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Relyon vs Emma Mattresses

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Relyon

Relyon is the other Royal Warrant holder in the British mattress market, alongside Sleepeezee, and has been making beds in Wellington, Somerset since 1858. That gives it the longest continuous trading history of any mattress brand in the UK, and the company still operates from the same Somerset site today.

Relyon specialises in traditional pocket sprung mattresses with natural fillings, and the range is built around wool, cashmere, silk and horsehair used in different combinations depending on the model. The brand is sold through bed specialists and department stores rather than online direct, which puts it in a different category to the bed in a box brands but also means the quality control is tied to a factory that has been doing this for over a century and a half.

Read our full Relyon review

Emma

Emma is an immensely popular British manufacturer who specialises in bed in a box mattresses. First clamouring to fame in 2015 but achieving real velocity from 2018 onwards, Emma is one of the last standing in the war on sleep having bested Eve, Casper and Leesa, all of whom had similar marketing objectives and business models. To date, Emma offers 2 mattresses commercially through their own website with store and retailer derived versions for the masses of retailers looking to piggyback the brand's success. The mattresses all feature foam as a staple with some featuring additional springs. Regardless of which version you choose, comfort is almost guaranteed with thousands of satisfied customers to date.

Recently Emma rebranded to become known as Emma Sleep and pivoted their focus toward other items in the bedding sector ranging from bed frames, pillows, duvets and protectors.

Read our full Emma review

Mattress Score

Overall Score:
Relyon: 4.48/5.00
Emma: 4.50/5.00

Price:
Relyon: £139.00 - £1299.00
Emma: £75.00 - £1149.00


Based on aggregated reviews and performance scoring, we would recommend Emma in this face off!


Becky
Compares

Relyon Owner Satisfaction

Relyon scores strongly in owner reviews, averaging around 4.5 to 4.7 out of 5 depending on the model, with the Heritage and Aurora ranges leading the pack. The buyers who rate Relyon highest are the ones who know what they want from a traditional mattress: firm support, natural breathable fillings and the kind of long term value that only comes from a properly built bed.

The most common positive comment is about how the mattress feels the same in year three as it did in month one, which is the best possible advertisement for a mattress brand. On the flip side, Relyon is not the brand to pick if you want that slow sinking memory foam feel, because the range is almost entirely pocket sprung.

Relyon Supportiveness

Relyon's support comes from its pocket spring units, and spring counts in the main ranges start around 1,000 and go up to 2,200 in the higher end models. Above the springs, the natural fillings are layered by hand, tufted into place and finished with a damask cover that lets air move through the mattress rather than trapping body heat.

For back and stomach sleepers, the firmer models give the solid support that helps the lower back stay in line with the shoulders. Side sleepers will want to look at the softer and medium options, which use more generous layers of wool and cashmere on top to cushion the hip and shoulder. Because the mattresses are hand finished, the support is noticeably consistent across the whole surface, with no weak edges or sagging middle.

Relyon Durability

A Relyon mattress is built to last, and the brand has the Royal Warrant and a hundred and sixty year trading history to back that claim up. Hand tufting keeps the natural fillings in place instead of letting them shift over time, which is the single biggest factor in how long a traditional mattress stays comfortable.

Owners regularly report getting a decade or more out of a Relyon before they start thinking about replacement, and the underlying spring units are built to outlast the fillings above them. If you are looking for a mattress that works out cheaper per year than a budget model that needs replacing every four or five, Relyon is one of the few brands in the market that can genuinely deliver on that promise.

Relyon Best Offers

We've managed to find the following top deals from across the web on Relyon mattresses.

Emma Owner Satisfaction

Emma Sleep’s entire business model is focussed toward consumer satisfaction. Key parts of their marketing strategy comes from word of mouth and statistics show that people buy from people. What makes Emma stand out from the crowd is an interesting shift in consumer buying behaviour. Previously, if you bought a mattress and didn’t enjoy it, you were out of luck, not so with the rise of Emma. Now, if you don’t like your mattress you can simply arrange a return and get a full refund within the first 100 days. This shift has proved extremely positive for customers and has increased satisfaction in the lineup.

To date, Emma has amassed an impressive 22,000+ reviews on Trustpilot, a fantastic display given the company's fairly new tenure in the industry.

Emma Supportiveness

Firmness is a very subjective thing which proves a particularly tough nut to crack when you are producing one mattress to suit all people. So much so that Emma has prototyped and tested numerous models previous to going to market in order to get that mix just right. The result? Right now Emma has two mattresses, a medium tension and a medium firm tension. Medium is a great supportive rating as it gives the user enough body contouring and support in the back and neck while giving enough softness and compression to accommodate those who sleep on their side or are of a lower BMI. It really is considered the one-size-fits-all approach and it’s one that suits many who purchase an Emma mattress, just take a look at the thousands of reviews to date.

Emma Durability

With the mid-range price point of Emma products, it’s important for shoppers that the bed lasts for a number of years. Generally we find companies consistently trying to cut costs at the expense of durability. Fortunately Emma already has a unique business model as the mattresses follow the rolled and bed-in-a-box model that allows savings through logistics and delivery meaning Emma can spend more on materials while still finding profit. The result of this means you get a mattress that is affordable and of higher quality than competing brands which, as a result of the quality increase, is more durable and lasts longer as a result. It’s a win for everyone.

Emma Best Offers

We've managed to find the following top deals from across the web on Emma mattresses.

Relyon Most Useful Customer Reviews

5 Snoozyface

A bit extreme perhaps but I've waited a full year before posting this review. When we were looking for a mattress, I read lots of reviews from people who were reviewing something they'd only slept on for a couple of days or perhaps weeks and I didn't find these especially helpful. This mattress wasn't our first choice, we'd originally bought a different one that unfortunately turned out to be faulty. As a side note, Dreams were absolutely brilliant over this - after I reported the issues, we had an engineer visit within a couple of days and it was quickly confirmed that our original purchase had been duff. After our initial bad experience, we didn't want to have a straight replacement, so we re-visited our local store (Chester) to have another look at the potential replacements they had on offer. The sales team there were fantastic, we saw the same advisor who'd helped us on our initial visit - we explained the situation so she knew she wasn't going to earn any commission from helping us but she was wonderful, she spent ages with us and really gave us fantastic service - huge thanks to her! So, at last to the point. I wouldn't have considered a soft mattress, if we hadn't been directed to it by the sleep match machine but our initial impression was excellent, the mattress felt sturdy and well made as well as being very comfortable, although not particularly 'soft'. A year on and we are so, so happy with our choice! My husband's back pain has gone, as has my neck and hip pain - I've packed away the knee pillow that I was having to use to reduce the aches I was feeling with our old mattress. After a few weeks, the pillow top did soften up - I'd been a bit nervous about this happening as I didn't really like the idea of a soft mattress but I needn't have worried, every night is like sleeping on a huge, incredibly supportive marshmallow, it's just lovely. I've never slept better and I wholeheartedly recommend the Highbridge.

5 Poppa C

Let me start by saying that I've owned this mattress since 28/11/21 So I'm in a pretty good place to review after just about 4 years of owning one. We bought this mattress after popping into a brick and mortar Dreams store and after much testing around the showroom we found that this one was the best by a wide margin. We prefer medium firm between us and some of the feature we were looking for were: - Being able to move around in the night without disturbing the other - Quiet, so no creaking of springs or scrunching of fabrics - Soft, quilted feeling top fabrics - Firm supports that didn't make you feel like you were being swallowed - Body heat distribution so that you didn't get really warm and uncomfortable when trying to sleep - Durable. I'd bought a lot of relatively cheap mattresses before springing for the Bridgwater and was hoping to get more than a handful of years before it started to sag and develop dips etc. Well. 4 years in and the thing is still pretty much perfect. We love this mattress! There's hardly any wear on it at all in spite of almost nightly use since the day it arrived. When I sit down on it, it's still as medium firm as the day we bought it. I'm a tall, heavy bloke and my wife is around half my weight so it'd be easy to tell if the durability was poor because our old mattresses started to look a bit like a skate park ramp after 4 years but the Relyon hasn't so much as developed a dip where I sleep. How's that for durability? This is a high-quality, very comfortable, super durable mattress that's still going strong 4 years in. If you're looking for something comfortable, quiet, firm and doesn't feel like a bouncy castle when your partner gets up for a glass of water in the night, this is the one for you. Cheers Dreams and Relyon!

5 Spongecake

After trying the same mattress owned by a family member, I was keen to get one of my own. I've always preferred sprung mattresses but I'm not getting any younger, so hard to consider something a bit softer. However, I find memory foam extremely hot and it doesn't support the body. A natural latex-sprung matters seemed like a good compromise. I have not been disappointed. The mattress is firm enough to give good support, while being soft enough to avoid aches. Also I like that the mattress is quite thick, as it adds height to the overall bed, which keeps me away from the ground level cold air, and makes it easier to get in and out of bed. A big plus point about this a mattress is that it works well with my adjustable bed frame. The mattress, despite its thickness, adjusts with relative ease. Obviously a thinner mattress would be more suited to an adjustable bed frame, but I'm very happy with this combination and it works very well. So far, this has been the best matress I have ever purchased, and I plan to buy more for family members in the near future.

5 Verified Buyer

Used this pillow for just over a week now, previously my neck was very painful and I would wake up through the night with what felt like cramp in neck and lower head, but since I've been using this pillow it's all easing off now, I'm sleeping much better, feel a lot more comfortable and have less pain in my neck which I think will diminish over time. Highly recommend this pillow for anyone who suffers neck and head pain, I know it's expensive but it's better than constantly buying other pillows that don't help, I have quite a collection of different pillows now and this is the one I'll be sticking with for sure!

5 Nigel Shirley

From our first visit to Dreams in Aylesbury the entire process could not have been handled any better by Dreams staff, Sean was excellent, listened to our requirements and steered us in right direction and we are delighted with ourRelyon Mattress, very comfortable, we should have made the purchase earlier for did not realise how our old mattress needed replacing, will not make the same error again. Delivered exactly when promised by caring, careful delivery staff and taken direct to our bedroom and placed in position with old mattress removed, first class service throughout the process. Thank you Dreams

Emma Most Useful Customer Reviews

5 Mr Gifford

Checked reviews online, visited store and chose this mattress. Was very surprised when delivered as was in a small box, but once removed and left to settle and expand into its shape, we have to say that its the best mattress that we've ever purchased. It may seem soft but isn't the case. We both sleep far better than before and can highly recommend it, it works for us and hopefully will work for you too. Its expensive but is worth it.

5 Verified Buyer

The Emma Signature Bed is a breath of fresh Scandinavian air. Designed with naturalistic curves and shapes, the frame looks and feels like it belongs in a home, not a showroom. Superior all-round support and optimal pressure distribution makes this bed an easy choice for those who want to sleep soundly at night. Free delivery and hassle-free returns means you can order your new bed with confidence.

5 lnwr109

We bought an Emma diamond hybrid deluxe mattress from Furniture Village in Rugby. It arrived as scheduled and the delivery crew installed it carefully. It only took one night to get used to - it replaced a 20 year old pocket spring mattress. We have slept well on it ever since and are very pleased with the mattress and the service provide by Furniture Village.

5 Debs Bala

Very pleased with our diamond mattress. It arrived right on time and was very easy to undo from its box. We have it in our guest room and so far all our guests have found it very comfortable. It is a little on the firmer side so we will add a memory foam topper to it. I would definitely recommend it as a firm favourite of the more popular brands.

5 Verified Buyer

The softest, most luxurious bedding in the world. We feel like its time to let the cat out of the bag: you’ve never felt anything like this before. The Emma Cloud Duvet is made with the highest-quality microfiber that feels like silk to the touch, looks great months later. The best part? It’s 100% satisfaction guaranteed or your money back.

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