Best Mail Order Mattress

Mail order mattresses have taken the bedding industry by storm in the last couple of decades. They’re more affordable than mattresses from traditional stores. They offer more variety. And in many cases, they provide more quality than mattresses from brick-and-mortar stores.

Many people have swapped the high-stress furniture store experience for the convenience of the internet. However, not all online mattresses are created equal, and it can be a little harder to determine quality without trying before you buy.

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Don’t worry, though. There are plenty of quality mattresses to choose. There are also plenty of ways to ensure quality is what you’re buying. Below, we’ll go over a few of the best beds on the web and talk about how to pick the best one to replace your old mattress.

Best Mail Order Memory Foam Mattress: The Zoma Mattress

The Zoma Mattress is an amazing bed-in-a-box for active people and couch potatoes alike. It’s designed with recovery in mind, but it also offers downright great sleep. The Zoma features three different layers of foam to relieve pressure points and support the spine.

The comfort layer of the Zoma Mattress is made of TriangulexTM tri-zoned gel memory foam. This layer offers targeted comfort to different areas of the body. The gel foam works with the cooling AirCloth cover to wick away sweat and body heat.

Underneath, the high-density foam Support+ base layer works with the ReactivTM foam transition layer to provide support and responsiveness to the plush memory foam on top. The ReactivTM material is unique to the Zoma line of products. It helps the memory foam comfort layer bounce back into place as soon as you change positions.

Like all the Zoma products, the Zoma Mattress comes with free shipping and free returns. That means its 100-night sleep trial is truly risk-free. And the 10-year warranty lets you rest assured that your mattress won’t sag and will resist soft spots for a full decade.

Best Mail Order Hybrid Mattress: The Zoma Hybrid

The Zoma Hybrid keeps the cooling gel memory foam and ReactivTM foam layers found in the original Zoma Mattress. However, it swaps out the Support+ layer for a support layer of individually wrapped coils. This creates a mattress that’s even cooler and more responsive than the original Zoma mattress.

The pocketed coils inside the Zoma Hybrid help add even more lift and responsiveness to this luxury firm mattress than that of the Zoma—all without sacrificing pressure relief and contouring. These adaptable coils can all move independently of one another. This allows them to keep the bounce of an innerspring bed while improving on contouring and edge support.

The Zoma Hybrid is a fantastic mattress for hot sleepers because the whole mattress works to keep air flowing away from your body, from its cooling AirCloth cover to its gel memory foam layer to its breathable coil support core. That means the Zoma Hybrid can keep even the hottest sleepers sweat-free.

Best Mail Order Mattress on Amazon: The Zoma Start

Those that love the idea of the Zoma Mattress but fear it’s beyond their budget constraints should check out the Zoma Start. The Start simplifies the design of the original Zoma Mattress to cut costs and offer a more affordable product.

The Start still has the three-layer design of the Zoma Mattress. But it features slightly thinner comfort and transition layers and a slightly thicker support layer. This makes for a mattress that’s a little bit firmer than the original.

The Zoma Start also eliminates the targeted comfort of the TriangulexTM foam in favor of a non-zoned design. However, this does not detract from the comfort of this mattress. The Start is still a cooling, supportive, and pressure-relieving performance mattress that will last just as long as its more expensive counterparts.

Best Mail Order Luxury Mattress: The Zoma Boost

The Zoma Boost is a premium hybrid mattress that has been designed to meet the needs of various sleeping styles with unparalleled luxury. Not only does the comfort of the Zoma Boost deliver a good night’s rest with soft, cool cushion and supportive coils, but it’s also an excellent choice for anyone who wants to avoid the hassle of shopping for a mattress in a physical store.

One of the benefits of ordering the Zoma Boost online is the convenience it offers. You can order it from the comfort of your home, and it will be delivered directly to your doorstep. The Zoma Boost comes in a compact box that makes it easy to handle and move around. All you need to do is unpack the box, and the mattress will expand to its full size.

Once it’s reached full expansion, the carrying handles on the sides of the mattress make it easier to lift and set up in a bed frame. These handles also make the tasks of changing the sheets or vacuuming underneath the mattress easier, so it’s not just a feature you’ll rely upon one time only.

Despite it’s luxury, the construction is relatively simple. The quilted top is an ultra-cool, light fabric that feels soft and cool like powdered snow. Underneath is hypersoft foam for a surface that’s quick to embrace the sleeper’s body, followed by a layer of graphite-infused memory foam that draws heat away and deepens compression.

The transition layer of Reactiv™ foam adds more surface adaptability, while the pocketed coil core contours to the body for support. The coils also make the Zoma Boost a great choice for couples who share a bed. The mattress’s motion-swallowing foams and wrapped coils ensure that one partner’s movement won’t disturb the other’s sleep. This means you can sleep soundly without being woken up by your partner’s tossing and turning.

Along with free delivery to your front door, the Zoma Boost comes with a 100-night sleep trial and a 10-year warranty.

Why Choose a Mail Order Mattress

There are many reasons to choose a mail order mattress, but the main two are the greater variety of online mattresses available and the savings you can get from shopping there.

More Options

Many smaller or newer mattress companies can afford to make amazing products, but not to set up physical showrooms. That means if you stick to mattress retailers with physical space, you could be limiting your options.

Many online retailers also have the latest and greatest sleep technologies that more established and traditional furniture retailers might not be willing to sell yet. So online mattress companies offer more products to consider.

Another option that online stores offer that physical stores don’t is the ability to tailor your shopping experience to fit your unique needs. Many people don’t enjoy the higher-pressure environments of furniture stores.

Salespeople can be knowledgeable resources for some people. For others, they can be pushy sources of undue stress. Online shopping allows you to choose how and when to interact with a salesperson. It also allows you to shop sitting on your couch in your bunny slippers instead of fighting traffic.

Better Prices

You’re paying for a lot of things when you shop at a regular store. You’re paying for their light bill. You’re paying the rent for their commercial space. You’re paying their staff’s commission. You’re paying the janitors who clean up at night.

All these expenses translate into an overall more expensive mattress, as retailers simply add their overhead to the price of their products. Online retailers don’t have nearly as much overhead, as you’re typically cutting out the middle man and buying straight from the warehouse.

Most of the time, the only extra cost you have to worry about with online stores is shipping. Many times, retailers include shipping and delivery in the purchase price when you buy a mattress. All that means you could pay tens or even hundreds of dollars less for an equivalent mattress purchased online rather than in-store.

How to Pick a Mail Order Mattress

One of the disadvantages of shopping online is you don’t get to try before you buy. Since that’s the case, you may need to do a bit more preliminary research and go into the shopping experience than you would if you bought in-store.

The most important things you need to be aware of when shopping for an online mattress are firmness, material, and warranty/return policies.

Firmness

You should have a good idea of the firmness level you need before you purchase. That way, you won’t have to make a bunch of returns or exchanges because your mattress is too soft or too firm for your needs.

Sleep Style

Your preferred sleeping position is the main factor that determines your firmness level needs:

  • Side sleepers need soft to medium-soft mattresses to cushion their hips and shoulders. If they’re interested in a bouncy mattress, we recommend hybrid mattresses for side sleepers as traditional innerspring beds can feel too firm.
  • Stomach sleepers need firm to extra-firm feels to keep their pelvises lifted.
  • Meanwhile, back sleepers need a medium-firm mattress to support their lumbar regions.
  • A mattress for combination sleepers should offer a medium mattress to accommodate multiple sleep positions.

Body Type

Your body weight does impact how firm you need your mattress to be. Heavier sleepers (over 230 pounds), will need firmer support to keep them from sinking. Petite sleepers (under 130 pounds), will need softer mattresses to get enough compression for pressure relief. Those in the middle can generally stick to the firmness that goes along with their sleep style.

Material

Knowing which material you prefer before making your selection is also a good idea. Your personal preferences go a long way towards deciding the material you need, and medical conditions you have may also impact your material needs.

Innerspring

Innerspring mattresses are among the oldest sleep technologies still in use today. These combine an open coil support core with a thinner comfort layer made of plush materials like cotton, wool, or foam.

Innerspring mattresses are bouncy and cooling. However, they cannot contour. They don’t offer much motion isolation. And they’re not very durable. This type of mattress is generally only good for someone who has a limited budget or can’t get used to sleeping on newer sleep technologies.

Memory Foam

Originally designed by NASA, memory foam is designed with two things in mind: support and pressure relief. That’s what makes this special kind of polyurethane foam such a popular bedding material. Memory foam mattresses contour to your body to cradle your joints and encourage spinal alignment.

This makes the material perfect for people with joint pain, back pain, and other medical issues. Memory foam is also a great material for anyone who wants a bed that adapts its shape to fit theirs. And a memory foam bed is one of the best mattresses for an adjustable base.

Natural Latex

Natural latex is made from the sap of the rubber tree. It is naturally breathable and cooling. Latex foam is also much springier and more responsive than memory foam. Latex wants to retain its shape more than memory foam does.

That means a latex mattress won’t contour quite as well as memory foam, but it will bounce back into shape much faster. See our memory foam vs latex mattress guide for more information.

All this means latex is a fantastic material when establishing a cooling mattress for hot sleepers and active sleepers. If you like to toss and turn during the night, you’ll want a mattress that springs back into place when you move. Latex fits that bill.

Hybrid

Hybrid mattresses combine a pocketed coil support core with at least two inches of latex or memory foam in their top layer. Hybrids offer the springiness and airflow of innerspring beds and the contouring and cushioning of foam beds.

This makes a hybrid mattress a great choice for just about anyone. Hybrids are adaptable, responsive, and cooling. The only downside to hybrids is they’re expensive. You can easily plunk down thousands for a hybrid in a larger size.

Warranty and Sleep Trial

Warranties and especially sleep trials are vital when you make an online purchase. The sleep trial is the online world’s answer to being able to sit on different beds in-store. When you purchase an online mattress, it should come with a risk-free trial period of at least 90 days.

This not only allows you to ensure you actually like your mattress before you decide to keep it. It also lets you experience your mattress after its “breaking in” period. All mattresses will soften up a bit after the first few weeks of use. The trial period allows you to experience sleeping on the mattress after it’s broken in.

Warranties are not the same as sleep trials. They’re a manufacturer guarantee that all their products are built to last at least as long as the warranty says they will. Warranties don’t cover any damage you cause. They cover manufacturer mistakes like defects and premature aging.

Read the fine print on every warranty, whether it’s from an online or physical dealer. Make sure there aren’t a bunch of loopholes that allow manufacturers to get out of backing their products. Also, beware of lifetime warranties. The “lifetime” is whatever the manufacturer says it is. And the vagueness of the term can make it easier for them to deny warranty coverage.

Frequently Asked Questions

How can I tell if an online mattress is good quality?

One of the best ways to tell if an online mattress is high-quality is to analyze how transparent the manufacturer is. Do they discuss in detail their manufacturing processes and material sources? Do they have applicable certificates, such as those from GOTS or CertiPUR-US? Do they do a deep dive into the mattress’s layers and construction?

The warranty and return policy a seller offers is also another good indicator of quality. Mattress companies that offer a sleep trial with a full refund to any unsatisfied buyers are betting that their customers will be satisfied. Mattresses that offer a robust 10-year warranty or more know they’ve built their products to last.

What's the best mail order mattress?

That depends on your preferences. Hot sleepers and active sleepers may prefer a latex or hybrid mattress. Those with joint or back pain might do better with a memory foam mattress or a hybrid. And, of course, your sleep position and body type determine the firmness you need. All in all, the best mail order mattress is just the one that’s best for you.

Is it better to buy a mattress online or in a store?

If you want a more traditional shopping experience complete with sitting on floor models and talking to sales clerks, you might want to buy in a store. However, if you want more variety at better prices, online shopping is better.

Online mattress companies don’t put the overhead for a commercial retail space into the price of their mattress because they don’t have any commercial retail space overhead. That could wind up saving you lots of money. Shopping online also allows you access to smaller mattress companies that might not have the resources to set up showrooms.

What’s the best material for an online mattress?

Hybrid and foam mattresses are both excellent options for mail order mattresses. These mattress types can be easily packed and shipped in a box direct from the warehouse because they’re flexible enough to vacuum seal and roll into convenient packaging.

The only material that isn’t the best for mail order shipping is innerspring coils. Innerspring mattresses are stiff and not able to be rolled up like other types of mattresses. This might make them more expensive to ship and deliver.

How do I unpack my mail order mattress?

You’ll need to follow the instructions that come in your new mattress’s packaging to unpack it. Generally speaking, unpacking a mail order mattress should follow the same basic process. You’ll pull the mattress out of its box. Then, you’ll break the vacuum packaging’s seal and unroll the mattress. Let it decompress for however long the instructions specify, and you’re good to go. It’s that easy. 

Bottom Line

Shopping online is one of the best decisions you can make when you purchase a new mattress. Online shopping takes a lot of the hassle and stress out of your shopping experience. It also opens you up to more options when it comes to the best mattresses, letting you browse an array wider than those you might find in a store.

This article is for informational purposes and should not replace advice from your doctor or other medical professional.

Michelle Zhang, Wellness Writer Michelle Zhang

Michelle Zhang is a regular contributor to our Zoma blog and is our go-to sleep researcher. In her time with Zoma, Michelle has researched and published many articles on widespread sleeping habits and troubles. In her time outside of Zoma, Michelle is an occupational therapist and long-distance runner. She believes leading a healthy lifestyle is the key to getting better sleep at night. Michelle's work has been featured on Men's Journal, The Frisky, and The Mighty.

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