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We earn advertising and referral fees from many of the brands we rank, and those fees affect where they appear.

Top3 Mattress compares mattresses sold in Australia, and we make our money when a reader buys through one of our links. Brands pay us advertising and referral fees, and those arrangements affect which mattresses we cover and how high they sit in our rankings. Some mattresses here have no arrangement with us at all.

Every mattress is scored against the same ten published criteria, and each of the ten scores is shown alongside the total. What those criteria measure, and how the total is set, are laid out on our How we rate page. The work behind the scores is desk work: we read published specifications, warranty documents and trial terms, and cross-check them against each manufacturer's own pages. We do not buy these mattresses and sleep on them, and no score here comes from in-home testing.

We do not cover every mattress sold in Australia, and the ones we can earn a commission on are more likely to be among the ones we do cover. Prices, trial lengths and warranty terms change without notice, so check the brand's own page before you buy. A ranking here is not a guarantee about a product and not an endorsement of it. Our full terms are set out in the Terms of use.
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How We Rate

Every mattress on this site gets ten scores, each out of 10, against the same ten criteria. This page explains what each one measures, how we arrive at the number, and what these scores cannot tell you.

The short version

  • Ten criteria, each scored from 0 to 10, for every mattress
  • All ten are published — not just the total
  • The overall score is our judgement of the mattress as a whole, not an average of the ten
  • Scores come from documented specifications and published terms, not from sleeping on the mattresses

What a score means

Score Reads as
9.5 – 10 Outstanding
9.0 – 9.4 Excellent
8.0 – 8.9 Great
7.0 – 7.9 Very good
6.0 – 6.9 Good
5.0 – 5.9 Fair
Below 5.0 Poor

A 7 is not a bad mattress. Most mattresses sold online in Australia are competently built, and the differences that decide whether you are happy in two years are usually in the terms rather than the foam. The scale is set to reflect that.

The ten criteria

Price

What each size costs, and what a promotion actually discounts. A permanent “40% off” is not a discount, it is a price — so we look at whether the advertised figure is ever not the real one.

Comfort

How many firmness options exist, which sizes they are available in, and whether firmness can be changed after delivery. A mattress that lets you swap the comfort layer during the trial at no cost scores higher than one that locks you in on day one.

Features

What the mattress includes rather than what the marketing names it: zoning, different firmness on each side of the bed, a removable and washable cover, handles, a flippable build.

Service

Trial length, and — more to the point — the conditions attached to it. How many mattresses per household can be returned, who pays return freight, how long delivery takes and where it reaches, and whether the terms are easy to find or buried three clicks deep.

Support

The support core: spring type and count, foam density, reinforced zones, and any stated weight limit per sleeper.

Pressure relief

The depth and material of the comfort layer, and how it is built to behave at the shoulder and the hip — the two places a side sleeper feels first.

Cooling

Whether cooling is a construction decision or a marketing word. Airflow through the core, cover material, and gel or phase-change layers where the manufacturer documents them rather than merely mentions them.

Motion isolation

Read from the build: pocket springs isolate movement, continuous coils transmit it, all-foam absorbs it. Scored from how the mattress is made, not from a partner rolling over.

Edge support

Whether the perimeter is reinforced, and how much of the surface is genuinely usable. This matters most if you sleep near the edge, share a smaller bed, or sit on the side to get dressed.

Value

Price weighed against everything above, plus how long you get to change your mind and how long the warranty runs. This is the criterion most likely to move a ranking, because it is where a cheaper mattress with honest terms beats a dearer one with restrictive ones.

How the overall score is set

The overall score is not the average of the ten. It is our judgement of the mattress as a whole, and we move it where something specific warrants moving it — a warranty condition that voids cover in ordinary use, or a trial short enough that you may not find the problem in time.

We publish the ten scores, not just the conclusion we draw from them. Put any two or three mattresses on the comparison page to see all ten side by side and weigh them however suits you.

What these scores are not

  • Not measurements. We do not run instrumented tests. There is no pressure-mapping rig or thermal camera behind these numbers.
  • Not lived experience. We do not buy these mattresses and sleep on them. Our About Us page sets out in full what we do and do not do.
  • Not personalised. No single number can account for your weight, your sleeping position, or the person next to you. That is precisely why all ten are published: a side sleeper should weight pressure relief heavily and edge support lightly, and can do that arithmetic far better than we can.

When a score changes

Scores follow the terms. If a brand shortens its trial, tightens a warranty condition, or restructures its pricing, the affected criteria are re-scored and the overall follows. A new advertising campaign does not move a score; a changed condition does.

If you find a score resting on something that is no longer true, tell us. There is a contact form at the bottom of every page.

Commission and scores

We earn a commission when a reader buys through a link on this site, and those commercial relationships can affect which brands appear here and where they are placed. What they do not change is how a mattress is scored: the same ten criteria are applied to every mattress, and every individual score is published rather than folded into a total you would have to take on faith. The full disclosure is on our About Us page.