Saatva and Nest Bedding are two relatively fresh brands in the bedding industry that have made a name for themselves by selling high-end, durable mattresses to consumers at very cheap prices compared to what big-name brands ask. Saatva’s primary product is its memory foam/pocketed coil hybrid mattress that shares the company’s name, whereas Nest Bedding’s most famous product is also a memory foam/pocketed coil hybrid known as the Sparrow Signature Hybrid.
Both mattresses have superb value and enjoy popularity among the masses, so I found it interesting to do a blow-by-blow comparison between them. This Saatva vs Sparrow Hybrid will juxtapose the qualities (and possible drawbacks) of both mattresses, so you’re able to better decide for yourself, which of the two is better for your needs.
Saatva Breakdown
See our complete Saatva Mattress Review coverage.
Construction
The Saatva is a memory foam/innerspring hybrid mattress that leans more towards the spring mattress camp because of its relatively scanty use of foam in the upper layers.
Cover
A pure organic cotton cover adorns the Saatva, lending it an air of simplicity but also providing more practical benefits of softness and breathability.
Euro Top
Right underneath the cotton cover is a 1.25-inch-deep Euro pillow top to provide cushioning to your body upon initial contact and preventing it from feeling too much of the spring resulting from the coil-on-coil structure that dominates the mattress’ composition. The Euro top is tightly integrated with the mattress itself (it doesn’t look like an add-on like a regular pillow top would), and since it is so thin, it doesn’t have an adverse impact on the overall bouncy behavior that the manufacturer tries to create for this mattress.
First Layer
The first (and only) proper comfort layer of the mattress is a thin 3/8-inch slice of viscoelastic foam to let it contour to the shape of your body for the prevention of pressure points that can cause pain. By deliberately making it thin, Saatva ensures that the pressure relieving initial response is achieved without sacrificing any of the resilience gained from the innerspring layers.
Second Layer
The first layer of innersprings consists of individually wrapped pocketed coils with a middle 14-gauge thickness and a length of 4 inches. Their purpose is to create a bridge between the foam above and the traditional steel coil base below. Because they’re pocketed coils, they react to pressure independently of each other, so they too enhance the mattress’ conforming capability and motion isolation but also contribute to its compressive support. These coils have been encased in edge support foam, so the mattress is able to hold your weight on its sides properly.
Third Layer
This layer is comprised of thicker and deeper 13-gauge/5.5-inch coils that are interconnected through a metal wire. The resulting structure is able to distribute your weight evenly across its entirety resulting in lasting compressive support and optimal spinal alignment.
Edge Support Boundary
To keep the Saatva from succumbing to the ‘crunchiness’ that is sometimes reported by users when they sit on the edges of spring mattresses, the manufacturer incorporates a special edge support border to strengthen its sides. This border works in tandem with the edge support foam that envelopes the springs in the upper coil layer to ensure that you don’t experience sinkage when sitting on the edge of your bed, even for extended periods of time. Note that the Saatva is available in two identically performing variants per firmness level, based on height: 14.5-inch and 11.5-inch.
Firmness and Feel
Comfort and Support
The Saatva is available in three firmness levels: Plush, Luxury Firm, and Firm, with the Luxury Firm variant being the most popular one with consumers. The firmness levels are quantified through a 1 to 10 scale where 1 is the softest (quicksand-like) and 10 is the hardest (wooden tabletop-like). Note that this is not the same as the Luxury Firm level of the Alexander, which is significantly firmer (it is closer to the Firm option of the Saatva in fact). In any case, Saatva’s Luxury Firm model creates a balanced mix of contouring and springiness that is geared towards the average sleeper – or those who share a bed with a partner with markedly different sleep preferences and want a compromise of sorts. Unfortunately, the manufacturer keeps the ILD rating of the Luxury Firm model a secret for proprietary reasons, but they do describe it as a 5-7 on their 1 to 10 scale. However, the ILD lies somewhere in the middle of 18 and 30 since those are the values for the Plush and Firm models respectively. The Plush model is more inclined towards softness and contouring, whereas the Firm model is biased towards spring and resilience.
Motion Transfer
The buffering action of the Euro top and the 3/8” layer of viscoelastic blocks out the spread of almost all sudden impacts that happen on the surface. That said, since the mattress features two coil layers below, you can expect some movements to escape on rare occasions. The Alexander Hybrid with its thicker foam toppings will be able to filter out motion with marginally better effectiveness.
Edge Support
With the inclusion of edge support foam encasement and a dedicated edge support boundary, the Saatva has a thoroughly respectable capability to hold you up while you rest on its sides.
Cooling
The Saatva lacks any specific cooling features as compared to the multitude present in the Alexander Hybrid, so you can expect it to be somewhat more heat retentive. That said, it still has two innerspring layers that set up adequate airflow, so you won’t exactly be feeling uncomfortably hot when you lay on it in most cases.
Durability
The coil-on-coil structure that the Saatva employs at its core is extremely durable and quite good at distributing the impact your body makes when you lay on it night after night. Furthermore, the memory foam material is high density. Both these features translate into superb longevity for the product.
Unique Features
Springy, resilient yet conforming response
As I’ve said before, the Saatva, despite being a hybrid mattress, clearly favors the behavior exhibited by innerspring mattresses because it uses not one but two spring cores. However, the upper spring layer is actually made from pocketed coils that ensure better overall conformity and motion isolation that would have been possible with the lower interconnected coil structure alone. The pocketed coils together with the Euro top and the memory foam padding mean that even though the Saatva has a lot of resilience, it isn’t completely unresponsive to the shape of your body.
Euro top comfort
The Euro pillow top gives the mattress a lavishly comfortable, sleek combined look and feel that is even better than standard pillow tops.
Smaller price tag
The Saatva costs a couple of hundred bucks less than the Alexander Hybrid at present, presumably due to the fact it uses less foam and more steel in its construction and also that it lacks some of the more nuanced cooling features present in the latter.
Longer trial period
The base trial period of the Saatva is 120 – a full 20 days longer than what is offered by the Alexander mattress. Ultimately, this lets you keep the freedom to get your full money back for almost three weeks longer than the Alexander.
Sparrow Hybrid Breakdown
Construction
The Sparrow Signature Hybrid mattress is actually available in three firmness levels: plush, medium and luxury-firm, and each has a slightly different foam composition to achieve its required degree of firmness. In general, though, all of them are memory foam/innerspring hybrids that have about 5 to 6 inches of different types of foam above an 8” deep support core made out of pocketed coils. For the sake of brevity, I will stick to detailing the construction of the Medium variant as this is the closest to Saatva’s flagship Luxury Firm offering:
Cover
The Sparrow Hybrid sports a fabric cover which incorporates Thermic Phase Change material into its very core to ensure an optimum surface temperature for you to sleep on, regardless of the season.
Comfort Zone
Next up is a 1-inch layer of infused memory foam, which lets the mattress adjust itself to the contours of your body while also dissipating excessive heat through the gel infusion. This layer has been convoluted for better ergonomics and enhanced airflow for the mattress as a whole. Layer two works to counter the sinkage for improved mobility with 3-inches of Energex™ Temperature Responsive Foam.
Transition and Support Layers
As we begin to move from comfort to support, we find the 1-inch Transition Airflow High-Density Conventional Foam layer. It’s followed by the bulk of the mattress found in the 8-inch, 16-gauge, Reinforced Edge Support Pocketed Coils. They produce a very solid base to keep the spine aligned and work well with the memory foam in balancing contour and structure. The layer lineup concludes with a 1-inch layer of SmartFlow Base Foam.
Firmness and Feel
As previously mentioned, the Sparrow Signature Hybrid gives you a choice between three firmness levels. The company has their own scale to describe the firmness of their mattresses instead of revealing the ILD explicitly. For this scale, 1 is considered the hardest and 10 is considered the softest (the reverse of what most competitors use, but perhaps they want to stick in this regard too!).
Comfort and Support
Plush
This model of the mattress incorporates the softest varieties of memory foam and polyurethane foam atop the 8” pocketed coils. On the surface, the construction is identical to that of the Medium variant, but the ILD of the foam is varied intrinsically to achieve a plusher, more comforting response.
Naturally, you can expect a slight amount of ‘enveloping’ given the soft materials the mattress uses, but the support foam and pocketed coils should prevent this from getting irritable. On the 1-10 scale that I just discussed, this model comes in at a gentle 7-7.5.
Medium
I’ve already discussed the construction of this model at length; the aim of its balanced hybrid design is to yield a combination of support and contouring that is best suited to the average sleeper who may not have any particular sleep requirements.
With this model, you’re able to enjoy both the conformity of the memory foam and the bouncy response of the pocketed coils in an almost equal measure (there may be a slight bias towards firmness), quite representative of the middle 5.5-6 designation it has on the manufacturer’s scale.
Luxury Firm
The Luxury Firm model is actually closer to the regular Firm model of most competitors – it uses 4.5 lbs Slow Recovery Memory Foam as its third layer instead of the Energex foam to achieve a stiffer response than is normal for viscoelastic.
On their own 1 to 10 scale, the manufacturer puts it at a decidedly solid 2-2.5.
Motion Transfer
Of course, there will be some variation in terms of motion limiting capability between the different firmness levels, but in general, you can expect excellent motion isolation from the Sparrow Hybrid thanks to the large amounts of memory foam involved in its construction. Motion transfer reduction is also enhanced by the independently acting pocketed coils, which are able to localize the impact of your movements, preventing it from spreading into the neighboring coils and disturbing your sleep partner.
Edge Support
Thanks to the Quantum edge-support coils at the border of the support core, the mattress is able to yield surprisingly good resistance to your weight when sitting on the sides – this is contrary to one might anticipate given the considerable amount of sinkage offered elsewhere by the multitude of foam layers that it employs.
Cooling
Given the multiple heat dissipation and airflow enhancing steps taken by the manufacturer, it is only natural to expect that the Sparrow Hybrid will be superb at maintaining an optimum sleep temperature. Sure enough, it did not disappoint in our tests, taking much less time than the average, among competition to cool back down to room temperature after being heated up for half an hour.
Durability
Normally, when there’s a high amount of foam involved (particularly memory foam) in the construction of an innerspring hybrid, there is cause for concern about its durability because the softness of foam makes it more prone to wear and tear, and it doesn’t help to have metal springs pushing at it from down under. In the case of the Sparrow Hybrid though, the manufacturer uses high-density memory foam (at or exceeding 3 lbs density which is recommended for durability). In particular, the topmost layer is kept excessively dense as it receives the most punishment from your body.
Unique Features
Softer, more cushioned response
The Sparrow mattress has more foam in its comfort layer, which makes for a comparably plusher feel when you lay on it as compared to the Saatva. Of course, the Luxury Firm variant will be firm compared to the other two models, but each of these variants will offer less resistance when compared to the same firmness level offered by Saatva. Having said that, the Alexander is still able to offer a decent amount of springy responsiveness thanks to its pocketed coil core, but considering that Saatva has a coil-on-coil construction, it is certainly not as much as the former.
Better cooling
As already discussed above, the makers of this mattress have gone to some length to address the heating problems which usually go hand in hand with memory foam solutions – indeed, they’ve done more than what could be called sufficient, which is why the Sparrow has the edge over Saatva when it comes to cooling. The Phase Change Material used in the cover fabric deserves a mention of its own since it doesn’t act unilaterally in that it only takes away heat from the surface – it can also give heat back if the ambient temperature of the room drops. In this way, you get an optimal sleep temperature all year round.
Lifetime Comfort Guarantee
Nest Bedding does offer a 100-day money back trial period, which you can use after using the mattress for at least 30 days (this is the break-in period which the manufacturer asks for to let the mattress adjust to your weight). But besides this, the Sparrow also comes with a unique lifetime comfort guarantee that you can avail after the trial period has expired. Essentially, if you find out that the firmness level you went with doesn’t offer adequate comfort/support for your needs, or you discover that you bought the wrong size, you may be eligible to purchase a new mattress at a discount.
Lifetime Warranty
Again, this is more than what is the norm for the high-end mattress industry; the Sparrow comes with a lifetime warranty against defects. The Saatva, despite being a durable and reliable mattress, only offers a 15-year warranty.
Which One To Get?
Saatva
The Saatva could prove a good choice in the following scenarios:
- You’re on a stricter budget: The Saatva costs less than the Sparrow, and if you’re really bound by a budget, then you’d still be getting a comparable level of quality and performance with the Saatva (barring some enhancements, of course).
- You want more spring in your mattress: Thanks to the dual coil layers of the Saatva as well as the relatively thin layers of foam on top, the springy push-back of the coils is transmitted to your body much better, which can make for a better sleep surface for back and stomach sleepers in many cases.
- You enjoy sleeping on a Euro top: The Saatva come with a Euro top that is snugly combined into the main mattress structure and gives it a high-end aesthetic as well as a decent amount of cushioning – which one usually expects from a hotel room bed. Of course, the Sparrow has its own multiple foam layers to provide you with (perhaps better) plushness, but a Euro top just does it with more flair.
- You want a longer money back guarantee: Saatva may not offer the long-term oriented lifetime comfort guarantee that the Sparrow does, but its basic trial period is 120 days compared to 100 days of the latter. This makes it better suited for people who want to thoroughly try out the product but are not especially concerned about their preferences changing later on.
Sparrow Hybrid
Here are some situations where the Sparrow mattress may suit you better:
- You want a softer initial feel: For reasons already described above, the Sparrow camp offers a somewhat soft experience for an innerspring that should appeal to people who are averse to the slightly unyielding response exhibited by hybrids that emphasize the spring part over the foam part (the Saatva being a case in point). For the same reasons, the Sparrow Hybrid will also be the better choice for side sleepers, as well as lightweight individuals whose bodies can’t make a significant impact even on pocketed coils.
- You’re worried you might change your mind after the trial period: Although the actual trial period is shorter than Saatva’s, Nest’s Lifetime Comfort Guarantee is for customers whose needs have
changed over time, and you may be eligible for a one-time final sale mattress at 30%
off. This should offer some peace of mind to individuals who are unable to trust their judgment regarding the firmness level that will suit them best in the long term. - You’re particular about the temperature of the bed when you sleep: The Sparrow Hybrid is able to maintain an optimum temperature for sleeping in all seasons because of its combination of phase change material, gel foam, and airflow mechanisms. If you’re sensitive to temperature changes in your sleep, this makes it the better option for you over Saatva.
- A longer warranty matters to you: The Sparrow mattress’ lifetime warranty is as good as it can get in the mattress industry. Indeed, even though it is slightly more expensive than Saatva, this makes it a much safer long-term investment and is in fact much more than what is offered even by mainstream big-name brands.
Now that you’ve gone through this comparison, you’ll have started to appreciate the subtle differences in performance that are present between similarly priced luxury hybrid options in the market today. More importantly, you will have seen that the pricing for these online-selling mattresses is much more representative of their feature set as compared to conventional brands with bloated price tags that only sell through physical retailers. If you found this comparison helpful, remember to share it with your circle of friends and family. If you have any questions or feedback, feel free to make use of the comments section.
Saatva vs Sparrow Hybrid Comparison
| Saatva | Sparrow Hybrid | |
|---|---|---|
| Layers Used |
|
|
| Height | 11.5 inches / 14.5 inches | 14 inches |
| Firmness | Soft, Luxury-Firm, Firm | Plush, Medium, Luxury Firm |
| Motion Transfer | Minimal | Minimal |
| Breathability | Slightly below average | Above average |
| Trial Period | 120-day | 100-day trial + Lifetime Comfort Guarantee |
| Warranty | 15-year non-prorated | Lifetime |
| Pricing (Queen) | $1,199 | $1,599 |
| Shipping | Free across the US | Free across the US (except Alaska and Hawaii) |