Best open coil mattresses
Open coil springs are joined by wire, so movement travels across the mattress. That matters entirely and only when two people share it.
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An open coil mattress, sometimes called a Bonnell or continuous coil unit, has springs joined together by wire into a single structure. Press one and its neighbours move with it.
A pocket sprung mattress puts each spring in its own fabric pocket, so they compress independently and the surface follows the shape of your body rather than the general region.
That difference has one consequence that matters: on a shared bed, one person turning over moves the other side of the mattress, and no comfort layer on top compensates for it.
On a single bed, there is nobody for that movement to reach. Which is why open coil is a sound, durable, cheap construction in one context and the wrong purchase in the other.
The picks
The pick, if you want one answer
Silentnight Sleep Now Range, 6.7 / 10. Honest budget construction from a manufacturer that has been making beds in Britain since 1946.
| Product | Best for | From | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| Silentnight Sleep Now Range | Best budget option | From £169 | 6.7 / 10 |
| Silentnight Just Sleep Range | Cheapest sensible entry | Budget | 6.2 / 10 |
| Emma Original Lite Mattress | The pocket sprung alternative | £199 | 7.3 / 10 |
Silentnight Sleep Now Range: Best budget option
From £169 · 6.7 / 10
From £169. For a child's bed, a guest room, a student room or anyone sleeping alone, a well-made open coil mattress is sound engineering rather than a compromise.
Confirm which spring type any given model uses before ordering, because ranges mix constructions. If a listing does not use the word pocket, assume it is open coil.
Buy it if
One sleeper, and price is the deciding factor.
Do not buy it if
Two people will share it.
Read the full Silentnight Sleep Now Range review
Silentnight Just Sleep Range: Cheapest sensible entry
Budget · 6.2 / 10
Scores 6.2. Honest entry pricing, and the specification is what you would expect at the bottom of the market. For a spare room used a few nights a year it is a reasonable allocation of money.
Buy it if
You need the lowest possible price for occasional or short-term use.
Do not buy it if
It is a main bed for an adult.
Read the full Silentnight Just Sleep Range review
Emma Original Lite Mattress: The pocket sprung alternative
£199 · 7.3 / 10
A three-zone pocket spring layer at £199 with a 200 night trial. Thirty pounds above a basic open coil mattress buys independent spring response and zoning, which is the single biggest step up available at this end of the market.
Buy it if
You are close to the open coil price and could stretch by a little.
Do not buy it if
The budget genuinely stops below this.
Read the full Emma Original Lite Mattress review
What you actually gain and lose
| Open coil | Pocket sprung | |
|---|---|---|
| Motion transfer | High. Springs are linked. | Low. Springs are independent. |
| Contouring | Responds by region | Responds by small area |
| Durability | Good. Simple and robust. | Good |
| Cost | Lowest | Higher, and now close at the entry level |
| Suits a shared bed | No | Yes |
| Suits one sleeper | Yes | Yes |
Note that durability is not the weakness. Open coil units are simple and robust, and the reputation problem comes from the mattresses they are usually put in rather than the springs themselves.
Where open coil is genuinely the right buy
A child's bed. A child barely compresses a mattress, so independent spring response does very little for them. Firm and waterproof matters far more.
A guest room used occasionally by one person. Though if two guests may share, pocket springs are worth the difference.
A student or rental bed where the mattress will be left behind.
A bunk bed, where depth is limited by the guard rail anyway, usually to around 15 centimetres.
In each case the money saved is better spent on a protector and a pillow at the right height than on spring construction nobody will benefit from.
Firm is why cheap mattresses work
Budget mattresses get criticised for being too firm, as though firmness were a cost-cutting measure. It is closer to the opposite.
A soft mattress works by letting you sink, so every spring in contact with you must compress differently, which needs a high count and independent pockets. A firm mattress does not have that problem, because you are not sinking far enough for grouping to matter.
So a firm open coil mattress is sound engineering, and a soft cheap mattress usually is not: it produces exactly the hammock effect it was meant to avoid.
Three things to check before ordering
The spring type. Listings frequently say sprung without specifying. Ask.
The base. Slats more than about 7.5 centimetres apart cause sagging and void most guarantees, and it applies just as much to a £169 mattress as a £1,700 one.
Whether it is turnable. Many budget mattresses are single-sided and only need rotating head to foot. Do that every two to three months and more often in the first year, because it is the only wear management available.
What not to do
Buy open coil for a shared double. The one situation where it is wrong at any price.
Buy a soft open coil mattress. Soft needs independent springs to work.
Assume sprung means pocket sprung. If the listing does not say pocket, assume it is not.
Buy open coil for a heavier adult. Fine for a child or a light sleeper, and pocket springs are worth the difference above that.
Skip the protector to save money. A stain voids most guarantees absolutely.
Also considered, and why they are not here
A roundup is only as useful as what it leaves out, so here is what was assessed and rejected for this list.
| Product | Why it is not on the list |
|---|---|
| Inofia Elegant | Twenty-seven centimetres and a spring core at around £210, which is more mattress than a basic open coil unit for not much more money. |
| Mlily Memory Gel 200 | Scores 5.5 and has no springs at all despite the number. At this money a spring layer of some kind is available. |
| Memory One | Not scored. Budget foam rather than springs, which gives up both airflow and the resistance to body impressions that steel provides. |
| Simba Hybrid Kids | Scores 7.6 and is built around waterproofing and washability, which matter more in a child's bed than spring construction does. |
How this list is made, and who made it
Independence
No brand pays to appear on this site and no placement is sold. Some links earn a commission if you buy, which never changes a score, an order or a verdict. Several of the lowest scores here are on products that carry commission, and several recommendations carry none.
Who writes this. Kyle Klinkradt has worked in the mattress and bedding industry for over ten years across retail, distribution and brand partnerships, and has handled, sold or assessed products from every major UK bed-in-a-box brand. Every review on this site is written by one person, so the scores mean the same thing from page to page.
What the assessment is. Construction specifications against what they physically do: spring height and where in the mattress it sits, spring count for the size, gauge, whether the base is sprung or foam, foam density where it is published, comfort layer depth and material. Then the commercial terms that decide what you are actually buying: trial against returns policy, guarantee length against the company's UK trading history at Companies House, and the regulatory record.
What it is not. This is not a laboratory. I do not publish pressure-mapping data or claim to have slept eight years on every mattress here, because nobody has and pages that imply otherwise are not telling you the truth. Where a judgement rests on construction rather than long-term use, the review says so.
What gets a product removed. Leaving the UK market, a specification change that makes the review inaccurate, or a corrected fact. Brands that have withdrawn are kept on the site with the score removed rather than quietly deleted, because people still search for them.
See editorial independence, corrections and the author page.
How these were chosen
Every product here has its own review on this site with a score out of 10, and the score is a judgement rather than an average. Nothing appears in a list because it pays more.
A score is against the market, not against its own range. The cheapest mattress in a lineup is usually priced to make the model above it look reasonable, and the flagship of a budget range has risen into a bracket where better brands compete. Both are judged against what else you could buy for the money.
Everything listed can actually be bought in the UK. That is not a given: Casper withdrew in July 2020 and Leesa no longer sells here, and both still appear in current British roundups with affiliate links attached.
I do not pad the list. Where only three or four products genuinely qualify, there are three or four. A list of seven when the category contains four good ones is a list with three bad recommendations in it.
Prices move constantly. Judge the cash price on the day rather than any percentage beside it. See every review on this site or where the real savings are.
Related guides
Other pages on this site covering the same ground.
- Best zip and link beds and mattresses
- Best wool mattresses
- Best waterproof mattresses
- Best travel cot mattresses
Questions people ask
What is an open coil mattress?
One where the springs are joined together by wire into a single unit, sometimes called Bonnell or continuous coil. Press one spring and its neighbours move with it, so the mattress responds by region rather than by small area.
Is an open coil mattress bad?
Not in itself. It is simple, robust and cheap, and it is the wrong choice for a shared bed, because one person turning over moves the other side of the mattress and no comfort layer on top compensates.
When should I buy an open coil mattress?
For one sleeper: a child's bed, a guest room, a student or rental bed, or a bunk bed where depth is limited anyway. The money saved is better spent on a protector and a pillow at the right height.
How do I tell if a mattress is pocket sprung?
The listing will say pocket. If it only says sprung, springs or coil, assume it is open coil and ask before ordering.