The mattress-in-a-box craze has caught fire over the last several years in large part due to innovative companies like Tuft & Needle and Leesa, who were two of the early entrants in the category. In this post, we'll compare the pros and cons of each bed so you can make a more informed decision on your next mattress purchase.

Leesa Original mattress VS. Tuft & Needle Sam's Club mattress
$849 – $1,399Price Range$255 – $575
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  • People that want a comfy foam bed
  • If you don’t have much of a budget
  • All sleeping positions
Best For
  • Shoppers looking for an affordable foam mattress
  • Small and medium sized individuals
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Leesa Mattress vs Tuft & Needle – Quick Synopsis

As you will find out below, Leesa and Tuft & Needle share quite a few similarities. If you don’t feel like reading a ton, though, here’s the skinny on the major differences between the two:

  • Price — This is the biggest difference between the two beds. Tuft & Needle is just much more affordable.
  • Sleeper Type — At the end of the day, both beds will work for all types of sleepers. However, we’d give Leesa the slight edge when it comes to primary side sleepers.
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Those are just the headlines items—there’s more to know than we could fit into a single video. Keep reading below to dig a little deeper on Leesa and Tuft & Needle.

Use the links above if you’d like to quickly skip ahead and read about how the other beds from Tuft & Needle compare against Leesa.

Leesa Original
Leesa Original
Why it’s Great
Leesa Original is one of the top five bed-in-a-box mattresses out there. It has a soft foam feel and is accommodating for a wide range of sleepers.
Best for
People that want a comfy foam bed
If you don’t have much of a budget
All sleeping positions
Sleep Positions
Back, Side and Stomach
Product Details
Firmness
Medium
Type
Soft Foam
Temp
Neutral
Free Shipping
and returns
Trial Period
100 Nights
Warranty
10 Years
Made in
USA

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Before we dig into these beds, I just want to state that this comparison was one of the tougher ones to complete. As you will find out, both beds are actually quite similar in terms of construction, feel, and sleeper type. However, we’ll do our best to break down each mattress. We’ll give a quick overview of each bed and then reveal our verdict at the end. So without further adieu, let’s get into it.

Leesa’s Flagship 10″ Mattress

The Leesa mattress is a 10″ thick all-foam bed that is comprised of three layers. It starts with a dense layer of support foam on the bottom (that’s very common) and then follows with a layer of memory foam in the middle and a layer of LSA200 foam on top.

leesa mattress review construction and layers
Inside the Leesa mattress

The layer of LSA200 foam, which is a proprietary foam, gives the bed a neutral-foam feel. In other words, you really don’t feel much of that memory foam second layer. The top layer is comfortable and soft to the touch, but it doesn’t quite contour or hug your body the way memory foam does. Some people like the feel of memory foam and some people don’t. That’s why we call it more of a neutral-foam feel.

What’s also nice about neutral-foam is that you don’t get any of that stuck-in-the-mud sensation that memory foam is sort of known for. Leesa’s LSA200 foam is very responsive and pops back quickly after releasing pressure. This means restless sleepers will find it quite easy and effortless to switch between sleeping positions throughout the night.

Leesa’s Firmness Rating

In terms of firmness, we found that the Leesa mattress lands right around a medium on the firmness scale. It strikes a nice balance between pressure relief for side sleepers and support for back and stomach sleepers.

Overall, we think both beds will work for all types of sleepers. However, if you pressed us hard we’d say the Leesa mattress is slightly more preferable for strict side sleepers than Tuft & Needle. The Leesa mattress is just a hair softer and provides a bit more pressure relief.

leesa mattress review foam bed in a box side sleepers
Leesa is a safe pick for all sleeping positions

However, given it is a 10″ thick bed made entirely of foam, we wouldn’t recommend this mattress for heavy folks (250+ lb). Honestly, we say this about the vast majority of all-foam beds out there. Generally, we recommend big people go with a hybrid bed that contains coils, whether they’re individually pocketed or part of an innerspring system. Coils provide more support and are just better equipped to handle the pressure bigger sleepers exert on a mattress.

Other Considerations For Couples

Moving on to temperature regulation, we think the Leesa mattress sleeps neutral. The bed won’t actively keep you at a chilly temperature throughout the night, but it also won’t heat up and cause you to start sweating. Rather, external factors (i.e. AC level, what kind of sheets you use, where you live) will play more of a factor than the Leesa mattress when it comes to coolness.

leesa adjustable base bed frame review
Hard to find much that we don’t like with Leesa

Lastly, we found that the Leesa mattress performed well in terms of edge support and motion isolation. These are two important factors for couples to consider. The less motion that gets transferred from one person to the other throughout the night will generally lead to a more restful night’s sleep. Good edge support equates to more useful surface area for couples that like to spread out (bye, bye cuddling).

In terms of pricing, the Leesa mattress is about average for the bed-in-a-box industry. However, Leesa tends to be pretty aggressive with coupon codes and sales. You can check out their current offers above in the table or in the discount box on the right hand side of the screen.

Tuft & Needle Original
Tuft & Needle Original
Why it’s Great
Tuft & Needle is quite possibly the most popular budget mattress online. The bed is comfortable and accommodates all types of sleepers.
Best for
Shoppers who want an affordable foam mattress
All types of sleepers, including back, stomach and side
Sleep Positions
Back, Side and Stomach
Product Details
Firmness
Medium
Type
Soft Foam
Temp
Neutral
Free Shipping
and returns
Trial Period
100 Nights
Warranty
10 Years
Made in
USA

20% OFF APPLIED IN CART

20% Off Applied In Cart

First up, let’s just address price. This is perhaps the best part about Tuft & Needle. It’s a very affordable mattress. I think it was even rated as Consumer Reports’ top value mattress a couple years back. Last we checked, you could snag a king size for around $1,100. Enough about price, though, let’s dig into the actual bed.

T&N Is Also A 10″ Mattress

The Tuft & Needle is a 10″ thick mattress that is comprised of just two layers. The company believes extra layers unnecessarily complicate the mattress and hurt airflow (or maybe they’re trying to keep costs low). Regardless, the mattress starts with a thick layer of dense foam for support and then has a layer of T&N Adaptive foam on top. Like Leesa, the T&N Adaptive foam is a proprietary foam.

tuft and needle mattress review construction and foam layers
A peek inside the Tuft & Needle mattress

Therefore, as you might guess, the Tuft & Needle mattress has a neutral-foam feel, as well. Also, like Leesa, the Tuft & Needle mattress comes in around a medium on the firmness scale. It too finds a nice balance between comfort and support. The bed will work for all types of sleepers. However, as we mentioned above, we’d say Leesa is slightly more ideal for primary side sleepers.

Still, keep in mind that all mattresses soften over time so Tuft & Needle will become more accommodating for side sleepers as time passes.

tuft and needle mattress review stomach sleepers
Dillon must really like the Tuft & Needle mattress

Like Leesa, though, given it is a 10″ thick all-foam mattress, the Tuft & Needle bed is not the most ideal choice for heavy body types. Again, big folks would be better off with a hybrid or innerspring mattress. If you fall into this weight category, you should check out our Best Mattresses For Heavy Sleepers list.

More Items To Consider

In terms of coolness, we’d put T&N in the same category as Leesa (i.e. we think this bed sleeps temperature neutral). If you’re a hot sleeper or you just live in a hot climate and don’t like to use your air conditioner, you may want to check out our Best Cooling Mattresses list.

tuft and needle mattress review edge support
Not bad edge support considering it’s just foam

Lastly, like Leesa, we think the Tuft & Needle mattress is a viable option for couples. As you approach the edge of T&N, you notice a little compression, but you never feel like you’re going to roll right off the bed. Additionally, the bed passed our motion transfer tests easily. We barely noticed any cross-bed motion.

Review Verdict: Tuft & Needle Mattress vs Leesa

Man, this was a tough one. If you’ve read this far, you now know that both mattress are 10″ thick all-foam beds, both have an accommodating neutral-foam feel, and both sleep temperature neutral. Really, there are only two major differences you can point to in order to make a decision.

First and foremost, the main decision point comes down to price. If you’re on a tight budget, Tuft & Needle wins, although Leesa isn’t really that expensive either, in the grand scheme of things.

Next, do you spend a lot of time on your side? If you do, Leesa is slightly better. It just offers a tad bit more pressure relief.

There are a few other tiny differences that may impact your decision, as well. One is that we like the cover on the Leesa mattress a little better. The other is that Leesa is really committed to making a positive social impact; They donate one bed for every ten they sell.

We hope this comparison was helpful. Thanks for reading this far.

Tuft and Needle Mint vs Leesa Comparison

Just in case you didn’t know, Tuft & Needle also offers another mattress called the Mint. This is the company’s more premium foam option. Below is a short summary outlining how the Tuft & Needle Mint compares to the Original Leesa mattress.

  • Design – The Mint uses three foam layers just like the flagship Leesa mattress but is 2″ thicker in total. The Mint’s comfort layer is made out of T&N Adaptive Foam, while the Leesa mattress uses a proprietary cooling foam for its comfort layer.
  • Price – From an MSRP perspective, both beds are priced about the same (queen sizes cost about $1,200). However, after discounts, the Leesa mattress usually ends up being the cheaper option by about $50-$150.
  • Firmness – In our opinion, the Tuft and Needle Mint mattress is a bit softer than the Leesa mattress. We think it lands somewhere between medium-soft and medium on the firmness scale.
  • Ideal Sleeper Types – Given the respective firmness profiles of the beds, we think the Mint skews more towards side sleepers, while the Leesa mattress skews more towards back and stomach sleepers.
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We hope you found the summary above helpful. The decision between the two beds really boils down to your budget, firmness preference and primary sleeping position.

Tuft & Needle Hybrid vs Leesa Review Video

Tuft & Needle recently introduced their first hybrid mattress. Here’s how it compares to both the Original Leesa and Leesa Hybrid mattresses.

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We hope the video above was helpful. The section below discusses the newly released Studio by Leesa, which is close to the same pricing as Tuft and Needle. Below that is a section all about the different customer policies both Tuft & Needle and Leesa offer.

Leesa Studio vs Tuft and Needle

For several years, both brands had just their original mattress, but now they have products that span the entire price spectrum. As an example, Leesa Legend and Tuft and Needle Hybrid both target individuals that want a higher end mattress.

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And now, with the launch of the Leesa Studio mattress, there is a head-to-head battle over price-conscious shoppers. In this section, we will specifically discuss the Leesa Studio vs Tuft and Needle debate.

leesa studio mattress review edge support
Here’s a look at the memory foam mattress known as Studio by Leesa

What they have in common:

  • Highly affordable
  • Made entirely of foam and are 10” thick
  • Soft foam feel
  • Around a medium on the soft/firm scale
  • Backed by a 10-year warranty

As you can see, they have a lot in common. We’d say Leesa Studio and Tuft and Needle are so similar that you can sort of just take your pick. Both are comfortable foam mattresses—if that’s what you’re looking for, you’re good to go.

A few of the differentiators for these two beds include:

  • Leesa Studio has three layers of foam, while T&N has just two.
  • While T&N only has “neutral” or “classic” foam, Leesa Studio also has a layer of memory foam.
  • Tuft & Needle is more affordable by about $100.

We are pretty agnostic between these two beds. We think they’re comfortable and accommodating, and they’re from reputable brands. It just comes down what you value most. If you want a little memory foam, go with Leesa Studio. If you just want an affordable and comfy foam bed, T&N will get the job done just fine.