One confession: we do wish Brooklinen’s duvet was machine washable, but if you got this thing really dirty, it can be sent to the dry cleaners. But it’s probably cheaper just to get a duvet cover or two.
The Best Down Duvet: Casper
At the airier end of the fill-power spectrum (600), Casper’s lightweight down duvet is ideal for hot sleepers who prefer some combination of top sheets and blankets rather than a comforter. It’s not super bulky or fluffy, so it lays relatively flat, and can be layered with a combo of sheets and blankets underneath during colder months. With a nice soft hand-feel, it can also live on its own without a duvet cover, but still has corner loops to secure it inside a duvet (which will be key since most duvets are meant to accommodate a wider range of puffiness).
The Best Budget Down Comforter: Quince
Since its start in 2018, Quince has been creating affordable alternatives to luxury brand-name items—from cashmere sweaters to carry-ons—that aim for quality minus the hefty markup. The brand’s done it again with a 100% down duvet that somehow slides in under $200 and expertly toes the lines between lightweight fabric and cozy comfort.
We gotta say: the Quince really nailed the first impression. The duvet arrived sealed in a zippered canvas bag, which we prefer to the usual vacuum-sealed plastic (which too often offgasses a chemical smell, like a recently-unboxed mattress). We also loved its cool-to-the-touch, almost crisp cotton sateen shell—but know that it makes for a slightly swishy track pants-esque sound at night as the duvet shuffles around.
The Best Prime-able Budget Down Comforter: Apsmile
If you, like us, had never heard of the brand “Apsmile” prior to reading this article, you’re not out of the loop. As one of the ‘Zon’s many third-party, zero-name-recognition vendors, it’s one of those brands you just have to take a leap of faith with purely based on reviews. That’s what our audience development manager Alex Wedel did when he bought his all-season, oversized queen comforter at the end of last year. It’s one he describes as “fluffy as hell, plus soft to the touch,” with minimal crunching involved as it moves around.
The comforter has been heavy enough to keep him warm during an unseasonably cold winter in New York, but he surmises that it would still be lightweight enough to sleep under in peak August heat. “It’s even worth a cloud comparison even if they are done to death,” he adds. The only thing we don’t love is that it’s spot-clean or dry-clean only, though plenty of reviewers have successfully run theirs through the washing machine and dried on low heat.
The Best Mid-Range Down Comforter: Feathered Friends Bavarian 700
The Feathered Friends comforter in the medium weight has a luxurious hand feel, though your pocketbook may definitely feel it too. Comforters fall around $500 for this premium comforter. One of our testers described it as “extremely fluffy, like a gigantic pillow.” (His pup likes it too.) If you’re looking for something with a bit more squish, this is a great alternative with a generous lifetime warranty against defects. Feathered Friends also offers one of the best weight ranges we’ve seen, whether you want something airier for summer or the “Arctic” weight for your icebox of an apartment—all with an impressive 700-fill power.
The Best Truly Luxe Down Comforter: The Company Store
The Company Store is quickly becoming one of our favorite places to source high-quality bedding. Everything we’ve tried has been a banger so far, and that includes this extremely luxe, super warm topper that’s just one of many of it’s well-reviewed down options. If you’re waffling between this and the Feathered Friends above, this one boasts an even fluffier 700- to 750-fill power and a smooth sateen cover that looks that just looks expensive when uncovered on your bed. Our tester, who’s curled up under it for two winters now, notes that it’s “minimally noisy and puffy, but extremely soft and comfortable.” It comes in a range of weights, but the medium, he says, is pretty warm despite how lightweight it feels. If you take the plunge, another perk is that unimpeachable lifetime warranty that covers repairs down the line.
The Best All-Season, Down-Alternative Comforter: West Elm
If you’re ethically against the use of animal byproducts in your bedding, or if down just makes you sneeze, there are also alternative options that use synthetic fill without the dust and other allergens that down feathers can attract. But not all alternative fill comforters are created equal. Some have synthetic filling that runs way too hot. Some are weirdly crinkly and loud.
West Elm’s line of comforters includes four different options, which each offering a different combination of warmth and loft, and this down-alternative version is great for hot sleepers—it’s packed with just enough moisture-wicking, temperature-regulating fill to be cozy, but not suffocating. And thanks to its baffle box construction, that fill stays distributed evenly throughout the entire lightweight comforter.
The Best Down-Like Wool Option: Nest Bedding
Instead of goose down clusters, duck down, or some sort of hypoallergenic alternative, this Nest Bedding comforter is filled with wool. Wool! While this might seem like the makings of a “winter-only” comforter, wool turns out to be a surprisingly breathable fabric. We had previously crowned Coyuchi’s wool duvet insert as our favorite of the genre, but after testing this one, we had to reevaluate: Nest’s all-season comforter (which comes with ties for strapping into a separate cover, so it’s technically more like a duvet) is surprisingly thin and lightweight for just how toasty it gets your bed when temps are hovering around the freezing point. That’s a big plus if you’re hoping to avoid the feeling of being compressed under a comforter that’s more like a meaty weighted blanket. It’s also blessedly washable so you can give it a quick spin cycle before spring. At less than $200 on sale, it’s one of the most budget-friendly options on this list, which more than covers the cost of the organic cotton cover that it arrives in.
The Best Plant-Based, Down-Like Comforter: Buffy Breeze
For the eco-friendly factor, we appreciate that the original Buffy Cloud comforter is made with a special fill crafted from recycled bottles, but find that it runs too hot and feels rougher than we’d like. Its followup, the Breeze comforter, is somewhere closer to the middle—with a more lightweight feel, a delightfully soft and cool-to-the-touch outer fabric, eucalyptus fill, and a surprising warmth and coziness. Despite its airy branding, it’s not really breathable enough to lay under comfortably in summer without kicking off the covers, but it’s perfectly warm and cozy for New York City winters. Another plus is that it’s one of the rare comforters that’s stylish enough to leave out of the duvet cover on its own thanks to the undulating waves on the stitching.
What’s the difference between a comforter and a duvet?
It’s understandable why you’d get them confused, since they’re both thick, fluffy blankets. A duvet insert—which is what we’re referring to when we’re talking about a “duvet”—is intended to be used with a separate duvet cover, which you can wash separately and swap. A comforter is one-piece operation, where the cover’s sewn on. They come in plenty of colors, prints, and patterns. But the whole all-in-one situations makes cleaning a true comforter that much harder, especially if the one you buy is spot-treat- or dry-clean-only.
What makes a good comforter?
The best comforters and duvets should:
