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The all-foam Nectar Classic is a versatile mattress that conforms to the contours of your body to relieve pressure. It offers a premium sleep experience, but its price tag is well under a grand.
What we like
- Year-long home trial and lifetime warranty
- Impressive spinal alignment
- Outstanding motion isolation and edge support
- The medium firmness is ideal for most sleep positions
What we don't like
- Lacks the dynamic feel of more expensive mattresses
- Subpar heat dissipation
Casper revamped its all-foam mattress with The One, a medium-firm bed with stellar motion isolation and temperature regulation.
What we like
- Phenomenal motion isolation
- Great temperature regulation for a foam mattress
- Supportive when lying near edge
What we don't like
- May be too firm for some
- Mattress dips deeply when sitting on edge
Nectar and Casper are two of the most popular brands when it comes to the best mattresses. Casper is recognized for jumpstarting the bed-in-a-box concept, while Nectar helped popularize the yearlong sleep trial and "forever" warranty. The two sleep companies have garnered a devoted fan base for their supportive memory foam mattress, but there are distinct differences between both the mattresses and brands.
We've tested mattresses from both Casper and Nectar, including their popular entry-level memory foam options. This comparison will consider Casper's The One, with the Nectar Classic Memory Foam Mattress.
Below, we compare these memory foam mattresses based on a few key categories: price, design, return policy, warranty, showroom availability, delivery and set-up, comfort, cooling, edge support, and motion transfer. For more, read our full Nectar Mattress review and Casper Mattress One review.
Nectar vs Casper: Overview
| Specs | Nectar Memory Foam | Casper One |
| Best for | All sleeping styles, couples | Back and stomach sleepers |
| Sizes | Twin, twin XL, full, queen, king, California king, split king | Twin, twin XL, full, queen, king, California king, split king |
| Type | Memory foam | Memory foam |
| Firmness (1 softest to 10 firmest) | 6 | 7.5 |
| Motion isolation (1 awful to 10 best) | 8 | 7 |
| Heat dissipation (1 traps heat to 10 stays cool) | 5 | 7 |
| Edge support (1 awful to 10 best) | 7 | 4 |
| Weight (queen) | 83 pounds | 76 pounds |
| Thickness | 12 inches | 11 inches |
| Trial Period policy | 365 days | 100 nights |
| Warranty | Forever | 10-year limited |
| Showroom availability | Yes, retail partners | Yes, Casper stores and retail partners Nectar vs Casper: Design |
Design
The Nectar Classic mattress has a dual cover — a quilted poly-blend with cooling fibers, designed to be cool to the touch, and antimicrobial properties. The bottom layer of the cover holds the foams in place. While the cover is removable, doing so will void the warranty.
Below the cover, the mattress is constructed with three CertiPUR-US certified foam layers. The top most layer is pressure-relieving memory foam, followed by a three-inch transition layer that helps keep your spine aligned and promotes airflow for cooler sleep, and a eight-inch base layer for additional support.
The Casper One mattress has a top cover made from a breathable knit blend. It also has three foam layers: a layer of breathable and bouncy foam on top of the brand's newly developed Align memory foam for pressure relief and the Casper Core, the base layer.
Nectar also offers its base model as a hybrid. While Casper initially offered an entry-level hybrid, it now offers the Dream, a medium option with zoned support.
Price compared
| Twin | Twin XL | Full | Queen | King | Cal King | Split King | |
| Nectar | $349 | $549 | $599 | $649 | $849 | $849 | $1,098 |
| Casper | $749 | $849 | $949 | $999 | $1,119 | $1,399 | $1,698 |
Every size of the Nectar Memory Foam mattress costs less than the Casper One. A queen-sized Nectar mattress goes for $649, (it's valued at $1,490 despite ongoing pricing promotions) while a queen-sized Casper The One retails for $999. Casper typically discounts up to 20% off, bringing the pricing closer in line to Nectar. Both brands offer monthly payment plans so you can finance the mattress of your choice in a more affordable manner instead of an upfront payment. Both Nectar and Casper offer free shipping on mattress orders.
Trial and warranty compared
Casper has a 100-night risk-free trial period and offers a full refund when you return your mattress. The brand does have an adjustment period requirement of 30 days before you can initiate a return. To help with the process, Casper can coordinate to have your mattress picked up by a recycling center or local charity. Casper's warranty covers significant indentation (an inch or more), physical flaws, and manufacturing defects. It's only valid if you use the bed normally, care for it properly, and use a supportive foundation.
Nectar offers a 365-night home trial with a full refund, one of the longest in the industry, though it does require you to try the mattress for 30 days before requesting to return. Nectar offers a "forever warranty" on its mattresses. However, its warranty does have caveats, including that it's only valid for the original purchaser of the mattress and void if the cover has been removed. If the mattress is more than 10 years old, Nectar has the option to just repair (not replace) it and charge you shipping both ways.
Showroom availability compared
While both Casper and Nectar have found immense success offering their mattress online to ship directly to your doorstep, with lengthy trial and warranties to increase the security of your purchase, it's still natural to want to see the bed in person before you buy.
Fortunately, both have a brick-and-mortar presence through retailer partnerships, some of which may even carry both brands. Nectar mattresses can be found at over 4,000 partner showrooms nationwide including Mattress Firm, Ashley, Rooms To Go, Raymour & Flanigan, and Sit 'N Sleep, among others. The store locator also mentions which products are available on view. Caspers operates several stores, dubbed Sleep Shops, including the option to take home a mattress the same day or book a private nap on one of the beds. Casper also has retail partners of its own including Rooms To Go, Relax The Back, Sit 'N Sleep, Sleepare, and others.
Set up and delivery compared
Both Casper and Nectar ship their mattresses for free and arrive at your doorstep vacuum sealed in a large box. Nectar quotes delivery between two and five business days after shipping and Casper sets its delivery window between two and eight business days.
In general, both setup processes are pretty similar, carefully slicing through the plastic and waiting for the mattress to expand to its full size. As you can imagine, a heavier mattress is usually more difficult to set up, hence why size matters.
Both Casper and Nectar offer at-home assembly services to help you get your new mattress up and running and get rid of your old one. Nectar's at-home setup costs $199 whereas Casper's is $249.
Both brands note that it takes between 24 and 72 hours for the mattress to fully expand. That said, after 10 hours, we noticed that both mattresses were fully expanded, and the chemical-like smell from the Nectar mattress had dissipated. For the Casper One, it only took about an hour for the chemical smell to fade.
Comfort compared
Comfort is key when it comes to a mattress. A few factors determine comfort — pressure relief, cooling properties, and firmness. The Nectar mattress and Casper One are medium-firm and help promote spinal alignment and pressure relief for a comfortable night's sleep for back, side, and stomach sleepers.
We were most comfortable sleeping on our sides with the Nectar mattress, but any position was still pretty good. For Casper, we preferred sleeping on our stomachs, and it's also well-suited for back sleepers. Side sleepers may find it too firm.
Heat dissipation compared
There's nothing worse than waking up in a puddle of sweat in the middle of the night. Luckily, both Casper and Nectar's mattresses can dissipate heat well enough to keep you more comfortable and help regulate body temperature.
The Casper One was breathable and cool, even in the heat of Texas summer. It's not the most cooling mattress we've tested, but you should stay comfortable, even if you're a hot sleeper. If you're looking to sleep cooler with the Casper lineup, the Casper Snow is the most recommended option for hot sleepers; it uses a phase-change material (PCM) to keep you cool during the night on its top layer. The One has a cozy knit layer.
We noticed that Nectar's mattress was just okay at dissipating heat, dropping just nine degrees during one of our tests. Our tester also noticed that he noticeably warm while sleeping on the Nectar Classic. Based on our testing, Casper edges out Nectar in terms of heat dissipation.
Edge support compared
Edge support ensures that the sides of the mattress don't sink when pressure is applied. We felt fully supported on our Nectar mattress and had to roll quite far to the side before actually falling off the bed. When measured with a ruler, it also sank 3 inches which is less than 3.5 inches from other mattresses we've tested in the past.
On the other hand, we noticed Casper mattresses had less sturdy edge support and experienced more significant sagging, especially when sitting on the edge. It's difficult to sit on the edge of the mattress to get dressed in the morning, and it would be hard for people with mobility issues to get in and out of bed. Our tester didn't feel like she was going to roll off while sleeping, but the edge support still left much to be desired.
Motion transfer compared
Motion isolation is important for couples who might share the same bed as small movements may be felt by the other person during the night. We tested the motion isolation by dropping a bowling ball four feet from the air and observed whether it knocked over a soda can. For both the Nectar and the Casper mattresses, the can didn't tip when we dropped the ball, both exhibiting minimal motion transfer.
The bottom line
Both Nectar and Casper offer bed-in-a-box options for different types of sleepers at a variety of price points. If you have to choose between the Nectar mattress and the Casper One, the Nectar is better overall, with sturdy edge support, easy set-up, and a more affordable price point. That said, hot sleepers might prefer using a Casper because of how well the heat dissipates through the memory foam layers. Nectar will also be a better choice for side and back combination sleepers, while back and stomach combination sleepers will find more support with the Casper One.
Read our full Nectar Mattress review and Casper One review.
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