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The Best Sleeper Sofas of 2025 | Reviews by Wirecutter

Apr 01, 2025

By Joshua Lyon

Joshua Lyon is a writer covering home and decor. He's also the author of our Lego guides and used to edit cleaning, pets, and emergency-prep articles.

When someone says “sleeper sofa,” I hear springs creaking and feel a metal bar gouging into my back. I smell the scent of musty basement. I see gaping maws filled with vicious mechanics straight out of a Saw movie, flanked by a landscape of muted plaid.

Aesthetically, sleeper sofas have come a long way since what I remember from childhood, and some of them even look stylish. But after researching scores of models online, trying many in-store and in our offices, and speaking with experts, we found that with sleeper sofas, as with people, it’s what’s inside that truly counts.

Unfortunately, that hasn’t changed much over the decades. The classic sleeper sofas most of us are familiar with—first sold during the Great Depression—are still often janky at best and dangerous at worst.

But our picks are a bright exception—and all three are models with a pull-out mechanism from American Leather. Our favorite is the Gaines Comfort Sleeper.

This line is unparalleled in its category, with offerings that feel great in both the sofa and bed positions. And custom-order turnaround times are faster than for some ready-to-ship options from other brands.

This bed combines Room & Board’s quality materials with American Leather’s top-notch sleeper mechanism, so sitting and sleeping are equally comfortable. Compared with our top pick, this sofa doesn’t offer as many fabrics and color options, but we’re still talking hundreds.

If your room has a small footprint, the Alora unfolds in two ways to accommodate either one or two people; this frees up floor space if you’ve got just one guest. This sofa also has storage, but the warranty on its mechanism isn’t as robust as that of the Gaines.

The sofa mode should be cushy enough for lounging yet supportive enough to keep your posture upright when there are guests.

The frame shouldn’t wobble or protrude, and the mattress should offer both pressure relief and support.

The process of converting it from a sofa to a bed, and vice versa, should be smooth and seamless.

Just because a sofa is also a bed, that doesn’t mean it should be banished to the basement. The design should be living-room-worthy.

This line is unparalleled in its category, with offerings that feel great in both the sofa and bed positions. And custom-order turnaround times are faster than for some ready-to-ship options from other brands.

A patented, easy-to-use sleeper mechanism with a 10-year warranty; a limited lifetime warranty on the frame; three types of mattresses, six mattress sizes, and 28 different couch configurations; hundreds of fabrics and color combinations: These are all of the reasons we selected the American Leather Gaines Comfort Sleeper as our pick. And we think this sofa’s style, with its gently rolled arms, is neutral enough to blend in with a variety of aesthetics. But within this company’s Comfort Sleeper line, there are plenty of other models to choose from, and because they all have the same pull-out mechanism, we believe they’ll be just as delightful to use.

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This bed combines Room & Board’s quality materials with American Leather’s top-notch sleeper mechanism, so sitting and sleeping are equally comfortable. Compared with our top pick, this sofa doesn’t offer as many fabrics and color options, but we’re still talking hundreds.

Room & Board makes quality furniture in the mid-price to high-price range. And we found the Berin Day & Night Sleeper Sofa (the company’s collaboration with American Leather) to be as comfortable as sleepers designed by American Leather alone. In certain aspects, there are more choices for customization—for example, a higher couch with a different leg design or a wider arm. Compared with fabric and color options for our top pick, this model doesn’t offer quite as many, but there are still plenty, and Room & Board currently stocks four ready-to-ship options.

If your room has a small footprint, the Alora unfolds in two ways to accommodate either one or two people; this frees up floor space if you’ve got just one guest. This sofa also has storage, but the warranty on its mechanism isn’t as robust as that of the Gaines.

The American Leather Alora Today Sleeper can either be a twin bed (if you pull out just one side) or a bed with room for two or more (if you pull out both sides).

Yes, that means there’s a line running down the center when both sides are unfolded, but the two foam mattresses are compact enough to nullify the cavernous feel that typically results from pushing two twin beds together. If you find it bothersome, a mattress pad easily fixes the issue, and you can keep one in the storage space built into the sofa for bedding.

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I’m a senior staff writer covering home and decor at Wirecutter. In the slumber sector, I’ve written about bedside lamps and how one great product cured my husband’s night sweats.

For this guide:

This guide is for anyone looking to make a long-term investment in a piece of furniture that will flawlessly serve its dual purpose as a couch and a bed—and for a significant period of time.

Unfortunately, that narrowed the field to sleeper sofas that are expensive. If you are on a strict budget and are willing to compromise on more than a few factors, we have a couple of other sleeper sofas Worth considering, and you might find something that works for you in our Competition section.

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Shopping for a sleeper sofa is a unique consumer experience, because in many cases the buyer is using only half of the functions the product offers. As more than one showroom floor manager pointed out to us, a shopper will often focus more on aesthetics and how the sleeper feels as a couch, as opposed to how it feels to sleep on.

But we wanted to find a sleeper sofa that looks and feels great, both as a primary couch worthy of your living room and as a bed that your guests feel comfortable sleeping on. With that in mind, we focused on models with the following criteria:

A safe, easy-to-use fold-out mechanism: This priority meant we had to disqualify all sofa sleepers with the classic bar-and-spring-style mechanism. (If you already have one, here’s how to make it more comfortable.) Made with pressed steel, compound hinges, and springs, this dreaded contraption is the kind many of us slept on at our friends’ or relatives’ houses when we were kids. And these sleeper sofas are still widely used today.

These types of sleeper sofas are difficult to operate. And staff writer Samantha Schoech reported that her 5-year-old niece snipped the tip of her finger off while playing on a bed using this fold-out mechanism, which typically comes from a third-party source.

Quality frame, cushions, and upholstery: A hardwood frame and dense cushions provide comfortable seating that will last. Foam density has nothing to do with how firm a cushion is; instead, it’s an indication of weight in pounds per cubic foot of foam. The higher the number, the better the quality, and the furniture-industry standard tends to be around 1.8 pounds per cubic foot.

We also gave points to sleeper sofas with a wide range of fabrics and colors to choose from. Finally, we looked for “contract grade” options; this means rigorous tests were performed to ensure the furniture holds up for commercial as well as residential use.

A sleeping surface away from the floor: We wanted picks that re-create a raised bed experience, as opposed to that of a glorified air mattress. The extra height allows you to conveniently access items on a side table, like a lamp or glass of water. (A low sofa arm will help with this, too, because you won’t have to reach up and over the side.) As a result, we eliminated any sleeper sofa that sits flush with the ground.

Easy to move: Sleeper sofas are notoriously heavy, so we opted for models that could be easily disassembled and reassembled, to fit through narrow doors and tight stairwells.

A sleeping surface that feels comfortable: Comfort is subjective, of course, but you want something that offers decent pressure relief and support. And you definitely don’t want to feel any parts digging into your body. It’s also ideal to have different mattress options to choose from. (But if you find a sleeper you like, and the mattress is too firm or too thin, you can add a mattress topper to make it more plush.)

A good warranty: Sleeper sofas have lots of movable parts, and that means there are many more opportunities for something to go wrong. If that happens, it’s important that you’re taken care of.

After weeks of research and showroom visits, we finally narrowed our list to 20 models that we wanted to investigate further. We then winnowed that number down to five models, which we called in to our Long Island City, New York, office to take a deeper look. We hoped to find a budget pick that we liked enough to fit our standards, but even the best of the under-$1,000 bunch had too many flaws for us to recommend them.

This line is unparalleled in its category, with offerings that feel great in both the sofa and bed positions. And custom-order turnaround times are faster than for some ready-to-ship options from other brands.

During our research and conversations with employees at retail stores, American Leather (whose products are widely available) kept coming up as offering the best sleeper sofas on the market. After our testing, we agree.

But before we dive in further, allow me a brief digression on the company name, because I think American Leather could stand to rebrand. People are often confused at first. I know I was. This company manufactures a lot more than just leather furniture, and its leather is also one of the only elements not created in the US. (American Leather sources from four European tanneries, each with a different specialization.) So, yes, its sofa sleepers are made in the US, but this company offers a far wider array of exterior options than just leather.

One of the things we like most about American Leather is that it’s constantly innovating. The most recent patent for its fold-out mechanism is now on its ninth iteration, and it shaved 20 pounds off the weight, “which made it even easier to open,” explained Taylar Hoffman, the company’s product director.

We found it was tough to pick just one “best” American Leather model for this guide. (For what it’s worth, the sloped-arm Perry Comfort Sleeper is the company’s current best-seller, and there are plenty of other models, from sectionals to those with angular arms.) However, we think American Leather’s Gaines Comfort Sleeper—with its subtle roll-arm design and seemingly endless combinations of fabric and color choices—will blend in with a variety of aesthetics and is a great option to see you through changing tastes over the years. But, really, any of the styles within the Comfort Sleeper line will perform just as well.

The mattress is simple to pull out and tuck back in. American Leather’s patented trifold mechanism is called the Tiffany 24/7 platform sleep system (named for the couple that invented it and brought the original version to the company). It’s made from a solid birch-wood platform topped with metal and three mattress panels, permanently attached to each of the three segments. You can see the lines where they meet up, but you don’t feel them when you’re lying down.

The mechanism is far easier to maneuver than those found in classic sleepers (see the video below). That’s because you’re lifting only two of the three panels—the third one glides up or down against the back of the couch and easily slides into position when you’re opening or closing the sleeper. In our office testing, everyone who gave the Gaines sofa a whirl, including our paid testers, remarked on how easy it was to operate.

You can choose from three types of mattresses. American Leather’s Comfort Sleepers come with options: Tempur-Pedic memory foam, cooling gel, and a proprietary mattress called HiPerform (a 5-inch foam encased in Crypton-brand ticking, which makes the mattress liquid- and stain-resistant). We tested the HiPerform version in our office, and we found it to be medium-firm, with just enough give to make side-sleepers comfortable.

Customize to your heart’s content. You can choose from hundreds of fabric, color, and pattern combinations, as well as a whopping 28 different sizes, including sectionals and curved couches. Cushions come plain or tufted, and in multiples or bench-style.

Custom options are turned around quickly. In the early 1990s, American Leather’s engineer founder created the company specifically to solve the problem of long wait times for custom leather furniture. He initially worked out of the back corner of a to-the-trade upholstery company. And today, American Leather’s 350,000-square-foot Dallas-based manufacturing floor can create a custom order in three to four weeks. A standard assembly line moves step by step. But at American Leather, different stations receive an order at the same time, simultaneously triggering multiple productions that then come together for the final build.

Many retailers carry American Leather. The brand doesn’t have its own showrooms or commerce site. But because much of the furniture industry considers American Leather’s products to be the gold standard in sleepers, you can find them at over 700 locations, from a small-town furniture store and growing brands to large retailers, such as Bloomingdale’s and Raymour & Flanigan. Bigger stores typically have a selection of ready-to-ship options.

Thoughtful touches abound. All of the models in the Comfort Sleeper line contain well-considered details, like a dust cover beneath the sofa, to keep dirt and detritus away from the mattress. There’s also a flap at the bottom edge of the mattress frame that, when you first remove the cushions, shows you how to operate the mechanism. But actually, Hoffman pointed out, it also serves to hide the mechanism and protect the mattress from debris when the sofa is closed.

Finally, it will last. American Leather is confident in its product’s ability to stick around, as illustrated by a 10-year warranty on the Tiffany 24/7 sleep system and a limited lifetime warranty on the frame. I can personally attest to the sleeper sofa’s longevity. While researching this guide, I learned that the guest-room sleeper I’ve conked out on many times at a friend’s house is an American Leather model purchased 14 years ago. And there’s no sagging in either the mattress, the frame, or the couch cushions (in fact, current iterations of the sleeper’s mattress have a density of 2.3 pounds per cubic foot, well above the standard 1.8 pounds per cubic foot).

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This bed combines Room & Board’s quality materials with American Leather’s top-notch sleeper mechanism, so sitting and sleeping are equally comfortable. Compared with our top pick, this sofa doesn’t offer as many fabrics and color options, but we’re still talking hundreds.

We’re not the only fans of American Leather’s sleep system. The company partners with several retailers, offering its internal works for a different design team’s aesthetic vision.

One of those retailers is Room & Board. Its merchandising and design director, Jenon Stroup, called the American Leather team “passionate experts” and described them as constantly “prototyping and testing and pushing beyond the limits of what’s next.”

We haven’t yet investigated every single one of these collaborations. But our favorite so far is the Room & Board Berin Day & Night Sleeper Sofa, due to its versatile style and Room & Board’s reputation for quality furniture.

Depending on the fabric and size you select, the Berin sofa might save you a bit of money. A recent comparison of two ready-to-ship options for a queen-size Gaines and a queen-size Berin sleeper sofa, in similar fabrics and colors, listed a difference of around $400.

The Room & Board sofa offers some customization that the American Leather sofa does not. With the Berin sofa, you can select one of two arm widths, and you can choose from four different leg designs of various heights, styles, and finishes. Although there aren’t quite as many color and fabric options, there are still hundreds to choose from.

For the Berin sofa, custom orders have the same lead time as those for a regular American Leather sleeper. Room & Board created the Berin’s exterior design, but the actual sofa is built at American Leather’s headquarters, with Room & Board’s fabrics kept in stock on location.

The wood frame has sustainable forestry certifications. Room & Board has made strides to increase how much of its sourced wood has voluntary certifications from organizations including the Forest Stewardship Council and the Sustainable Forestry Initiative, which certify materials for responsible forestry, among others. The company’s goal is to responsibly source all of its wood by 2025.

If your room has a small footprint, the Alora unfolds in two ways to accommodate either one or two people; this frees up floor space if you’ve got just one guest. This sofa also has storage, but the warranty on its mechanism isn’t as robust as that of the Gaines.

If you’ve got limited floor space, or you’re hosting a guest who sleeps over often and doesn’t require a full bed, American Leather’s Alora Today Sleeper offers a dual sleep system—it unfolds on just one side for one person or opens entirely for two (or more).

Any of the other four styles in the Today Sleeper line will work the same way because they use the same mechanism. We happen to like the sloped arms of the Alora.

It’s versatile. How annoying is it when you have only one person staying over, and you have to rearrange your whole living room to accommodate them? With the Alora, you can just shove your coffee table over a couple of feet and give your guest a twin-size bed that feels luxurious. If you’ve got more people, go ahead and open the Alora to one of the four available bed sizes that fit two or more.

The Alora comes in six different sizes, from cot to king, and it’s available in all of the same color and fabric combinations as the Gaines sofa.

You can buy it as a single seater. If you’ve got a solo guest who stays over regularly, or you live in a very tiny space, the Alora also comes in two chair sizes that unfold as just a single bed.

There’s storage inside. Hide the bedding when it’s a couch and the cushions when it’s a bed.

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The flip-down Room & Board Deco looks sharp and could work well for a space like a home office. But we don’t recommend it as a primary couch—it lacks arms, so it doesn’t make a very comfy sofa for lounging. The back is tufted, which means this sofa looks good from both sides, so it could be a nice room divider. And the couch is wide enough that a two-person conversation doesn’t feel overly intimate, unless you want it to be.

Editor Hannah Morrill has owned the Deco since 2021, and she uses it in an Airbnb property. Hannah said no one has complained about it (“never heard a peep,” as she put it), and after three years of use, it’s still “solid as a dollar” and not at all wobbly.

Caveats:

We decided to test the Article Nordby 104” Reversible Sleeper Sectional, after reading positive reviews of Article’s 87” Nordby Sofa Bed and seeing it mentioned as a good budget option on several other review sites.

We selected the sectional version with storage because we wanted to compare it against the popular IKEA Friheten, another pop-up sectional that several staffers recommended. Both allow you to place the chaise on the side of your choosing.

In the end, we much preferred the Nordby 104” sofa. It’s more than twice the cost of the Friheten ($2,300 versus $900), but we think the extra length and comparatively superior construction make the Nordy 104” a better investment for your money. And in the Nordby, you can fit a lot more bedding and pillows.

The Nordby sectional is 104 inches, compared with the Friheten’s 90.5 inches. Taller overnight guests will likely appreciate the extra leg room. One of our paid testers is 6-foot-6 and weighs 315 pounds, and he told us he found the Nordby quite comfortable. It also looked like he had room to share and/or spread out.

Caveats:

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In our research, we found some useful buying advice that may help you make an informed decision, if you’re looking for a more-budget-friendly option or something that better suits your personal style.

Before making the decision to not recommend spring-and-bar foldouts, we called Joybird’s Briar Sleeper Sofa into our Long Island City, New York, office. In the showroom, we liked that the couch was softer and better suited for lounging than other sleepers we’d seen with this mechanism. We also appreciated that the included bolster pillows tucked neatly into the exposed torture crevices by the sofa’s arms. But, ultimately, like all bar-and-spring models, this one was just too saggy for us to comfortably spend time on it, and its optional Tempur-Pedic mattress didn’t do anything to help with the issue. Two staffers initially said they found it comfortable, but we could see each one’s body curving downward at waist level in a way that made us concerned for their spine. When we attempted to fold the bed in without the couch sitting flush against a wall, the weight of the mechanism caused the entire frame to tip backward.

Several contract-grade spring-and-bar models we considered—but ultimately dismissed, due to our decision about the mechanism—included the West Elm Harmony, Harris, and Haven, and the Pottery Barn Chesterfield Roll Arm Sleeper Sofa.

We tried IKEA’s Morabo (a fold-out model), Älvdalen (a pop-up model), and Bårslӧv (a flip-down model), but the center line in each felt too extreme under our backs. The problem could be solved with a mattress topper, but they all were also uncomfortable as sofas.

Several staffers recommended IKEA’s best-selling Friheten, but the reviews on IKEA’s site have recently grown increasingly worse. And the one we built had a set of screw holes that were slightly off-mark, which caused the pop-up section to slide back and forth about an inch with every shift of the body (when the sleeper was in bed mode). Still, editor Jon Chase has had two of these sofas for years (one in a rental property and another in his TV room for his kids to play on). He said he didn’t experience the misalignment issue we did. Jon added that they’ve both held up well, with some occasional DIY repairs. The Friheten is still popular in New York City—a mover dropping something off at our office recognized ours. And he said it was one of the items he most hated to transfer, due to its long back, which isn’t removable without taking the whole thing apart.

I tried out a McCaffrey Klik Klak, but the arm wouldn’t stay in place in the upright position.

We visited two Blu Dot showrooms, one in Los Angeles and the other in New York City, and we rolled around on the Diplomat 80” Sleeper Sofa, the One Night Stand 80” Sleeper Sofa, and the Thataway 102” Sleeper Sofa. All are flip-foam and flip-down styles, and once opened, all had slightly mismatched levels of extreme firmness on each side.

Other flip-open styles we initially considered but decided against (for sitting too flush with the floor) include the Teak Teddy Sofa, the Burrow Shift, and the Softline Duet Daybed.

This guide was edited by Joanne Chen and Daniela Gorny

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Taylar Hoffman, product director, American Leather, video interview, October 3, 2024

Leslie Fontana, professor and Industrial Design department head, Rhode Island School of Design, video interview, October 7, 2024

Kevin McGuire, store manager, Raymour & Flanigan, in-person interview, October 7, 2024

Alex Lobos, professor and School of Design director, Rochester Institute of Technology, video interview, October 8, 2024

Chamille Thayer, professor, Pratt Institute School of Design, phone interview, October 9, 2024

Helen Sullivan, communications council, CertiPur-UScommunications council, video interview, October 9, 2024

Jenon Stroup, merchandising and design director, Room & Board, video interview, October 10, 2024

Joshua Lyon

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A safe, easy-to-use fold-out mechanism: Quality frame, cushions, and upholstery: A sleeping surface away from the floor: Easy to move:A sleeping surface that feels comfortable: A good warranty: The mattress is simple to pull out and tuck back in. You can choose from three types of mattresses.Customize to your heart’s content. Custom options are turned around quickly.Many retailers carry American Leather.Thoughtful touches abound. Finally, it will last.Sheets aren’t a perfect fit.We saw some recent complaints about the leather.The Room & Board sofa offers some customization that the American Leather sofa does not. For the Berin sofa, custom orders have the same lead time as those for a regular American Leather sleeper.The wood frame has sustainable forestry certifications. There are just six size options.It’s versatile.You can buy it as a single seater.There’s storage inside.There’s just one mattress option.You can select any of its upholstery options, but we suggest a performance fabric.We can feel the line in the mattress sections a bit.The sleep system warranty isn’t as long as that of the Comfort Sleep line.Caveats:Caveats:Bar-and-spring style: Flip-foam:Flip-down: Click-clack:Pop-up: