Finding the best mattress for you can make a day and night difference in how you sleep. People have different preferences and needs, with some wanting more or less firmness than others. For many, though, a medium-firm mattress can provide the right combination of firmness and softness. Medium-firm mattresses are often ideal for combo sleepers (people who sleep in different positions throughout the night), as they provide benefits from both extremes of the spectrum. If you are a side sleeper, a bed that is too firm can become uncomfortable. As a back and stomach sleeper, a too soft of a mattress can cause you to sink too far into the mattress. When considering a medium-firm mattress, consider what positions you like to sleep in and how much you prefer to sink into the mattress.
Top 5 Medium Firm Mattresses
- Best Medium Firm Mattress for Hot Sleepers :Purple HybridStarting at $1699 Shop Now
- Best Medium Firm Hybrid Mattress :Brooklyn Bedding SignatureStarting at $599 Shop Now
- Most Affordable Medium Firm Mattress :AllswellStarting at $279 Shop Now
- Best Medium Firm Memory Foam Mattress :NectarStarting at $399 Shop Now
- Best Luxury Medium Firm Mattress :Saatva ClassicStarting at $935 Shop Now
Compare the Best Medium Firm Mattresses
Best Medium Firm Mattress for Hot Sleepers
Why Purple wins as best medium firm mattress for hot sleepers
Purple uses hyper-elastic polymer, which provides a unique feel to the mattress while also helping to maintain a neutral temperature. Paired with the inner breathability of the Purple hybrid mattress design, these mattresses can sleep cooler than many.
Purple’s best features
- Hyper-elastic polymer provides a unique alternative to other foams, providing a novel feeling of comfort while maintaining a cooler mattress.
- Individually encased coils offer firmness and bounce while maintaining motion isolation and breathability within the mattress.
Why we picked this bed
Many people sleep hot (put out a lot of heat when they sleep), and with the wrong mattress, this can lead to a night of uncomfortable sweats and poor sleep. The Purple hybrid mattress provides cooling technology in a medium-firm bed that can accommodate most types of sleepers. This makes it an excellent mattress for hot sleepers across a wide range of mattress preferences and sleeping positions.
Best Medium Firm Hybrid Mattress
Why Brooklyn Bedding Signature Hybrid bed wins as best medium firm hybrid mattress
Brooklyn Bedding offers its Signature Hybrid mattress in three firmness levels, with their firmest comparing well to a medium-firm. The signature mattress uses three types of foam in conjunction with an innerspring system to provide a strong balance of firmness, support, and comfort.
Brooklyn Bedding Signature Hybrid’s best features
- Individually pocketed coils make up this mattress’s main support and firmness portion, providing strong support without sacrificing motion isolation.
- The top layer of the Brooklyn Bedding Signature Hybrid mattress is made of TitanFlex, a patented hyper-elastic proprietary foam. This material provides a unique layer of comfort while also helping the bed to sleep temperature neutral.
- This mattress is encased in a non-removable quilted foam cover made from a stretch knit cotton fabric, providing an extra layer of comfort and durability to the mattress.
Why we picked this bed
Brooklyn Bedding is an award-winning company with a reputation for quality mattresses. Its firm Signature Hybrid mattress model measures up as one of the better medium-firm hybrid mattresses on the market thanks to its combination of features, price, construction quality, and comfort.
Most Affordable Medium Firm Mattress
Why Allswell Brick wins as most affordable medium firm mattress
The Allswell Brick mattress delivers the quality and comfort needed in a medium firm mattress without charging as much as many competitors. Using individually wrapped coils, high-density foam, and copper-infused memory foam creates a hybrid bed that offers high levels of support and comfort. The top layer is made of firm foam, helping to maintain that balance between comfort and support.
Allswell Brick’s best features
- The affordability of this mattress is one of its best features, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t also deliver well on quality.
- The construction of this mattress uses a strategic layering of materials that allows for a high-level combination of comfort and support. While Allswell isn’t the only one to achieve such a combination, it does so at a more affordable price than many competitors.
Why we picked this bed
Finding a medium-firm mattress that checks off all your needs without breaking your wallet can be a challenging endeavor. The Brick provides medium-firm support with quality construction and comfort yet is one of the less expensive mattresses. Those are the qualities that a mattress needs to rank as the most affordable best medium firm mattress.
Best Medium Firm Memory Foam Mattress
Why Nectar wins as best medium memory foam mattress
Creating proper firmness with memory foam can be hit and miss, but Nectar has achieved just that with this mattress. Memory foam is known for that sinking feeling that often comes with lying on it. However, Nectar uses a combination of foams to counter this and create a medium-firm foam mattress that delivers foam-style comfort while maintaining firmness.
Nectar’s best features
- One of the secrets to its success is using a gel memory foam for the top 3” of this mattress.
- A cooling cover tops off this mattress, helping it to stay temperature neutral throughout the night.
- The combination of medium firmness with memory foam makes this a uniquely well-suited bed for side sleepers, providing firm support in tandem with the soft immersion of memory foam.
Why we picked this bed
Medium-firm mattresses come in numerous styles and designs. Still, it can be difficult to find a foam mattress that delivers well on firmness. In this mattress, Nectar achieves an ideal combination between medium-firm support and plush memory foam comfort.
Best Luxury Medium Firm Mattress
Why Saatva wins as best luxury firm mattress
When it comes to luxury design and comfort, Saatva can often exceed expectations. Its medium firm hybrid luxury mattress uses springs, coils, memory foam, and a euro-top layer to provide firmness and support wrapped in a layer of plush comfort.
Saatva’s best features
- Part of what makes this mattress excel is the combination of innerspring with wrapped coils. The base is a more traditional innerspring, which has a layer of individually wrapped coils above it. This dual layering maximizes support while maintaining motion isolation and breathability.
- For comfort, this mattress uses a layer of memory foam atop its wrapped coil layer, with a euro-top layer above the surface.
Why we picked this bed
When looking for a luxurious mattress that provides the height of comfort without sacrificing firmness, Saatva offers some of the best options. Through a combination of technologies and design styles, this mattress is one of the best on the market for a balance between luxury and firmness.
Why Trust Us
Get the kind of sleep you’ve only dreamed of with some help from our team of mattress experts. We personally test more than 150 of the best sleep solutions from over 60 leading brands on site, so you can be sure you’re getting unbiased reviews, fair comparisons and personalized recommendations.
The Review Team
Who Is A Medium Firm Mattress Best For?
A medium-firm mattress is a bed that lands around a 7 out of ten on the firmness scale, with 10 being the firmest. While it leans towards the firm end of the spectrum, it offers a little more pressure relief than a bed with a 9 or 10 firmness level. In general, here are the people who benefit most from a medium-firm mattress.
Back and stomach sleepers
If you primarily sleep on your back or stomach, we usually recommend a mattress from the medium to firm range (a.k.a. Medium-firm is the sweet spot). This is because back and stomach sleepers are more supported on firmer mattresses, allowing their spines and necks to be in neutral alignment. Without that proper spinal alignment, you risk waking up with neck sores or backaches.
Sleepers over 230 lbs.
A general rule of thumb in the mattress world is that the heavier you are, the softer a mattress will be. That’s because the more you weigh, the more pressure your body exerts onto the mattress. So, sleepers in this weight range will likely perceive a supportive medium-firm mattress to be more of a medium. Medium firmness mattresses are great for all sleeping positions and offer a great balance between support and relief.
Back pain sufferers
In the early ’00s, a study showed that a medium-firm mattress was the best for back pain. It’s firm and supportive, but offers ample pressure relief to still feel comfortable.
Sleepers with scoliosis
This is especially true if you sleep on your back and stomach, but folks who have scoliosis typically benefit from a medium-firm mattress for a few reasons. One, it’s supportive and will help promote a better-aligned spine, but it also offers some pressure relief, so it’s not as stiff as a firm bed. For ideas on the best beds for scoliosis, check out our top picks.
Medium Firm Vs. Firm
What’s the difference between a medium-firm and a firm mattress, and what happens if I go with a firm mattress instead? Good question. Here’s our firmness scale below, and as you can see, firm is all the way to the right of the scale. It’s the hardest, most solid your mattress can be — imagine the floor with a thin layer of padding over it. A medium-firm mattress will offer more pressure relief and is likely more comfortable for a lot of sleepers.
Unless you’re a heavy sleeper over 230 lbs. or you want an extra, extra supportive mattress, then we’d opt for a firm. Otherwise, we think a medium-firm bed checks many boxes for back, stomach, combo, and heavy sleepers.
How To Shop For A Medium Firm Mattress Online
A brand will usually reveal on their website how firm they think their bed is, but when you’re shopping for a medium-firm mattress online, we recommend you look at mattress reviews like ours for a second opinion. A medium-firm to this brand may not be the same as a medium-firm to that brand, and professional mattress reviewers have a consistent scale they refer to when testing firmness.
For example, the “Luxury Plush” option from Saatva may sound like it’ll be a soft mattress, but it’s actually rated a medium on our scale. We have hundreds of mattress reviews where we have tested firmness, so it’s likely we’ve tested the bed you’re thinking about. Feel free to check those out if you’re curious about a bed’s true firmness level.
Types of Medium Firm Mattresses
There are plenty of beds out there that are rated around a medium-firm firmness level, so you won’t be limited when you’re picking the best mattress for you. You can find memory foam beds with this firmness level, a ton of organic and natural latex mattresses, hybrid beds, and even the Purple Hybrid mattress. To learn more about the kinds of mattresses you can get your hands on, take a look at our mattress type guide.
If a bed has a medium-firm firmness level, that means it’s around a seven or eight out of 10, with 10 being the firmest. It’s a very supportive mattress, with a little more pressure relief than a firm bed can offer.
For back and stomach sleepers, yes. A medium-firm mattress will help keep a back or stomach sleeper’s spine in proper alignment, preventing back aches and neck sores when you wake up in the morning. If you sleep on your side, however, you’ll probably want a softer bed.
Some of the best beds with a medium-firm firmness level include Saatva, Purple Hybrid, and Nectar.