Is it better to buy a pillow-top mattress or a regular mattress with a topper?

Buying a pillow-top mattress gives you an integrated comfort system built to work with the support core, while adding a topper to a regular mattress offers more flexibility you can change or remove the topper as needed. If your base mattress is supportive but too firm, a quality topper can be a good alternative to replacing it with a pillow-top model.