The Saatva Classic is a high-end innerspring mattress. It uses foam for its comfort layers, while a double layer of springs provides support. The manufacturer also advertises an organic cotton cover.
The 'Luxury Firm' variant of the Saatva Classic with a double layer of pocket coils has a medium firmness level, while the official design, including a layer of continuous coils, is medium-firm. Both designs have a springy, bouncy feel, so you feel like you're sleeping 'on' instead of 'in' it. This mattress is extra bouncy if you get the official design, including a layer of continuous coils.
Note: We purchased two Saatva Classic 'Luxury Firm' mattresses for our testing. When we disassembled them, we found they each had a different design. According to Saatva, the mattress should have one layer of pocket coils and one layer of continuous coils. One of our units had the advertised design, but the other had another layer of pocket coils instead of the continuous coils. These mattresses were sold as the same model with the same firmness, and should have been identical. This difference in design resulted in major differences in performance. While we don't know how widespread the issue is, you won't be able to tell what design you have unless you cut your mattress open (which you shouldn't do, as it would void the warranty). We've included results from both designs in the review where major performance differences exist. Check out our findings on unit-to-unit differences in mattresses for more information.
Our Verdict
The Saatva Classic mattress is very good for sleeping. Its great edge support means you can sleep on the edge without feeling at risk of falling off. Like most innerspring mattresses, it's very responsive, so you can easily move around in bed. Its motion isolation performance is just decent, so you'll feel your partner's bigger movements. It's also not very cooling, and will cause hot sleepers to feel overheated.
The official Saatva Classic design, with a lower support layer of continuous coils, performed much worse for motion isolation, receiving a sub-par score of 5.1. If you sleep with a partner and you're at all concerned about being woken up by movement, it's not a good option.
Fantastic responsiveness means you won't feel stuck in place.
Very good cooling.
Good for light and average back and stomach sleepers.
Side sleepers may want something plusher.
Movement might disturb your sleep.
Uses only lower-quality, less durable foams.
The Saatva Classic mattress has decent cooling. If you don't usually sleep hot, it shouldn't create a problem. However, it's likely to make hot sleepers feel overheated, even during the first hour or so of the night. If you have any concerns about heat, it's not an ideal option.
Very good cooling.
The Saatva Classic mattress with a double layer of pocket coils has decent motion isolation. You'll feel your partner's bigger movements in the lumbar area. Movement dissipates somewhat slowly, so you feel movements for longer. You feel less motion at the head and foot of the bed, but if you're a light sleeper or your partner tends to toss and turn, it's still not the best option.
Movement might disturb your sleep.
The Saatva Classic has great edge support. The border is reinforced with firm polyfoam and effectively holds you up when you sit or sleep near the extremities. When you put pressure on one side, it forms a slight ramp outwards, which could create a feeling of slipping off when you're sitting on the very edge. However, when you're just sleeping near either side, you won't feel at risk of sliding off.
Great edge support.
The Saatva Classic mattress is extremely responsive, meaning the mattress's comfort layers bounce back almost immediately after being compressed. This makes it easy to change sleeping positions and avoids any feeling of being stuck in place.
Fantastic responsiveness means you won't feel stuck in place.
The Saatva Classic is not a durable mattress. None of the foam is dense enough to be considered good quality, including the polyfoam support layer, transition layer, and lower comfort layer, the polyfoam in the quilted top, and the strip of memory foam in the lumbar area. As a result, the mattress is likely to form permanent body impressions or start sagging sooner than mattresses with higher-quality foam layers.
Uses only lower-quality, less durable foams.
Performance Usages
Changelog
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Updated Oct 21, 2025:
Compared its motion isolation performance to the Beautyrest Mattress's.
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Updated Oct 15, 2025:
We added a link to our new article Are Mattresses As-Advertised? Our Findings On Unit-To-Unit Variance.
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Updated Oct 06, 2025:
We rewrote portions of this review to align with Test Bench 1.0.1, which adds a Longevity verdict and a score to the Foam Layer Mass Density box for users interested in the mattress's durability.
- Updated Oct 06, 2025: Converted this review to Test Bench 1.0.1. We've added scoring to the Foam Layer Mass Density section and a new 'Longevity' performance usage. Read more about it in our Changelog.
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Differences Between Sizes And Variants
The Saatva Classic mattress comes in Firm, Luxury Firm, and Plush Soft. The 14.5-inch variant is available in Twin, Twin XL, Full, Queen, King, Split King, and California King sizes. We tested the Queen-sized 14.5-inch variant in Luxury Firm, and other variants may perform differently. Here's a photo of our unit's label.
If you encounter another variant, let us know in the comments, and we'll update our review.
Popular Mattress Comparisons
The Saatva Classic is a springy, bouncy mattress with minimal contouring, so it creates a feeling of sleeping 'on' instead of 'in' your mattress. It's very responsive and has great edge support, but doesn't have good motion isolation, so you can feel your partner's movements. The Beautyrest Black has a similar feel and better motion isolation, although it's not as bouncy. If you don't mind a more static, much less bouncy feel, you might prefer a foam mattress like the Tempur-Pedic TEMPUR-Adapt. That mattress has fantastic motion isolation and better cooling, but its memory-foam feel isn't for everyone, and can make you feel stuck in place.
If you want to see more options, check out our recommendations for the best mattresses.
The Bear Elite Hybrid is a better option than the Saatva Classic. While both mattresses are fantastically responsive, the Bear outperforms the Saatva in every other area. It keeps you cooler both as you fall asleep and throughout the night and does a better job of isolating motion, so you're less likely to wake up when your sleeping partner tosses and turns. The Bear also has better edge support, so it's more comfortable to sleep near the sides.
The Helix Midnight 2024 is a better option than the Saatva Classic for most people. Both mattresses have a medium level of firmness, but the Helix comes out ahead in a few areas. The biggest difference is in edge support. On the Helix, you can sleep right next to the edge without worrying about slipping off. It's more cooling, too, and while it's not quite cooling enough for hot sleepers, it's a significant improvement over the Saatva. The Helix has slightly better motion isolation as well, though it's probably not a big enough difference to be noticeable. The one area where the Saatva comes out ahead is responsiveness. It responds more quickly when compressed, making it easier to move around on. Still, unless responsiveness is your top priority, the Helix is a better choice.
The Saatva Classic (double pocket-coil design) is a little better than the Saatva Rx. They perform quite similarly, but the Classic has much better edge support, so you can easily get in and out of bed or comfortably sleep near the edge. The Classic is a little bouncier, which gives it a springy feel and makes changing sleeping positions feel effortless. However, you sink more deeply into the Rx's upper layers, which you might prefer if you like the feeling of being 'in' your mattress versus 'on' it.
We've recently started testing mattresses. We use objective data and repeatable testing for key characteristics like firmness, cooling, and motion isolation, to ensure each mattress gets the same treatment. Since we buy all of our mattresses, we can tear them down layer by layer and isolate the mechanical properties of every component: quilted tops, foams, coils, and any special materials. Our approach gives us unprecedented insight into how each product design decision contributes to a mattress's overall performance and feel, and allows us to tailor our results to different body types and sleeping positions.
Test Results
The Saatva Classic mattress has medium firmness if you get a unit with double-pocket coils. It's suitable for average-sized back and stomach sleepers. Heavier side-sleepers may find it offers enough pressure relief, but lighter side-sleepers may want something softer.
The official Saatva Classic design, with continuous coils as a base layer, results in a firmer mattress with a 'Medium-Firm' level. This design will likely suit heavier stomach and back sleepers better, but may be overly firm for average side sleepers and lighter people in general. Here are the official Saatva design's firmness results at the head/foot of the mattress and in the lumbar area.
The all-pocket coil version of the mattress is very bouncy. This gives it a springy feel that makes it easy to shift sleeping positions. It should suit you if you want to avoid the "dead" feeling of some all-foam mattresses.
The official Saatva Classic design is even bouncier (Maximum Rebound Height: 32 cm, Level: High), which you might prefer if you like a very springy mattress. Here's a video of that mattress's bounciness performance.
This is a mattress you sleep "on" and not "in." You sink into its upper layer a bit, and it doesn't contour your body very closely.
It's extremely responsive. This hybrid mattress is made mostly of springs and polyfoam (with a thin layer of memory foam in the lumbar area), and it recovers instantly after being compressed. You won't feel stuck in place.
The double-pocket-coil design has decent motion isolation. You'll feel a lot of movement in the lumbar area when your partner rolls over, and it dissipates somewhat slowly, so you feel movements for longer. However, it's much less noticeable around your feet and head.
That said, if you get the official design with continuous coils as a base layer, its motion isolation performance is sub-par. Here are the motion isolation results for that design and a video of the official design's motion isolation performance.
If motion isolation is a priority for you, you might be interested in the Nectar Premier Hybrid or Beautyrest Mattress, which both perform better in this area.
It has great edge support. The sides of the mattress are reinforced with firm polyfoam. When sitting on the edge, it creates a slope outwards, but it's not very steep. You can sleep near the edge of the mattress without feeling at risk of slipping off. Some mattresses offer even better support when you're sitting on the edge, such as the Beautyrest Silver BRS900.
It has a decent cooling performance, so it's not a bad choice if you don't usually sleep hot. However, it's not a good option for hot sleepers, especially if feeling overheated often prevents you from falling asleep, since it feels particularly warm during the first hour you're in bed. It does a somewhat better job of dissipating heat over eight hours, but it still isn't an ideal choice if cooling is a priority.
The cover is made of organic cotton. It's not removable or machine-washable.
The edges are reinforced with polyfoam, which helps give the mattress its great edge support.
The quilted top is made of soft polyfoam and fiberfill. There's a strip of memory foam in the lumbar area, which adds extra material in that area that may help fill in the space under your lower back. The other foam layers, including the lower comfort layer, transition foam between the spring layers, and support foam at the base of the mattress, are all made of polyfoam. The near-lack of memory foam helps explain the mattress's very high responsiveness.
The official Saatva design doesn't include the thick layer of polyfoam at the base of the mattress, and its inclusion may be to compensate for the difference in height between the spring layers of the different designs.
None of the foam layers are dense enough to be considered good quality; they'll likely show signs of wear, such as sagging or permanent indentations, sooner than higher-quality foams. The polyfoam transition layer is the best-quality foam in the mattress, but it still doesn't quite meet the standard for good-quality foam.
The thickest foam layer is the quilted top fill, but at only 1.8 inches, you don't sink very deeply into it before feeling the firmer upper comfort foam. This 0.9 inch layer of foam helps prevent you from feeling the comfort layer springs. The strip of memory foam is just 0.4 inches thick and only present in the lumbar area, so it adds some extra material that may help support your lower back, but it doesn't change the feel of the mattress overall. The transition firm foam between the springs provides support for the heavier parts of your body.
According to the manufacturer's specifications and marketing, it should have a layer of pocket coils above a layer of continuous innersprings. Here's a photo of Saatva's marketing. The first unit we disassembled had that design, as you can see in a photo of the mattress's components.
The second mattress we tested has a duplicate layer of pocket springs, as you can see in the photo above. These coils are of a higher gauge and softer. Because of their individually wrapped design, pocket coils are also more contouring. So, this difference in components changes the mattress's performance quite significantly.
The quilted top and memory foam upper comfort layer are soft, so you'll sink into the upper layer. The lower comfort foam layer directly below is firmer. The transition foam between the spring layers is medium-firm, while the support foam below the support springs is very firm.
The comfort layer springs and the support layer springs are both quite firm. They help provide support for the heavier parts of your body, such as your hips when sleeping on your back.
However, the pocket coils used for the support layer in the double-pocket coil design are not as firm as the advertised design's continuous coil layer, which makes the mattress softer overall.
Here are the spring layer firmness results for the official Saatva design for the comfort layer and support layer springs.
The quilted top and comfort layer polyfoams are quite resilient, or bouncy, which helps contribute to the mattress's overall bounciness and lively feel, making it easier to move around on. The memory foam in the lumbar area has low resilience, which is expected from memory foam, but since it's just a thin strip in one area of the mattress, it doesn't make it feel less bouncy overall.
The spring layers are fairly bouncy. Combined with the resilient foam layers, they contribute to the mattress's high bounciness and springiness.
The pocket coils aren't as bouncy as the continuous coils that are part of the official Saatva Classic design, which helps explain why the units have different bounciness results overall.