The Dosaze Contoured Orthopaedic Pillow is one of three “contoured orthopaedic pillows” that I tried – (I also tried EPABO and Sutera), and Dosaze was by far the best one. The Dosaze pillow distinguishes itself for neck pain relief in three ways.

First, the contour is the perfect depth (it isn’t too deep or shallow). I found that Sutera was a bit too deep (and I didn’t like the sides of the Sutera pillow, but more on that later) and that Epabo was too shallow. Second, the Dosaze pillow is larger than the others, so there is more room to sleep on it (especially if you are a combination sleeper and roll around). Finally, the Dosaze pillow is CertiPUR-US certified – it’s made of premium, certified memory foam (Sutera and Epabo are not).

This pillow is great if you are a back, side, combination back and side, or stomach sleeper. Because the centre of the pillow is a different height (lower) than the sides, you can sleep in the centre as a back or stomach sleeper (who usually require lower heights) or on the edges of the pillow (which are higher) as a side sleeper. If you are a combination back and side sleeper, you can sleep on the edges of the pillow when side sleeping or roll to the centre of the pillow when sleeping on your back. You cannot do this on the Sutera pillow (due to the “wings”).

It also provides the perfect combination of comfort and support – the foam isn’t too firm, nor is it too soft. I would describe it as firm enough to support my head (so my neck stays aligned and my head doesn’t sink too much into the pillow, but also soft enough so that my ears do not hurt when I use it.

Overall, we found the Dosaze did four things really well. (1) the quality of the materials, (2) the innovative shape, (3) the fact that it works for all sleepers, and (4) the customer experience.

1. Quality materials – the foam in this pillow is CertiPUR-US certified (unlike many other pillows, including Sutera). The cover is also made of bamboo, unlike other pillows, which tend to use 100% polyester or other scratchy materials. This memory foam has the perfect ILD (indentation load deflection). The foam is not too firm, nor is it too soft.
2. Innovative shape – the innovative contour of this pillow is amazing. It does wonders to align your neck and back and keeps your neck in place throughout the night. This reduces neck pain, tension headaches, and even alleviates snoring and sleep apnea (because your airways won’t get blocked). Other pillows have tried to copy this shape, but I found this one to be the best, by far.
3. Actually works for all sleepers – the shape of this pillow is ideal for two reasons: (1) it aligns your head and neck and keeps it in place, and (2) if you are a combination sleeper (and sleep on your back and side), you can sleep on the edge of the pillow (which is higher) when sleeping on your side, and roll into the centre contour when on your back. Stomach sleepers (who usually stay on their stomachs) can sleep in the contour.
4. Customer experience – I had the best experience purchasing this pillow. The Dosaze team was incredibly responsive when my pillow got lost in the mail, and they sent me one free of charge. They also offer a 60-day sleep trial and a 3-year warranty.

This pillow is a perfect example of getting what you pay for – with high-quality materials, an innovative shape, and incredible customer support, this pillow is the best option if you want to alleviate neck pain.

And don’t take our word for it, other review sites have come to the same conclusion on the Dosaze pillow being the best pillow for neck pain. You can even check out the Dosaze pillow reviews on the site itself, if you don’t believe us.

You can see that this pillow is great for side and back sleepers. For back sleepers, it is perfect to sleep with your head in the contour. For side sleepers, it is great to sleep on the edges of the pillow – it will fill your shoulder gap and ensure that you sleep in perfect alignment all night long. If you are a combination sleeper, you can roll from one side to the middle and to the other side.

UPDATE (3 months later): I’ve now been sleeping on this pillow for 8 months, and it is still the best one. I’m super satisfied with the overall quality and durability of this pillow. I usually toss this pillow in the dryer on low heat to give it a bit of a plump up. This has been the best investment for me in terms of improving my overall sleep quality!

Best known for their mattresses, Tempur-Pedic also offers a well-regarded range of memory foam pillows. It is ergonomically sound and made with memory foam in order to give you solid support when you’re on your side or back. Additionally, the pillow is contoured in order to curve naturally around your head, neck, and shoulders to prevent any unnecessary stress or pressure on pivotal joints. While the polyester outer layer can be removed and machine washed, it’s important to note that this product does have an odd time fitting into pillowcases.

This is a great pillow produced by a well-known company. You can tell by feeling the memory foam that it is high quality. This is a great pillow for side sleepers, but it isn’t as good for combination back and side sleepers. The primary reason for this is that the contour is merely a single “wave” – this wave doesn’t stop your head from shifting side to side if you’re a back or combination sleeper, so it fails to keep your neck aligned.

When I lay my head down on this pillow, it feels a bit too firm. While I feel supported, the foam kind of hurt my ears (especially when I slept on my side).

If you’re looking for a trusted name in the industry, this is a good option. However, we feel as though there are other, better-designed pillows on the market. This company specialises in mattresses, and while their pillow offering is good, it isn’t the best available, especially for the price.

As you can see, this pillow was relatively aligned when I slept on my side, but it was too high when I slept on my back. This pillow has a “contour” which can be helpful, but because it is one consistent height throughout the pillow, it actually isn’t best for combination sleepers who require different heights when sleeping in different positions.

This graphite-infused memory foam pillow is a combination of memory foam and latex foam pillow – you can definitely feel the quality of the fill when you sleep on it. The pillow is a good level of firmness – it isn’t too firm, and it’s not too soft. It definitely provides enough support for your head.

The pillow also sleeps relatively cool – the graphite-infused memory foam and the latex foam are generally cooler than most memory foams. It is overall a good pillow, but we had two primary issues with this pillow.

1. Price / Value – This pillow is expensive; there is simply no other way to put it. While the fill is good quality, we would have also expected a higher quality cover (than just cotton) for a pillow of this price. It is significantly more expensive than others on the market. We think the quality of this pillow justifies some price increase, but definitely not this large of a price increase
2. No specific neck pain reduction features – this is a great overall pillow, but it doesn’t do too much to help reduce neck pain. It is not adjustable and does not have an innovative shape or design to help reduce neck pain, and you can tell by sleeping on this pillow. It definitely does not help reduce neck pain as much as other pillows do, but it is a high-quality pillow nonetheless.

You can see that the pillow doesn’t do much to align your neck and back – it is a high-quality pillow, but I didn’t find it the most comfortable. I didn’t really enjoy the feel of the latex, which was a bit too “springy” for me.

The Coop Adjustable Pillow is a very good pillow for general use – it is adjustable and can suit the needs of many different kinds of people. Our primary issue with this pillow is that it doesn’t specifically help with neck pain.

In my experience, neck pain is mostly due to incorrect alignment between your neck and back. Your neck and back can become misaligned vertically and horizontally. This pillow helps with the vertical misalignment – i.e., you can adjust the pillow so that it is the correct height for your neck and back. However, it does not do much to align your neck horizontally – i.e., while you sleep, your neck can tilt left or right, which builds up strain and leaves you waking with neck pain.

I again would recommend this pillow for a general audience (or maybe for your guest room, if you really like your guests!), but not for someone who is specifically dealing with neck pain.

Some other minor complaints I had with the pillow are the following:

1. Over time, it becomes harder to plump up
2. The pillow isn’t 100% memory foam fill, and you can tell vs. other adjustable fill pillows – this fill doesn’t provide as much support as 100% memory foam pillows.
3. The adjustable fill can get messy

As you can see, this pillow doesn’t really align your neck horizontally — the difference might seem slight, but it is important and can be a cause of that “crink” in your neck when you wake up.

The GoKindly pillow is another solid pillow for general use – it is adjustable and can suit the needs of many different kinds of people. Our primary issue with this pillow is that it doesn’t specifically help with neck pain.

I would recommend this pillow for a general audience (or maybe for your guest room, if you really like your guests!), but not for someone who is specifically dealing with neck pain.

I found that my neck was moving back and forth on this pillow, and so I would wake up with a “crick” in my neck. This was the case both when I was sleeping on my side and when I was sleeping on my back. For someone looking to alleviate neck pain, this pillow is probably not the best option.

You can see that the pillow doesn’t do much to align your neck and back – if you are looking for a solid generic pillow, this is a good option, but may not be ideal if you’re dealing with neck pain.

This pillow is designed by Therapeutic Pillow. After sleeping on this pillow, I think it is a solid pillow for the right person.

The way this pillow works is that there is an insert that you can either leave in or take out to adjust the height/firmness of the pillow. If you happen to enjoy one of the two levels, then this pillow could be a good fit for you. However, if you don’t, then it might not work for you. That being said, it is easier and less messy to adjust this pillow than it is to adjust other adjustable pillows.

How often are you going to adjust your pillow once you get it? Once you find that ideal level of firmness, you probably don’t have to adjust it again. That also brings me to my next issue with the pillow – if you don’t happen to like one of these levels, then it will not help you at all with reducing your neck pain. These levels might be too high or too low for you.

Another issue I have with this pillow (and most pillows, to be honest!) is that I am a combination side and back sleeper (as most people are!), and that most pillows only have one height throughout the pillow. One consistent height might be okay if you only sleep on your back or side, but if you sleep on both, you need a pillow that has multiple heights. In my opinion, this is a great benefit of the contoured orthopaedic pillows that have a dip in the middle (for back sleeping) and are higher on the edges (for side sleeping).

This pillow doesn’t come with a sleep trial. This is another thing you need to take into consideration when making a purchase.

As you can see, this pillow is clearly too high. It can work for some people, but definitely not everyone.

This pillow is a lower-quality version of the Dosaze Contoured Orthopaedic one. It is smaller, made of lower-quality materials (fill and cover), and not as comfortable. I found that the memory foam in this pillow (which was not CertiPUR-US certified), was not as comfortable as the memory foam in other pillows. The cover is also a bit scratchy (as it is 100% polyester).

I found that this pillow is okay for back sleeping, but less good for side sleeping. The contour of the pillow works okay if you sleep on your back (although again it was a bit too shallow for me), but when you sleep on your side, the pillow is not thick enough to fill your shoulder gap, which can cause alignment issues. I also found that the foam on this pillow is noticeably firmer than that of other pillows. This does a lot for providing support, but does not do much in terms of providing comfort.

While this pillow is a bit cheaper than other alternatives, it is not the best product in terms of quality and might need to be replaced more quickly. The foam is not CertiPUR-US certified. Add to this the fact that the pillow only has a 30-day trial period (and sometimes it can take that long to really get used to a new pillow) and does not come with a warranty, and this pillow is a bit of a punt, to be honest. This cheaper version might work for you, and it might not, and you don’t have that much time to decide.

It’s a bit hard to tell in this photo, but I essentially felt like 100% of my body weight was on my shoulder when I slept on my side on the EPABO pillow. There was a lot of pressure on my shoulder as I kind of “sank” into my bed to meet the pillow. The memory foam wasn’t supportive (or high) enough for me.

This pillow is another spin on the ergonomic/contoured shaped pillow – I found in my testing that it has a couple of noticeable pros and cons. The “supportive” neck nook, as they call it, is comfortable, but it lacks some support. Unlike the EPABO pillow, this pillow is a bit too soft and lacks the necessary support to properly align your neck and back.

I also found that the “butterfly” wings were a bit unnecessary and kind of got in the way. In fact, they made it much more difficult to sleep on your side. A huge point about pillows and sleep positions is that different sleep positions require different heights – naturally, a stomach sleeper requires a lower height than a back sleeper, who requires a lower height than a side sleeper. In Sutera’s own sleep diagram, they recommend sleeping in the same “nook” whether you are a back, side, or stomach sleeper.

This is not the ideal position for all sleepers – in my opinion, the Dream Deep pillow is best for back sleepers. If you sleep on your side, the “nook” is not high enough. Unlike the Dosaze pillow, where, as a side sleeper, you can comfortably sleep on the edges of the pillow (which are higher and will fill your shoulder gap), the butterfly wings on the Sutera pillow actually get in the way if you try to sleep on the edges of the pillow. And if you try to “side” sleep in the “nook” of the centre of the pillow, it is not high enough.

The Sutera pillow is also one that is a bit of a risk – you can definitely try it out, but be aware that the trial period is quite limited. They only provide a 30-day trial period, and they don’t advertise this, but they do have a 15% processing fee to return the pillow – just take a look at some of the reviews online.

As you can see, this pillow is a decent solution for exclusively back sleepers, but it does not work as well for side sleepers. Add to that the fact that the returns policy and warranty aren’t the best, and purchasing this pillow is a bit of a risk. That being said, it isn’t the most expensive, and it could work for you if you try it out – just be sure you’re willing to keep it if it doesn’t work! (or risk not being able to return it or having to pay a substantial fee to return it).

The biggest issue here is that the centre of the pillow isn’t high enough for side sleepers, and the “wings” get in the way and aren’t comfortable for side sleepers if you try to sleep on them (see above).

The Koala pillow is good for someone looking to try something new. It definitely takes some getting used to (and you may very well like it a lot), but it wasn’t for me. This pillow is probably better suited for someone who tends to sleep very hot – the gel foam is breathable, and I did notice that I slept cooler throughout the night.

However, the latex is pretty “springy” and honestly provides a bit too much resistance against your head – for me personally, this pressure was a bit too much to handle.

The pillow also does not promote alignment in any particular way, so your head, neck, and spine may get out of alignment. If you are looking for a pillow for neck pain, this pillow may not be for you.

Although it may be a good choice for some people, I’m a little concerned about how long the gel foam can hold up. I was expecting a $150 pillow to have a longer warranty, but Koala only provides a one-year warranty on their pillows.