Nectar vs Purple: Which mattress should you choose? Our sleep expert weighs in.

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Nectar and Purple are two of the most popular bed-in-a-box brands. Purple is celebrated for its patented GelFlex Grid, which consists of a gel polymer matrix that contours to your body the moment you lay down, and offbeat ads. Nectar is better known for its budget-friendly offerings that are backed by a long 365-night sleep trial and lifetime warranty.

I’ve tested 11 mattresses from these brands, but this comparison will focus on their flagship beds: the Nectar Classic and the Purple Mattress. Both are delivered vacuum-sealed for free and are made up of foam layers, with Purple adding the gel grid. The cost-effective Nectar Classic is one of the best memory foam mattresses I’ve tested, while the Purple is great mattress for hot sleepers thanks to the impressive breathability of all the brand’s mattresses. Read our individual reviews of the Purple Mattress and Nectar Classic Mattress.

Below, we help you choose the best mattress for your sleep style and body type based on the most important factors you should consider when shopping for a new bed: design, price, return policy, warranty, setup, comfort, heat dissipation, edge support, and motion isolation.

Specs compared

Specs	Nectar Classic	The Purple Mattress
Best for	All sleeping styles, couples	Side sleepers, hot sleepers
Sizes	Twin, twin XL, full, queen, king, Cal king, split king	Twin, twin XL, full, queen, king, Cal king, split king
Type	Memory foam	Polymer grid and foam
Firmness (1 softest to 10 firmest)	6/10 (medium-firm)	5/10 (medium)
Motion isolation (1 awful to 10 best)	8	2
Heat dissipation (1 traps heat to 10 stays cool)	3	7
Edge support (1 awful to 10 best)	8	3
Weight (queen)	83 pounds	88 pounds
Thickness	12 inches	9.25 inches
Trial period policy	365 nights	100 nights
Warranty	Forever	10 years
Showroom availability	Yes, retail partners	Yes, showrooms and stores

Design

The Nectar Classic Memory Foam Mattress features a cool-to-the-touch cover made of a poly-blend with polyethylene. You can remove the cover, but doing so voids the warranty and will likely be a pain to get back on.

The Nectar is made up of three CertiPUR-US-certified foam layers. The top layer is made of pressure-relieving memory foam. The next layer is designed to keep your spine aligned and offer responsive support. The base foam layer provides durability, motion isolation, and more support.

The Purple Mattress has a soft, breathable, hypoallergenic cover. The top layer is the famous GelFlex Grid, a two-inch hyper-elastic polymer layer with ventilation. It’s two inches thick and provides pressure relief, air flow, and heat dissipation. The grid is surrounded by edge support foam. Below are two foam layers. First, the comfort foam layer aims to cradle your body followed by a base foam for durability and support.

The Nectar Classic is also available as a hybrid (for an extra $150), while the Purple is not. However, the Purple is the “Goldilocks” option in the brand’s Essential collection. The pricier PurplePlus has an “ultra comfort” foam layer and double the base foam. The PurpleFlex, which I prefer to the Purple and which usually costs less, lacks the Purple’s comfort layer. If you want a Purple hybrid, you’ll have to spend about $1,000 more. Purple mattresses are also Certified Clean Air Gold, ensuring they won’t impact your indoor air quality, and made in the USA.

Price compared

	Twin	Twin XL	Full	Queen	King	Cal king	Split king
Nectar	$349	$549	$599	$649	$849	$849	$1,098
Purple	$999	$1,099	$1,399	$1,499	$1,999	$1,999	$2,198

Every size of the Nectar Classic Memory Foam mattress costs less than the Purple. Nectar says the “total value” of the queen is $1,598, but I’ve never seen it at that price. Instead, it’s consistently at $649. A queen-sized Purple retails for $1,499, and it’s regularly at that price, though it’s often discounted. In fact, in the last year, it was temporarily on sale for $999.

Both brands offer financing, so you can pay off the mattress of your choice with monthly payments. Also, both brands provide free shipping, though you will have to pay sales tax.

Return policy and warranty compared

While it’s becoming more common, the 365-night sleep trial offered by Nectar is among the best in the industry. Before you can return your bed, though, you need to sleep on it for at least 30 nights. If you’re not satisfied, you get a full refund. Also impressive is Nectar’s “forever warranty.” Yet, there are a few common catches. Like, the warranty is void if you remove the cover, and it only covers the original buyer of the mattress. After the first 10 years, Nectar can choose to repair the mattress, rather than replace it, and charge you to ship it.

Purple’s sleep trial is quite a bit shorter — 100 nights — but they only require you to sleep on it for 21 nights before returning it. The brand also offers a full refund, though they won’t refund you if the law tag has been removed. Purple’s warranty length is 10 years, which is fairly standard. If the company finds the mattress is defective, they will choose to replace or repair it. Yet, there are several caveats. You have to pay the transportation fees, the law tag must be attached, and the bed must not be stored or used by a medical patient at any point.

Setup process compared

The Nectar comes in a cardboard box. The Purple comes in a purple tube with handles that make it easier to schlep to your bedroom.

The setup processes are similar and fairly intuitive. You remove the external packaging, place the wrapped mattress on your bed frame, and remove the remaining layers of plastic wrap. Don’t worry about memorizing this: Both mattresses come with instructions. Nectar provides a letter opener-style cutter for removing the plastic. The Purple came with two sleep masks, which my 11-year-old wears 24/7.

What made the Purple harder to set up is its weight (88 pounds for a queen versus the Nectar’s 83), and it’s floppier than the Nectar, making it a little more unwieldy. Both had an initial odor that dissipated by bedtime, by which time they were also fully expanded.

Both Nectar and Purple offer in-home setup, also called “white-glove delivery.” Part of the service is disposing of the packaging and your old mattress. Nectar charges $199 for this service. Purple offers it free with its pricier models. However, if you want white-glove delivery with the Purple mattress, it’ll cost you $200.

Comfort compared

When choosing a mattress, comfort is everything. When we evaluate comfort, we look at pressure relief, spinal alignment, and firmness. The Nectar is medium-firm (6/10), while the Purple is average (5/10). As a bigger fella — 6 feet tall, 225 pounds — I found the Nectar was more comfortable. The Nectar was comfortable no matter how I slept, though I preferred sleeping on my side. My sleep scores were also above average.

The softer Purple should have been perfect for my side sleeping, but I just had trouble getting comfortable. I felt like I didn’t sink in enough on my side. Yet, I sank too much for comfortable back and stomach sleeping. Still, heavier side sleepers and petite stomach and back sleepers might appreciate it. As for me, I had below-average sleep scores on it.

However, I should note that I absolutely loved sleeping on the similarly priced PurpleFlex Mattress. It’s especially great for stomach and back sleepers. Also, when on a break from testing new mattresses, I like to sleep on the Purple RestorePlus, which is quite pricey ($2,999 for a queen) but oh-so soft for side sleeping. Read my full PurpleFlex Mattress review.

Heat dissipation compared

You know how I said I loved Purple’s polymer grid? Well, this is partly because it facilitates airflow, which translates to excellent heat dissipation and me not being a sweaty mess when trying to sleep. So, yeah, I stayed cool on the Purple Mattress.

Unfortunately, I can’t say the same for the Nectar Classic. I use a laser thermometer to measure how hot mattresses get while I’m on them and soon after I get up. The Nectar was about average in how hot it got. However, the heat dissipated slower than most mattresses I’ve tested. Also, there were a few nights when I felt like I was overheating.

Edge support compared

When your partner is encroaching on your side of the bed, you want to feel comfortable as you try to escape to the edge. The Nectar Classic had exceptional edge support. I had to roll quite far on the edge of the Nectar before I fell off. I used a yardstick to measure how much the side sank when I sat on it, and the Nectar compacted less than average: just 3 inches, compared to the 3.5-inch average.

The Purple wasn’t as good. I felt uncomfortable when I lay on the edge of the Purple, like I might fall at any moment.

Motion transfer compared

I don’t know if it’s the polymer grid or what, but Purple’s beds tend to have awful motion isolation, and the Purple Mattress was among the worst. On the other hand, Nectar was outstanding.

I test motion isolation by placing a soda can about 12 inches away from where a bowling ball I drop lands. If the can stays upright, the motion isolation is great. If it falls, the motion isolation is subpar. With the Nectar, the can stayed upright. Yet, when I tested the Purple, the can fell over quickly. The bowling ball also bounced quite high.

While some couples might like the Purple’s bounce, I’d strongly recommend the Nectar Classic over the Purple for most couples that share a bed. The Nectar’s impressive edge support and motion isolation just make it the obvious choice over Purple’s inferior performance in both categories.

The bottom line

The Purple Mattress is the brand’s top-selling mattress, but it’s my least favorite. I love the gel grid on its other beds, but I just couldn’t get comfortable on the flagship mattress. The poor motion isolation and edge support make it unsuitable for people sharing a bed. Still, some side sleepers who tend to overheat may like it.

Most sleepers should choose the Nectar or one of Purple’s other mattresses. If you have less than $1,299 to spend — the cost of Purple’s cheapest bed, the PurpleFlex — the Nectar Classic is the obvious choice. Its medium-firm feel works well for back, stomach, and side sleepers. The excellent motion isolation and edge support will keep couples happy. The only area where it could use improvement is heat dissipation, which may be a pro for cold sleepers.

Read our full Nectar Mattress Review and Purple Mattress review. Or, check out our comparisons of Nectar vs Tempur-Pedic, Nectar vs Casper , and Nectar vs DreamCloud.