Mattress Face-Off: Casper vs. Tuft & Needle
Who's got the best mattress-in-a-box in CR’s foam mattress ratings?
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If you spend any amount of time watching videos online, you’ve probably been interrupted by ads for both Casper, the mattress-in-a-box leader, and its closest rival, Tuft & Needle.
Casper, which launched in 2014, currently sells two foam mattresses: The Casper Original and the Element. The company has a history of changing its formulation, and the namesake mattress—previously called The Casper and now the Casper Original—has gone through several iterations.
The latest is one of the better versions we’ve tested and holds one of the top spots in our mattress ratings.
Specs
The Casper has three layers of polyurethane foam, one of which is perforated, and clocks in at 11 inches thick. In queen-size, it sells for $1,095. The Mint has three layers of polyurethane foam (one of which is gel-infused) but at 12 inches it's even thicker than the Casper. It also retails for $1,095.
Christopher Regan, the engineer who oversees CR’s mattress testing, notes that with foam mattresses, a lot depends on how layers are arranged.
“Be careful with claims of gel-infused foams or other special layers—it may not make a difference in overall performance,” he says.
The Casper rates a 6 and the Mint a 4 out of 10 on CR's firmness scale (10 is the firmest). If you’re looking for a softer mattress than the Mint, check our ratings of foam mattresses for a model with a firmness rating below a 4. For a firmer mattress than the Casper, look for something above a 6.
Setup
Both the Casper and the Mint lack grips, which may make it tough to move either model into place or rotate the mattresses from time to time. The Casper is 68 pounds; the Mint, 89. Neither is the heaviest foam bed, but they’re awkward to move.
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