Buying a mattress is one of those purchases that sounds simple until you actually start researching. There are hundreds of mattress models, countless review sites, and no shortage of brands claiming to be the best.
When my husband, Quin, and I started shopping for a new mattress, I found myself wondering which brands real owners would actually recommend after sleeping on them for months or years.
So I asked my friends, family, and Instagram followers for their recommendations.
The responses started pouring in, but as often happens with Instagram question boxes, I ended up with lots of opinions and not a lot of clarity. People were telling me which mattresses they loved (or hated), but it was difficult to identify broader patterns or understand exactly why they felt that way.
As someone who designs and analyzes surveys for a living, I wanted to dig deeper than a simple Instagram question box could allow. I wanted to know not only which brands people recommended, but how strongly they felt, why they would recommend them, why they wouldn’t, and whether certain brands consistently stood out across multiple measures.
So using the previous IG question box responses, I developed a survey that ultimately collected feedback from 1,026 respondents across dozens of mattress brands.
In this post, I’ll share which mattress brands earned the strongest recommendation ratings, which brands owners were most likely to recommend to family and friends, and the most common reasons people said they loved (or disliked) their mattress.
If you’re currently shopping for a mattress, my hope is that these results provide a useful data point to help narrow down your options! (I know it certainly helped us decide which mattress brand to go with!)
First, I asked people about their current mattress. Respondents selected their mattress brand from a list of 55 brands, with an additional “Other” option.
After selecting their current mattress, respondents were shown the following statement: “I would recommend my current mattress to family or friends.”
They could respond using a 4-point scale:
Respondents were also given the opportunity to rate a mattress they had owned previously. For those responses, they were shown a similar statement (“I would recommend my previous mattress to family or friends.”) with the same response options.
The chart below summarizes the recommendation ratings for the most commonly selected brands.
Because averages generally become more stable and reliable with larger sample sizes, I’ve prioritized charts showing brands with 30 or more responses.
All brands included in the analysis received average scores above +0.7, indicating generally positive owner experiences. Higher scores reflect a greater likelihood to recommend the brand to others.
Using responses to the same survey questions, I also calculated the percentage of people who selected “agree” or “strongly agree” for each brand. I labeled this group the respondents who would recommend the brand to family or friends. I plotted this in the next chart along with the percentage of people who selected “disagree” or “strongly disagree,” that is, the respondents who would not recommend the brand.
I made one last chart from the recommendation rating questions that shows the percentage of respondents who selected the original response options for each brand. I think this chart is especially helpful because it shows more than just whether people would recommend a mattress or not. It also shows how strongly they felt about it.
The survey had follow up questions to understand more about people’s recommendation ratings.
People who selected “agree” or “strongly agree” when asked whether they would recommend their mattress brand to family or friends were asked to give the main reason for that recommendation. The follow-up question had 11 response options
People who selected “disagree” or “strongly disagree” were shown a similar question with a different set of 9 response options:
The response options were developed based on open-ended responses that many of my followers previously shared in my Instagram stories.
There was too much data from these questions to fit in a single chart, but I summarize the responses to these questions for the Top 5 mattress brands below.
If you want the responses for the other mattress brands in the charts above, you can click this link to open a Google Sheet that summarizes the main reasons people gave for recommending their mattress (or not!).
I took the NapLab mattress quiz at the start of my mattress search and they matched me with the Helix Midnight Elite. After additional research, conversations with @my.sister.made.me.buy.it (they wrote an extensive review here), and testing mattresses in person at the Online Mattress Showroom in Minneapolis, Quin and I decided the Helix Midnight Elite is the best fit for us!
**Update: the Company gave me a coupon code to share. Code GOALSTOGETGLOWING will save you 22% off at Helix.
One thing that stood out to me from these results is that there wasn’t a single mattress brand that was loved by everyone. Even the highest-ranked brands had some owners who wouldn’t recommend them, while many of the lower-ranked brands still had more owners who would recommend them than not.
What these results can tell us is which brands have the highest levels of owner satisfaction and the fewest dissatisfied customers. Helix, Saatva, Avocado, Nectar, Stearns & Foster and several other brands consistently performed well across multiple measures, suggesting they may be good places to start your search.
That said, the “best” mattress for you will still depend on factors like your sleeping position, body type, firmness preferences, budget, and any specific needs such as pressure relief, cooling, or back support.
My goal with this survey wasn’t to crown a single winner. Instead, it was to provide a data-driven look at which mattress brands owners are most likely to recommend after sleeping on them. Hopefully these results help you narrow down your options and feel more confident in your mattress search!
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I appreciate the clarity in your post.