The Purple is one of the most best online mattresses on the market thanks to its innovative design and comforting pressure relief. While many people find Purple’s Hyper-Elastic Polymer to be the perfect material for them, others are looking for a bit of a different feel. In this article we put the Purple up against some of its biggest competitors to help you decide which one is the right choice for you!
What Do These Mattresses Feel Like?
The most important aspect of your search for a new mattress is of course what it feels like, so let’s break down what the beds feel like!
Purple
The Purple mattress has a medium to medium firm feel; 6-6.5 out of 10 on the firmness scale. Purple has a unique feel, compared to the other mattresses in this comparison. The hyper-elastic polymer gives it a lot of bounce with a virtually instantaneous response time. Sleepers under 140 pounds may find this mattress to feel slightly firmer and offer more of a floating feel.
This effect is subtle at the 140’ish weight range, but as sleepers get lighter the floating feel is increased. Very light sleepers (125 pounds or less) will need to enjoy a 6.5-7’ish firmness and prefer a floating feel. Sleepers within more average and heavier weight ranges will receive a more moderate hug, balanced feel, and medium firmness.
Read our Purple mattress review to learn more.
Casper
The Casper has a medium to slightly firm feel; 6-7 out of 10 on the firmness scale (where 10 is the most firm.) Casper’s top foams are relatively soft, creating a significant level of sinkage and hug. The softer top layers can cause the Casper to feel firmer for heavier sleepers, as the increased weight results in sleepers engaging more deeply with the firmer transitional poly foam and support poly foam layers.
Read our full Casper mattress review for the full breakdown.
Leesa
The Leesa mattress has a very balanced medium feel with nice support for an all-foam mattress. We recently tested it and gave the Leesa 7 out of 10 on the firmness scale. That level of support and comfort makes it a great option for back sleepers and combination sleepers that tend to roll around a bit at night. The Leesa is best fit for people 230 lbs and below as heavier sleepers may need more support.
Read our Leesa mattress review to find out more about this great bed!
The Leesa original in the Sleepoplis studio.
Ghostbed
The Ghostbed mattress has a medium to slightly firm feel; 7 out of 10 on the firmness scale. Ghostbed’s firmness is a bit more unique, in that it differs depending on how long you’ve been lying on the mattress. When I initially lay on it, I experienced about a 7 out of 10 firmness. Once my body settled in a bit and I sank into that middle comfort memory foam layer, it began to feel softer.
Despite the fact Ghostbed uses a top layer of latex it still leans more towards a memory foam feel, especially in how dense the mattress feel. The response is a bit slower, especially once your body has fully engaged the memory foam layer.
Read my GhostBed mattress review to find out more.
Which of These Mattresses Should I Buy?
All four of these mattresses are extremely popular and have a large consumer following. They represent universal comfort at a price many sleepers can afford. These mattresses are foam hybrids, meaning that they use a variety of foam types (and polymer, in Purple’s case) to provide a dynamic feel to the mattress.
That said, there are significant differences between each of these 4 mattresses. This will likely make one of these choices a little bit better for your circumstances. So let’s just dive in.
Is the Casper, Leesa, Purple, or Ghostbed mattress best for you?
First, I think we can first break these mattresses down into two camps, all foam and elastic polymer + foam. When it comes to materials the Purple mattress is by far the most unique, using their patented hyper-elastic polymer top layer in coordination with with poly foam layers. The first question you then need to ask yourself is how important is the all foam feel to you?
The all foam mattress designs of Casper, Leesa, and Ghostbed offer a more traditional design and feel compared to Purple’s polymer design. Purple’s feel is quite unique, offering faster response, more bounce, and a feel dynamic that is in some ways like an extreme latex feel.
Second, response time is another important factor to consider. The response of a mattress is how quickly the mattress is able to adjust to your changes in movement. From fastest response to slow response the mattresses are ordered as follows:
- Purple – 1st fastest
- Leesa – 2nd fastest
- Casper – 3rd fastest
- Ghostbed – 4th fastest
If a very fast response time is essential the Purple and Leesa are the best choices. Casper isn’t a slow responding mattress by any means, but it is slower than Purple and slightly slower than Leesa (in my opinion). The Ghostbed is the slowest of these 4. This is because Ghostbed has a denser feel and a bit more of a memory foam feel. This isn’t to say this is a bad thing, but it certainly changes the feel dynamic of the Ghostbed.
Third, sinkage, hug, and feel. This is a big one, so we’ll briefly discuss the feel dynamic of each mattress. If you need a more complete breakdown of what the Casper, Leesa, Purple, and Ghostbed feel like I would recommend reading my full mattress review on each of those (see links below).
- Casper – medium feel (can feel firmer for heavier weight sleepers), significant sinkage depth in the 2.5-3.5″ range, softer top layers, fast response, more of a generalized bowl-like type of a hug and contour.
- Leesa – medium feel, consistent feel for many different body types and weight ranges, moderate sinkage depth in the 2-2.25″ range, balanced and even feel, fast response, moderate level of hug and contour.
- Purple – medium to medium firm feel (can feel firmer for lighter weight sleepers), moderate sinkage depth in the 2-2.5″ range, balanced feel, virtually instant response, moderate level of hug and contour for average weight and heavier sleepers, more of a floating feel for lighter sleepers (especially 125 pounds or less).
- Ghostbed – medium firm to slightly firm feel (can feel firmer for lighter weight sleepers), minimal to moderate sinkage depth in the 1.5-2″ range, more of a memory foam feel and denser feel, slower response, moderate level of hug and contour.
Should I buy a Purple mattress?
Purple creates the most unique feel of any mattress being compared here. This mattress has great bounce, with minimal motion transfer and great cooling. With a firmness of 6-6.5 out of 10, the Purple mattress has a medium to medium firm feel. The unique polymer helps to displace your body weight, providing a rounder contour versus traditional foam. The polymer web design (as well as the thin cover) keeps the mattress quite cool at night, as well.
The Purple has nice bounce as well as a medium mix of support and pressure relief that makes it a great pick for the combo sleepers out there.
Should I buy a Casper mattress?
Casper is an above average mattress. It has a firmness of a 6-7 out of 10. The sinkage and hug on the Casper is the most unique feel attribute. When you lie on the Casper, you feel the hug and contouring around your body. However, the contouring is not necessarily to the exact shape of your body, like what you would find with a traditional memory foam mattress. The contour is more generalized around your body, creating more of a bowl-like type of a hug.
The memory foam, latex, and heavy-duty poly foam work together to offer sleepers a beautifully balanced feel!
Should I buy a Leesa mattress?
Out of these four mattresses, Leesa is the most well rounded, in my opinion. This mattress is a nice blend of varied foam types, which provides just the right amount of hug and sinkage while maintaining some bounce and nice cooling. The memory foam layer below the comfort layer provides a nice level of contour, hug, and pressure relief.
Should I buy a Ghostbed mattress?
Ghostbed has an interesting mattress feel, especially compared to these other choices. Despite the fact that Ghostbed’s mattress design is foam combo, using a layer of latex and memory foam, the feel leans more towards the memory foam layer.
The Ghostbed has a slightly firmer feel and a denser feel. For lighter sleepers this level of push-back can be a bit much. However, for heavier sleepers the added push-back can be a benefit for support. Perhaps most importantly the Ghostbed has the slowest response of any of the mattresses we’ve compared here.
The combination of bouncy latex and body-hugging memory foam offer sleepers a nice, balanced feel.
Casper vs. Leesa vs. Purple vs. Ghostbed Comparison Specs
| Purple | Casper | Leesa | GhostBed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Layers | 3 layers (foam + elastic polymer) | 3 foam layers | 3 foam layers | 3 foam layers |
| Construction | 2" Hyper-Elastic Polymer, 3.5" Poly Foam, 4" Support Foam | 1" Perforated Airscape Foam, 2" Zoned Support Memory Foam, 8" Support Foam | 2" Comfort Layer, 2" Memory Foam, 6" Support Foam | 1.5" Aerated Latex, 2" Gel Memory Foam, 7.5" Support Foam |
| Height | 9.5" | 11" | 10" | 11" |
| Cover | white, soft with diagonal geometric embossed pattern, thin and cool | white and gray, soft with a bit of stretch | white and gray, 4 bar pattern, soft and breathable, polyester-lycra blend | white, thin soft cover, durable feel |
| Support | Very Good | Good | Very Good | Good |
| Motion Transfer | Very minimal | Minimal | Minimal | Minimal |
| Price- Queen | $1,149 | $1,095 | $1,099 | $1,140 |
| Price- King | $1,449 | $1,295 | $1,299 | $1,385 |
| Warranty | 10 years | 10 years | 10 years | 20 years |
| Trial Period | 100 nights | 100 nights | 100 nights | 101 nights |
| Shipping | Free | Free | Free, 4-10 days | Free, 2-6 days |
| Returns | Full money back, they come take mattress for free | Full money back, they come take mattress for free | Full money back, they come take mattress for free | Full money back, they come take mattress for free |
| Discounts | Purple Mattress Coupon | Casper Mattress Coupon | Leesa Coupon | GhostBed Coupon |
FAQs
How is the Purple mattress different from the Leesa, Casper and Ghostbed mattresses?
Casper, Leesa, and Ghostbed mattresses have a more traditional all foam design and feel. The Purple mattress offers a unique polymer design with faster response and more bounce.
Which mattress out of the Leesa, Purple, Casper and Ghostbed is the thickest?
Of the four mattress designs the Ghostbed offers the thickest mattress at 11″, while the other vary from 9.5″ to 10″.
Can these mattresses be purchased in a store?
The Casper, Purple, Leesa and Ghostbed mattresses are all direct-to-consumer mattress options that are sold online only.