Amazon Basics 1/2 Inch vs B Mat Everyday: Which One Should You Buy?

The Amazon Basics is 12.7 mm of soft NBR foam at 2.2 pounds and $22.48. b, halfmoon’s B Mat Everyday is 4 mm of rubber, tacky on both faces, at 4.1 pounds and $118. So the cheap mat is about three times as thick, and the other costs about five times as much.

The Amazon Basics sells on padding and ranked #2 among Amazon’s yoga mats when we checked. The B Mat sells on grip. Start with what goes wrong on the mat you have now. Aching knees on a hard floor point to the foam. Palms sliding in down dog point to the rubber.

GearLab reviewed the B Mat Everyday separately in 2023, back when the brand was called B Yoga. Its testers ranked its grip, wet or dry, with the best they had tried and named it their top choice for sweaty hands. Sweat sits on the rubber rather than soaking in, and traction held even with a palm resting in a puddle. No break-in is needed.

The Amazon Basics listing says only that its textured surface adds traction. Owners can’t agree on it: fewer than half of about 560 grip comments in Amazon’s review summary are positive, split between never slipping and very slippery.

The rubber can hold too well. GearLab’s testers felt stuck when they tried to slide between poses, and many took to stepping instead. In the reviewer’s view, anyone who doesn’t sweat much may find it too grabby for the gliding transitions of Ashtanga or vinyasa, and the review notes that dragging a leg across it can be uncomfortable when it catches bare skin.

That counts against it for floor work, the foam’s home ground. One instructor reviewing it on b, halfmoon’s site finds it too grippy for yin and lays a softer mat on top for those sessions. If you mostly stretch slowly in shorts, you’ll notice that tack every session.

Owners back up the foam: close to nine in ten of the roughly 920 comments on softness in Amazon’s review summary are positive, and many mention their knees. For kneeling on tile, a physio routine on your back or a long low lunge, the Amazon Basics is far kinder.

Don’t write the B Mat off as thin, though. In GearLab’s bone-compression test, a pen pushed into the mat under a cinder block’s weight, it gave a little and rebounded fast. Testers liked that springy firmness under sore knees and gave it an 8 for comfort and support. Long kneeling holds on tile still call for a blanket.

Soft NBR is fine until one foot carries all your weight. Then it compresses unevenly and keeps settling, so any one-legged pose turns into a string of small ankle corrections that aren’t about your balance at all.

Dense rubber barely moves under a foot. GearLab says the B Mat’s grippy firmness gives standing sequences a solid base, and the mat stayed put on the floor when testers jumped back into chaturanga.

The Amazon Basics is 74″ × 24″, three inches longer. The B Mat is 71″ × 26″, and GearLab liked the added two inches of width for a wide wingspan and wide-legged squats. There is also an 85″ long version.

The B Mat is the heavier of the two, though GearLab still counted it as portable, with a roll 3.5 to 4 inches in diameter. Half an inch of foam is lighter but bulkier rolled up, which is why Amazon packs a carrying strap.

The B Mat’s grip has a housekeeping cost. In GearLab’s hands it picked up dirt, hair and lint constantly. GearLab wants it stored in a bag rather than thrown in a trunk and doesn’t count it as a first choice for outdoor practice. Moisture leaves stains, so GearLab suggests a darker color, and its sample reeked of tire rubber at first, though two days of airing cleared it.

b, halfmoon says to clean it with water and neutral soap, roll it logo side out, avoid long sun exposure, and leave it sealed until the day you start using it, which the brand says prevents oxidation. Amazon’s only care guidance for the foam is a wipe-down and hand washing.

GearLab says to skip the B Mat if you are allergic to latex, since it is mostly natural rubber. The foam is NBR, a synthetic rubber, and Amazon doesn’t claim anything about latex either way.

Both come with one year of cover. Amazon’s review summary splits almost evenly on durability across roughly 970 comments, one owner reports surface rips from tennis shoes, and NBR keeps a dent wherever you kneel most.

b, halfmoon’s one-year warranty won’t cover sun damage, stains or ordinary wear, and it treats worn patches under your hands and feet as ordinary wear. Those are the spots where GearLab’s market research found owners describing peeling. b, halfmoon designs its mats to last two-plus years, and GearLab thinks this one holds up best for people who step through transitions instead of sliding hard every day.

List prices are $22.48 and $118, a gap of $95.52. Check the Amazon Basics at Amazon. The B Mat isn’t on Amazon; buy it from b, halfmoon, in seven colorways at last count.

Returns differ a lot. b, halfmoon’s refund policy requires the mat to be unused and never taken out of its packaging, within 30 days of delivery, and sale items can’t come back at all. Buy the foam on Amazon and Amazon’s return rules apply.

For more cushion on the same rubber, see Amazon Basics vs the 6 mm B Mat Strong. For more foam, there is an even thicker 1 inch version.

Buy the B Mat Everyday if sliding is what’s wrong: damp palms, feet drifting apart in a wide stance, a heated class. It was GearLab’s top pick for sweaty hands, it is two inches wider, and it grips the floor. Expect to wipe it often, keep it bagged and step rather than glide between poses.

The Amazon Basics is the one for kneeling and lying-down work on a hard floor: stretching, core, rehab. It is softer, longer and lighter for a fraction of the price. It won’t hold a sweaty hand or keep a one-legged balance steady.