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Is Brooklyn Bedding’s Bowery mattress or Tuft & Needle the better bed-in-a-box?
Bowery is one of the top budget mattresses online today. It’s soft and comfortable, and sells for a really approachable price point.
Tuft & Needle is quite possibly the most popular budget mattress online. The bed is comfortable and accommodates all types of sleepers.
Let’s review the pros and cons of each type of mattress.
Brooklyn Bedding mattresses are good for:
- individuals on a tight budget
- if you just want a comfy foam bed
Details:
- free shipping and returns
- 120-night trial period
- 10-year warranty
- made in the United States
120-night trial period with Brooklyn Bowery
It’s a trend in the bed-in-a-box industry to offer fairly substantial risk-free trial periods. If you purchase the Brooklyn Bowery, you’ll get 120 nights to try it out to see whether it’s the right mattress for you.
Tuft & Needle offers a trial period as well, but it’s not quite as long at just 100 nights (very standard for the industry). That shouldn’t be much of a decision-altering difference, though, because 100 nights is still plenty of time to thoroughly test out a mattress.
Better presentation with Bowery
Now, it’s true that you’re just going to cover up the mattress with your sheets and comforter and 27 decorative pillows, but we still thought presentation was worth mentioning. It’s not just that the Bowery looks better, but that the cover on the Tuft & Needle is literally see-through.
That doesn’t seem like a good indication of quality craftsmanship. Again, perhaps you won’t care since the covers are going on, but we thought it was worth mentioning.
Pressure relief with Brooklyn Bowery
The Brooklyn mattress is the softer of the two, making it the better option for providing pressure relief. It’s a good combo-sleeper bed, but it’s especially good for strictly side sleepers, as compared to Tuft & Needle.
The Tuft & Needle will also do for side sleepers, but it’s a bit firmer than the Bowery.
Better overall comfort with Bowery mattress
Saying the Bowery is the more comfortable mattress overall may sound like we’re handing it the win, but mattress comfort is super subjective.
We prefer the feel of the Bowery to the Tuft & Needle because it’s a bit softer, but maybe you like a firmer bed.
Tuft & Needle mattresses are good for:
- shoppers who want an affordable foam mattress
- all types of sleepers, including back, stomach, and side
Details:
- free shipping and returns
- 100-night trial period
- 10-year warranty
- made in the United States
Tuft & Needle is better for back and stomach sleepers
We mentioned this before, but the Tuft & Needle is the firmer of the two beds. Because of that, it’ll be better at providing support for back and stomach sleepers.
While we still think the Bowery will do for various sleeper types, it’s possibly better suited for side sleepers.
The T&N, on the other hand, has some extra firmness, which will be nice for back and stomach sleepers, as well as for people with higher body weight who need some additional support.
Tuft & Needle sleeps cooler
In our experience, we felt like the Tuft & Needle mattress performed a bit better in terms of temperature control.
Neither of the beds sleep hot, but we think the T&N takes the edge here, maybe because it’s a little firmer so you sleep more on top of the mattress as opposed to slightly down in the mattress.
This is all speculation, though. We’re not scientists.
Tuft & Needle is a more affordable option
Perhaps the biggest advantage the Tuft & Needle has over the Brooklyn Bowery is price. You can see the breakdown in the table below, but suffice it to say that the T&N is the more cost-effective option.
Tuft & Needle doesn’t offer many coupons, but you can check for coupons online here.
Here’s a breakdown of Tuft & Needle’s pricing:
Size | Price (MSRP) |
---|---|
Twin | $350 |
Twin XL | $395 |
Full | $495 |
Queen | $595 |
King | $750 |
Cal King | $750 |
For comparison, let’s take a look at Brooklyn Bowery’s pricing:
Size | Price (MSRP) |
---|---|
Twin | $499 |
Twin XL | $549 |
Full | $649 |
Queen | $699 |
King | $949 |
Cal King | $949 |
Prices valid as of September 24, 2020.
First, both mattresses come with free shipping and free returns, as well as a 10-year warranty. That’s pretty standard for the industry, but still worth mentioning.
Additionally, these are both all-foam mattresses, so we won’t have to weigh the pros and cons of all-foam versus coils.
However, even though both the Bowery and the Tuft & Needle are all-foam beds, neither feels like a memory foam bed (mostly because neither in fact uses proper memory foam).
As in, you won’t feel like you’re sinking into the beds. This could be a positive or a negative depending on your preference with regard to memory foam. Some people want memory foam, others can’t stand it.
In terms of responsiveness and motion transfer, both the Bowery and the Tuft & Needle performed well in our tests. Both respond quickly to pressure being placed on and off.
Switching positions isn’t an issue on either bed. Motion transfer is also fairly limited on both, such that if you’re especially active in your sleep (or maybe your partner is), the motion doesn’t reverberate through the bed.
We’d also consider them equals in edge support. With these kind of all-foam, affordable beds, it’s pretty common to have just average edge support, and that’s what we found with both the Bowery and the Tuft & Needle.
And just in case you aren’t well versed on what edge support means, it’s basically referring to how well the beds keep their shape along the edges. This is especially important for couples sleeping on a smaller-sized bed, such as a Full or Queen, where space can be an issue.
The Mattress Finder team is composed of certified professionals who are passionate about helping consumers improve their sleep. We thoroughly test each mattress we review through a series of practical, hands-on inspections and assessments. We write every review expecting that our closest friends and family members rely on us for their mattress and sleep product decisions, so honesty and authenticity are core principles of our inspection process.