Some prefer a mattress that hugs the body, others a mattress with less give that keeps them on top of the bed. We think the Amerisleep AS3 is a great option for most sleepers and price points, but if you need a more specific firmness or coolness option, you may explore others on this list.

Yes, mattresses in a box are durable, especially depending on the type you purchase. They’re easy to transport, offer a lower hassle delivery method, and can be cost-effective. There are many different styles and types of mattresses in a box to explore. 

However, you often cannot test them before you buy. Still, even this isn’t a deal-breaker, as a good mattress in a box includes a sleep trial that lets you test it out at home.

On average, these mattresses will last eight years, but the range is seven to ten years. You can maximize the life span of your mattress in a box by investing in a high-quality bed with good foam density or tighter innerspring coils. Flipping (if you can) and rotating your mattress throughout the year can also prevent it from wearing in one spot.

Lastly, you want to keep your mattress in a box on an appropriate mattress foundation. Slats that are too far apart leave room for parts of the mattress to sink, stretching the mattress out of shape and compromising its comfort.

You’ll need to give your mattress in a box time to expand after setting it up. This process typically doesn’t take long, but depending on the mattress type, it can take several hours. 

Still, it’s possible to lie down on your mattress before it’s fully expanded. Just don’t expect the same level of comfort you’d get from the mattress after it reaches its proper shape.

Technically yes, but whether you should flip your mattress depends on its design. The Layla Mattress, for instance, is made to be flipped with its soft and firm sides. Some mattresses are designed to offer a similar experience on both sides, but most are not. Instead, try rotating your mattress twice a year.