10 Best Sofas 2024 in the United States

Sometimes the things we see all the time are the things we manage to overlook. Think about your sofa. You see it every day, and you probably spend a good amount of time on it, but when is the last time you really thought about how happy you are with it? All right, now that you’ve thought about it and decided you need a new one—or maybe you’re just looking to set up your new house or apartment—let’s make sure that you get the right one for you, your needs, and your budget. Here’s what to look for.

Even though most sofas pretty much fit into one category of furniture, they aren’t all the same. Think about what exactly you're looking for.

Traditional Sofas: The classic model that you probably think of when you see the word sofa. If you’ve got the space on your floor, a full sofa is a great option: it’s big and comfortable, perfect for sharing the space with several friends or stretching out for a nap.

Sectional Sofas: Sectional sofas can be as big or bigger than traditional sofas, with the added benefit of flexibility. If you need to make some space in your room—or if you just want to move things around a bit—a sectional sofa can be taken apart and rearranged to suit your needs, from fitting the sofa into a corner of the room to having two smaller seats on either side.

Love Seats: If you don’t have the space for a traditional sofa, or you just don’t need something that big, a love seat is the perfect option. Built for two, a love seat takes up a lot less room and, as the name suggests, allows you to get closer to the person sharing the space.

Pull-Out Beds: Generally the same size as a traditional sofa, a pull-out gives you the benefit of having a second piece of furniture built right in. If you have family or friends who stay over frequently, or you just want to have an extra bed just in case, a pull-out is the perfect option for you.

Futons: They’re not just for college students anymore. Good futons are sleek, attractive, and comfortable when they’re being used as sofas, and in half a minute, they turn into perfectly good beds. They’re great for putting up unexpected guests, but they’re comfortable enough that they might just replace the bed you have in your guest bedroom.

Based on the customer reviews out there, here are some things that your fellow customers have mentioned when talking about their new sofas:

Fast, reliable shipping: If you’re buying something on the Internet, you want to make sure to do your homework and pick a trustworthy and professional manufacturer or sales company. Delivery—and even better, setup—are great options, so be sure to look for a seller that can get your new sofa to you without hassle.

Comfort: This one just makes sense. If you’re going to invest in a sofa, you want one that you’re going to actually like sitting on. Customers discuss things like the thickness of the cushions, how comfortable the material is, and whether or not the sofa has pieces on the inside that make sitting or lying down on them less than ideal.

Value for the money: As the old saying goes, you get what you pay for, and depending on the brand, you might pay a lot of money for your new sofa. That’s not a problem if you’re getting good quality in return, but some customers felt that that just didn’t happen for them. Others talk about finding that perfect diamond in the rough: a sofa that doesn’t cost a lot of money, but still gives them everything they need.

Ease of assembly: Many customers talked about having to put the sofa together once it showed up at their doors. Not surprisingly, the best sofas were easy to put together and didn’t require tools or an engineering degree. This just makes sense: if you’re buying a piece of furniture that you’re going to move around the house and take with you when you find a new place, you want something that you can take apart, move, and put back together without a lot of trouble.

Here are a few things to keep in mind when you find yourself in the market for a new sofa:

• Space: This is probably the most important thing to keep in mind when looking for a new sofa: how much room do you have, and how much of that room do you want being taken up by your new sofa? Regardless of what kind you buy, a sofa is going to take up a good amount of space in your room; you’ll want to make sure that you pick one that won’t take up too much.
• Use: If you have people over frequently and you need a spot to put them up for the night, then a pull-out or futon would be the sofa to have, because you’re going to be using all of its features. If you don’t have people crashing in your house and you’re comfortable with the bed that’s in your bedroom, then you might be better served going with a traditional sofa or love seat.
• Style: Because of its size and the fact that it’s where you and your guests will tend to end up when you’re in the living room, the sofa becomes the focal point of most rooms. Because of that, you’ll want to pick a sofa that fits your style and home décor: do you want to go with leather or fabric? What color do you want it to be? Do you want it to feature soft, rounded edges, or something a little more linear?
• Ease of movement: Sofas take up a fair amount of space, which you already know. You also probably already know that some sofas are a snap to pick up and move, sometimes by yourself, while others take two or more people to move across the room, and that’s saying nothing of what happens when you decide to move. The bigger the couch, the more cumbersome it can be to move—even if they don’t have a pull-out bed hiding below the cushions—so you’ll want to think about how convenient or inconvenient a potential sofa is before you invest your money.

Serta: Serta is known for their mattresses more than anything else, to the extent that their website focuses almost exclusively on them. Nevertheless, their other home furnishing products are among the best-selling and highest-rated in the industry.

Bobkona: Bobkona make a number of excellent sofas and sell them at a reasonable price—even though you might not remember seeing one of their stores. That’s because Bobkona is owned by Poundex, a company that has focused solely on wholesale operations since 1989.

DHP: Dorel Home Products is a Canadian furniture manufacturer that has been in business since 1962. Although initially the company focused just on importing and producing futons, they now produce a full line of home furnishings and boast annual sales of $2.7 billion.

Ikea: Given their reputation for sleek modernism, you might be surprised to learn that the iconic Swedish company has been producing and selling quality, affordable home furnishings since 1943. In 2013, the company took in nearly $38 billion in sales.