Nolah vs Tuft and Needle Mattress

Why You Should Buy Nolah — In this section, we will discuss the standout features for Nolah. Everything centers around the feel and firmness of this bed, so let’s start there.

Great For Side Sleepers — The easiest way to describe Nolah is that it’s a soft foam mattress. It’s intended for side sleepers, and it does a fantastic job of offering pressure relief. If you’re in search of a comfortable, softer bed that sells for under $1,200, you should seriously consider Nolah. Here’s a look at where we consider it to be on the soft-to-firm scale:

As you can see, Nolah is a good deal softer than the “average” firmness. This suggest two things. Firstly, it’s going to offer plenty of pressure relief, which it does. Secondly, it won’t be great for other sleeping positions. This is only partially true.

For petite individuals, all sleeping positions are on the table, but for anyone that’s over about 150 lbs, side sleeping is recommended. If you plan to rotate between positions, that’s fine, but you’re “favorite” sleeping position should be your side if you’re going to purchase Nolah.

Mixed Foam Feel — Technically speaking, the bed’s main comfort layer is “Nolah AirFoam” and that’s actually a fairly apt name. The bed does not feel like a standard foam mattress (the way that T&N does), nor does it feel like a memory foam mattress such as the Layla mattress.

Rather, it feels like a blend of the two. It gives you great pressure relief—the kind that you’d expect from memory foam—but it lacks the slow response times such that you don’t get a “stuck” feeling when you want to switch sleeping positions.

Another way to think of Nolah AirFoam is the lightest and airiest memory foam on the planet. It’s almost as if memory foam made a baby with a pillow. It makes for a highly comfortable mattress.

Commitment To The Planet — Though this section has nothing to do with the feel or firmness of the bed, it’s pretty neat that Nolah is so committed to helping the environment and endangered species. The short story is that they donate a portion of their profits to charities, including the Defenders Of Wildlife, which helps to protect endangered specifies.

All Beds Offered By Nolah — At the moment, Nolah has just two beds:

• Nolah Original 10 — Their flagship 10” foam mattress. It is the focus of this review.
• Nolah Signature 12 — The upgraded model that’s 12” thick and is flippable with two different firmness options. In general, this bed is a little firmer than the Original.

Why T&N Is Better — As much as we like the Nolah mattress, there are plenty of compelling reasons to purchase Tuft & Needle instead, starting with the price point.

Pricing — Focusing just on the queen size mattresses, we’d consider both beds to be highly affordable, though, T&N is a tad more affordable.

Tuft and Needle sells for around $900, while Nolah is around $1,000. That doesn’t factor in coupons, however, which will reduce the price of Nolah to around $900. Tuft & Needle doesn’t like to offer pure discounts on their flagship mattress, so the price is what it is, for the most part.

You can check pricing and deals for Nolah and Tuft & Needle with these links.

Classic Foam Feel — If you can envision the most generic soft foam, that’s basically what you get with Tuft and Needle. And we don’t mean that in a negative way either. This is the type of bed that nearly no one complains about because it’s just so neutral and accommodating.

What more can we say? This is just a nice and comfy foam bed with a plain Jane feel. There’s no way that more than 10% of people end up returning Tuft & Needle if they know anything about it.

Firmness Level — It you didn’t know this already, firmness has a subjective element to it. The more someone weighs, the softer a given bed will feel.

With this in mind, we consider Tuft and Needle to have a “medium” firmness level, give or take.

As you can see, we depict firmness on a spectrum to account for different body types. As the bed sits, however, T&N is suitable for all sleep styles, but not overly great for any one of them. Such is the reality of being a jack of all trades.

If you’re a side sleeper, we think you’ll be plenty happy with Tuft and Needle—same goes for the other sleep styles, too. But if you want a bed that’s truly firm or soft, the Original Tuft & Needle is not for you.

All T&N Beds — The Original bed is their most popular model, but T&N sells other beds as well:

• T&N Original — The 10” foam bed that we are discussing in this review. It’s one of the top five most sought-after beds online.
• T&N Mint — A thicker, soft foam mattress that’s perfect for side sleepers and those that need maximum compression.
• T&N Nod — This is an 8” thick, Amazon-exclusive bed that’s intended for guest rooms, kids, and those that are on an especially tight budget. It’s even cheaper than the Original T&N mattress.
• T&N Hybrid — The most expensive, luxurious bed sold by Tuft & Needle. It has two layers of coils for support, and a quilted, soft cover.

Conclusion: Nolah vs Tuft and Needle

Hopefully you’ve had time to at least skim through this post, but on the off-chance that you skipped straight to the end, let’s cover a few key considerations:

• What firmness level do you prefer? If you want a softer bed, get Nolah. If you want something in the medium range, get T&N.
• What’s your preferred price point? If you said to yourself “$700 for a queen,” then you should get T&N. If you can afford a bed that’s closer to $1,000, Nolah is back in the running.
• Feel preferences. Do you want a bed that feels like it’s a mix between memory foam and soft foam (Nolah), or one that just has a classic soft foam feel (Tuft & Needle)?

As simple as all of that sounds, this comparison really does come down to price, feel, and firmness. Hopefully you enjoyed this guide. Still have questions? Feel free to email us, or visit our Mattress Reviews or Mattress Comparisons pages.