The 6 Best Comforters of 2023

Best Overall Comforter

Three Geese Pinch Pleat Goose Down

Fill Material: Goose Down | Cover Material: Egyptian Cotton

The Three Geese Pinch Pleat Goose Down is lofty, warm, and lovely. It's generously stuffed with 750-fill power down, providing the perfect amount of warmth for the fall, winter, and spring. And its baffled construction keeps the feathers from shifting around, so you don't end up with those dreaded drafts. This is the heaviest comforter in the test, creating that cozy compressed sensation that fans of weighted blankets so appreciate. This comforter transformed our beds into a warm feathered nest. It also seemed to breathe well, and we never noticed moisture building up.

Though the quality natural fabrics and pinch pleated design is lovely to look at, we kept a duvet cover on this comforter to keep it clean since it's dry clean only. Dry cleaning can be expensive, time-consuming, and bad for the environment. The 1200-thread count cotton outer material is nice looking but also loud. It crinkles when you move around much. Adding a duvet cover should help reduce noise levels as well as cleaning frequency. All told, this is our favorite comforter due to its superb value, warmth, and comfort.

Best Buy Down Alternative Comforter

Linenspa All-Season Down Alternative

Fill Material: Down alternative | Cover Material: Polyester

The Linenspa All-Season Down Alternative is an excellent all-around comforter that will meet most people's needs, especially at this price tag. We were instantly impressed. It's soft, warm, and low-maintenance. The fabric feels so dreamy against the skin that we rarely use a duvet cover. And, since you can simply throw it in the washing machine, we aren't worried about protecting it. This comforter feels light and airy when wrapped around you, but it's actually one of the weightier options in the test. Our testers found themselves warm and sleeping soundly in a 62-degree room. Thanks to many reversible color schemes, this product will likely work with your decor if you want to forgo a cover.

The Linenspa offers comfort and warmth but doesn't offer the same high-quality construction of the best options. The seams and fabric just aren't as robust. Several of the threads are already loose and seem prone to fraying and pilling over time. Though it may not be an heirloom item, if money is tight and you seek superb comfort, look no further.

Best Budget Feather Comforter

COSYBAY 100% Cotton Quilted Down

Fill Material: 95% Feathers 5% Down | Cover Material: Cotton

The COSYBAY 100% Cotton Quilted Down is an excellent option if you're searching for a feather comforter that won't break the bank. It offers the warmth and breathability of natural materials for less. The cotton face fabric is pleasant, if a bit stiff and crinkly, and the overall weight of the COSY feels substantial and comforting.

Yes, there is a difference between regular feathers and down. Downy feathers insulate birds, while regular feathers serve as an outer protective layer. They are larger with a stronger shaft that will likely break over time. They aren't as lofty, either. This comforter filler is 95% feathers and only 5% down, making it a heavier, less lofty option that's more likely to let feathers poke through. Still, this comfortable topper is an excellent option for those wanting the benefits of down materials without paying a premium.

Best Down Alternative

Buffy Cloud Sleeper

Fill Material: Down alternative | Cover Material: Polyester

With soft, silky fabric, arcing seams, thick stuffing, and boxed hems, the Buffy Cloud Sleeper is well-named. It's the type of comforter you want to wrap around you on the couch after a long day. This option earned the highest scores of any non-down comforter in our assessment. The face fabric is TENCEL Lyocell, made from eucalyptus wood fibers, and the fill is made from recycled plastic bottles. Buffy claims it's BPA-free and meets the Global Recycled Standard. We always appreciate products that work to limit toxins and environmental impact, and the comforter seems durable, with snug, regular seams, and sturdy fabric.

Synthetic materials don't often breathe as well as natural fibers, but the Cloud Sleeper seemed to regulate temperature well, keeping testers warm but comfortable in a 62-degree room. The smooth eucalyptus face fabric is also slippery, and without a duvet cover, this comforter can easily slide to the floor. Though the Buffy is machine washable, it's bulky and hard to fit into older top-loading washers. That said, we don't mind the odd trip to the laundry mat and recommend this comforter to any of our friends looking for a cozy alternative to down.

Lightweight and Warm Luxury Pick

Brooklinen Lightweight Down

Fill Material: Recycled Down | Cover Material: Cotton Sateen

The Brooklinen Lightweight Down is one of the warmest in the test but weighs half as much as the other top performers. That's likely because this is the only comforter we tested stuffed with 100% down instead of a mix of down and feathers. While many prefer a heavier comforter for the weighted blanket effect, if you like a featherweight layer that will keep you toasty no matter the weather, this is the one. It's also hand-made in Canada, and the hand-made quality shows. Brooklinen has also proven that they take their protections for workers seriously, unlike many of the competitors.

Despite its lightweight, this comforter is likely too warm for hot sleepers or during the summer months without air conditioning. It's also expensive, as handmade items tend to be. But our biggest complaint is that you can't throw it in the wash. Brooklinen recommends spot-cleaning it or, if you must, a dry cleaning. This is standard operating procedure with down comforters, but that doesn't mean we like it. To enjoy its lofty comfort, quality construction, and instant warmth, we keep it clean with a duvet cover and consider it a good investment.

Best for Hot Sleepers

Homelike Moment Lightweight All Season Down Alternative

Fill Material: Down Alternative | Cover Material: Polyester

T-shirt soft, easy to wash, and with color schemes that are more forgiving than crisp white, the Homelike Moment Lightweight All Season Down Alternative is perfectly at home on your bed, on a camping trip, or holding down the nearest pillow fort. Its lightweight and respectable breathability make it feel a little more like a thick blanket than a comforter. This makes it an excellent option for sleepers who frequently overheat at night. Add to that its incredibly reasonable price point and hypoallergenic properties, and this option is hard to argue with.

On the flip side, it's not the warmest comforter we tested. It often takes ten minutes or so for our feet to warm up when we first crawl under this blanket. (Many of the others offer instant warmth). Still, it always kept our testers perfectly contented through the night in a 64-degree room. It's not surprising at this price point, but the quality of materials and construction could be better. There are loose threads and stitches. That sort of adds to its rough-and-tumble appeal in our eyes. If you want a light, comfortable, and affordable comforter that you don't have to worry about, we recommend this one.

Compare Products

Compare select up to 5 products to compare

	Score	Product	Price
	76	Three Geese Pinch Pleat Goose Down	$127
	74	Brooklinen Lightweight Down	$269
	72	Buffy Cloud Sleeper	$199
	68	Linenspa All-Season Down Alternative	$65
	67	Egyptian Bedding Luxurious Siberian Goose Down	$199
	64	SUPERIOR Solid White Down Alternative	$54
	62	COSYBAY 100% Cotton Quilted Down	$72
	60	Homelike Moment Lightweight All Season Down Alternative	$48
	60	EASELAND All-Season	$55
	53	Utopia Bedding Reversible Down Alternative	$40
	48	Amazon Basics Reversible Microfiber	$26
	45	Utopia Bedding Down Alternative	$32

Why You Should Trust Us

During our selection process, we spent a great deal of time researching the most popular and impressive comforters available on the market. Then we purchased the most promising models and put them through a series of side-by-side tests, evaluating comfort, breathability, warmth, quality, and laundering requirements. Our team lounged, slept, and washed these comforters (if they could handle it, that is), then broke out the scales, thermometers, and decibel meters to decipher their relative strengths and weaknesses.

We break down our overall score into five key metrics:
Comfort (25% of overall score weighting)
Warmth (25% weighting)
Breathability (25% weighting)
Laundering (15% weighting)

Quality and Durability (10% weighting)

Our testers bring their scientific backgrounds, attention to detail, and extensive experience sleeping to this review. Our lead testers Isaac Laredo and Clark Tate are no strangers to seeking comfort. Isaac spends the better part of his life nestled in bedding. His expertise lies in fabric differentiation and identifying the perfect fabric for every occasion. Clark holds a master's degree in environmental science and loves finding products that work well, are reasonably priced, and are created with respect for humans and their environment. These two worked with a team of GearLab testers to help you find the exact comforter you're looking for.

Analysis and Test Results

To test comforters, we blended post-sleeping notes with formal observations to get a well-balanced assessment of each product's performance. We assessed comforters stuffed with down, down/feather blends, and synthetic filling, including premium and budget options to meet your needs.

Value

The price of a comforter varies pretty widely, but the models that scored the highest during our assessment cost a bit more than the most bargain-friendly models. That said, there are some affordable models that score fairly well. Our favorite budget down comforter is the COSBAY. If you're looking for an affordable down alternative, check out the Linenspa All-Season. If you want a luxurious look and feel that's still reasonably affordable, the Three Geese Pinch Pleat Goose Down is a great choice.

Comfort

Comfort is in the name, after all. Considering that we spend a quarter of our lives asleep, it's essential for your bedding to promote a good night's rest. To assess the comfort of each option, we evaluated their materials and hand feel and used a decibel meter to measure how much noise each made when we shifted in the night. We also accounted for each option's weight and that all-important cozy factor.

The most comfortable options in the test had one thing in common — plenty of loft. The Three Geese Goose Down Pinch Pleat, Buffy Cloud Sleeper, and Superior Solid White Down Alternative are comfort standouts due to their cloud-like feel, particularly when you wrap them around you like a feathered nest. We love the weight and warmth of the down and feather Three Goose comforter and the smooth, soft fabric and fluffy synthetic fill in the Buffy and Superior options. The Brooklinen Lightweight Down comforter is also very comfortable but has less heft. Some of our testers preferred its featherweight warmth.

An exceptional next-to-skin feel depends on the comforter's face fabric and the material's weave. Some people prefer the sensation of natural fibers like cotton, while others are drawn to the smoothness and practicality of synthetic fabrics. No matter which camp you're in, there are some marvelous options available. Both can feel luxurious.

The Easeland All-Season and Homelike Lightweight All Season Down Alternative are both silky smooth to the touch. Since they're machine washable, we often used them without a duvet cover and greatly appreciate their soft fabric. With its polyester covering, the Linenspa All-Season Down Alternative provides a light and soft touch that makes very little noise.

No one enjoys being woken up in the middle of the night, especially by a noisy blanket. Most of the most comfortable comforters are also the quietest. The Three Geese down comforter is an exception, with relatively crisp cotton fabric that makes more noise than its synthetic competitors. When we add a duvet cover, the noise levels are significantly reduced.

Warmth

Few things are worse than shivering through a cold winter night. How warm you need your comforter to be depends on where you live, how warm your home is, and how hot or cold you tend to sleep. We tested warmth by sleeping several nights with each comforter in a temperature-controlled room and by nestling in and measuring the temperature change every 10 minutes for half an hour. The warmest models often featured feathers.

The Three Geese Pinch Pleat and Egyptian Bedding Luxurious Siberian Goose Down are both lofty and filled with a mix of down and feathers. The Egyptian Cotton gives you a better ratio, with 80% filled with insulating down feathers. The Three Geese's filling is only 25% down, but it's stuffed with significantly more feathers overall, which adds up. The Brooklinen Lightweight Down is the only 100% down comforter we tested, and, no surprise, it's one of the warmest in the test.

Of the comforters we tested with synthetic fill, the Buffy Cloud Sleeper posted the highest numbers in our temperature tests. The Cloud is generously stuffed with recycled plastic insulation held in place with curving lines of tightly held stitches. Boxed-off hems allow the insulation to hold air, thus heat, all the way to the edge. It works wonderfully.

The Superior Solid Down Alternative is also a warm one, using baffle box construction to keep its insulation evenly distributed and lofty. While the Linenspa lacks in the loft department, this thinner piece offers impressive warmth and is competitive within the field.

Of course, if you're a hot sleeper, you may not want the warmest comforter in the test. One of our testers is in this camp and preferred the Homelike Lightweight All Season Down Alternative. It was slower to warm up but kept all of our testers comfortable in a 64-degree room. That said, our hot sleeping tester also slept comfortably under the Three Geese and Buffy comforters and only overheated once while using the Brooklinen.

Breathability

Breathability refers to how well a textile allows excess heat and moisture to flow from the inside to the outside. Breathable comforters help you maintain an ideal sleep temperature and can prevent overheating or sweat buildup. Natural materials like cotton and down are more breathable than synthetic fibers in general. Luckily the polyester contenders in this review are impressively breathable.

The Brooklinen, Three Geese, Egyptian Cotton, and COSYBAY 100% Cotton Quilted Down all have cotton face fabric and some combination of down and feather fill. They all breathe well and do a fair job of regulating our temperature throughout the night. Of these, we overheated once in the Brooklinen in a 64-degree room. All of them are much too warm to use in temperatures above around 70 degrees unless you are a very cold sleeper. No degree of breathability can overcome those temperatures.

We found that the synthetic comforters we tested were reasonably breathable. The Buffy Cloud Sleeper did feel overly warm occasionally and may have less airflow than some of the thinner synthetic options. The Homelike, Amazon Basics Reversible Microfiber, and Linenspa models are the most breathable of these.

Laundering

Considering we spend eight hours a day in our beds, they require frequent cleanings. If your comforter is hard to clean, you're less likely to do it as often as you should. We laundered all of the machine-washable options. They all washed up well, but the easiest items to wash are the less bulky options.

The Homelike, Amazon Basics, Linenspa, and Easeland synthetic options are all machine washable and lightweight. Their low bulk profile makes them easy to stuff in any sized washer machine. They're also relatively easy to store since they fold up more compactly.

Both the Utopia Bedding models, the down alternative and the reversible version, are a bit bulkier but still wash up well. The Buffy Cloud comforter is a bit more challenging. Due to its loft, it can be hard to fit into older-model washing machines.

All of the down and feather options we tested recommend spot cleaning or dry cleaning. We know some people who wash their comforters in machines anyway, but we aren't willing to risk it. Covering them with a duvet that you can wash as often as you'd like goes a long way to maintaining proper hygiene.

Quality and Durability

To rate the comforter's relative quality and durability, we compared the quality of materials and tested the seams and fabrics. We also factored in aesthetics, and we find the neutral color and wholesome look of cotton hard to beat. And natural materials have benefits ranging from breathability to not shedding microplastics in your house and washing machine.

The pinch pleated baffle design on the Three Geese's cotton face fabric is a lovely flourish. The Brooklinen comforter also seems exceptionally high quality. Both have sturdy, even stitches that don't easily snag. The Three Geese and Cosybay options have a higher ratio of feathers to down, and we could see more of these poking through over time.

Of the synthetic options, the Buffy Cloud is very well made, with sturdy stitching to hold everything in place. The eucalyptus face fabric seems slightly less robust than the cotton options, but we expect it to stand up to everyday use.

Many of the thinner, less expensive options already have dangling threads and loose stitches. We don't expect the Amazon Basics and Utopia options to last as long as the pricier options in the test.

Conclusion

Shopping for a comforter can feel overwhelming, especially when you're surfing neverending options on the world-wide-web. Our crack testing team put together this comprehensive review to help you buy confidently. We sincerely hope this review leads you to the cloud-like comfort of your dreams.