Soft collars are great, how effective vs comfortable it is will vary greatly on the personality of your pet. There are basically three options: A hard collar, a soft one, or a vest. For my cat when he had a procedure some years ago the hard cone was too difficult for him because it kept banging into corners and jostling him around, with the soft collar you can even flip it toward the body and should still be effective.
Also for those interested in an alternative to the cone altogether here’s an example of the vest (i’ve never bought one so i can’t give opinions on how good they might be)
