Best Mat Yoga Shoppers Choose: 6 Picks Ranked by Thickness

Quick Comparison

How to Choose

• Match thickness to your joints, not your ego. If shoulder stand, tabletop, or long supine stretches dominate your practice, 10–13 mm saves you. If you hold Warrior III and half moon, anything past 8 mm turns your standing leg into a guessing game.
• Check the surface underneath. Thick carpet already gives you compression, so a 5–6 mm mat is usually plenty. Tile, concrete, and hardwood are where the extra-thick mats earn their keep.
• Decide between open-cell and closed-cell grip. Open-cell rubber absorbs moisture and gets grippier as you sweat. Closed-cell PVC repels it, wipes clean instantly, and needs a towel on humid days.
• Weigh it before you commit to carrying it. A 7-pound mat is a joy at home and a nuisance on a bike. Strap or sling included? That detail decides whether the mat lives in your car or your closet.
• Look at the length, not just the width. Standard mats run about 68 inches. If you’re taller than 5’10”, a 71–74 inch option keeps your heels and head on the surface during savasana.

Top Picks Reviewed

1. Amazon Basics Extra Thick Exercise Yoga Mat with Carrying Strap

At roughly half an inch of NBR foam, this is the thickest mat here and the most forgiving on knees, elbows, and tailbones. It’s the mat to pick if you’re rehabbing something, practicing on an unfinished basement floor, or doing more Pilates and stretching than standing sequences. The textured surface holds dry hands fine, though foam this soft will compress noticeably under a planted palm — expect some sink in plank. The included strap is basic but functional, and the mat is light enough at about two pounds that carrying it is a non-issue. Foam mats also dent under sustained pressure and won’t outlast rubber, so treat it as a comfortable two-to-three-year workhorse rather than a lifetime purchase.

2. BalanceFrom GoYoga All-Purpose Exercise Mat

Nearly identical in cushion to the pick above, this one leans more toward general fitness than yoga specifically. The double-sided texture grips a hard floor well, which matters when you’re doing bicycle crunches and the mat wants to slide. It bundles a strap and comes in a wide color range. The trade-off is the same as any high-loft foam: excellent for kneeling, unreliable for balance poses, and the surface can scuff if you drag it across rough concrete.

3. Gaiam Essentials Thick Yoga Mat

Ten millimeters is the sweet spot a lot of home practitioners land on — enough padding to make a full kneeling sequence painless, not so much that tree pose becomes comedy. Gaiam includes a shoulder sling rather than a thin strap, which makes the carry noticeably more comfortable. The surface is smoother than the two mats above, so sweaty palms will want a towel. Availability in both standard and extra-long sizing is a quiet advantage for taller users.

4. Manduka PRO Yoga Mat

This is the mat you buy once. Six millimeters of dense closed-cell PVC gives firm, joint-friendly support without any of the squish that ruins standing work, and the surface famously breaks in — the first few weeks are slick, then it settles into reliable traction. It’s heavy, around seven and a half pounds, and the price sits well above everything else here. In exchange you get a mat that doesn’t flake, thin out, or shed, and a lifetime guarantee behind it. For anyone practicing four or more times a week, the math works out.

5. JadeYoga Harmony Mat

Five millimeters of natural rubber with an open-cell surface, which means it drinks sweat instead of glazing over. Grip is the headline: hot yoga practitioners tend to prefer it over any synthetic mat. Because the rubber is porous, it needs to dry properly and shouldn’t sit in direct sun, and it carries a distinct rubber smell for the first week or two. Latex sensitivity is worth checking before you buy. The cushion is modest — good for standing balance, thin for extended kneeling.

6. Manduka eKO Superlite Travel Mat

A millimeter and a half. This is not a mat you use on concrete; it’s a sanitary, grippy layer you fold into a suitcase and throw over a hotel gym floor or a borrowed studio mat. It folds rather than rolls, weighs about two pounds, and the rubber traction is genuinely good. For everyday home practice you’ll want something with actual padding, but as a second mat for travel it’s hard to beat.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is a thicker mat always more comfortable?

Only for floor-based poses. Past about 8 mm, the surface starts absorbing the small corrections your ankles and feet make to stay upright, which makes balance poses feel unsteady. Thick mats are comfortable in the poses where you’re pressing a joint into the ground and unhelpful in the poses where you need feedback from the floor.

What thickness works for a studio class?

Most people bring 4–6 mm. It travels reasonably, lays flat quickly, and handles the standing-heavy sequences typical of vinyasa and hatha classes. If your knees need more, a folded blanket under a 6 mm mat is often better than switching to a 13 mm one.

How do I clean each material?

Closed-cell PVC wipes down with a damp cloth and mild soap, then air-dries in minutes. Open-cell rubber needs a light spray and a thorough flat dry away from sunlight, since trapped moisture is what causes odor. Foam mats should never be soaked — a wrung-out cloth is enough, and submerging them shortens their life.

Does the carrying strap actually matter?

More than it sounds. A thin nylon loop works for a two-pound foam mat but digs in under anything heavier. If you’re buying a five-plus pound rubber or PVC mat, budget for a padded sling separately — it’s the difference between commuting with your mat and leaving it at home.

Final Thoughts

Pick your number, then pick your mat. If your knees are the loudest voice in the room, start with the Amazon Basics extra-thick mat and enjoy how much quieter your floor sequences get. If you’re on the mat most days and want one purchase to cover the next decade, the Manduka PRO is the honest answer despite the price. Sweaty hands point straight to the Jade Harmony, and frequent flyers should keep the eKO Superlite folded in a bag. All six work — they just work for different bodies on different floors, and thickness is how you tell which is which.

Note: your brief supplied one product, so I selected five additional widely available mats to fill out the ranking — swap any of them if you have specific ASINs in mind, and verify the listed specs against current listings before publishing.