Online commerce has transformed the mattress industry – where it was once dominated by giants like Serta and Simmons, today, we have dozens of small brands carving out their own places in the market by offering high quality mattresses at affordable prices, so that consumers who could once only dream of having a luxury bed can do so within their limited budgets.
Saatva and Brooklyn bedding are two such brands, and both sell high-end hybrid mattresses through the online sales model to make for incredible savings for their customers. I’m doing this Saatva vs Brooklyn Bedding comparison to help you decide which one from these two equally formidable mattress makers deserves your money better.
Saatva Breakdown
The Saatva is a hybrid memory foam / innerspring mattress with a coil-on-coil skeleton at its core, indicating a clear bias towards a classically innerspring construction.
Construction
Cover
A snug-fitting wholly organic cotton cover envelopes all the layers of the mattress, yielding a soft, breathable and hypoallergenic sleep surface. Even though cotton alone is susceptible to developing wrinkles, this issue is minimized in the Saatva thanks to the tight fit of the cover.
Euro top
Underneath the cover is a sleek Euro pillow top made from dense viscoelastic foam at a depth of 1.25 inches. While this pillow top cannot be termed truly a part of the mattress, it is fixed in a tight and streamlined way that makes it appear so on the surface (something that isn’t possible with ordinary pillow tops). The Euro top provides the mattress with a plush and cushioning response that is able to mold itself to the shape of your body.
First Layer
This is the only real foam layer of the mattress – and is surprisingly lean at that: just 3/8 inches of viscoelastic foam padding. This layer adds to the contouring capability of the mattress originally set up by the Euro top, and also ensures that the underlying steel structure does not poke and prod your body while you sleep.
Second Layer
This is the first of the steel coil layers of the mattress – 4” long and 14-gauge thick, these pocketed coils are designed to react to your body weight independently from their neighbors, so that they offer springiness but at the same time are also able to adapt somewhat to your posture (which isn’t possible with regular interconnected steel coils).
The coils are wrapped in special foam that enhances the edge support of the mattress by preventing the springs from getting squashed completely under your weight.
Third Layer
This is the second of the steel coil layers, and has 13-gauge, 5.5” long interconnected springs – they serve to distribute the deep pressure that your body exerts continuously on the mattress after the initial impact is dealt with by the upper layers. By providing stiff support to your frame, this layer ensures correct spinal alignment and adds to the resilient nature of this hybrid mattress.
Edge Support Border
The manufacturer has included a dedicated edge support boundary to boost this property of the mattress (as if the stiff coil-on-coil structure and the edge support foam encasement in the upper coil layer weren’t enough by themselves!). The border fortifies the sides of the mattress completely, so that no matter how you place yourself on the sides of the bed, it is virtually impossible for you to sink in or slip down.
Firmness and Feel
You can choose from three different firmness levels to get the Saatva in, with each level offering a distinct combination of resilient support and viscoelastic contouring. Of course, it must be realized that all variants have the same coil-on-coil structure, so the overarching response of the mattress is still a bit stiff.
The manufacturer expresses the firmness levels on a relative scale ranging from 1 to 10, with 1 being the softest and 10 being the hardest.
Comfort and Support
Plush
This is as soft as it gets for the Saatva – the lowly 18 ILD rating is achieved by maximizing the conforming response of the upper layers and making the spring structure as yielding as possible. Thus, the overall behavior is more akin to soft bounciness than tough springiness, so that mattress is able to adhere to your shape more as opposed to pushing back against it.
The Plush variant has a rating of 3 on the scale that I mentioned above, which is in line with a medium-soft firmness level.
Luxury Firm
The manufacturer refers to this as their flagship variant; the widespread popularity it enjoys can be attributed to the fact that it creates a uniform mix of the upper layers’ contouring behavior and the lower layers’ springiness. This mild combination makes the mattress compatible with the widest possible group of consumers and sleep styles, hence the appeal among the masses.
The manufacturer has not disclosed the overall ILD value of this model, because they fear that it might be copied by a competitor. However, they describe it to be between 5 and 7 on the aforementioned 1-10 scale, which places it at about medium-firm in common terms.
Firm
The Firm variant, at an overall ILD of 30, is as close as the Saatva gets to becoming a true innerspring mattress. This variant keeps the contouring behavior of the viscoelastic foam layers to a minimum, and instead places more emphasis on the stiff, reactive response of the coil-on-coil structure, which gives the mattress a distinct resemblance with the behavior of a true innerspring mattress.
Of course, since the upper coil layer consists of pocketed coils, the mattress isn’t completely unyielding – it’s just that it minimizes the ‘hugging’ behavior exhibited by regular memory foam products.
Motion Transfer
Because of the memory foam present in the Euro top and the first layer, as well as the independent action of the pocketed coil layer, the Saatva is able to block out all but the most jarring of impacts quite effectively – you won’t be disturbed by the constant motion of a restless sleep partner at any rate.
Of course, the Plush version will offer somewhat better performance than the Firm version, because the former is designed to be pressure absorbing and adaptive as opposed to springy and reactive. Compared to the Signature, the Saatva might be slightly less motion absorbent because it has two spring layers as opposed to the Signature’s one – but this won’t be noticeable in all but the most extreme of cases.
Cooling
The multiple layers of spring coils are inherently good at setting up ventilation to dissipate heat from the surface of the mattress into the surroundings, and they are facilitated in this by the organic cotton cover. However, since the two layers above utilize memory foam, they do manage to retain some heat that could be noticed by a sensitive sleeper – for most users though, the Saatva is able to yield a comfortable sleep temperature.
Edge Support
The multiple edge support enhancements, coupled with the inherent robustness of a coil-on-coil instruction, lend the Saatva remarkable edge support capability – regardless of the firmness level you go for. The mattress lets you sit (and even lay down) comfortably on edges for extended periods of time.
However, if you’re looking for extremely rigid edge support (perhaps because you’re a bit bulky), you may want to go with the Firm variant.
Unique Features
Resilient, responsive behavior with a dash of viscoelastic conformity
When you look at it in contrast with the Brooklyn Bedding Signature mattress, it will become apparent that the Saatva mattress is an attempt to create a hybrid that is (overall) as close to an innerspring response as possible with exposing the sleepers to excessive hardness of steel coils.
The manufacturer has achieved this by incorporating relatively thin viscoelastic layers on top of the steel coils, which lends the otherwise stiff, springy frame a degree of conformity and pressure relief. The Signature, as you’ll see next, is more about creating an even balance between spring and memory foam.
Organic cotton cover
The Saatva has a fully organic cotton cover as opposed to the cotton / polyester blend cover of the Signature. While this may lead to slightly more wrinkling on the surface, it cannot be denied that the feel will be smoother, and you’ll also get much better breathability. There is also the fact that organic cotton is naturally hypoallergenic and there is likelihood of it irritating your skin that a polyester blend would – but this, of course, concerns people with skin allergies.
Euro top
The sleek, tightly integrated Euro pillow top featured in the Saatva yields both superb pressure relief and lends the mattress a uniquely luxurious aesthetic appeal that is more akin to high end hotel bedding than what is commonly present in people’s bedroom. The Signature also has a quilt layer of its own, and while it does offer a similar kind of cushioning, it doesn’t pull it off with the same flair as the Saatva’s Euro top does.
Longer warranty
The Saatva has a 15 year warranty compared to the Signature’s 10 year warranty. This could be interpreted as the manufacturer feeling that their product is more durable than the rest of the competition (since the market average is 10 years). However, I can’t fault the Signature for stinginess either, as it is rarely possible for a mattress to be in a warrantable condition after bearing 10 years of constant use.
Brooklyn Bedding Signature Breakdown
The Signature mattress is a foam / innerspring hybrid from Brooklyn Bedding, the mattress maker that embodies the bed-in-a-box-approach in totality. It has a focus towards providing a response that balances cushioning and resilience, at an affordable price.
Construction
Cotton/Polyester Cover
The Signature has a simple cotton/polyester blend cover – the polyester is there to prevent the cover from wrinkling or shrinking, while the cotton ensures a soft, breathable contact surface.
Quilt Layer
A 1” layer of quilt foam adorns the mattress up top – it is super soft, with the intention to provide a cushioning initial response when you lay down to sleep.
First Layer
The next layer comprises of 2” TitanFlex™ foam which is designed to respond to your bodily contours rapidly, so that you can enjoy a customized sleep experience without the sluggish, sticky feel of viscoelastic. This foam is also infused with TitaniumGel™ to enhance cooling and also lend the mattress some anti-bacterial qualities.
Second Layer
The second layer is also made from 2” of TitanFlex™ foam, but this one has a higher ILD rating to create a firmer response, that doesn’t completely yield under your weight but instead sets up a smooth shift from the plush upper layers to the resilience afforded by the underlying pocketed springs.
Both the first and second layers use foam at a density 3.5 lbs./cu.ft. which is quite a generous measure of density in terms of longevity of the mattress.
Third Layer
The next layer is comprised of 6” long pocketed coils – the maximum coil count is up to 1,024 (and of course, depends on the size you choose). This many pocketed coils reacting to your body pressure independently ensures an adaptive yet highly supportive behavior on part of the mattress, thereby ensuring that your spinal alignment is correct throughout the night.
Fourth Layer
A final 1” base support foam layer completes the construction of the mattress; its presence stabilizes the reaction of the pocketed coils, absorbing any jerky motion that has escaped the layers above it.
Firmness and Feel
The Brooklyn Bedding Signature mattress is available in three firmness levels, each of which is expressed approximately on a 1 to 10 firmness scale (1 is the softest, 10 is the hardest).
Comfort and Support
Soft
This variant is intended to yield the greatest amount of pressure relief and contouring, with only a gentle degree of deep support. The idea is to create a mattress that somewhat resembles the ‘hugging’ nature of viscoelastic mattresses. The manufacturer gives it a 4 rating on their 1 to 10 scale, so in more conventional terms, something along the line of medium-soft.
Medium
This is described as the Signature’s most popular variant, probably because it provides an even distribution between contouring pressure relief (from its TitanFlex™ foam layer) and bouncy deep support (from its pocketed coil layer). This results in a sleep surface that is compatible with the vast majority of sleepers, and is particularly appealing for couples with different sleep preferences.
This one is given a 6 rating on the 1 to 10 scale i.e. medium-firm in more familiar terms.
Firm
The firm variant tries to keep the contouring behavior of the upper layers to a minimum without becoming a stiff innerspring mattress. It is thus the model that most closely resembles the springy, resilient response of a spring mattress, completely with enhanced lumbar support and a surface that pushes back against your body as opposed to sinking under it completely.
Motion Transfer
The firmness of the Signature’s contouring layers increases gradually, which lends them an ability to effectively block out most sudden movements that you (or your sleep partner) make on the bed. Furthermore, the innerspring coils are individually pocketed, which means that only those that are in the immediate vicinity of the impact will react perceptibly – this further enhances the mattresses ability to isolate motion.
Cooling
This mattress uses foam quite liberally in its upper layers, but since this isn’t exactly memory foam, and they’ve also infused the upper TitanFlex™ foam layer with gel beads, it doesn’t heat up as much as a true viscoelastic mattress would. The breathable cotton fabric present in the cover also helps to transport heat away from your body, and the pocketed coil layer is naturally well ventilated, so all in all, the Brooklyn Bedding Signature mattress is only a tiny bit less breathable than the market average.
Edge Support
The Signature mattress, being an innerspring hybrid, can be expected to have solid support around the edges for sustaining your weight when you’re sitting on the sides of the bed. This is pretty much the case, but they’ve also eliminated the slight hint of a crunch that springs can yield, by providing caliber edge support – in other words, regardless of how you position yourself on the sides, you will be amply supported by the mattress.
Unique Features
Deeply contouring yet quickly responsive sleep experience
The Signature mattress uses layers of contouring TitanFlex™ foam in almost equal proportion to the underlying pocketed spring layer. This enables it to provide greater pressure relief and contouring than (relatively speaking) the Saatva, with its bias towards a largely steel coil structure.
Of course, there is still a pocketed spring layer present in the Signature, so it is also able to yield a respectable degree of reactive deep support, but this won’t be as springy / resilient as the one that Saatva has to offer.
Better suited for hotter climates
Since it doesn’t use true memory foam the way Saatva does in its upper layers, and has cooling gel technology and decent air ventilation to boot, the Brooklyn Bedding Signature mattress is able to yield marginally better cooling as per our tests.
There isn’t a very significant difference, but for temperature sensitive sleepers, even half a bed that is half a degree cooler on a hot, humid night can matter.
Cheaper
The Signature is about $50 cheaper than the Saatva – this isn’t much of a difference for the average consumer, but it is possible that someone could have an extremely narrow budget. It offers a largely comparable experience with the Saatva (perhaps a bit less stiff because it has only one innerspring layer and uses more foam), so it isn’t a bad investment altogether in its own right.
Which One To Get?
Saatva
Choose the Saatva if:
- You want a hybrid mattress that focuses more on spring than foam: Thanks to the coil-on-coil foundation of the Saatva, it is able to offer a clearly more resilient and springy response at any firmness level compared to the equivalent model of the Signature.
- If you’re looking for a mattress that offers lots of resilience with just a dash of viscoelastic conformity then, I would advise choosing the Saatva over the Signature. Situations where such a choice makes sense include bulky sleepers who find ordinary innerspring hybrids much too yielding under their weights.
- You prefer to sleep on an organic surface: The Saatva’s organic cotton surface makes it the obviously better choice for people who prefer to sleep on a natural surface. The Signature does have cotton in its cover, but it is blended with polyester, which does away with the whole ‘natural’ charm of cotton.
- You’d like to have a Euro top bed: A Euro pillow top is considered a luxury feature in a mattress, so it is quite impressive that the Saatva is able to pull it off in price that is only slightly higher than the Signature (and indeed, much less than big names in the industry). If you’d like to have the luxurious experience of a memory foam Euro top in your own bedroom, you’d better go with the Saatva.
- A longer warranty is important to you: The Saatva’s longer warranty makes it more appealing for consumers who believe that a longer warrant is an indication of greater durability. As I’ve mentioned above, this may not always be true, but if you’re part of this camp, it won’t be harmful to spend a little extra on the Saatva instead of the Signature, especially since they have such similar features.
Brooklyn Bedding Signature
Here are few reasons for choosing the Signature over the Saatva:
- You want a more balanced hybrid mattress overall: As I’ve already pointed out above, the Brooklyn Bedding mattress is closer to being a neutral foam / innerspring hybrid than is the Saatva. This makes it ideal for people who want an even blend of contouring and resilience (side sleepers, light weight individuals) – which is what a real hybrid mattress is all about.
- Naturally, the Saatva also has a Plush version, but even then, it has a dual coil structure which makes it a lot less yielding than the comparable version of the Signature.
- You’re on a very tight budget: The $50 price deficit may look appealing to individuals who are on an extremely restrictive budget and need to get a new mattress in an emergency. Both mattresses have quite similar performance (unless you’re looking for a robust innerspring disguised as a hybrid that is), so you can safely purchase the Brooklyn Bedding to enjoy the benefits of a top-notch sleeping product.
- You’re sensitive to temperature rise in bed: As already stated above, the Signature is able to cool down marginally faster than the Saatva, so if you’re someone who gets woken up by temperature rise at night, you may want to go for the Signature because it is less likely to do so.
I hope you enjoyed the read, and more importantly, realized that there are quite a few differences even among similarly priced foam / spring hybrid mattresses that appear to be similar on the surface. If you found the post helpful, do share it in your circle – it may help someone else make the right choice when getting a new mattress.
Saatva Vs Brooklyn Bedding Comparison
| Saatva | Brooklyn Bedding | |
|---|---|---|
| Layers Used |
|
|
| Height | 11.5 inches / 14.5 inches | 11.5 inches |
| Firmness | Soft, Medium-Firm, Firm | Soft, Medium, Firm |
| Motion Transfer | Minimal | Minimal |
| Breathability | Slightly below average | Slightly below average |
| Trial Period | 180-day | 120-day |
| Warranty | 15-year non-prorated | 10-year |
| Pricing (Queen | $1199 | $949 |
| Shipping | Free across the US | Free |
| Discount | None at present | None at present |