Our Favorite Down Pillows for a Luxurious Night's Sleep
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Down pillows have a reputation for being some of the most luxurious pillows around, and for good reason. If you've ever held a duck, you know how soft and cloudlike the feathers on its underbelly are. They're supportive, soft, and can make you feel like you're sleeping on air. It takes a lot to make a pillow out of them, though, so it can get expensive. Fortunately, we've found the best down pillows that don't break the bank, or your neck.
If you want to get even better sleep, check out our other guides, including the Best Mattresses, Best Mattresses for Side Sleepers, Best Organic Mattresses, Best Pillows, Best Sheets, and Best Bed Frames.
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What Is Down, and Where Does It Come From?
"Down" refers to the smaller, fluffier feathers found on the bellies of animals like ducks and geese. These feathers help waterfowl float on the surface of lakes, and helps both protect and insulate them. As such, they're excellent for things like insulated jackets, comforters, and, most relevant for us here, pillows.
Since these feathers come from animals, there are extra ethical concerns over how they're collected. Historically, some manufacturers or their suppliers have employed cruel practices like live plucking that harm the quality of life of the animals they source your pillow's filling from.
You can look for certifications from organizations like the Responsible Down Standard (RDS) and Downmark to find ethically sourced down. Both organizations set specific criteria suppliers and manufacturers must follow to ensure that animal products come from farms that don't abuse their animals.
What Are Fill Power and Fill Weight?
Not all down is created equal, and higher quality down can lead to more comfort and better sleep. It would be nice if the nebulous concept of "quality" could be reduced down to a single number. It can't, but there are a couple of metrics you can use to better gauge your pillow's quality.
The first is fill power. This measures how much air is trapped in a single ounce of down feathers. If one ounce of (uncompressed) down takes up 500 cubic inches, then it has a fill power of 500. This factor contributes to how fluffy the down is, as well as how much heat it traps. This can be a tricky number to rely on, because some products like down-filled jackets are designed to keep heat in, so more fill power is better.
With pillows, on the other hand, while more fill power means more fluffiness, it can also mean more heat gets trapped, leading to a never-ending search for the cool side of the pillow. In some cases, you'll find that pillow manufacturers have stopped including the fill number in their descriptions, specifically to avoid this confusion.
That's where fill weight comes in. This can often be confused with fill power, but instead it refers to how much down is in the pillow, measured in ounces. So, for example, a pillow with a lower fill weight might have 12 ounces of down, while a higher fill weight pillow might have 20 ounces. Both fill power and fill weight can contribute to how fluffy or firm a pillow is.
Most pillow manufacturers will eschew displaying either of these numbers too prominently, and instead offer selections for two or three levels of support. While we take these factors into consideration while testing, your best bet when buying any pillow is to consider how you sleep—on your side, your back, etc.—and pick the fill level that's most likely to keep your head and body supported in a way that suits you best.
- Photograph: Eric Ravenscraft
The Best Down Pillow
Down PillowFluffCo's pitch is that its pillows are just like the ones you'd find in a hotel, and I'm inclined to agree with that assessment. (Though whether that's a compliment may be a bit subjective.) The FluffCo Down Pillow is soft, supportive, and packed with Responsible Down Standard (RDS)-certified down.
This pillow actually uses a nested structure, with an inner pillow filled with white duck feathers and an outer pillow that uses white duck down. This inner core helps make sure that the pillow holds its shape, while the outer section provides a soft landing spot for your head. I get particularly annoyed when a down pillow goes from a fluffy cloud to a thin sheet of fabric with some piles of down in the vague vicinity of my head. So this core is huge for me.
The standard pillow starts at $100, which is an excellent price given how supportive it is. Many other down pillows (including others on our list) work best when you have more than one you can stack. There's a reason hotels have a million pillows on their beds, after all. You could get by with just one of these pillows, but if you want to double up your support, it's not too prohibitively expensive to do so.
- Photograph: Eric Ravenscraft
Best for Side Sleepers
Brooklinen Down PillowI sleep on my side more than anything, and many down pillows can be a problem for me if I don't fluff them sometimes multiple times a night. I had no such problem with the Brooklinen Down Pillow. This pillow has some of the most supportive fill of any pillow I've tested. You can choose between three levels of firmness, but the firmest option seems to be the best for me.
My one complaint is that, unlike most of the other pillows in this guide, this one doesn't come with a removable cover for easy washing. You can buy them separately, but at that point you could just look for your own bedding coverings (and we have some thoughts on that). While this pillow usually starts at $109, it's frequently on sale for less, so grab one during the sale and use that extra cash on a washable covering.
- Photograph: Eric Ravenscraft
Best Down Alternative Pillow
Saatva Down Alternative PillowDown alternatives are getting surprisingly convincing, and Saatva's Down Alternative Pillow is one of the best facsimiles yet. This pillow uses hypoallergenic memory fiber clusters that feel similar to down, but without the risk of any allergies, or involving any animals in the process.
This pillow is also one of the more supportive down alternative pillows I've tested. I tend to roll around a lot during the night and shift position frequently, and this pillow doesn't require nearly as much fluffing to stay supportive as others I've tested. If you like a lot of loft in your pillows, though, you might want to grab two.
- Photograph: Eric Ravenscraft
Best for Stacking
FluffCo Down Alternative PillowFluffCo's Down Alternative Pillow uses microfiber filling in one big pillow compartment—as opposed to the inner-core design of its Down Pillow, above—which is surprisingly soft. It's thinner than some of the other pillows on this list, but it's great for stacking multiple pillows at once.
This pillow also starts at $70, which makes the idea of doubling them up even more attractive. Having multiple pillows also gives you the flexibility to put one under your arm or between your legs, depending on where you need the most support. FluffCo also has pretty frequent bundle deals that come with the company's super-soft pillowcases, which I've used with my testing and they're luxuriously soft.
- Photograph: Eric Ravenscraft
Best Sustainable Down Pillow
Avocado Down PillowThe Avocado Down Pillow has been one of our favorite down pillows for a while, in large part thanks to the company's commitment to ethical and sustainable practices. This pillow has certifications from the Responsible Down Standard (RDS), which aims to ensure animals are treated ethically, as well as Downmark certification, a similar certification managed by the Down Association of Canada. We already like Avocado's use of organic materials, and those high standards extend even to down pillows.
The 650-fill power stuffing is soft and supportive, and you can choose between three levels of firmness to tailor it to the amount of support you need. This $109 starting price is also appealing, as down pillows go. Often, we expect to see a bit of a premium for higher-quality or organic materials, but Avocado manages to stay competitive on price.
