What Is a Hybrid Mattress?

It's a confusing catchphrase, but no need to lose sleep over it—we've got expert advice, plus the five best hybrid mattresses worth considering

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As if mattress shopping wasn’t hard enough, in comes a “new” category of beds—hybrids. Over the past few years, this category has soared in popularity, with many mattresses originally hatched as innersprings now calling themselves hybrids, and many brands adding a hybrid or two to their existing line.

Part innerspring, part foam, these combo mattresses claim to offer the best of both constructions—the cuddle of foam with the resilience of coils. It’s a godsend (theoretically) for those who can’t decide between the two feels. But as with hybrid work models, hybrid mattresses are a bit like the Wild West. There’s no industry standard. In terms of composition, the proportion of foam and coil is entirely up to the manufacturer.

As a result, it’s up to manufacturers to determine for themselves whether their mattresses count as hybrids, says Chris Regan, who oversees CR’s mattress testing. Among the mattresses in our ratings, he says that “hybrid” construction can vary by a lot.

For instance, the Casper Original Hybrid has a layer of polyurethane foam and a layer of memory foam (totaling about 3.3 inches thick) on top of a layer of 6.1-inch-high coils. It’s a construction most shoppers would expect to see in a hybrid, says Regan. But you can’t assume that’s what you’ll get with every hybrid mattress.

As another example, Regan points to the Therapedic Agility Hybrid. Its coils—actually, micro-coils—are only 1.5 inches high. And while we found just over an inch of latex on top, the bulk of the foams (two layers of polyurethane, about 8 inches thick in total) exists under the coils.

The variation makes it “difficult to say if a specific construction is better than another,” Regan says. In truth, you may very well find a hybrid that still has a quicksand memory-foam feel, with only a whiff of resilience. You might also find a hybrid that’s bouncy, with just a touch of foam that barely conforms to your curves.

To see all of CR’s sleep coverage, go to our Guide to Better Sleep.

In short, “hybrid” is a marketing term—and a successful one at that. According to Technavio, a global market research firm, the hybrid-mattress market is expected to grow by $1.42 billion by 2026. It makes perfect sense. After all, who doesn’t like hybrids? It has worked for cars, corporate work models, and my oh-so-adorable Labradoodle (part Labrador retriever, part poodle), Duke. But for the consumer, the ambivalence around the term makes selecting the right hybrid mattress quite tricky.

“When we look at the construction of the full slate of innerspring mattresses in our ratings—so 100-plus mattresses—we’re seeing similar characteristics between those with hybrid in the name and those without hybrid in the name,” Regan says.

If you lie on a number of hybrid mattresses (as a CR staffer did), you’ll notice that some can feel very foam-forward, like the Tempur-Pedic ProAdapt Medium Hybrid, or more spring-forward like the Saatva Latex Hybrid. And while the top five hybrid mattresses from our tests, below, are all solid picks, the different constructions result in very different experiences when lying on the mattress—from how it supports different sizes of sleepers to how stable it feels.

Nailing down a definition for hybrid mattresses may be confusing (read: impossible), but that’s okay. The right mattress simply needs to balance support and pressure relief in way that feels comfortable to you—and you need to try a mattress out in person to figure that out. That’s true not just for hybrids, but any kind of mattress.

Generally speaking, a mattress will last eight to 10 years, and our rigorous lab tests suggest that this is the case for those labeled hybrids by manufacturers, too. In our durability evaluation, all the hybrids highlighted below excelled. That means you should expect that they won’t sag or soften after a few years. We roll a 309-pound wood roller across the surface of each of them 30,000 times to make sure of it—analyzing any changes in firmness, sagging, and support. That simulates eight to 10 years of typical use.

When we analyzed pricing for the models in CR’s ratings, the prices of hybrid innersprings didn’t differ much from those of nonhybrid innersprings. Whether you’re looking for a wallet-friendly innerspring, foam, or hybrid, you should be able to find one that fits your budget.

That said, if you already have an innerspring mattress but want a more cuddly foam feel, it may be more cost-effective to add a mattress topper to your bed. This added layer of cushioning comes in a range of feels and softness, and could give you the hybrid experience you seek. (You’ll find more details in our buying guide to mattress toppers and our mattress topper ratings.)

The manufacturers of these top-scoring mattresses describe them as hybrids. If you’re hoping for a more cuddled feel, go for a model with more foam. If your preference is for more resilience with just a touch of that embracing feel, those with less foam are likelier to please.

Tanya A. Christian

Tanya Christian joined Consumer Reports as a multimedia content creator in 2021, bringing with her more than a decade of experience in the home and lifestyle space. As a content manager for small kitchen appliances, home remodeling products, and the sleep category, she’s happy to provide readers with recommendations on great design, helpful cooking tools, and smart ways to achieve better sleep. Follow her on Twitter @tanyaachristian.