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

Compare the Best Medium Firm Mattresses

Best Medium Firm Mattress for Hot Sleepers

Purple Hybrid
Purple Hybrid
Why it’s Great
Purple Hybrid is a coil mattress that features a proprietary comfort layer called Hyper-Elastic Polymer. It’s a unique mattress thats comfortable and great for hot sleepers.
Best for
If you’re looking for a unique, responsive mattress with a different type of feel
All types of sleepers (particularly back and stomach)
Sleep Positions
Back, Side and Stomach
Product Details
Firmness
Medium
Type
Unique
Temp
Breathable

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 2 mattress review heavy sleeper
Owen testing out the Purple Hybrid on his side

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

Brooklyn Bedding Signature
Brooklyn Bedding Signature
Why it’s Great
Brooklyn Bedding Signature is one of the best mattresses for the money online. It has pocketed coils, it’s made in the USA, comes in three firmness options, and sells for far less than you’d expect.
Best for
If you want a great mattress for the money
All body types
People that are looking for a coil mattress
Sleep Positions
Back, Side and Stomach
Product Details
Firmness
All
Type
Soft Foam
Temp
Neutral

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

Allswell
Allswell
Why it’s Great
The Allswell is hybrid mattress that sells for a surprisingly low price and still comes with free shipping and returns.
Best for
Budget shoppers
If you want an innerspring mattress
Sleep Positions
Back, Side and Stomach
Product Details
Firmness
Firm
Type
Memory Foam
Temp
Neutral

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

Nectar
Nectar
Why it’s Great
Nectar could be the most popular memory foam mattress online. It’s affordable, comfortable, and usually comes with free pillows. They also have monthly payment options with Affirm.
Best for
If you want a memory foam mattress
People that need a comfy foam bed
All sleep styles
Sleep Positions
Back, Side and Stomach
Product Details
Firmness
Medium
Type
Memory Foam
Temp
Neutral

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

Saatva Classic
Saatva Classic
Why it’s Great
Saatva Classic is the original innerspring mattress online. It comes in three firmness options, all of which have coils for support and a fluffy pillow top.
Best for
Consumers seeking a supportive innerspring mattress
Individuals who want multiple firmness options to choose from
Sleep Positions
Back, Side and Stomach
Product Details
Firmness
All
Type
Pillow Top
Temp
Neutral

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 mattress review edge support
Owen testing out edge support on Saatva

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.

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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

  • Jeff Rizzo

    Jeff Rizzo

    Combo Sleeper

  • Matt Ross

    Back Sleeper

  • dillon lopez slumber yard

    Dillon Lopez

    Combo Sleeper

  • kenzie

    McKenzie Dillon

    Combo Sleeper

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

Frequently Asked Questions
What does medium firm mean?

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.

Is a medium firm mattress good for your back?

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.

What is the best medium firm bed?

Some of the best beds with a medium-firm firmness level include Saatva, Purple Hybrid, and Nectar.