One of my pet peeves as a professional mattress tester of more than six years is seeing the names “adjustable mattress,” “adjustable frame,” and “smart bed” used interchangeably. While they are related products that can rely on each other to maximize performance and your overall sleep experience, each offers distinct qualities. It doesn’t help that these products consistently appear in the same search results for one another, often labeled interchangeably by the manufacturers. When that happens, of course, they will get mixed up. To make matters worse, you may think you have everything you need at checkout, only to find you’re adding an extra product you didn’t plan for.
It’s time to set the record straight and adjust your understanding of all things adjustable mattresses. Under my wing you go to begin this journey.
Updated March 2026: I’ve reworked this story to include information on smart beds, as well as a model I recommend.
Adjustable Mattresses
What is an adjustable mattress? Simply put, it’s designed to let users adjust how soft or firm they want their bed to be. Adjustable mattresses don’t follow the same layout as a normal mattress, because they involve internal air chambers or coil-adjusting mechanisms that help you accomplish the firmness you’re seeking. While a glorified air mattress may come to mind (and, arguably, that is basically what it is for many adjustable mattresses), there is a lot to the material makeup here. To pump up these air chambers, a lot of automation tech and tubing are involved. Hence, they aren’t budget buys.
Depending on the brand and model you choose, another common feature among adjustable mattresses is the ability to shift the head and foot both up and down, as in Personal Comfort’s Rejuvenate. Some models may not include this, depending on the brand and iteration, but it’s also a cost driver. This feature is where adjustable frames and mattresses are likely to be confused, as an adjustable mattress cannot perform this range of motion without assistance from an adjustable frame.
Smart Beds
Here is where things get more nuanced, and where, in my professional opinion, the industry could get more streamlined in its terminology. In the vast majority of cases (at least with the models I have researched, interacted with, and tested), smart beds offer the same range of motion capabilities as adjustable mattresses. To pull this off, they require an additional adjustable frame. Adjustable mattresses will rely on some degree of tech integration in order to change the overall firmness level. Smart beds do this too. However, in my book, what defines a truly smart bed is how advanced its additional programming is.
A prime example of this is the Bryte Balance Pro. This smart bed offers targeted support by adjusting coil zones that automatically adapt to you, even as you sleep. It is also a sleep tracker in itself, showing metrics such as heart rate, respiratory rate, and sleep stages. The bed is fully controlled via app, with an AI sleep concierge that can help you modify your sleep experience. This particular smart bed also offers “massage” settings that move the coils in a wavelike fashion to lull you to sleep. The Balance Pro is designed to deliver this within the mattress itself, whereas adjustable bases usually offer a massage feature for other smart beds and adjustable mattresses.
