If you're looking to buy a new mattress, it can be tricky to know when to shop to get the best prices. The Prime Day October event is happening right now, but with Black Friday happening in a mere six weeks, should you hold off buying a new bed until then? This article explains exactly when you should shop to get the lowest prices on the best mattresses, based on our knowledge of the market and the Black Friday mattress deals we've seen in previous years.
The TL;DR version is: Amazon isn't a great place to buy mattresses, so unless you want one of a handful of specific models that are discounted in the Prime Sales, you're better off shopping on Black Friday, when absolutely everyone is getting involved and fighting for your custom.
If you're confused as to why we're talking about Prime Day, we don't blame you. A lot of people are aware of the event that usually takes place in the summer, but this is the first time Amazon has decided to run a second event in the fall. Like the regular Prime Day, it lasts for two days – 11 Oct and 12 Oct 2022. We weren't quite sure what to expect, but generally speaking, there are plenty of deals worth checking out. In terms of mattresses specifically, the situation is a little different. While there are decent beds to be found at the online retail giant (here are the best mattresses on Amazon, in our opinion), it's not a great place to go for a bed bargain.
Read on for a closer look at the Black Friday vs Prime Day mattress deals, so you can shop smarter and save as much as possible. (If you end up on this page after the Prime Early Access deals have finished, head to our mattress sales and deals roundup for the best current offers.)
Is Amazon Prime Day good for mattresses?
Not especially, although there are a few offers worth checking out. Amazon's selection of mattresses is limited when it comes to the big players – it's better for super-cheap mattresses from obscure brands than it is for pricier, good quality mattresses that we could confidently recommend. Some major mattress brands do have an Amazon range, but we recommend buying direct from a brand if that option is available (more on that below). Most brands have a decent sale on running parallel to Prime Day, and some even refer to it as their 'Prime Day sale', so there are plenty of ways you can save if you do want to shop today.
Mattress names you'll find at Amazon include Sealy, Serta, Casper, Nectar, Purple, Leesa, Tuft & Needle, and GhostBed. However, the range will often be limited, and in some cases, the Amazon stores are home to cheaper or older models that aren't sold by the brand direct.
If you want a budget mattress, for example for the spare room, you will find good options on Amazon. These will be cheap at MSRP, but can drop even further in the Prime Day sales.
Is Amazon good for mattresses?
If it's an option, we recommend buying from the brand direct, rather than via a larger third party retailer like Amazon. That's to do with customer service than with the product itself. While Amazon will usually honor any sleep trial and warranty offered by the manufacturer, there are hoops to jump through – for instance, at a minimum you need to contact the brand to register your purchase on the manufacturer’s database.
In general, it all gets quite confusing, and we've spotted a number of comments in Amazon’s mattress listings complaining about issues with this. Dealing with a brand's own customer service will typically be more straightforward if you do have any problems with your purchase, too.
Black Friday vs Prime day mattress deals
Amazon is a bit of a wild card when it comes to the deals you'll find there on Black Friday. But as we've already established, its not really the best place to buy a mattress in any case. So what we're really looking at here is whether the deals you'll find on each brand's own site today are better than what we're expecting to see over Black Friday.
Broadly speaking, we expect the deals will be better on Black Friday. This is a major event, with pretty much all brands and retailers running a major sale. Competition is high, and it often attracts the best deals of the year (or at least matches the lowest prices from other shopping events).
We're also expecting the Black Friday offers – although they might be under another name at first – to appear well before Black Friday itself. Perhaps as early as mid-November. So you could only have a month to wait.
That said, if you're in a rush, the Prime Day-adjacent sales are pretty strong, so it's not a bad time to buy. The difference between today's offer and the Black Friday offer might be relatively minor in many cases. In general the mattress market is struggling a bit with inflation and ongoing supply chain issues, which means the Black Friday deals this year might not be as generous as we've seen previously, and we could be looking at offers that are similar to what we see at other points in the year.
For more info and in-depth predictions of what to expect from each brand, head to our Black Friday mattress deals guide and our Cyber Monday mattress deals guide.
Where are the best Prime day mattress deals?
Most of our top-rated mattresses aren't sold through Amazon, but there are still plenty of offers if you head direct to the brand. Amusingly, Nectar is running its own 'Prime Day Sale', with $200 off mattresses and a free big bedding bundle. Saatva, which makes our favorite mattress, is also in the middle of a three-day sale that offers between $200 and $500 off all its mattresses. There are also a handful of decent mattress deals in the Prime Day sale that are worth a look in. You'll find all the details below.
