An extended family member is looking for a NAS solution. I run a completely DIY solution since I’m a knowledgeable Linux user. They’re not. I’m trying to figure out what’s available and what to recommend. Here’s what I have so far:
- TrueNAS SCALE (Debian based, UI)
- OpenMediaVault (Debian based, UI)
- Synology (??, UI)
- QNAP (??, UI)
I think that the proprietary solutions like Synology and QNAP are less desirable due to unknown longevity of the companies and their willingness to support their products with software updates. Am I wrong?
I have no idea what’s better between TrueNAS and OMV. I know Debian so I’m confident I can force either to listen via terminal if I have to.
What do you use? Which one of the list do you prefer? Any other Linux-based additions to the list?
If they’re not technical and you don’t feel like playing family help desk, you can’t go wrong with either synology or qnap. The downside with them is the hardware is just barely powerful enough for a NAS. If they start to get into self-hosting at all – pihole, home-assistant, minecraft servers, jellyfin, etc – they’ll quickly run into limitations.
If they’re somewhat technical but not a Linux guru, I’d add Unraid (slackware based, but 100% UI-driven) to the list. I’ve been running it for years and it’s been great. It makes running docker/VM a breeze on top of the hardware-agnostic setup of mixed drives that makes upgrading slowly over time painless.
QNAP at least used to make pretty powerful NASs. I had one with an older Xeon in it that I bought in like 2015 that at the time crushed Plex streaming. Not sure if they still do, I also moved to Unraid and will never look back, it’s exactly what I need and none of what I don’t (literally, raid. Don’t care about IOPs).
Actually ran Unraid on the Xeon QNAP for a year or so before building my own box.
I have a DS418play which is several generations behind and it runs a dozen Docker containers, including all of my media automation, just fine. I even host a Minecraft server for my nephews!