Those of you who have been studiously following the mattress industry for several years (Ed: er, that’s just you) will remember when Simba just sold one mattress. It was a simple time when kids played outdoors and helicopter parenting was where your parents spun you round (Ed: get on with it). The idea was that Simba sold one mattress which was just right for most people. In fact, they continue to use the line that the “perfect mattress didn’t exist, so we invented it”.
Over the last decade or so, Simba has been steadily increasing its range of mattresses. As I type this, there are 12 Simba mattresses and there will probably be 13 by the time I’ve finished the sentence.
This is good news if you like the Simba brand and want plenty of choice. It’s less good news if you are a baffled consumer who just wants someone to point them in the right direction.
This guide will give a summary of the Simba range and then go into more detail on their original mattress – The Simba Hybrid Original Mattress.
Here’s our summary, followed by the full review.
What about Black Friday offers for 2024 at Simba?
But wait! Before we get onto the waffle about different Simba mattresses, we thought we should shove in a section about Black Friday. It’s a popular time to invest in a new mattress.
Simba’s current Black Friday offer continues until 02/12/24 and includes up to 25% mattresses.
You can see Simba’s Black Friday offers here.
What mattresses are in the Simba range? How do they compare?
Before we attempt to compare Simba’s mammoth range of mattresses, it is worth pointing two important details. All of the Simba mattresses:
- come with a 200 night trial, so you can send it back if you don’t like it.
- come with a 10 year guarantee.
- are described as medium firm by Simba. Of course, there will be differences in feel but that’s the official line!
Right onto the range!
Simba’s Five Hybrid Mattresses
Five of Simba’s mattresses are described as ‘hybrid’ mattresses. In this case, the term means a mattress that combines memory foam with springs. Memory foam is the newfangled way of making a mattress. Springs is the old school and traditional way of making a mattress. Both methods have good and bad points, so the idea is to offer something in the middle.
The hybrid mattresses made by Simba, are best ranked in order of price (we’ll give pound symbols after the name when referring to them help you keep up).
1. Simba Hybrid Essential (£)
Simba Hybrid Essential (£699 for double) comes in a smaller range of sizes than other Simba mattresses, but you can get the most popular sizes of single, double, king and small double (queen).
The reason it is the cheapest of the Simba Hybrid mattresses is that you are getting fewer springs and fewer layers.
The Hybrid Essential (£) has just 1500 mini springs rather than 2000 mini springs plus an extra layer of 1000 larger springs that come with the Simba Hybrid Original (££). This makes it 5cm shallower than the Simba Hybrid Original (££) at 20cm. This is just about within my range of acceptable mattress depth, but I avoid mattresses which are less than 20cm deep as I weigh about 13 stone and don’t want to feel the bed frame.
Forgive me for getting deep into mattress history, but I am 99% sure that the Simba Hybrid Original previously just had a layer of mini springs and that they added the larger springs later. If I’m correct on that then the Simba Hybrid Essential (£) is similar to the original Simba Hybrid even though it’s 5cm shallower. I mention this in case you were a big fan of the original design and want to replicate the feeling with your new mattress.
2. Simba Hybrid Original (££)
We are going to talk about Simba Hybrid Original in much more detail later (and I mean much more detail!) so we won’t jabber on too much here. This was the one that kick started Simba’s success. We’ve got one of these have been pleased with it from the start.
You get an extra 5cm of depth compared to the Simba Hybrid Essential (£) and you get an extra 500 mini springs plus an extra later of 1000 standard size springs.
This is a big upgrade in my opinion and makes it more of a ‘hybrid’ than the Simba Hybrid Essential (£).
It is currently £819 and comes in a much bigger range of sizes than the Simba Hybrid Essential (£).
3. Simba Hybrid Pro (£££)
Next up is the Simba Hybrid Pro (£1229 for a double). It is 3cm deeper than the Simba Hybrid Original (££) to allow space for a couple more layers. You get two layers of mini springs rather than one layer. You also get a layer of wool, which is naturally good at regulating temperature. Other than that, it’s very similar. We will move on later to the Simba Earth mattresses, which make a lot more of natural materials.
The Simba Hybrid Pro (£££) has a couple of advantages over the Essential (£) model. Most notably, you can get it in super king size as well as a couple of unusual European sizes.
Incidentally, I always find it curious when mattress brands describe a model as being their ‘pro’ edition. Are they suggesting this is the mattress for professional sleepers? I digress…
4. Simba Hybrid Luxe (££££)
The Simba Hybrid Luxe (£1759 for double) adds more depth. It is 6cm deeper than the standard Simba Hybrid Original (££) and has yet more layers. That includes three layers of mini springs (yes, three!). The spring count is also higher with 5000 crammed onto each layer rather than 2000. It includes the wool layer you get with the Hybrid Pro (£££) but it is a ‘bamboo infused wool layer’ which aims to be slightly better at ‘moisture wicking’.
I have two words of warning with the Simba Hybrid Luxe. The extra layers make it 31cm deep, so your standard size fitted sheets may be a struggle. You might end up buying extra deep sheets to avoid whacking yourself in the eye whilst changing the sheets. Secondly, the extra depth makes this a heavy mattress so wrestling with it is a bit of a task.
The Simba Hybrid Luxe is available in the usual sizes, as well as a couple of unusual ones. Unlike, the Essential (£) model you can buy it in super king size. However, the range of sizes isn’t as good as the Hybrid Original (££) and Hybrid Pro (£££) models, presumably because they don’t sell as many of these luxurious models.
5. Simba Hybrid Ultra Mattress (£££££)
Your final choice if you want one of Simba’s hybrid mattresses is the Simba Hybrid Ultra Mattress. This one is significantly more expensive than the Simba Hybrid Luxe (££££) at £2899. In fact, you could buy three of the Simba Hybrid Original mattresses and still have about £400 leftover to spend on a few pillows and bedsheets (or a TV).
So, is it worth the whopping price tag? After all, for that sort of money you could buy a Vispring mattress, which is one of the poshest and longest established mattress brands around.
Honestly, I would say that it’s only really worth the upgrade if you are in a money-is-no-object situation. It has an increased number of springs compared to the Simba Hybrid Luxe (££££) but mattresses tend to operate on a diminished returns basis. Upgrading from an 800 spring mattress to a 1000 spring mattress is money well spent. Those extra 200 springs will make a noticeable difference. It’s an obvious thing to say but if you added 200 springs to a mattress with 5000 springs then we probably wouldn’t even be able to tell.
The Simba Hybrid Ultra (£££££) has an extra couple of layers compared to the Simba Hybrid Luxe (££££) but the differences are quite subtle.
You get a slightly thicker cover, a load more mini springs, a ‘smaller carbon footprint’ and more natural materials such as charcoal, latex, wool and bamboo. However, if natural materials are a priority then I would look at the Simba Earth range instead or our guide to natural mattresses.
So yes, the Simba Hybrid Ultra (£££££) is a better mattress and it has some nice bells and whistles, but don’t feel that you need to splash out this sort of money to get a decent mattress – the Simba Hybrid Original (££) is perfectly good enough for most people (including myself).
As with the Simba Hybrid Essential (£) there is a reduced range of sizes available. You will gather from this that the ‘fringe’ mattresses are less popular than Simba’s mid priced models, such as the Simba Hybrid Original (££) and the Simba Hybrid Pro (£££).
Simba’s Three Earth Mattresses
The next set of mattresses in the Simba range are their Earth mattresses.
These three are manufactured in a much more ‘traditional’ way than Simba’s hybrid models. Instead of lots of layers of foam working with springs, these use springs with natural materials.
Simba’s Earth mattresses also look a lot more like a traditional mattress, as they have what’s called a tufted finish. This means that they have a series of buttons on top that keep it all held together. In many ways, they are similar to the sort of mattress you associate with brands like Vispring, Rest Assured and Sealy (pedants will point out the Sealy and Rest Assured have some hybrid models, but let’s not get too nerdy).
They do have some things in common with the Simba Hybrid models. For example, they are all described as ‘medium-firm’.
The BIG plus point over a lot of traditional mattress brands is that you get Simba’s 200 night trial and 10 year warranty. A few years ago, a home trial on a pocket spring mattress was very unusual.
Is an Earth mattress more environmentally friendly than a Hybrid mattress?
Another selling point is that natural mattresses are generally easier to recycle and can be more environmentally friendly when they are manufactured. As with most environmental issues, it is complex and it’s easy to be taken in by ‘greenwash’ but there is some evidence to back this up.
One study from 2012 concluded that:
Natural fibre (biomaterial) pocket spring mattresses are shown to emit marginally less greenhouse gasses than foam (petrochemical) pocket spring mattresses.’
Glew, Stringer et al
We cover this topic in more detail in our guide to natural mattresses.
Rolled or flat?
Unlike the Simba Hybrid models, the Earth models aren’t rolled up. Pocket sprung mattresses like these don’t roll up as neatly as mattresses which are mostly foam.
As an aside, it is fascinating to a mattress geek like me that Simba has gone down the road of offering these more traditional designs. Back in the day, Simba was seen as disrupting the companies selling this type of mattress and offering radically different designs. Now, it is competing with them by offering similar models. Anyway, this is only of interest to me and about three other people in the world, so let’s get on with comparing the three Simba Earth models.
We will give each mattress a (£) rating to give you an idea of how it fits in with the rest of the Simba range.
1. Simba Earth Source Mattress (£££)
The Simba Earth Source mattress (£££) is the cheapest of the three Earth models. It is priced somewhere between the Simba Hybrid Pro (£££) and the Simba Hybrid Luxe (££££).
It uses a combination of 750 larger springs and 2500 smaller springs to give you support. That 750 number would be considered low if it was the only thing supporting you (my preference is a mattress with 1000+ springs). However, once you combine with the smaller springs and the multiple layers of natural materials, it will provide a decent level of support.
The top two layers use wool, which is natural good as controlling your temperature when you sleep.
Further down there is a hemp and flax.
- Hemp is a plant in the same class as cannabis, but doesn’t contain the same ‘active ingredient’. It grows quickly and is very absorbent and hypoallergenic (there’s a useful summary on this page from respected mattress make Harrison Spinks).
- Flax is also made from a plant and is good at controlling moisture (John Ryan by Design has a good section on flax)
However, whilst hemp and flax are good quality, they aren’t quite as luxurious as the materials used in the more expensive Simba Earth mattresses.
2. Simba Earth Escape Mattress (££££)
For an upgraded price you get a Simba Earth mattress which is 3cm deeper.
The biggest upgrade is an extra layer of mini springs (known as ‘high carbon steel microcoil’ springs by Simba). You get 1000 of these with the Simba Earth Escape Mattress (££££) which aren’t included with the Simba Earth Source Mattress (£££).
However, it’s worth noting that the number of the larger springs is the same with both mattresses. These are what provide the bulk of support on a pocket spring mattress. The smaller springs are more about comfort and contouring to your body shape.
Besides that, the Earth Escape (££££) and Earth Source (£££) models are very similar.
3. Simba Earth Apex (£££££)
The money-is-no-object choice in the Simba Earth range is the Apex mattress. It’s another couple of centimetres deeper than the Simba Earth Escape Mattress – and several hundred pounds more expensive.
The number of full size springs is the same as the Simba Earth Escape (££££) and the Simba Earth Source (£££) but it has even more mini springs.
As well as the hemp, flax and wool that you get in the other models, it also has mohair, organic silk and cashmere.
- Mohair is a posh material from Angora goats. It is good at regulating temperature but is more expensive than standard wool.
- Silk is made from the larvae of silkworms. Yes, this is very weird but let’s worry about that too much. The actual amount used in mattresses tends to be very small as it’s expensive.
- Cashmere comes from cashmere goats and pashmina goats and is a particularly soft material. Simba uses upcycled cashmere, presumably made from jumpers which belonged to posh people.
So, is it worth upgrading from the Simba Earth Source (£££) to the Simba Earth Apex (££££)? Well, as with the Simba Hybrid models, I would say that the upper end upgrades are relatively small. The extra layer of posh materials and more mini springs is welcome, but the two things that make the most difference to how a pocket spring mattress feels is the larger springs and the layers of material near to the top of the mattress. In this case, the number of large springs doesn’t change between models and the top layers are made of the same (high quality) materials.
A note from Simba’s green archives
Mattress historians (Ed: eh?) may also be interested to realise that there was once a Simba mattress called the Simba Green Organic GO Hybrid Mattress. I’m giving it a mention for anyone who bought one and is interested to know how it compares to the current range.
The Green Organic GO was similar to the Simba Earth mattresses but it used latex instead of wool, hemp, flax and cashmere.
Latex is a material which we are big fans of in mattresses (see our latex mattress guide if you are really keen). It is supportive without having as many issues around overheating as memory foam.
Latex is a natural material and there is some evidence that it omits fewer ‘volatile organic compounds’ than a foam layer (this is according to WebMD). This should be seen as a positive thing for the user.
A Chinese study published in 2020 also praised latex after comparing different mattress materials. It noted that younger people in the study had ‘high evaluation on memory foam and latex mattress in supine and lateral position’. To put it another way, it was popular with young people who sleep on their back and side.
The main downside with latex is cost, which is why latex mattresses use a thin layer rather than making a significant proportion of the mattress from latex.
Simba’s two budget foam mattresses
Besides the Simba Hybrid models and the Simba Earth models, there are also foam models.
As you will have guessed, these don’t use any springs at all.
1. Simbatex Essential Foam Mattress (£)
The Simbatex Essential Foam mattress is the cheapest model.
Its does away with the complex combination of layers but still keeps the valuable 200 night trial period and 10 year guarantee.
For your money you get a 100% foam mattress with two layers and zero springs. The bottom layer is ‘zoned’ which means that it offers varying levels of support for different parts of your lumpy body (no offence). Foam mattresses can get a little warm, but the Simbatex material tries to overcome this with ‘open cell’ foam to allow air to circulate.
My main reservation with the Simbatex Essential Foam Mattress is that it is a little on the thin side. It measures 19cm deep, whereas the original Simba Hybrid is 25cm deep. If you are light as a feather than 19cm will be fine for you but heavier people might prefer a deeper mattress.
2. Simbatex Foam Mattress (£)
The Simbatex Foam Mattress is more beefed up and more luxurious than the Simbatex Essential Foam Mattress.
It is 100% foam but you get an extra layer and significantly more depth. It is 25cm deep whereas the budget Simbatex is 6cm deep.
The design is similar to the Simbatex Essential but the zoned foam base is deeper and it has a ‘Simba response foam layer’.
You will probably have guessed that you still get Simba’s 200 night trial period and 10 year warranty.
A little more detail on the Simba Hybrid Original
Let’s move on to a more detailed looked at Simba’s biggest selling mattress. The Simba Hybrid Original is the one that started it all – it has also been known as the Simba Mattress and the Simba Hybrid Mattress.
We’re going to look at pros and cons and customer review scores before taking a look inside at how it’s made and how it works.
Pros and cons of the Simba Hybrid Original Mattress
Pros:
- Multiple awards from publications such as Good Housekeeping, T3 and the Daily Mail
- Thousands of positive reviews
- Very long trial period and 10-year warranty
- Arrives in a box, which makes moving it upstairs easier
- Uses high quality spring design
Cons:
- Tends to be more expensive than rivals such as Nectar Sleep, Emma Mattress or OTTY Hybrid
- Can be a bit confusing if you are attempting to understand how it compares to all the other Simba mattresses.
What reviews do customers give the Simba Mattress?
Simba’s Hybrid mattress gets very positive reviews from customers. When we checked in 2024 we found the following scores:
- Simba Sleep’s own website gives a score of 4.8/5 from more than 124,000 reviews for the Simba brand
- Amazon.co.uk customers give the Simba Hybrid Original mattress a score of 3.9/5 from more than 900 reviews.
- Argos.co.uk customers give the Simba Hybrid Original mattress a score of 4.7/5 from more than 140 reviews
On TrustPilot the Simba Sleep brand scores 4.5/5 from more than 48,000 reviews. That score is for the brand as a whole rather just than the hybrid mattress. However, for a long time they old sold the Simba Hybrid Original Mattress so we can assume that a lot of the reviews relate to the original model.
Does the Simba mattress get better reviews than other mattress brands?
For the purposes of comparison, we researched the brand scores for all of the ‘bed in a box’ mattress companies that we could find on TrustPilot. We searched for the TrustScore in 2024 and have ranked them from highest to lowest.
- Ergoflex – 4.8/5
- Simba Sleep – 4.5/5
- OTTY – 4.5/5
- Nectar Sleep – 4.2/5
- REM Fit – 4.1/5
- Emma Mattress – 4/5
- Eve Sleep – 3.9/5
It’s worth noting that these ‘bed in a box’ mattresses score very highly when compared to most traditional mattress manufacturers. You can see the full rundown in our mattresses beginners’ guide.
What type of mattress is the Simba Hybrid Original Mattress?
The Simba mattress is what’s known as a ‘hybrid’ mattress, meaning that it uses springs and foam.
It has several layers including two layers of springs. One layer is a ‘unique patented spring-comfort layer’ meaning that the springs are a lot smaller than the pocket springs that you get in most mattresses. The other layer is 1000 ‘barrel springs’ which are much larger. My understanding is that barrel springs are a synonym for pocket springs, which is a much more common term used in the mattress industry.
It’s also worth realising that it is quite different to most ‘memory foam’ mattresses. A lot of people don’t like the sinking feeling of memory foam or find that it makes them feel a bit hot. Mattresses like the Simba Hybrid Original Mattress use memory foam a bit lower down. The idea is that you get the memory foam support without the downsides.
The scientific benefits of memory foam
Memory foam as a material has been shown to be good at spreading out your weight and reducing pressure points. This was discovered by Swedish academics who examined hospital patients recovering from hip operations.
The patients using memory foam mattresses developed less severe pressure ulcers than those using standard hospital mattresses. They didn’t cut down the ‘incidence of pressure ulcers’ but they did help with the severity. Regardless of the setting, the ability to spread your weight out more evenly is a definite plus point (see research by Gunningberg, Lindholm et al, 2013).
You’ll often see the Simba Hybrid Original mattress described as a ‘bed in a box’ mattress. You’ll be shocked to hear that this is because it arrives squashed into a box and then expands upon arrival. This is a pretty common way of delivering a mattress nowadays. It makes it easier to get it up the stairs and it also cuts down on delivery and storage costs for the mattress company.
What does it mean when a mattress is ‘zoned’?
The Simba Hybrid Original also has a ‘zoned’ base which is a term you see commonly used in mattress descriptions. It means that the feel of the material varies to support different parts of your body in different ways.
Iranian academics (Leilnahari, Fatouraee et al) explored the benefits of mattress zones in a 2011 paper which focused on side sleepers (‘Spine alignment in men during lateral sleep position: experimental study and modeling’).
The reason for using zones – as they explained – is that ‘Soft surfaces cause the increase in low back pain due to incorrect support of vertebral column’…(whereas)… ‘mattresses with high stiffness lead to shoulder pain, and cause the decrease in sleep quality and improper distribution of body loads’.
Therefore, they concluded that ‘ surfaces with different zonal elasticity’ were a ‘more appropriate choice for heavier men with pronounced body contour’. The study was limited to male participants and only looked at side sleeping but the principles are interesting nonetheless.
Is the Simba Hybrid Original a popular mattress?
It’s worth mentioning at this point how quickly the Simba Mattress has risen in popularity since it launched in the UK about five years ago. The data below is from Google Trends, which is a simple way of showing relative popularity of search terms over time.
The blue line below shows the popularity of the search term ‘Silentnight mattress’ by Google users in the UK. As you can see, it increased steadily from around 2004 to 2012 as the idea of buying a mattress online gained in popularity. Since then, it has remained pretty constant, albeit with peaks and troughs caused by bank holiday sales and so on.
Meanwhile, the search term ‘simba mattress’ (shown in red) emerged in mid 2016. Within a couple of months it was matching ‘silentnight mattress’ as a search term. Since then, ‘simba mattress’ has overtaken ‘silentnight mattress’ and in recent years has been well ahead.
This rapid rise in a brand is what marketing people would call ‘disruptive’. Brands such as Simba Sleep arrived offering something completely different, including a small choice and the chance to try out a mattress without commitment.
How firm is the Simba Hybrid Original Mattress?
Rather curiously, there isn’t a mattress-industry-wide policy on how to measure firmness.
So, one mattress company’s firm mattress could be the same as another company’s ‘very firm’ mattress. It’s a bit like buying a size 10 top from three different shops and finding that only one of them fits you.
If you’re buying online, the best you can do is to gather together lots of opinions of how firm a mattress is and then find a consensus.
Let me save you a job and tell you that most guides describe the Simba Hybrid Original Mattress as either medium or medium-firm. Amongst those guides is the official Q&A from Simba Sleep, which is obviously the most authoritative source. They call it medium-firm, with a bit of extra explanation.
Is the Simba Hybrid Original mattress the right firmness for you?
Picking the right firmness mattress for you is important and there are three main things to consider:
- heavier people generally need to buy a firmer mattress than a lighter person. Heavy people sink into soft mattresses too much whilst light people will just lie on the top of a firm mattress without sinking in at all, which isn’t a good sleeping position.
- people who mostly sleep on their sides need softer mattresses than people who sleep on their back. This is because side sleepers put more pressure on their hips and shoulders.
- the idea that a very firm mattress is best for a bad back is an old myth. Experts like the Sleep Council emphasise the importance of getting a ‘supportive’ mattress rather than a rock solid one, regardless of your build.
Has the Simba Mattress won major awards?
In recent years, Simba Sleep has won as many trophies as Manchester City. Well, that’s a slight exaggeration but the website says they’ve won ’14 industry awards’ for the Simba Hybrid Original plus other awards for other models:
- Approval from the Good Housekeeping Institute in 2018. They said that ‘The 5 layers provides idyllic support’. On the issue of heat, they said that ‘The Simba Hybrid (Original) mattress would be ideal in the summer heatwave as all of our testers love how the mattress regulates their body temperature.’
- Product of the Year 2018 (Mattress Category in something called the Consumer Survey of Product Innovation)
- Product of the Year 2020 (Hybrid Mattress Category in the same awards). They said that ‘no matter where you lie on your mattress, your Simba Hybrid® (Original) Mattress offers the same great support from one corner to the other.’
- 10/10 from the Daily Mail. They said that it is ‘comfortingly squishy and satisfyingly supportive, it lulled me into the best night’s sleep I’ve had in years’.
There are also plenty of video reviews online, such as one from Dipscovery.
Which shops sell the Simba Mattress?
Most people buy the Simba Hybrid Original mattress direct from Simba’s website. There are occasionally discount codes and deals for the mattress or for a bundle including the Simba pillow or other products.
However, the Simba Hybrid Original mattress is available from a few big retailers which is unusual for a ‘bed in a box’. These include Argos and John Lewis & Partners. This means you can try it out in a store fairly easily, which I would always recommend (although the 200 night free return does make it less important). I would advise calling ahead if you are making a journey.
I searched all the websites selling the Simba Hybrid Original to see which was cheapest in 2024. There’s no guarantee this will always be the case, as prices do vary.
Anyway, when we checked the price for a double mattress including delivery was:
- £653 on SimbaSleep.com
- £647 on JohnLewis.com
- £729 on Argos.co.uk
- £653 on Amazon.co.uk
This is just the price on one day, but it shows that it’s worth shopping around as there was about £70 between the highest and lowest price.
Do Simba Mattresses come with long trial periods and warranties?
As with a lot of these ‘bed in a box’ mattresses, you get a home trial period where you pay for the mattress and then have options if you don’t like it.
The best home trials include picking up the mattress for free and giving you a refund if you don’t like it. Others offer you the option to swap for another mattress from the same brand. Both are a definite step up from buying a mattress online without trying it first, but the refund option is obviously preferable to a swap.
The Simba Hybrid Original mattress comes with a 200 night home trial period so you can return it for a refund within the first seven months or so. Read the smallprint, although it’s quite straightforward. This is a pretty generous offer which is only beatern a few brands. Mattresses on sale in the UK with a 365 night trial include those sold by Eve Sleep, Nectar Sleep and Dreamcloud.
At one stage, Simba Sleep’s trial period was 100 nights, but it then increased to 200 nights. I’d say that you should have a pretty good idea if the mattress is right for you after a few weeks, but you never know. The advantage of a 200-night trial over a 100-night trial is that you can try it in winter and summer.
Simba’s 10 year warranty
The Simba Hybrid Original mattress comes with a 10 year guarantee. ‘Traditional’ mattresses which are mostly made from springs tend to offer somewhere between one and ten years’ guarantee (apart from Vispring which offers 30 years), whilst foam ‘bed in a box’ mattresses usually offer between 5 years and ‘forever’ (in the case of the Nectar Sleep).
Read the smallprint as the warranty doesn’t cover everything. For example, at the time of writing it doesn’t include ‘ordinary wear and tear’ which seems reasonable.
We investigated the question of whether Simba Sleep’s warranty length of 10 years compares well to similarly priced pocket spring mattresses. To do this, we looked at the warranty offered with every pocket sprung mattress sold by Mattress Online priced at £600-£700. At the time of writing, there were 21 mattresses with that criteria and only three which offered the same length as Simba Sleep. None of them exceeded the 10 years from Simba and the majority offered a 5 year warranty. We checked prices in 2021.
Are there Simba Mattress discount codes?
The main place that you’ll find Simba Sleep discount codes is on the Simba Sleep website (shocking, eh?)
We add discount codes to our top 10 mattress guide and to the top of this page regularly, but we mostly find these by visiting the mattress company’s website.
Similarly priced alternatives to the Simba Mattress
There are several similarly priced ‘bed in a box’ mattresses if you want an alternative to the Simba Hybrid Original mattress. Some are made of layers of foam whilst others include springs and foam so are more comparable to the Simba Hybrid Original.
A few to consider include:
Emma NextGen Premium Mattress – £1331
The Emma NextGen Premium mattress shares a lot in common with the Simba Hybrid Original mattress.
It has the same depth as the Simba Hybrid Original at 25cm and it offers a shorter trial of 200 nights. They also have the same guarantee, length of 10 years and the brands get similar scores on TrustPilot.
The Emma NextGen Premium mattress uses large 18cm pocket springs much like the ‘barrel springs’ used within the Simba Hybrid Original. This is topped with layers of foam.
The notable difference is that the Simba Hybrid Original also has a layer of mini springs.
The Emma NextGen Premium Mattress is rated as a medium/firm mattress and is slightly firmer than their Emma Original mattress. Meanwhile, the Simba Hybrid Original is medium/firm.
OTTY Hybrid mattress – £1049
This mattress from OTTY has notably larger springs than the Simba Hybrid Original. They are 160mm compared to 25mm on the Simba Hybrid Original. That means that the OTTY is offering more of its support from the springs whilst the Simba Hybrid Original offers more support from its foam layers. To put it another way, the OTTY Hybrid is about two-thirds springs and one third foam. The Simba Hybrid Original is close to being 90% foam and 10% springs.
It’s classed as being a similar firmness to the Simba Hybrid Original (they are both medium-firm). You get a 100 night trial, which is less than a third of that offered by Simba Sleep. My personal view is that the first month is most important when deciding if you want to keep a mattress. The mattress warranty is on a par with the Simba Hybrid Original at 10 years. There’s not much between these two on TrustPilot scores.
Eve Original Hybrid mattress – £799
This is another award winning hybrid mattress from a popular brand (3.9/5 on TrustPilot). Much like the OTTY Hybrid mattress, it uses much larger springs than the Simba Hybrid Original. The pocket springs on this one are 120mm, meaning that it is roughly a 50/50 split between springs and foam. The guarantee length is the same as the Simba Hybrid Original. It used to have a 100 night trial period but Eve have upgraded that to a 365 night trial. It’s a similar firmness (medium/firm).
Nectar Sleep Hybrid – £1499
The Nectar Sleep Hybrid Mattress is worth a look as it beats the Simba Hybrid on warranty length and matches it on trial length. You can sleep on the Nectar Hybrid Mattress for up to a year before deciding if you want to keep it. From a practical point of view, it means that you can try it out during the hottest and coldest night of the year. The warranty is described as lasting ‘forever’ which is only offered by Nectar and Dreamcloud, which is made by the same company.
Head to head: how does the Simba Hybrid Original compare to its rivals?
There are thought to be somewhere around 8000 mattresses on the market in the UK. However, we can do a useful pros and cons comparison between about a dozen mattresses which all offer something similar but have some key differences.
The table below shows several mattresses which all offer trial periods, long warranties and which are somewhere around the £500 – £1000 mark. Keep in mind that offers and promotions are frequently used to add to the appeal, so you may well get a discount on the price shown. I would actually look at other factors before price and then narrow it down to two or three and compare the price on the day.
To be honest, it is unusual to find a ‘bed in a box’ mattress nowadays which isn’t significantly reduced. The level of discount varies but a lot brands hop from one discount to another. Don’t pay much attention to the original price even if you do enjoy seeing a massive discount being applied.
As you’ll see, the Simba Hybrid Original ranks well in many areas but there isn’t a clear winner in every category. The Simba Hybrid Original is somewhere around £200 more expensive than the Nectar Sleep Memory Foam Mattress, Studio by Silentnight and The Emma Mattress – but those mattresses all use layers of foam whereas the Simba Hybrid Original also uses springs.
Simba’s trial period v Ergoflex, Nectar and Casper
The Simba Hybrid Original’s trial period is much more generous than the Ergoflex 5G and it is the same as the Nectar Sleep Memory Foam Mattress.
The Simba Hybrid Original’s warranty is on a par with many but the Nectar Sleep Memory Foam Mattress and REM-Fit 400 are better in that regard.
It’s worth noting that the Simba Hybrid Original is 90% foam with about 10% being made from springs. The Emma Hybrid has a similar design but other rivals such as the OTTY Hybrid Mattress and Eve Original Hybrid use much larger springs (see our graph at the bottom of this page for a visual comparison).
A key question though when figuring out if the Simba Hybrid Original is right for is whether you want a medium/firm mattress and whether it is available in the size you want. It’s certainly available in more sizes than most mattresses, but there are a couple of omissions compared to the REM-Fit 400 or the OTTY Hybrid Mattress.
Our comparison table of bed in a box mattresses
| What’s it called? | How much is it? (Double) | Warranty and trial | How firm is it? | Brand score (TrustPilot) | Sizes available |
| Simba Hybrid Original | £1089 | 10 years, 200 night trial | Medium/firm | 4.4/5 | EU Single, Single, Small Double, EU Double, Double, EU Queen, King, Super King |
| The Emma Mattress | £474 | 10 years, 200 night trial | Medium | 4.4/5 | Single, Small Double, Double, King, Super King |
| Nectar Sleep Memory Foam Mattress | £1199 | ‘Forever’, 365 night trial | Medium/firm | 4.3/5 | Single, Double, King, Super King |
| Studio by Silentnight | £679 | 5 years, 60 night comfort trial | Medium | 4.1/5 | Single, Double, King Size |
| Ergoflex 5G | £886 | 10 years, 30 night trial | Medium/firm | 4.7.5 | Single, Double, Euro Double, King, Euro King, Super King |
| Eve Original | £799 | 10 years, 365 night trial | Medium/firm | 4/5 | Single, Small Double, Double, King, Super King |
| OTTY Hybrid Mattress | £949 | 10 years, 100 night trial | Medium/firm | 4.5/5 | Single, EU Single, Small Double, EU Double, Double, EU King, King, Super King, Emperor |
| REM-Fit 400 | £869 | 15 years, 100 night trial | Medium/firm | 4.3/5 | Small Single, Long Single, Single, EU Single, Small Double, Double, EU Double, King, EU King, Super King |
| Eve Original Hybrid | £699 | 10 years, 100 night trial | Medium/firm | 4/5 | Single, Double, King, Super King |
| Emma Hybrid | £1099 | 10 years, 200 night trial | Medium | 4.4/5 | Single, Small Double, Double, King, Super King |
Notes: Prices and TrustPilot scores are correct at the time of writing (2024). Where there is dispute over the firmness of a mattress, we used the manufacturer’s guide – but bear in mind that mattress brands set their own ratings rather than using a universal scale.
Spring size comparison – Simba Hybrid v Emma Hybrid v Eve Original Hybrid v OTTY Hybrid
The Simba Hybrid Original is competing with several other mattresses which are described as being ‘hybrid’. However, it’s worth realising that there is quite a difference in how they are designed.
The Simba Hybrid Original uses mini springs which make up roughly 10% of the overall depth of the mattress as well as a layer of much large springs which it calls ‘barrel springs’. Rivals Eve Original Hybrid, Emma NextGen Premium Mattress and OTTY Hybrid Mattress also use large springs but refer to them as pocket springs. Somewhere between a half and two thirds of these mattresses are made up of springs with the remainder being foam layers.
Are bigger springs better than smaller springs?
For the purchaser, the question is what sort of support and comfort are you looking for? It isn’t as simple as saying that there’s a perfect ratio of springs to foam – although each manufacturer will tell you that they offer exactly that.
The question is whether you want the majority of your support to come from the foam layers or from the spring layers. If you want the familiarity of a spring mattress with a smaller amount of foam for comfort, you would be better choosing the Eve Original Hybrid or OTTY Hybrid Mattress. If you want a mattress which mostly offers support from foam, but also includes some springs for added comfort then The Simba Hybrid Original would be a better choice.
Warranty length comparison – Simba v Bed in a Box rivals
Our table below shows the advertised warranty lengths of several bed in a box brands. There are multiple caveats to this, but the headline is that we can see Simba somewhere around the mid-table alongside Emma, Ergoflex and OTTY.
Points worth noting are that Nectar Sleep’s warranty is actually described as being ‘forever’ but we have marked it as 25 years to create a readable graph.
Some brands also have different warranty lengths for different products. The Silentnight figure refers to their Studio mattress whilst other brands refer to their ‘standard’ mid-priced model rather than budget versions which were released later and which sometimes have a shorter warranty.
It’s also important to note that not all warranties are equal. Warranties tend to have a description of what level of wear and tear is acceptable and what you need to do to maintain the warranty. For example, Eve Sleep say that the warranty on your mattress won’t be valid if the gaps between the slats on your bedstead are too wide. Please only take this graph as a starting point for your own research and note that it is only correct at the time of writing.
