Because I test and write about mattresses, countless friends, family members, acquaintances, and even random people I meet ask me for personalized recommendations. And one of the most common requests I get is for advice on a buying a mattress that costs less than $1,000. No doubt there are dozens of three-figure mattresses out there, but the question is: Are any of them any good?
I typically think of $1,000 to $2,000 as the pricing sweet spot, where most mattresses are excellent without veering into prohibitively expensive (the $5,000 mattresses of the world are typically great, but the exorbitant price can be hard to justify when they are so many cheaper, also great options). Still, even $1,000 is a lot of money to spend in one lump sum, so here I’ve rounded up the best mattresses we’ve tested that cost under $1,000 for a queen size.
Most of the mattress below have a list price that is well under $1,000. But I’ve also included a couple mattresses that are right at the threshold but cheaper during sales, or that have a higher list price but are nearly always discounted to under $1,000 — and I’ve highlighted those pricing quirks where relevant. Also worth noting is that there are lots of mattresses in the $1,000-to-$1,300 range that get bumped under $1,000 when they go on sale around big holidays like Memorial Day and Labor Day. Keep an eye on mattress sales and time your purchase to a holiday, if you can, to get a more expensive mattress at a price that fits your budget.
Best under-$1,000 hybrid mattress overall
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Mattress type: Hybrid | Firmness: True medium | Height: 12 inches | Sizes: Full, queen, king | Trial period: 100 days | Warranty: 10 years | Shipping: Free to 48 states and Washington, D.C.
Hybrid mattresses combine multiple materials — generally springs and foam — to provide the “best of both worlds.” They’re extremely popular because of the support and structure the coils provide, and they can be comfortable for a wide variety of sleepers, but they tend to be more expensive than all-foam mattresses due to the coils.
I was quite impressed by this mattress when I tested it. It has what I like to call a “true medium” firmness, which is a little softer and plusher than the industry-standard medium-firm. The mattress is built with two inches of gel-infused memory foam, a half-inch of memory foam, and a layer of individually wrapped coils that Zinus says are sorted into seven distinct zones to provide different levels of pressure relief and support for different parts of your body. Those upper layers of foam provide pleasant cushioning; I could feel myself sink into the foam, and it conformed around me, but not so much that I felt totally enveloped in it. The sturdy coils below provide good support and keep the bed from veering into fully soft territory.
I am a side-and-back combination sleeper, and I was comfortable in both positions on the Zinus. When lying on my back, the foams filled in the gap below my lower back to provide support. When lying on my side, the foams contoured around my shoulder enough to prevent any pressure buildup. However, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this mattress to dedicated stomach sleepers, who might need a firmer mattress like the Allswell Brick or Zinus Original Green Tea, below, to keep their hips aligned.
The Zinus Ultra Cooling Green Tea Hybrid is just under the $1,000 mark at list price, but it is very frequently discounted to even less; for that reason, I also recommended it when I challenged myself to build the best bed possible — including a frame, mattress, and sheets — for under $1,500.
Best under-$1,000 all-foam mattress overall
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Mattress type: All foam | Firmness: Medium-firm | Height: 11 inches | Sizes: Twin, twin XL, full, queen, king, California king, split king | Trial period: 100 days | Warranty: 10 years | Shipping: Free shipping to 48 states; $250 shipping fees apply to Alaska and Hawaii
If you prefer an all-foam mattress, it’s hard to beat the Casper One for under $1,000. While the layperson’s impression of foam mattresses may be that they tend to be overly soft and squishy, that’s not the case here. The Casper One has a solidly medium-firm feel that offers good support but some gentle pressure relief, too, according to Strategist contributor Kiki Aranita. She’s a side sleeper, as is her husband; they’re longtime Casper devotees who have been really happy with the Casper One since it launched in 2024 to replace the Casper Original mattress as the brand’s flagship product. Back and stomach sleepers should find a lot to love about the Casper One too, since medium-firm is the most universally comfortable firmness option. “I like how the mattress has give but not really bounce — I don’t like mattresses with springs; I just want to sleep on a firm sponge,” Aranita says.
The construction that creates this feel is quite simple: The Casper One is made from a top layer of flexible polyurethane foam, a middle layer of memory foam, and a base layer of support foam. It usually costs just under $1,000 for a queen size, and while Casper does not run sales as perpetually as some of its competitors, it reliably offers discounts around all the major holidays, so there are plenty of opportunities to get it for even cheaper.
Best under-$1,000 firm hybrid mattress
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Mattress type: Hybrid | Firmness: Extra-firm | Height: 12 inches | Sizes: Twin, twin XL, full, queen, king, California king | Trial period: No trial period, but an unopened mattress may be returned within 90 days of purchase | Warranty: 10 years | Shipping: Free U.S. shipping; old-mattress removal for an additional $105
The Allswell Brick, which the brand frequently refers to as the Allswell Luxe Extra Firm, is an excellent option for budget shoppers who want a firm mattress. Allswell is Walmart’s in-house mattress brand, and its mattresses definitely come at Walmart prices — under $500 for a queen size, in this case. When Strategist senior editor Simone Kitchens — our in-house firmness mattress connoisseur — tested the Brick, she noted that some of the materials felt a little cheap compared to other mattresses, but overall she was impressed with how comfortable it was to sleep on. According to Kitchens, the mattress is quite firm but doesn’t veer totally into “slab of concrete” territory: “The more cushioned top layers of the Brick make it feel like a firm mattress in disguise — and also do a great job tempering motion transfer from a partner,” she says. The base layer of pocketed coils gives the mattress a bit of bounce, and the upper foam layers — a one-inch top layer of copper-infused memory foam over two inches of high-density support foam — provide a touch of contouring but “never a sinking feeling,” Kitchens adds. That also makes it a solid choice for those who need extra back support (if you don’t love a firm feel, though, see my pick for the best “true medium” all-foam mattress, the Cocoon Sealy Chill, below).
Best under-$1,000 firm all-foam mattress
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Mattress type: All foam | Firmness: Firm | Height: 12 inches | Sizes: Twin, full, queen, king | Trial period: 100 days | Warranty: 10 years | Shipping: Free to 48 states and Washington, D.C.
Zinus’s Original Green Tea Memory Foam mattress is especially inexpensive and an especially solid choice for someone who wants a firm all-foam mattress. Though it’s too firm for my taste, my partner really loved it; he said he felt less neck pain and like his spine was more aligned after we started sleeping on it. It’s actually one of his favorite mattresses that we’ve tested during my tenure at the Strategist, even compared to much more expensive models.
Zinus advertises this mattress as soft and pressure-relieving, which is pretty squarely not accurate, in my experience; it’s definitely firm. I didn’t feel the foam contouring around my body much at all, which was part of what I didn’t like about it — I need a little pressure relief on my shoulder when I’m lying on my side. But I have to admit the firmer feel was pretty comfortable for back sleeping, my other go-to position. If you like to feel very on top of a mattress, without any sinking-in, the Zinus Original Green Tea may very well be what you’re looking for.
The construction of this mattress is as simple as it gets: a top layer of memory foam over a base layer of sturdier support foam. Zinus also says its foam is infused with green tea for use as an antioxidant to “maintain freshness,” hence the name. As with the Allswell Brick, the materials of the Zinus Original Green Tea were noticeably cheaper than those of other mattresses I’ve tried, but that’s to be expected given the price. I do have some reservations about how well this mattress would hold up long term, but if you just need a cheap firm mattress and aren’t shopping with longevity in mind, it’s difficult to beat. (A more durable option for a firm all-foam mattress would be the Plank by Brooklyn Bedding. It costs over $1,000 at full retail price, but during holiday sales, you can often get it for around $999 or less.)
Best under-$1,000 “true medium” all-foam mattress
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Mattress type: All foam | Firmness: True medium | Height: 10 inches | Sizes: Twin, twin XL, full, queen, king | Trial period: 100 days | Warranty: 10 years | Shipping: Free shipping to 48 states; not available for shipping to Alaska or Hawaii
The Cocoon Chill by Sealy has a list price of over $1,000, but it’s never not “on sale” for under $1,000, so I’m including it here. It’s an all-foam mattress (though there is a slightly more expensive hybrid version too), with a similarly simple construction to the Zinus Original Green Tea, above. The Cocoon Chill has a comfort layer of memory foam over a base of support foam, plus a cooling cover.
When Kitchens tested this mattress, she found it very effective at easing her frequent back pain: It was “every bit as firm as the innerspring-coil mattress I slept on for years, but the memory foam hugs me in a way that makes my lower back feel particularly supported,” Kitchens said at the time. Still, the foam wasn’t so soft that her hips totally sank in, so she felt overall on top of the mattress rather than in it. That slightly cushioned, more contouring feel has a more universal appeal, so it should work well for a variety of people. One drawback, however, is that despite the cooling cover and chilly name, Kitchens slept fairly warm on the Cocoon Chill. “I found myself cranking up the AC or opening a window more often than when sleeping on latex or a bed with coils,” she says.
Best under-$1,000 medium-soft mattress
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Mattress type: All-foam | Firmness: Medium-soft | Height: 9.5 inches | Sizes: Twin, twin XL, full, queen, king, California king | Trial period: 100 days | Warranty: 10 years | Shipping: Free shipping to 48 states; $200 shipping to Alaska and Hawaii
The Tuft & Needle Original is basic in a way that makes it fairly universally comfortable. It’s an all-foam mattress, built with a variety of proprietary foams that the brand says are engineered to be more responsive and bouncy than traditional memory foam. All in all, it has four layers of foam: T&N Flex Foam (a quick-response foam), T&N Release Foam (a pressure-relieving foam), T&N Adaptive Foam (foam infused with cooling gel and graphite to dissipate body heat), and a base layer of support foam. Overall, the mattress has a medium-soft feel; though Tuft & Needle describes it as medium-firm, Strategist senior writer Lauren Ro describes it as just softer than that.
Ro is a side-and-back sleeper who tested this mattress a few years ago and felt “supported and comfortable” in both positions; so did her back-and-stomach sleeper husband. However, she ultimately found it a bit too soft and ended up getting a slightly firmer mattress. Today, she still has the Tuft & Needle Original in her guest room: “We had a friend who stayed with us for several months report that it was very comfortable, and had other guests who’ve slept on it ask what mattress it is,” Ro says.
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