This is the overall ranking — every mattress on the site, scored against the same ten criteria and put in one order. If you already know what you are shopping for, the category pages will get you there faster.
What the score is and what it isn't
Each mattress carries one number out of ten. That number is a summary of ten separate criteria — price, comfort, features, service, support, pressure relief, cooling, motion isolation, edge support and value — applied the same way to every mattress here. The method is set out in full on
how we rate, including the gap between each overall score and the average of its ten criteria.
What the score is not is a verdict on whether a mattress suits
you. A mattress that scores well overall can still be the wrong firmness for how you sleep, or the wrong size for your bed base. Two people of different weights can lie on the same mattress and describe it completely differently — and both be right.
We work from what the brands publish and what their contracts say: construction and materials, firmness ratings, dimensions, prices in Australian dollars, trial terms, return conditions and warranty documents. We do not buy the mattresses and sleep on them. Where a claim only exists in marketing copy and not in the warranty or the terms, we treat it as marketing copy.
What each of the ten criteria is actually measuring
The names are short, so here is what sits behind each one. Four are commercial and six are about the mattress itself.
| Criterion |
What sits behind it |
| Price |
What the mattress costs at Queen against what a comparable construction costs elsewhere. A high score means the price is low for what is in it, not that the mattress is cheap. |
| Comfort |
Firmness options, comfort layer depth, and how much of the range is covered. A mattress you can reconfigure after delivery covers more of it than one fixed at a single feel. |
| Features |
Zoning, cover construction, washability, certifications — build decisions rather than marketing lines. |
| Service |
Trial length and conditions, return freight, delivery coverage, warranty length, and how clearly the terms are written. |
| Support |
The core's ability to hold the spine level: spring type and layout, foam density where it is published, and how load is distributed along the length of the bed. |
| Pressure relief |
How far the shoulder and hip can sink before they meet the support layer. Comfort layer depth matters more here than the firmness label. |
| Cooling |
Airflow through the build. Spring layers move air, dense foam does not. Cover materials and any specific cooling treatment count here. |
| Motion isolation |
How much of one sleeper's movement reaches the other side. Foam absorbs it, wrapped coils localise it, a linked spring unit transmits it. |
| Edge support |
Whether the perimeter holds when you sit on it or sleep near it. A reinforced or encased edge scores higher than a soft one. |
| Value |
Everything above set against the price. This is the criterion that pulls expensive mattresses down and well-built cheap ones up. |
Why the order here can differ from a category page
A mattress can rank high overall and low in a specific category. Something built for pressure relief may sit near the top of
side sleepers and much further down
back pain. Category pages carry their own scores for exactly that reason — the ranking there answers a narrower question, so it uses a narrower judgement.
If the two disagree, the category page is the one to trust for that use case.
How the nine here differ from each other
Ranked lists flatten things. It is worth seeing the spread before you read the order, because the differences between these nine are much larger than the differences between their scores.
- Price. The list runs from $388.50 to $2,399 at the smallest size, and from $598.50 to $3,699 at Queen. That is a sixfold spread. The cheapest mattress here is not a different kind of product from the dearest one — it is a different set of compromises.
- Construction. Six are pocket-spring hybrids, four are all-foam or memory foam, and one is a traditional innerspring. Those three families behave differently in heat, in motion transfer and at the edge, and no score substitutes for choosing the right family first.
- Trial length. Nine of the eleven come with a home trial, ranging from 100 to 150 nights; the longest on this list is the Emma Luxe ViscoCool at 150. Two — the TEMPUR Ease 20 and the Sealy Posturepedic Exquisite Rosewood — are sold without a trial at all, which is the single biggest practical difference on this page.
- Warranty. Eight carry ten years and three carry fifteen. Length is the easy number to compare and the least useful one. What the warranty covers matters more, and only two brands here publish the sagging depth theirs starts at.
- Firmness options. Five of the eleven can be reconfigured after delivery — flipped, swapped or re-set — rather than being fixed at one feel. If you are unsure what firmness you need, that is worth more to you than a point of score.
The three numbers to check on any mattress, including these
These decide whether a mattress is a good buy, and they are the figures least likely to appear in an advertisement.
- The sagging depth the warranty starts at. Almost every mattress warranty covers permanent indentation only past a stated depth, measured with nothing on the bed. A 20 mm threshold and a 25.4 mm threshold are very different warranties even when both say ten years. Two of the nine here publish that figure; for the rest, ask before you buy.
- Whether the warranty is pro-rata, and from which year. Full replacement for the whole term, and full replacement for two years followed by a sliding scale, are marketed as the same number.
- What the trial actually costs you. Minimum nights before a return is allowed, who pays return freight, and whether your postcode is covered. A trial with a return fee attached is a discount on the risk, not a removal of it.
The advertised price is not the price you will pay
Every "from" price in this category is the smallest size the brand makes — usually Single or King Single. Most people are buying a Queen, and the step up is larger than most shoppers expect and different for every brand.
Across the eleven mattresses here, moving from the advertised starting price to Queen adds between 11% and 72%. The size premium does not track price, brand or construction — it is set by how each maker prices its own range, and it varies enough that two mattresses advertised $100 apart can be $500 apart in the size you actually want.
Compare like for like: pick your size first, then read the prices in that size. The order of a price-sorted list can change completely between Single and King.
How to actually use this page
- Start with the constraint, not the score. Bed base, room size, budget ceiling and how you sleep will eliminate most of the list before comfort ever comes into it.
- Then read the fine print, not the headline. A 10-year warranty that is pro-rata after year two is a shorter warranty than it looks. A 100-night trial you cannot use because your postcode is excluded is not a trial.
- Then use the trial as the real test. This is the part no ranking can do for you. Sleep on it for the full break-in period before deciding — most mattresses feel different in week three than they do on night one.
What would move a mattress up or down this list
Scores here are not permanent. A mattress moves when the facts behind it move, and the usual causes are commercial rather than physical: a permanent price change, a trial period that gets longer or shorter, delivery coverage that shrinks, a warranty that is rewritten, or a model replaced by a new version with a different build.
Marketing changes do not move anything. A new name for an existing foam, a new cover colour or a seasonal campaign are not build changes. If the construction, the price and the contract all stayed the same, so does the score.
Common questions
Is the top-ranked mattress the one I should buy?
Only if nothing about your situation contradicts it. The order here answers "which of these is the strongest all-round proposition at its price", not "which suits a 95 kg side sleeper with an adjustable base". Those are different questions, and the second one usually wins.
Why is an expensive mattress ranked below a cheaper one?
Because value is one of the ten criteria. A mattress that costs three times as much has to be substantially better on the other nine to hold the same position. If price genuinely is not a constraint for you, read the individual criteria rather than the total.
How often does this ranking change?
When the underlying facts change. Prices in this category move constantly with sales, so a temporary discount does not trigger a re-score — a permanent change to the list price does.
Do you earn money from these links?
Some of the links on this site are commercial, which is disclosed at the top of every page and explained on
how we rate. It does not change the criteria: the same ten are applied to every mattress here.
Where to go next
If you have a specific problem, the category pages are narrower and more useful:
back pain,
side sleepers,
adjustable bases,
mattress in a box,
luxury,
affordable and
bundles.
