I've spent the last year testing the best budget mattresses under £500 – these are my 3 top recommendations

If you're looking for the best budget mattress, you're in the right place. As Ideal Home's Sleep Editor, I've spent the last year testing out the most affordable mattresses on the market.

Myself and our mattress testing experts, Jen and Rachel, have slept on multiple low-cost mattresses in our respective homes to find our top recommendations for under £500.

That includes £150 mattresses from Zinus, sleep surfaces around the £300 mark from IKEA, Dreams, Eve, Origin, and bestselling entry-level mattresses from DreamCloud, REM-Fit, Emma, and Simba that stretched our £500 budget to its maximum.

Whilst none of the budget mattresses we tested could compete with the best mattress on the market (sadly, spending upwards of £800 will result in better support), I found that some cheaper mattresses are most definitely better than others.

In this guide, I share our three top recommendations if you're on the hunt for the best budget mattress.

The quick list

Three of the best affordable mattresses we've tested are listed below. You'll find more information on each mattress and why I recommend it if you keep on scrolling.

Best budget mattress overall

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First up, yes, this mattress is *just* over the £500 budget at full price. Isn't that always the way? But at £525 for a double, I still think it's very good value for money.

This is a hybrid mattress with a pocket spring base and memory foam top layer, and reviewer Rachel was impressed by its comfort levels. 'The cushioning of this mattress can't be faulted,' says Rachel, 'I slept so well on my side on it. And when I slept on my back, I found it was firm enough to prevent my hips and lower back from dipping too low, but offered ample cushioning to support my lower back.'

This firmer level of tension is something the team has struggled to find in mattresses below the £500 price point. 'It's firmer tension meant that the lower back pain that I often experience after running didn’t bother me at all for the month when I slept on this mattress,' says Rachel.

The DreamCloud Hybrid's motion isolation also scored well, 'my husband often comes to bed later than me,' says Rachel, 'and on some mattresses the movement reverberation of him getting in wakes me, but not on this mattress.' Rachel also rated the mattress's temperature regulation and found its edge support to be the best of all the budget mattresses the team has tested. 'That meant when the kids climbed into our bed, I could lie right on its edge without any feeling I was about to roll out,' Rachel shares.

All in all, if you're looking for the best budget mattress for around the £500 mark, this is my top recommendation.

Our DreamCloud Hybrid mattress review has the full lowdown.

Best under £500 mattress

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At just under £450 for a double, this mattress is already pretty affordable, and I've found it's fairly frequently reduced further in REM-Fit's sales events.

Whilst it can't compete with the brand's premium mattress, the REM-Fit 600 Lux Elite Hybrid Mattress in terms of support, tester Jen, was still very impressed by the entry-level REM-Fit Hybrid Pocket 1000's value for money.

'This mattress is fairly thin at 20cm deep,' says Jen, 'but, I still found it to be of a decent quality considering it's surprisingly affordable price point. As a side-sleeper, I found that the memory foam and pocket spring combination supported me perfectly.'

'I also found it slept cooler than many hybrid memory foam mattresses I've tested at a similar price point, and I was impressed by its edge support and motion isolation compared to the competition.'

Jen was also impressed by REM-Fit's customer service, with the mattress delivered to her room of choice as standard, the option to have your old mattress removed on delivery day as an added extra, and a 200-night sleep trial so you can test out if the mattress is the one for you before you commit. That's a lot of added extras for an under £500 mattress.

Find out more in our full REM-Fit Hybrid Pocket 1000 Mattress review.

Best under £250 mattress

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Perhaps unsurprisingly, once I dropped our mattress purchasing budget to under £400, I found it became a struggle to find a mattress that fulfilled all of our testing criteria. However, all in all, the IKEA VALEVÅG mattress proved itself to be the best of the under £400 crop, and at just £219 for a double, it's very reasonably priced.

It isn't perfect. Like all the mattresses Rachel, Jen, and I tested at this price point, it feels softer than I'd hoped, even though it's available in two tension options. As such, the VALEVÅG will likely lack enough support for heavier-weight sleepers. Its edge support and motion isolation were also lacking, but this was the case with all of the mattresses we tested in the under £400 price bracket.

That said, I was impressed by the mattress's combination of affordability and comfort. As Rachel says, 'This mattress looks quite basic, but on testing, its no-frills design pleasantly surprised me. The more I slept on it, the more I liked it. The cushioned top layer provided a decent level of comfort for my hip and shoulder when I lay on my side, and I felt it gave a decent level of support compared to similarly priced options I tested.'

You can also benefit from IKEA's 365-day exchange policy, and the fact that you can test out this mattress in numerous IKEA stores across the country before you buy is a big plus point compared to its competition.

Our IKEA VALEVÅG pocket sprung mattress has more detail.

Also tested

How I tested

All the mattresses in this round-up have been put through Ideal Home's mattress testing process by either me, Rachel, or Jen, from our team of expert reviewers. That means we slept on each mattress, at home, in real-life conditions, for at least a month before writing our reviews.

During the review process, each mattress is tested for comfort, motion isolation, responsiveness, temperature regulation, and edge support.

In rating each mattress, we also consider whether the manufacturer offers a sleep trial, and assess ease of care, the mattress delivery process, value for money, and any third-party reviews.

Meet our testing team

Amy Lockwood

I'm Amy, Ideal Home's Sleep Editor and Certified Expert in all things sleep-related. I'm a hot sleeper who switches between side and front sleeping, and I've spent the last four years testing products from all the leading mattress brands, sleeping on hybrid, memory foam, and sprung mattresses.

Rachel Tompkins

I'm Rachel, a side-sleeping mother of two and a freelance reviewer who sometimes suffers from neck and lower back pain. I tested out multiple affordable mattresses for Ideal Home to find the best budget-friendly buys.

Jennifer Oksien

I'm Jen, a side sleeper who struggles with overheating and shoulder tension at night. I'm also a mother of two young kids who has 10 years of experience as an editor and product reviewer specialising in home appliances, smart tech, and mattresses.

FAQs

What's the most comfortable budget mattress?

What's the most comfortable budget mattress? Well, that does, of course, depend on what your budget is.

For this guide, I set our mattress purchasing budget at £500, and I stretched that budget very slightly to name the £525 DreamCloud Hybrid Mattress the most comfortable of all the budget mattresses we've tested.

If your budget is smaller, the IKEA VALEVÅG Pocket Spring Mattress is the most comfortable mattress we've tested for under £250. But this mattress is on the softer side (like all of the mattresses we tested at this end of the price scale).

Is a cheap mattress OK?

I'd love to say that you can secure yourself a good night's sleep, whatever your budget, but in reality, I've found there's a big difference between the mattresses we've tested that are under £500 and those we've tested that are closer to £1000 and above.

The main difference between a cheaper mattress and a more expensive mattress is support. The cheaper mattresses I've tested – i.e. those between £150 and £500 – have all been far softer and far less supportive than those over the £500 price mark.

Largely, that's down to manufacturers using fewer materials in cheaper mattresses. You will get fewer springs, less cushioning, and fewer advanced technologies to help with temperature regulation, motion isolation, or edge support in a cheap mattress.

So, yes, cheap mattresses are OK, but, sadly, they're not going to offer the same quality, support, or comfort as a more expensive option. My advice? Try to shop when there are mattress deals on offer. Most mattress brands offer big discounts during sales, which means your budget will stretch far further.

Are expensive mattresses worth it?

Is an expensive mattress worth it? After testing multiple cheaper mattresses in order to compile this guide, I can say a resounding yes, a more expensive mattress is going to be of better quality and offer you better support than a cheap mattress.

However, what one person considers 'expensive' can differ greatly from another person's idea of 'expensive'.

At the lowest end of the price spectrum, around the £150-£400 mark, all of the mattresses we tested felt very soft and lacked the support of more expensive options. They also all lacked edge support, had some issues with poor motion isolation, were largely lacking in features like temperature regulation, and generally felt of lower quality.

At the £500-£700 price bracket, things started to get better, but there was still a noticeable difference between mattresses at this price point, and the type of mattress you can get if you spend between £800 and £1500.

If you can, a mattress is one purchase where I would recommend stretching your budget as much as possible. But if that isn't an option, you can still find a good night's sleep, and this guide will help.