6 Best Cheap Mattress for 2024 – Save on Your Next Bed

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• Carl R. Greer/Andrew D. Hepburn Award for Best Nonfiction Essay (Miami University, 2020)

Our take - The Allswell brand comes from one of the most popular and cheapest retailers in the world, Walmart. Allswell’s lineup includes four mattresses: the Allswell, the Allswell Supreme, the Allswell Luxe and the Allswell Organic. Its flagship model, the Allswell, is a hybrid mattress that combines pocketed coils, gel-infused memory foam and poly foam. Beds like this usually cost around $700, yet the Allswell is just over $300.

Our take - Hybrid mattresses tend to be on the pricey side, so the Dreamfoam Hybrid is a steal. A queen size retails for just under $800, yet frequent deals knock off $200 more. And while this mattress is cheap, the quality is not. Just over 10 inches thick and constructed with four distinct layers, this bed is thicker and more durable than other low-cost, all-foam mattresses we’ve tested. Its medium firmness level and neutral foam feel should suit most sleeping positions.

Our take - Side sleepers on a budget should look for a soft memory foam bed, the Nectar Luxe mattress is the perfect fit. We found the mattress to be around a medium-soft to medium or a 3 to 4 out of 10 on the firmness scale. So, it's soft enough for both side sleepers who need pressure relief on their shoulders and hips and petite sleepers who love all-foam designs. Its memory foam is dense and conforms and cradles to the body’s pressure points.

Our take - This neutral foam mattress is perfect for a guest room. First, it’s possibly one of the most affordable mattresses we have ever tested. You don’t want to spend too much money on a bed that will sit in a guest room. Second, this is a very basic mattress. It is all foam, and its feel is very neutral, meaning it isn’t too dense. This feel appeals to most audiences, so your guests will likely find it comfortable.

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Our take - Most cooling beds on the market cost around $1,500. However, with the Cocoon Chill by Sealy, you get cooling technology in a great bed at a fraction of the cost (Sealy deals usually bring this bed down to $700). While the Cocoon Chill is made of memory foam — a material that tends to sleep warm — it is still cool to the touch. The mattress has a phase-changing cover that actively draws heat away from your body and won’t increase your temperature.

Our take - Lucid is another popular mattress brand often bought on Amazon. The affordable Lucid Memory Foam mattress has a dense memory foam feel that responds slowly to pressure and morphs around your body's curves. It's ideal for side sleepers as it provides ample pressure relief to the hips and shoulders. Unlike other affordable memory foam mattresses on this list, this bed is available in three different firmness levels and three height options, so you can customize your mattress to fit your specific needs.

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Much goes on behind the scenes to curate our best lists, including countless hours of mattress testing to find out which beds are truly worth your money. Our CNET Sleep editors, including myself, curated this best affordable mattress list by choosing our top favorite cheap beds from the 300+ we’ve tested. With that being said, here are a few honorable mentions below that could also be up for your consideration.

Bear Original mattress: The Bear Original mattress isn't the cheapest bed we've encountered, but it offers excellent value. When it’s on sale, which it normally is, you can snag a queen size for under $700. The Bear Original is made with graphite-gel memory foam, so it doesn't retain heat like older types of memory foam mattresses used to, and it provides that signature hugging feel memory foam has become known for. One of the best parts — besides the budget mattress price — is the optional Celliant-infused cover, however, this is an added charge. 

Dreamfoam Essential mattress: Dreamfoam offers affordable mattresses that we love — as you can see, two of its beds already made this list. The Dreamfoam Essential is also cheap, you can get a queen mattress around $525 and discounts usually knock off another $100. It’s available in multiple thicknesses that will affect the firmness level. However, it didn’t make this list because it doesn’t feel like the Dreamfoam Hybrid or Doze. The mattress is firmer and denser than those two models, so it might not appeal to a wide range of sleepers.

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My fellow CNET sleep editors and I chose mattresses based on firmness, feel, performance, durability, features and the brand’s policies. We test beds by lying on them, testing edge support and motion isolation and switching between sleeping position, for example. We also test a mattress’ firmness with our proprietary machine, appropriately named the Mattress Smasher 9000. This heavy duty tool presses into the middle of a bed and our corresponding software measures firmness on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being the softest and 10 being the firmest. While we also test each bed personally for perceived firmness and feel, we have data from the MS9000 to backup our conclusions.

Here's the data we learned testing the best cheap beds with our Mattress Smasher 9000. Sorted from the softest beds to the firmest, here's how the mattresses scored on our firmness scale.

However, with this list specifically, price and value were two of the main metrics we examined. The mattresses we considered "cheap" are anywhere from $300 to $800 (after discounts are applied) and are very basic, often flagship models. They don’t have to have any fancy bells and whistles, yet the chosen mattresses are still comfortable, quality beds at affordable prices.  

Read more about our sleep team, our mattress warehouse, the Mattress Smasher 9000 and how we test mattresses.

With any cheap mattress, you get what you pay for. That said, there are cheap mattresses out there that are both worth the money and comfortable to sleep on each night. You can't expect any crazy bells and whistles, but that's not typically what you look for in a cheap mattress, after all.

• Construction: The type of mattress you need is determined by your body type. People over 230 pounds should opt for a hybrid mattress because the construction includes steel coils that help to provide more support and durability. People under that weight can opt for an all-foam mattress. Those who are petite or average should also consider thickness; the thicker the mattress, the more supportive and firm it is.
• Brand reputation: It’s important to do your own research when looking for the best cheap mattress, especially on Amazon. Some companies try to sell knock-offs of popular cheap beds like the Tuft & Needle Nod, so be vigilant.
• Firmness: The best firmness level for you depends on your sleeping position. Side sleepers should consider a soft mattress, whereas back and stomach sleepers may want something on the firmer end for ample back support.
• Price: Remember, you get what you pay for. You likely won't find a bed under $100 or even $200 unless it's designed to fall apart in a year or is already used.

It's important to also state possible downsides of buying a cheaper mattress:

• They typically aren't as thick or durable as an average foam or hybrid bed.
• Unless they have specific cooling technology, cheaper beds can sleep hotter than a regular mattress.
• Unless it's a hybrid, a cheap mattress likely isn't supportive enough for someone over 230 pounds.
• Cheap mattresses are made with cheaper or fewer materials to achieve a lower price.

You can buy cheap mattresses online at a brand's website (such as Zinus) or on Amazon. For your convenience, Amazon carries a lot of cheap and affordable brands such as Tuft & Needle, Zinus, Lucid and some Dreamfoam mattresses.

We have tested a bunch of budget mattress brands over the years. We have found the budget brands to be Lucid, Zinus, Allswell, Tuft & Needle, Dreamfoam and Sealy.

Mattress holidays are typically the best time to buy a new mattress. These include Labor Day, Memorial Day, Fourth of July and Black Friday. Brands typically run deals throughout the year, so keep an eye out. Check out our Best Mattress Deals page for more information.