Tag: TrueNAS

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Best NAS for Home Use in 2026: Synology, UGREEN, TerraMaster or DIY?

Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Product links may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.

I built my own NAS. That does not mean I think you should.

My current NAS runs TrueNAS on a low-power Intel N100-based system. I like having complete control over the hardware and software, and I like knowing that if I want to change something later, I am not waiting for a NAS manufacturer to decide whether I am allowed to do it.

But building a NAS also means owning the problems. You choose the hardware. You install the operating system. You troubleshoot it. You decide how backups work. When something breaks, there is no single company responsible for the whole box.

If a friend asked me what NAS to buy for a house today, I would probably send them toward a prebuilt NAS instead. Pre-built means all you do is install hard drives.

The interesting part in 2026 is that Synology is no longer the only obvious answer. UGREEN and TerraMaster now sell boxes with considerably more aggressive hardware, faster networking and surprisingly capable processors. For a while, I owned a QNAP. Meanwhile, building your own NAS remains attractive if you actually want the flexibility rather than simply wanting somewhere safe to store your files.

Quick Answer: The Best Home NAS in 2026

NAS	Best For	Why I Like It	My Take
Synology DS925+	Most homes	4 bays, DSM, dual 2.5GbE, expandable memory	Safest recommendation
UGREEN DXP4800 Plus	Best hardware value	10GbE, 2.5GbE, Intel CPU, 8GB DDR5, 2 NVMe slots	Very compelling alternative to Synology
TerraMaster F4-425 Pro	Power users and media	Intel N350, 16GB RAM, dual 5GbE, 3 NVMe slots	A lot of hardware in a 4-bay box
Synology DS225+	Simple 2-bay NAS	DSM, 2.5GbE, compact and easy to manage	Good first NAS
Build Your Own + TrueNAS	Maximum control	Choose your own CPU, RAM, networking, case and drives	What I use

If I wanted the easiest recommendation for most people:

Check the Synology DS925+ diskless on Amazon

If I cared more about getting the most hardware for my money, I would look very closely at the UGREEN DXP4800 Plus.

Best NAS for Most People: Synology DS925+

Synology remains the easiest NAS company for me to recommend to someone who wants storage to behave like an appliance.

That is what I always wanted from my NAS. I enjoy building computers, but once storage is running, I want it to sit quietly in a corner and serve files.

The Synology DS925+ is a four-bay NAS built around an AMD Ryzen V1500B processor with four cores and eight threads. It comes with 4GB of ECC memory and can be expanded to 32GB.

There are two 2.5GbE Ethernet ports and two M.2 NVMe slots that can be used for caching or storage pools with compatible SSDs.

Four drive bays are also a sweet spot for a home NAS.

Two bays work, but they limit your choices. With four drives you can build an array that provides redundancy while retaining substantially more capacity. Four bays also give you room to grow without jumping into a large, expensive box.

The reason I would buy Synology, however, is DSM. DSM is Synology’s software platform.

The hardware specifications are no longer particularly exciting compared with UGREEN and TerraMaster. You are buying a mature storage platform with integrated backup, snapshots, file sharing, photo management, remote access and a large application ecosystem.

I would buy the DS925+ for: someone who wants a NAS to be reliable infrastructure rather than another hobby.

I would skip it for: someone who wants the most CPU, RAM and network bandwidth possible for the money, or someone who enjoys replacing the manufacturer’s software with their own.

Check the Synology DS925+ on Amazon

Synology Backed Away From Its Worst Hard-Drive Restriction

There is an important update if you followed the controversy around Synology’s 2025 NAS models.

Synology initially became much more restrictive about which drives could be used with its newer DiskStation Plus systems. That was a serious strike against the platform for me. A NAS is a box whose main purpose is holding hard drives. I do not want the manufacturer unnecessarily narrowing my choices.

With DSM 7.3, Synology loosened that policy.

Current 2025-model DiskStation Plus systems including the DS925+ can create storage pools using non-validated third-party 3.5-inch hard drives and 2.5-inch SATA SSDs. Synology still recommends checking its compatibility list, and restrictions remain around some features such as M.2 storage pools.

You can read Synology’s current drive compatibility policy here.

I still prefer completely open hardware, but this makes the DS925+ considerably easier to recommend.

Best Hardware for the Money: UGREEN NASync DXP4800 Plus

The UGREEN NASync DXP4800 Plus is the NAS that makes the Synology hardware look conservative.

It has:

Four SATA drive bays
Intel Pentium Gold 8505 processor with five cores and six threads
8GB DDR5 RAM, expandable to 64GB
One 10GbE Ethernet port
One 2.5GbE Ethernet port
Two M.2 NVMe slots
HDMI output
Intel Quick Sync support for compatible hardware transcoding

That is a remarkable amount of hardware for a four-bay NAS.

The 10GbE port is especially interesting if you regularly move large files. I recently wrote about 2.5GbE versus 10GbE for a home network, and a NAS is one of the places where 10GbE can actually make sense. Large backups, video files and bulk transfers can use bandwidth that ordinary web browsing never will.

You still need the rest of the network to keep up. A 10GbE port on a NAS does not magically make a gigabit switch or a slow hard drive ten times faster.

UGREEN also officially supports third-party drives from manufacturers including Western Digital, Seagate and Toshiba.

The tradeoff is software.

UGREEN has put substantial development into UGOS Pro, but Synology has been building DSM for a long time. If I were buying a NAS primarily because I wanted the most polished turnkey storage experience, I would still lean Synology.

If I were looking at the specifications and thinking about Docker, media serving, 10GbE and other home-lab uses, the DXP4800 Plus becomes extremely appealing.

I would buy it for: a technically comfortable home user who wants stronger hardware and 10GbE without building an entire NAS.

I would skip it for: someone whose highest priority is having the longest-established NAS software ecosystem.

Check the UGREEN DXP4800 Plus on Amazon

Best Power-User 4-Bay NAS: TerraMaster F4-425 Pro

The TerraMaster F4-425 Pro may be the most interesting hardware configuration in this group.

The N350 version comes with:

Intel N350 eight-core processor
16GB RAM
Four SATA drive bays
Three M.2 NVMe slots
Two 5GbE Ethernet ports
Hardware 4K transcoding support
HDMI output

Three NVMe slots in a four-bay NAS is unusually generous. So is shipping it with 16GB of memory.

The dual 5GbE ports are also an interesting compromise. Most houses do not have 10GbE everywhere, and 5GbE can provide considerably more bandwidth than 2.5GbE without pushing every component toward 10GbE.

TerraMaster runs its TOS operating system. TOS 7 has continued to add backup, security and application features, and the hardware provides enough resources for Docker and media workloads.

Again, my hesitation compared with Synology is not the box. It is whether I value the extra hardware more than Synology’s software ecosystem.

I would buy it for: someone who wants a prebuilt enclosure but thinks like a home-lab user.

I would skip it for: someone who wants the simplest possible NAS experience and does not care about 5GbE, extra RAM or multiple NVMe slots.

Check the TerraMaster F4-425 Pro on Amazon

Best Simple 2-Bay NAS: Synology DS225+

Some people do not need four drives.

If the goal is a central place for photos, documents, computer backups and a modest media collection, the Synology DS225+ is much easier to justify.

It has two drive bays, an Intel Celeron J4125 processor, 2GB of memory, one 2.5GbE port and one 1GbE port.

For a two-drive NAS, the obvious configuration is usually a mirror: two drives containing the same data. If one fails, the other remains.

The downside is capacity efficiency. Two 4TB drives mirrored together give you approximately one drive’s worth of usable capacity rather than 8TB of protected storage.

That is the price of redundancy.

If you already think you will eventually need more than one mirrored pair, I would spend the money on four bays at the beginning. Replacing the entire NAS later is usually more annoying than buying a little extra room today.

I would buy it for: backups, photos, documents and ordinary home storage where two bays are enough.

I would skip it for: anyone who is already thinking about a large Plex library, several users, surveillance storage or substantial future expansion.

Check the Synology DS225+ diskless on Amazon

Should You Buy a NAS With the Drives Already Installed?

Amazon also sells some of these systems bundled with drives.

That can be appealing. If part of the reason you are buying a Synology is that you do not want to build your own NAS, having someone else choose the drives is consistent with that goal.

But I would compare the numbers before clicking Buy, especially now with the price of hard drives having gone up in recent years.

For example, we found a DS925+ bundle with four 12TB Seagate IronWolf drives. That gives you 48TB of raw disk capacity without separately shopping for four drives.

A four-drive RAID configuration will not give you all 48TB as usable protected storage. With one drive’s capacity devoted to parity, you are looking at roughly 36TB before filesystem and formatting overhead. Using two-drive fault tolerance reduces usable capacity further.

The alternative is straightforward:

Buy the DS925+ diskless.
Buy four NAS hard drives yourself.
Compare the combined price with the preloaded bundle.

Installing hard drives in a NAS is not much of a build. You slide the drives into the trays, install them and let the NAS initialize the array.

So I would happily buy a preloaded bundle if the premium were small. I would not pay a huge premium merely to avoid putting four drives into four trays.

There is also a DS225+ bundle with two 4TB IronWolf drives for someone who wants a smaller ready-to-go system.

Which Hard Drives Would I Buy?

I would use NAS-rated CMR hard drives for the main storage array.

Two current choices I would consider are WD Red Plus and Seagate IronWolf Pro.

WD Red Plus 12TB: My Home NAS Choice

The WD Red Plus 12TB is the drive I would start with for an ordinary home NAS.

WD Red Plus drives use CMR recording and are designed specifically for RAID-equipped NAS systems. The line carries a three-year limited warranty.

Check the WD Red Plus 12TB on Amazon

Seagate IronWolf Pro 12TB: The Step-Up Drive

The Seagate IronWolf Pro 12TB is a higher-end option.

The ST12000NE0008 is a 7200RPM NAS drive with a five-year limited warranty. Seagate also includes its Rescue Data Recovery Services with the IronWolf Pro line.

For a normal household NAS, I would compare the current price against WD Red Plus before paying extra. For heavier workloads or where the longer warranty has value, the Pro is easier to justify.

Check the IronWolf Pro 12TB on Amazon

When Four Bays Aren’t Enough

Four bays are enough for a lot of households, including mine for many years.

If you already know you need more, buy the larger enclosure now. I went with 5 bays and am now looking to expand.

UGREEN’s DXP8800 Plus provides eight SATA bays, two M.2 NVMe slots, an Intel Core i5-1235U processor and dual 10GbE Ethernet ports.

That is the one I would look at for a serious home media archive, content-creation storage or a home lab where four drives already feel restrictive.

Check the UGREEN DXP8800 Plus on Amazon

And then there are systems like the TerraMaster T12-500 Pro.

This is a 12-bay NAS with an Intel Core i7-1255U, 16GB DDR5 memory, two 10GbE ports and two M.2 NVMe slots.

It is impressive hardware. It is also far beyond what I would recommend to someone who simply wants family backups and a photo library.

If you need twelve drives, you probably already know why.

Should You Build Your Own NAS?

I did.

I have built storage servers before, used commercial NAS products and eventually returned to a homebuilt system. My current machine runs TrueNAS on low-power Intel hardware.

I like the flexibility.

If the motherboard dies, I can replace it. If I want faster networking, I can change it. If I want more RAM, a different case or another operating system, I am not limited by what a NAS vendor decided to expose.

TrueNAS also gives me ZFS, snapshots and a storage-first operating system that fits how I want the machine to behave.

I wrote about that decision in TrueNAS vs. Unraid vs. OpenMediaVault.

There is a cost to all that freedom: your time.

If you enjoy choosing motherboards, SATA controllers, cases, power supplies and software, building a NAS can be rewarding.

If your real objective is to back up your family photos and stop worrying about storage, buying a Synology makes a great deal of sense.

Build your own if:

You enjoy maintaining hardware
You want complete control over the operating system
You need unusual drive or networking configurations
You want to reuse existing hardware
You care about avoiding vendor lock-in

Buy a prebuilt NAS if:

You want one company responsible for the hardware and operating system
You value simple updates and administration
You want storage to disappear into the background
You have better things to do than troubleshoot a storage server on Sunday afternoon

If you want to see how I got here, start with my Building My NAS series.

How Many NAS Bays Do You Need?

This may be the most important purchasing decision.

Two Bays

Best for simple household storage, backups and smaller photo or media collections.

A mirrored two-drive configuration is easy to understand, but expansion is limited. When you need more capacity, you usually replace the drives with larger ones.

Four Bays

This is where I would start for most serious home NAS purchases.

You get much better choices around redundancy, capacity and expansion without turning the NAS into a giant machine.

The DS925+, DXP4800 Plus and F4-425 Pro all live here for a reason.

Eight Bays

An eight-bay unit makes sense if you have a large media collection, video-production files, extensive backups or already know four drives will not be enough.

The DXP8800 Plus is the step-up option in this guide.

Twelve Bays

This is specialized territory for a home user. If you can explain exactly what you are going to put on twelve hard drives, great. Otherwise, I would rather buy fewer larger drives in a smaller NAS.

RAID Is Not a Backup

This is worth repeating every time I write about storage.

A RAID array can protect you from a hard-drive failure. It does not protect you from everything else.

If you accidentally delete a folder, ransomware encrypts your files, the NAS is stolen, the house floods or something destroys the entire machine, having another copy of the data matters much more than how clever your RAID configuration was.

I use redundant backups rather than trusting the primary NAS as the only copy.

I have even experimented with refurbished enterprise hard drives for secondary backup systems. I am more comfortable taking that risk on an additional redundant copy than on the primary storage array.

For anything you genuinely care about, I would aim for multiple copies with at least one copy physically separate from the NAS.

Don’t Forget the UPS

A NAS is one of the devices I care most about shutting down cleanly.

I have experienced an unsafe shutdown during a power outage, and I have also had a UPS battery fail when I expected it to protect my equipment.

That is why I would budget for a UPS as part of the NAS purchase rather than as an optional accessory sometime later.

If the NAS lives with your router, switches, PoE cameras and other network equipment, see my guide to the best UPS for a home network closet, NAS and PoE equipment.

If you are only protecting a smaller networking configuration, I also have a guide to the best UPS for a router and modem.

What NAS Would I Buy Today?

If I were buying for a family member who wanted a NAS and did not want a new hobby, I would buy the Synology DS925+.

Four bays provide enough flexibility for most homes, DSM is mature, 2.5GbE is appropriate for a modern home network, and Synology’s decision to restore broader third-party hard-drive support removed one of my biggest objections.

Check the DS925+ diskless on Amazon

If I were buying for myself and wanted a prebuilt unit, the decision becomes harder.

The UGREEN DXP4800 Plus gives me 10GbE, more RAM and an Intel processor with Quick Sync.

The TerraMaster F4-425 Pro goes further with 16GB of memory, dual 5GbE and three NVMe slots.

Both tempt me because I like hardware.

And then I remember why I built my own NAS in the first place.

For most people, though, that last sentence is probably a warning rather than a recommendation.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best NAS for home use in 2026?

For most people, I would choose the Synology DS925+. It provides four drive bays, dual 2.5GbE networking and Synology’s mature DSM software. Buyers who prioritize hardware specifications should also consider the UGREEN DXP4800 Plus and TerraMaster F4-425 Pro.

Is a 2-bay or 4-bay NAS better?

A two-bay NAS is sufficient for basic backups and storage. A four-bay NAS gives you much more flexibility for redundancy, capacity and future expansion. If you expect your storage needs to grow, I would start with four bays.

Is Synology still worth buying?

Yes. Synology hardware is often less aggressive than competing systems from UGREEN and TerraMaster, but DSM remains a major reason to buy a Synology NAS. DSM 7.3 also restored support for creating storage pools with many non-validated third-party hard drives on 2025 DiskStation models.

Is UGREEN NAS better than Synology?

UGREEN currently offers stronger hardware specifications at several price points, particularly around processors, memory and networking. Synology’s advantage is its mature DSM software ecosystem. Which is better depends on whether you value hardware capability or a more established turnkey NAS platform.

Should I build a TrueNAS server instead of buying a NAS?

Build a TrueNAS server if you want control over the hardware and software and are comfortable maintaining it yourself. Buy a prebuilt NAS if you want a simpler appliance with one vendor responsible for the platform. Even people who are capable of building and maintaining a server may opt to let someone else handle those details.

How much storage do I need in a home NAS?

Estimate how much data you have today, include the devices you plan to back up, then leave substantial room for growth. Remember that RAID redundancy reduces usable capacity. Four 12TB drives do not normally provide 48TB of protected usable storage.

Do I need NAS-specific hard drives?

I prefer NAS-rated CMR drives for a primary NAS because they are designed for continuous operation in multi-drive enclosures. WD Red Plus and Seagate IronWolf Pro are two current examples.

Published on August 16, 2026

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Best UPS for a Home Network Closet: NAS, PoE, Cameras and Wi-Fi

Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Product links may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.

A modem and Wi-Fi router are easy to protect with a UPS. A full home network closet is a different problem.

Once you add switches, wireless access points, PoE cameras, a NAS, a firewall, smart-home hubs and other equipment, you have more power draw, more devices that need to shut down cleanly and more reasons to care about what happens when the power stays out for longer than five minutes.

I use UPS units for both my networking gear and my NAS. My current NAS runs TrueNAS on a low-power Intel N100-based system, so it does not require a giant UPS by itself. But the NAS is only one part of the load. The router, switches, access points and other network equipment all need power too.

I have also had both sides of the UPS problem: an unsafe shutdown after losing power and a UPS battery that failed when I expected it to protect the equipment. Those experiences changed how I think about sizing a UPS. Capacity matters, but so do battery condition, monitoring, graceful shutdown and the reliability of the power where the equipment actually lives.

Quick answer: For a home network closet with a NAS, PoE switch and several other devices, a good starting point is looking at a 1500VA-class UPS with sine-wave output, USB or network monitoring and replaceable batteries. The CyberPower CP1500PFCLCD is the value choice I would consider first. For a NAS or server setup where management and expandability matter more, I would step up to the APC SMT1500C or Eaton 5P1500.

UPS	Capacity	Best For	My Take	Check Price
CyberPower CP1500PFCLCD	1500VA / 1000W	Most home network closets	Best value	Check price
APC Back-UPS Pro BR1500MS2	1500VA / 900W	Large home networks without server-class needs	Good bridge between consumer and network-closet UPS units	Check price
APC Smart-UPS SMT1500C	1440VA / 1000W	NAS, servers and serious network closets	My step-up APC choice	Check price
Eaton 5P1500	1440VA / 1100W	Premium network and server setups	Excellent management-oriented option	Check price
APC Smart-UPS SMT1500RM2UC	1440VA / 1000W	Rack-mounted network closets	Best fit if the rest of the equipment is already in a rack	Check price

When a Router UPS Is No Longer Enough

I have a separate guide to the best UPS for a router and modem. If your entire critical load is an ONT or cable modem, router and perhaps one small switch, start there. You probably do not need the equipment in this article.

A network closet becomes a different problem when it contains things like:

A modem or fiber ONT
A router or dedicated firewall
One or more Ethernet switches
A PoE switch
Multiple Wi-Fi access points
Security cameras
An NVR
A NAS
A small home server
Home Assistant or other automation hardware
Smart-home bridges

At that point I care less about finding the smallest UPS that can technically support the equipment and more about building enough margin into the system that it remains useful as the network changes. Also, remember not every device needs to have redundant power.

Start With Watts, Not VA

Measure the actual network load instead of guessing using a smart plug or similar device. Knowing whether the closet uses 90 watts or 350 watts completely changes your considerations.

UPS marketing leads with VA ratings, but the watt rating is just as important. A UPS can be rated at 1500VA and still support a different maximum number of watts than another 1500VA model.

That is visible in the products above. The APC Back-UPS Pro BR1500MS2 is rated for 900 watts, the CyberPower CP1500PFCLCD and APC Smart-UPS models here are rated for 1000 watts, and the Eaton 5P1500 is rated for 1100 watts.

You do not want to add the wattage printed on every power adapter and assume that is your actual load. Those labels generally describe what the power supply can provide, not necessarily what the device consumes continuously.

Measure the whole network closet

If everything is already connected to one UPS, the UPS display may show current load. You can also use a plug-in power meter between the wall and the equipment while temporarily running it without the UPS.

Measure during normal operation and then consider what changes under load. A NAS may draw more power while its disks are active. A PoE switch may consume considerably more as additional cameras and access points draw power.

I would also leave room for the next device. Home networks have a habit of growing.

PoE Makes UPS Sizing More Interesting

A normal Ethernet switch has a relatively predictable load. A PoE switch is powering other equipment through the network cable, so the switch itself is only part of the calculation.

If the switch powers cameras, wireless access points, phones or other PoE devices, that downstream load is also being supplied by the UPS.

This is one reason backing up the switch can be so useful. One UPS connection may keep an entire group of cameras and access points online. It also means that adding another six PoE cameras later can materially change the amount of battery runtime you have.

When sizing the UPS, look at actual PoE consumption rather than simply the switch’s maximum advertised PoE budget. Then leave enough capacity for growth.

A NAS Changes What I Want From a UPS

A router reboot is annoying. An abrupt NAS shutdown is something I work harder to avoid.

A NAS may be writing data, updating filesystem metadata or running applications when utility power disappears. The goal of the UPS is therefore not necessarily to run the NAS for hours. It may be to keep the machine alive long enough for the outage to prove that it is not a momentary flicker and then shut the system down cleanly.

This is why I consider communications support essential when a NAS or server is part of the load.

TrueNAS and NUT

TrueNAS includes UPS support using Network UPS Tools, commonly called NUT. A compatible UPS can communicate with the NAS over USB, serial or, with suitable hardware, over the network.

TrueNAS can then react to UPS status and initiate a controlled shutdown rather than waiting for the battery to become completely exhausted.

The exact UPS and driver still matter. If automatic shutdown is important to you, check the current TrueNAS UPS documentation and the Network UPS Tools compatibility information before buying.

TrueNAS can also operate with one system acting as the UPS monitor while other systems receive status across the network. That is useful when several servers share one sufficiently large UPS.

If you are interested in the NAS side of my setup, I have an entire Building My NAS series covering the hardware and software decisions.

How Much Runtime Do You Actually Need?

This is where I think a lot of UPS recommendations go wrong. The correct size depends on the power where the equipment is located.

A network closet in a city apartment with an occasional one-second flicker has a very different problem from equipment sitting unattended at a vacation house where an outage might last six hours.

If your problem is brief flickers

Your main goal is continuity. You want the modem, router, switches and NAS to ignore a brief voltage drop that would otherwise reboot everything.

Runtime is secondary. Even a modest amount of battery capacity may be enough, although I still prefer reasonable headroom rather than running a UPS near its maximum load.

If you get occasional short outages

Now runtime becomes useful. If most outages last five or ten minutes, I want the network to stay up rather than immediately begin shutting things down.

A 1500VA-class unit becomes attractive because a network closet usually draws far less than the UPS’s maximum watt rating, allowing more runtime than it would provide to a heavily loaded desktop computer.

If outages are frequent

Battery wear and monitoring become more important. Every battery discharge uses part of the battery’s useful life.

This is also where Automatic Voltage Regulation is valuable. A line-interactive UPS with AVR can correct certain voltage variations without moving to battery every time the incoming voltage wanders outside its preferred range.

For a deeper look at AVR, waveform, communications and other UPS features, see How to Choose a UPS With the Right Features.

If long outages are common

A larger UPS may delay the shutdown, but eventually this stops being primarily a UPS-sizing problem.

If the power regularly disappears for hours, you may need a generator, a much larger battery system or another backup-power strategy. The UPS can bridge the gap, protect the equipment from short disturbances and give servers time to shut down properly.

If the network is at a remote or vacation property

This is the case where monitoring becomes especially valuable.

If nobody is there to hear the UPS beeping, I want some way to know that the property lost power and that the battery is being depleted.

There is another limitation: keeping your router alive does not guarantee that your internet service remains alive. Your cable company, fiber provider or other ISP has equipment upstream from your house. A neighborhood-wide outage may eventually take that infrastructure offline too.

If remote connectivity is important enough, consider cellular failover as a separate layer.

I discuss the rest of that problem in my guide to vacation-home remote monitoring.

Best Value: CyberPower CP1500PFCLCD

For many home network closets, the CyberPower CP1500PFCLCD is where I would start.

It provides 1500VA/1000W capacity, sine-wave output, Automatic Voltage Regulation, 12 outlets and USB communications. CyberPower also supports optional network management for the model.

That is a lot of capability for a home network, NAS and PoE setup without moving all the way into enterprise UPS pricing.

I would buy it for: a serious home network closet where value matters and USB shutdown is sufficient.

Check the CyberPower CP1500PFCLCD on Amazon

Best Consumer Step-Up: APC Back-UPS Pro BR1500MS2

The APC BR1500MS2 sits between the small consumer UPS and the more IT-oriented Smart-UPS line.

It is rated at 1500VA/900W, has 10 outlets, AVR, an LCD and a user-replaceable battery.

If your closet is mostly networking gear with perhaps a low-power NAS, this may be enough. If I were protecting a more substantial server or knew I wanted network-management options, I would move up to the Smart-UPS or Eaton choices below.

I would buy it for: a large home network that has outgrown a basic router UPS but does not need the management features of a higher-end unit.

Check the APC BR1500MS2 on Amazon

Best APC for a NAS or Server: APC Smart-UPS SMT1500C

The APC SMT1500C is where the product starts to feel more like network infrastructure.

It is a 1440VA/1000W line-interactive sine-wave UPS with eight outlets, AVR, a replaceable battery, USB/serial shutdown support, a SmartConnect Ethernet port and a SmartSlot for additional management options.

The difference is not simply another hundred watts. I am paying for a platform designed around servers, storage and network closets.

I would buy it for: a NAS or server I care about enough to justify spending more for management, monitoring and a more IT-oriented UPS platform.

Check the APC SMT1500C on Amazon

Premium Tower Choice: Eaton 5P1500

The Eaton 5P1500 is the premium tower option in this group.

It is rated at 1440VA/1100W, has eight outlets and true sine-wave output. Eaton includes USB and serial connectivity, with an optional network card for remote management.

The higher watt rating also gives a little more room for equipment growth, although runtime still depends on the actual load.

I would buy it for: a serious home lab or network closet where management, build quality and server-oriented features justify the higher cost.

Check the Eaton 5P1500 on Amazon

Best Rackmount Choice: APC SMT1500RM2UC

If the network already lives in a rack, the APC SMT1500RM2UC is the cleanest choice here.

It is a 2U rackmount Smart-UPS rated at 1440VA/1000W with six outlets, sine-wave output, AVR, SmartConnect, SmartSlot expansion and USB or serial shutdown support.

The advantage is organizational as much as electrical. Instead of putting a heavy tower on the floor or a shelf beside the rack, the UPS becomes part of the rack itself.

Remember that a rackmount UPS is heavy. Install it low in the rack and make sure the rack and mounting hardware are designed to support it.

I would buy it for: a permanent rack-mounted network installation where clean organization and IT-style management matter.

Check the APC SMT1500RM2UC on Amazon

Tower vs. Rackmount UPS

Choose a Tower UPS If…	Choose a Rackmount UPS If…
Your network equipment sits on shelves	You already have a standard equipment rack
You want the lowest cost for the capacity	You want the UPS integrated neatly into the rack
You may move the UPS between locations	The installation is relatively permanent
Rack space is limited	Floor and shelf space are limited
You do not need rack-oriented cable management	You want UPS and PDU wiring contained in the rack

Do not buy rackmount simply because it looks more professional. Tower units generally give a home user more flexibility and often better value.

Should You Use a Rack PDU?

A rack PDU can make sense when the UPS does not provide enough conveniently located receptacles for all the low-power equipment in a rack.

A proper PDU is a power-distribution device, not another UPS. Eaton specifically describes a UPS feeding a PDU as a normal basic network-closet architecture, and APC also distinguishes rack PDUs from ordinary surge strips.

Do not solve an outlet shortage by daisy-chaining UPS units. Do not casually add a household surge strip or extension cord to the output either. UPS manufacturers have specific requirements for what can be connected to their equipment.

If you need more outlets, check the UPS manufacturer’s guidance and use an appropriately rated PDU intended for the application.

Do You Need Pure Sine Wave?

For a simple modem and router, I would not make waveform the only buying criterion.

Once a NAS, server or other equipment with an active-PFC power supply is involved, I prefer a sine-wave UPS. It removes a compatibility question and is already standard on the CyberPower CP1500PFCLCD, APC Smart-UPS models and Eaton 5P1500 covered here.

This is one of those features where I would rather buy it once than diagnose a strange shutdown later.

Battery Replacement Matters More Than the UPS Brand Name

A UPS is not a permanent appliance. Its battery is a consumable.

I learned this the irritating way when equipment protected by a UPS went down even though there had not been an obvious outage. The UPS was still sitting there doing its job in theory. The battery was no longer capable of doing its job in practice.

I wrote about that experience in UPS Batteries May Only Last 2–3 Years — And They Usually Fail Without Warning.

For a network closet, I would:

Buy a UPS with replaceable batteries
Write the battery installation date on the UPS
Enable battery and self-test alerts
Check reported battery condition periodically
Test whether the UPS can actually carry the network load
Replace a weak battery before an outage exposes the problem

A UPS showing a green light is not the same thing as a UPS with a healthy battery.

What Should Be on Battery Backup?

Prioritize the equipment that either keeps connectivity alive or needs an orderly shutdown.

For my network closet, the battery-backed side would include:

ONT or modem
Router or firewall
Core network switch
PoE switch if it powers critical cameras or access points
NAS
Essential Wi-Fi access points
Home-automation controller
Critical monitoring gateways

I would be much less interested in using battery capacity for:

Monitors that do not need to stay on
Printers
Speakers
Decorative lighting
Chargers that can wait
Nonessential lab equipment

What Should Never Be Connected to a Normal Network UPS?

A UPS designed for computers and networking equipment should not become a general emergency outlet.

High-draw heating and motor loads can quickly overload it. I would not connect things such as:

Laser printers
Space heaters
Vacuum cleaners
Refrigerators or freezers unless the UPS was specifically selected for that load
Air conditioners
Large pumps
Other appliances with substantial startup current

Keep the UPS focused on the network and computing equipment it was purchased to protect.

Ancillary Gear I Would Buy With the UPS

The UPS is the major purchase, but a few inexpensive additions make the installation better.

A plug-in watt meter

Measure the actual network load instead of guessing. Knowing whether the closet uses 90 watts or 350 watts completely changes the runtime discussion.\

A proper rack PDU if you need more outlets

For rack installations, use suitable power distribution rather than a pile of consumer power strips. Follow the UPS manufacturer’s recommendations for connected distribution equipment.

An optional network-management card where it adds value

This is most useful when the UPS sits in a remote location, supports several machines or needs to be monitored without depending on one USB-connected computer.

The Eaton 5P supports an optional network card. APC’s Smart-UPS models include SmartConnect and a SmartSlot for additional management options. CyberPower supports optional remote network management on the CP1500PFCLCD.

A replacement-battery reminder

Put a calendar reminder in place when the UPS is installed. Waiting until the battery fails defeats a large part of the reason you bought the UPS.

My Buying Decision

If I were building a normal home network closet today, I would buy the CyberPower CP1500PFCLCD first. It gives me the combination of capacity, sine-wave output, communications and price that makes sense for most home setups.

If the NAS or server were more important, or if I expected to invest in better UPS management, I would move to the APC SMT1500C or Eaton 5P1500.

If the entire installation were rack-mounted, I would strongly consider spending the extra money on the APC SMT1500RM2UC rather than finding somewhere to put a tower.

But I would make that decision only after measuring the actual load.

A 1500VA UPS is not automatically better because the number is larger. The goal is to buy enough capacity and runtime for the equipment, give the NAS time to shut down cleanly, and make sure the UPS can tell you when its battery is no longer ready to do the job.

Frequently Asked Questions

What size UPS do I need for a home network closet?

Measure the actual wattage of the modem or ONT, router, switches, PoE devices, NAS and other equipment you want to protect. For a larger network closet containing a NAS and PoE equipment, a 1500VA-class UPS is a useful starting point, but the correct size depends on both total watts and the runtime you need.

Is a 1500VA UPS overkill for a router and modem?

Usually. If you are only protecting a modem or ONT and Wi-Fi router, see our router and modem UPS guide. The larger units in this article make more sense when a NAS, PoE switch, cameras, access points or servers are part of the load.

Should my NAS be connected to a UPS?

Yes, if the NAS contains data you care about. A UPS can protect it from brief outages and, with compatible communications and software, provide enough warning for a controlled shutdown during a longer outage.

Can TrueNAS shut itself down when the UPS battery is low?

Yes. TrueNAS uses Network UPS Tools for UPS monitoring and shutdown functions. Verify that your exact UPS is supported and configure and test the shutdown behavior before depending on it.

Should a PoE switch be on the UPS?

If the PoE switch powers equipment you want available during an outage, such as cameras or Wi-Fi access points, putting it on battery backup can protect all those devices at once. Remember that their combined PoE consumption is part of the UPS load.

How long will a UPS run my network?

Runtime depends on UPS model, battery condition and actual load. Do not estimate it from the VA rating alone. Measure the network’s wattage and use the manufacturer’s current runtime chart or calculator for the specific UPS.

Should I buy a rackmount or tower UPS?

Buy a tower UPS if you want flexibility and value. Buy rackmount when the network already lives in a rack and the cleaner installation is worth the added cost and rack space.

Will a UPS keep my internet working during a blackout?

It can keep your equipment powered, but it cannot guarantee that the ISP’s upstream infrastructure stays online. For a remote property where connectivity is critical, consider cellular failover in addition to UPS backup.

Can I plug a surge protector into a UPS?

Do not assume that an ordinary surge strip or extension cord is acceptable. Manufacturers including APC and CyberPower warn against common surge-strip configurations with their UPS products. If you need more rack outlets, use an appropriately rated PDU and follow the UPS manufacturer’s instructions.

How often should I replace a UPS battery?

Battery life varies with battery chemistry, temperature, discharge frequency and UPS design. Instead of relying only on age, monitor the UPS, perform tests and make sure the battery can still support the actual load. Replace a weak battery before you need it during a real outage.

Published on August 9, 2026

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Sitting At The Docker By The Drive Bay: TrueNAS Scale Switches to Docker – But Why Docker?

As part of my continuing, Building My NAS series, I wrote about choosing TrueNAS as the software powering my homebuilt network attached storage device. One of the features of TrueNAS Scale has been the ability to run various self-hosted cloud applications. In the latest version of TrueNAS, the backend for those applications switches to Docker. Docker is arguably the most popular way to deploy pre-built complete applications. It not only isolates each application into its own container, but it simplifies the process of deploying and configuring them.

While the number of applications offered directly in TrueNAS, the switch to Docker allows for tens of thousands of public docker files to set up many more applications than are officially supported.

After years of installing applications on the servers that host them, I’ve reluctantly embraced Docker as a solution for when specific combinations are needed, such as specific versions of software. Looking at why other people use it, it is the…”it just works” philosophy. You can install an application, reinstall it cleanly, isolate it from other things…simplicity has its advantages.

It makes Docker a great way to quickly switch from third party services to your own. And combined with a system like TrueNAS providing storage solutions, it can create the basis for a complete solution for yourself and your home.

Published on December 1, 2024

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Are Refurbished Hard Drives Worth It? Buying Used Enterprise Drives for a NAS in 2026

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For most of the years I have been buying hard drives, I bought them new.

For servers and NAS systems, I generally preferred NAS or enterprise-grade drives from Western Digital, Seagate or Toshiba. Storage is one of the last places I want to discover that saving a few dollars was a bad idea.

Then my backup strategy started getting expensive.

I do not want my primary NAS to be the only copy of important files. I want redundant backups, including a copy stored somewhere physically separate from the primary NAS. Once you start duplicating tens of terabytes of storage, buying every drive new becomes a substantial expense.

So I tried something I previously would have avoided: refurbished enterprise hard drives.

I bought a pair through GoHardDrive for one of my secondary backup systems. That machine sits at a family member’s house and receives another copy of data from my primary NAS.

After using refurbished drives this way, I no longer think the answer is simply “never buy used storage.”

But I also would not buy an unknown used hard drive from a random marketplace seller simply because it is cheap.

In 2026, I think refurbished and recertified enterprise drives can be an excellent value for a NAS or backup server—as long as you understand what you are buying, test the drives when they arrive, buy from a seller that actually stands behind them, and never make one drive the only copy of anything important.

Quick Answer: Are Refurbished Hard Drives Worth It?

Yes, refurbished hard drives can be worth buying when:

The savings over a comparable new drive are substantial
You are buying from a reputable seller
The seller provides a meaningful warranty
You verify that the interface and sector format work with your system
You test the drive before trusting it with data
Your storage has redundancy
Your important data exists somewhere else too

I particularly like refurbished enterprise drives for:

Secondary NAS systems
Off-site backup servers
Large media libraries that can be recreated
Homelab storage
Cold or secondary copies of data

I am more conservative about using them when I am building a brand-new primary storage array containing important data, although I would not rule them out there either.

Use	Would I Consider Refurbished?	My Take
Off-site backup	Yes	One of my favorite uses
Secondary NAS	Yes	Excellent place to save money
Plex/media storage	Yes	Especially if the files exist elsewhere
Homelab	Yes	Enterprise capacity can be inexpensive
Primary NAS	Maybe	I would want good redundancy, testing and backups
Only copy of important files	No	I would not do this with a new drive either

Refurbished vs. Recertified vs. Used Hard Drives

These words are often treated as though they mean the same thing.

They do not necessarily.

Used Hard Drive

A used hard drive is exactly what it sounds like.

Someone used it and is now selling it.

That tells you almost nothing about:

How long it was used
What workload it handled
Whether it has been fully tested
Whether every sector has been checked
How it was stored
How it was shipped

I would be reluctant to buy an ordinary used drive without knowing considerably more.

Seller Refurbished

A seller-refurbished drive has been inspected or tested by the company reselling it.

The important question is what refurbished means to that seller.

Did someone plug it in and check whether it appeared in Windows?

Or did the seller inspect SMART data, perform read/write testing, scan the full disk surface and reject questionable drives?

Those are very different products even if both listings say “refurbished.”

Manufacturer Recertified

A manufacturer-recertified drive has gone through a recertification process associated with the original manufacturer.

That is generally more meaningful to me than a vague marketplace “renewed” label, but it still does not mean the drive is new.

And it does not automatically mean you receive the same warranty that came with the drive when it was originally sold.

ServerPartDeals, for example, distinguishes between manufacturer-recertified and seller-refurbished drives. Its manufacturer-recertified drives have been recertified by the original manufacturer, while the warranty on drives it sells may come from ServerPartDeals rather than the drive manufacturer.

Always check the exact listing.

Recertified Does Not Automatically Mean a Five-Year Warranty

This is something I would pay much closer attention to now than I did when I originally wrote this article.

Warranty terms vary enormously.

For example:

Many current GoHardDrive certified-refurbished enterprise listings advertise five-year seller warranties, although some products have shorter warranties.
Many ServerPartDeals manufacturer-recertified and seller-refurbished drives currently carry a two-year seller warranty.
Seagate says its factory-recertified drives sold through its own program include a six-month warranty.
Western Digital says recertified products purchased through its own store currently carry a 12-month manufacturer warranty.

That is why I would never write:

“Refurbished drives come with a five-year warranty.”

Some do. Some do not.

Before buying, I want to know:

Who provides the warranty?
How long does it last?
Does the seller pay return shipping?
Will I receive a replacement or refund?
How long is the initial return period?

A cheap 16TB drive with a real five-year seller warranty is a very different proposition from a cheap 16TB drive sold “as-is.”

Where Do Refurbished Enterprise Hard Drives Come From?

One reason this market exists is the enormous number of drives used in data centers and enterprise storage systems.

Businesses replace equipment for reasons that have nothing to do with an individual drive failing.

A data center may replace an entire generation of hardware because:

Higher-capacity drives make the rack space more valuable
A storage lease expires
Equipment reaches a planned refresh cycle
A server fleet is retired
Capacity is consolidated
The economics of operating older equipment change

The drives coming out of those systems can have years of power-on time.

That does not automatically make them bad drives.

But it absolutely makes their history relevant.

Yes, Some Refurbished Drives Have a Lot of Hours

If you expect a refurbished enterprise drive to arrive with 12 hours of use, you may be disappointed.

GoHardDrive currently has listings that explicitly disclose drives previously used in data centers for several years. ServerPartDeals also sells refurbished drives for which power-on-hour limits may be disclosed.

A drive that spent four or five years in a data center is not remotely equivalent to a new drive.

The question is whether the remaining useful life and warranty justify the price.

For my off-site backup use, that trade can make sense.

If I can buy substantially more redundant storage for the same budget, I am sometimes willing to accept an older drive—especially when failure means replacing the drive and rebuilding another copy rather than losing the only copy of my files.

Does a High Power-On-Hour Count Mean a Drive Is About to Fail?

No.

It also does not mean you should ignore the number.

Hard drives are mechanical devices. Bearings, motors, heads and other components accumulate use.

But there is no magic SMART value where a drive with 19,999 hours is safe and a drive with 20,001 hours is doomed.

A drive with many hours can run for years.

A brand-new drive can fail next week.

I use power-on hours as one piece of information rather than as a prediction of the date the drive will die.

What SMART Data Should You Check on a Refurbished Drive?

SMART—Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology—lets a hard drive report a variety of health and usage information.

At minimum, I would look at:

Power-on hours
Reallocated sectors
Current pending sectors
Offline uncorrectable sectors
Reported uncorrectable errors, where available
Interface CRC errors
Overall SMART health

The exact attribute names and meanings vary by manufacturer.

A CRC error can also come from a bad SATA cable or connection rather than damaged platters, so I would not treat every nonzero SMART counter as proof that the drive itself is dying.

SMART is useful.

It is not a crystal ball.

I Would Test a Refurbished Drive Before Putting It Into Service

This is probably the most important practical advice in this article.

I would not receive a refurbished 16TB hard drive, see that it powers on, immediately add it to a production array and start trusting it.

I want to exercise the drive first.

My initial testing would include:

Check the SMART data when the drive arrives.
Run the manufacturer’s or operating system’s extended drive test.
Perform a full-surface read test.
If practical before adding data, perform a full write/read test across the drive.
Check SMART data again afterward.

The important idea is to make the drive do some work while it is still easy to return.

A complete test of a very large hard drive takes a long time. A 16TB, 18TB or 20TB mechanical drive is not going to complete a full-surface exercise in twenty minutes.

Let it run.

I would much rather discover an error on day two than three months after adding the drive to a remote backup server.

Some Refurbished Sellers Do Substantial Testing Before Shipping

This is one reason I care who sells the drive.

ServerPartDeals currently describes a four-stage testing process that includes:

Physical inspection
SMART analysis
Read/write and throughput testing
A full sector scan

That is much more reassuring than a marketplace seller saying only “tested working.”

I would still test the drive myself after shipping.

Hard drives do not particularly enjoy being thrown around by delivery companies.

Packaging Matters More Than It Does for Most Computer Parts

A hard drive can be perfectly healthy when it leaves the seller and damaged by poor shipping.

This is another reason I prefer sellers that specialize in drives and server equipment.

A bare hard drive bouncing around inside an oversized cardboard box with one air pillow is not how I want storage shipped.

I want:

An anti-static bag
Substantial shock protection
A drive immobilized inside the package
A box appropriate for a heavy mechanical device

When a refurbished drive arrives, I inspect both the drive and packaging before putting it into service.

GoHardDrive vs. ServerPartDeals

These are the two sellers I would look at first if I were shopping for refurbished enterprise hard drives today.

GoHardDrive

GoHardDrive has been around for years and sells drives through its own site as well as marketplaces including Amazon.

I have personally bought refurbished drives from GoHardDrive.

What makes many of its listings attractive is the warranty. A number of its current certified-refurbished enterprise drives include five-year seller warranties.

The warranty varies by listing, so check rather than assume.

The 10TB HGST Ultrastar drive from my original article is still available through the same tracked Amazon listing:

Check the current price of the 10TB refurbished HGST Ultrastar on Amazon

I would still compare it with current new-drive pricing before buying. The refurbished market changes constantly, and a bargain at one price can be a poor deal after new drives go on sale.

ServerPartDeals

ServerPartDeals is another seller I would seriously consider.

It separates listings into categories including:

New
Manufacturer recertified
Seller refurbished

I particularly like that distinction because “refurbished” on the wider internet can mean almost anything.

ServerPartDeals also publishes details of its drive-testing and packaging procedures.

Many of its current refurbished and manufacturer-recertified drives carry a two-year seller warranty.

I have not personally bought drives from ServerPartDeals, so I am not going to turn that into a firsthand endorsement. It is simply one of the sellers I would compare based on its specialization, testing process and reputation.

Should You Buy Refurbished Enterprise Drives or New NAS Drives?

There is no automatic winner.

I would compare the actual cost per terabyte.

Suppose you are deciding between:

A new NAS drive with a full manufacturer warranty
A manufacturer-recertified enterprise drive
A seller-refurbished enterprise drive

If the refurbished drive costs 90% as much as new, I am probably buying new.

If it costs roughly half as much and comes from a seller I trust with a meaningful warranty, the decision gets much more interesting.

The lower cost can allow you to buy:

More capacity
An additional parity drive
A complete second backup
An off-site backup server

That last option is what changed the calculation for me.

I would rather have multiple copies of my important data on reasonably reliable hardware than spend the entire budget making one copy as expensive as possible.

Refurbished Enterprise Drives Can Be Very Different From NAS Drives

A Seagate Exos, WD Ultrastar or Toshiba MG enterprise drive was designed for a different environment from a typical desktop hard drive.

That can be an advantage.

Enterprise models are designed for heavy workloads and continuous operation.

But they can also be:

Louder
More noticeable when seeking
Higher power consumers
Warmer
Less pleasant in a NAS sitting beside your desk

I am much less concerned about drive noise in a basement server rack than in a Synology sitting three feet from my bed.

Know where the NAS will live.

Check SATA vs. SAS Before Buying

This is an easy way to buy a very cheap drive that you cannot use.

Enterprise drives are commonly available with either SATA or SAS interfaces.

Most ordinary PCs and consumer NAS boxes expect SATA hard drives.

A SAS drive does not simply plug into a standard SATA controller because the connectors look similar.

If your server has a proper SAS HBA or controller, SAS drives may be excellent options.

If you are putting drives into an ordinary Synology, UGREEN, TerraMaster or consumer motherboard, you probably want SATA unless you know otherwise.

Check before ordering.

Watch for 4Kn vs. 512e Drives

Enterprise storage listings may also identify drives as:

512e
4Kn

These refer to how the drive exposes its sector format to the operating system.

Modern storage systems can often handle 4K sectors, but compatibility can become an issue with older controllers, operating systems and some NAS appliances.

If you do not know whether your hardware supports 4Kn, a 512e SATA model is generally the simpler purchase.

This is another reason not to choose a drive based only on the lowest $/TB number.

What Is SATA Power Disable, and Why Won’t My Refurbished Drive Spin Up?

There is another wonderfully obscure enterprise-drive trap.

Some newer SATA enterprise drives support Power Disable, often called PWDIS.

On those drives, applying 3.3 volts to a particular SATA power pin tells the drive to remain powered off.

Some older desktop power supplies provide 3.3V on that pin even though the system has no idea what Power Disable is.

The result:

You install the perfectly healthy drive and absolutely nothing happens.

ServerPartDeals specifically warns buyers about this and supplies an adapter with some affected drives.

If a newly arrived enterprise SATA drive will not spin up in older hardware, check PWDIS compatibility before declaring the drive dead.

Check CMR vs. SMR Too

For RAID, ZFS and general NAS use, I prefer CMR drives.

SMR—shingled magnetic recording—can provide perfectly useful storage in the right workload, but its write behavior can create complications during sustained writes and array rebuilds.

Most large enterprise data-center drives you are likely to encounter in this market are CMR, but I still verify the exact model number before buying.

Model numbers matter more than marketing names.

Are Helium-Filled Refurbished Hard Drives a Problem?

Not inherently.

Many high-capacity enterprise drives use helium inside the sealed drive enclosure to reduce aerodynamic resistance.

There is nothing automatically wrong with buying one used or recertified.

But I would treat any SMART warning or indication of a sealing problem as a reason to investigate rather than shrugging because the drive appears to work.

Again, this is where buying from a seller with a real return policy is useful.

Should You Put Refurbished Drives in a Primary NAS?

I would consider it, but my standards would be higher.

If I were building a four- or six-drive primary NAS from refurbished enterprise drives, I would want:

A reputable source
A meaningful warranty
Full testing before deployment
Redundant storage
SMART monitoring
Regular scrubs where supported
A UPS and graceful shutdown
At least one completely separate backup

At that point, a refurbished-drive array can be a perfectly rational way to obtain a lot of capacity.

But if the savings were modest, I would still lean toward new drives for the primary NAS.

Our 2026 guide to the best home NAS systems covers the larger decision between Synology, UGREEN, TerraMaster and building your own NAS.

Refurbished Drives Make Even More Sense for a Backup NAS

This is where I became comfortable with them.

My primary NAS holds the active copy of my files.

I wanted another machine at a different physical location holding another copy.

That changes the risk calculation substantially.

If a drive in the remote backup server fails:

The primary data still exists.
The redundant backup system can identify the failed drive.
I replace the drive.
The backup copy is rebuilt.

That is inconvenient.

It is not a data-loss catastrophe.

Using refurbished enterprise drives allowed me to create more backup capacity for considerably less money than duplicating my primary storage entirely with new NAS drives.

For me, that is a good trade.

RAID Does Not Make Refurbished Drives Safe

This needs to be said every time storage comes up.

RAID is not a backup.

Neither is RAIDZ. Neither is a mirror.

Redundancy can protect you against a drive failure.

It does not automatically protect you against:

Accidental deletion
Ransomware
Filesystem corruption
A bad software update
Theft
Fire
Flood
Electrical damage
Losing the entire NAS

If the data is important, it should exist somewhere else.

This is true whether your drives are five years old or five minutes old.

A New Drive Can Fail Too

Buying new improves some parts of the equation.

You know the drive has not already spent years spinning in somebody else’s server. You usually receive the full original warranty. You have a known ownership history.

What you do not receive is a guarantee that the drive cannot fail.

This is why I do not design storage around predicting which individual disk will live longest.

I design it assuming any disk can eventually fail.

Then the question becomes whether the system survives that failure without losing data.

Don’t Buy All Your Safety in the Hard Drive

Suppose you have $1,000 to spend on storage.

There are situations where:

$1,000 of new drives in one machine

is less useful to me than:

$700 of drives in the primary system plus $300 toward a geographically separate backup.

The exact numbers will vary.

The principle does not.

Storage reliability is a system problem rather than a shopping problem.

You cannot buy a hard drive so expensive that backups become unnecessary.

Don’t Forget Power Protection

A storage server also depends on everything around the drives.

I use UPS battery backup for my NAS and networking equipment. I have experienced an unsafe shutdown during a power outage, and that made me considerably less casual about power protection.

A UPS does not need to operate the NAS all afternoon.

Its most important job may simply be to ride through a brief interruption or give the server enough time to shut down cleanly.

See our guide to the best UPS systems for a NAS and home network closet.

What NAS Software Should You Use With Refurbished Drives?

The drive does not particularly care whether you use TrueNAS, Unraid or OpenMediaVault.

But the storage architecture matters.

I currently use TrueNAS, which gives me ZFS checksums, scrubs, snapshots and redundant pool configurations.

Unraid is especially attractive if you are accumulating drives of different capacities over time. OpenMediaVault provides a lighter Debian-based NAS platform.

We compare all three in our updated guide to the best NAS software for home use.

My Checklist Before Buying a Refurbished Hard Drive

Before clicking Buy, I would check every one of these:

Check	Why It Matters
Seller	I want a company that specializes in drives and honors returns.
Condition	Used, seller refurbished and manufacturer recertified are different.
Warranty	Check who provides it and for how long.
SATA or SAS	A cheap SAS drive is useless if your system only accepts SATA.
512e or 4Kn	Make sure your controller and NAS support the sector format.
CMR or SMR	I prefer CMR for NAS and array workloads.
Power Disable	Some enterprise SATA drives need an adapter with older power supplies.
Physical size	Most enterprise HDDs are 3.5-inch drives.
Noise and power	Enterprise drives may be less pleasant in a quiet room.
Price per TB	Compare against new-drive sale prices, not MSRP.
Return window	You want time to perform a complete test.

What I Would Do When the Drive Arrives

Photograph the packaging if anything looks damaged.
Inspect the connectors and enclosure.
Confirm the model and capacity are what I ordered.
Read the SMART information.
Check the reported power-on hours.
Run an extended SMART test.
Perform a full-surface test.
Check SMART again for new errors.
Only then add the drive to the storage system.
Continue monitoring it after deployment.

A refurbished-drive bargain does not need to be treated like fragile contraband.

It just deserves more scrutiny than a new drive pulled from a sealed retail box.

When I Would Buy New Instead

I would probably buy new when:

The price difference is small
The NAS will contain the primary copy of important data
Noise and power efficiency matter a lot
I want the full manufacturer’s warranty
I need a particular current-generation model
I am building a small system where drives are not a large part of the total budget

A two-bay home NAS with two drives is a different economic problem from a backup server requiring eight large disks.

When I Would Buy Refurbished

I become much more interested when:

I need a lot of capacity
The savings per terabyte are substantial
The drive has a good seller warranty
The data is already backed up elsewhere
I am building a secondary or off-site NAS
I can easily replace and rebuild a failed drive
I am comfortable testing and monitoring the hardware

Frequently Asked Questions About Refurbished Hard Drives

Are refurbished hard drives reliable?

They can be. A properly tested refurbished enterprise drive may provide years of additional service, but it has an unknown or partially known prior history and often has substantial power-on time. Buy from a seller with a meaningful testing process and warranty, and design your storage assuming any individual drive can fail.

Are manufacturer-recertified drives better than refurbished drives?

I generally give manufacturer recertification more weight than an undefined seller-refurbished label, but the seller’s testing and warranty still matter. A manufacturer-recertified drive sold with a strong seller warranty may be very attractive.

How many power-on hours are too many for a used hard drive?

There is no universal cutoff. Power-on hours are useful context, but they cannot tell you exactly how much life remains. I would consider the hours together with SMART health, full-surface testing, price, warranty and the role the drive will serve.

Should I buy refurbished drives for TrueNAS?

You can. I would thoroughly test them first, use an appropriate redundant ZFS configuration and maintain an independent backup. TrueNAS cannot make an unreliable disk reliable, but ZFS provides useful integrity checking, scrubbing and redundancy features.

Can I mix new and refurbished drives in a NAS?

Yes, assuming the drives are compatible with your storage layout and hardware. The NAS does not require every disk to have the same ownership history.

Should refurbished drives be used for backups?

I think this is one of their best uses. My own refurbished enterprise drives were purchased for a geographically separate backup system. The important requirement is that the backup drive itself must not become the only copy of the data.

Is a five-year seller warranty the same as a five-year manufacturer warranty?

No. If a reseller promises the warranty, that reseller—not Seagate, Western Digital or Toshiba—may be responsible for replacing the drive. I care about the reputation and longevity of the seller when evaluating that promise.

Can I use a SAS enterprise hard drive in my desktop or NAS?

Usually not unless the system has SAS support. Most consumer motherboards and NAS appliances use SATA. Verify the interface before ordering.

Why won’t my enterprise SATA drive power on?

Some enterprise drives support SATA Power Disable. Older power supplies can apply voltage to the Power Disable pin and keep the drive switched off. An appropriate power adapter or compatible backplane can solve this particular issue.

Are enterprise drives too loud for home use?

They can be noticeably louder than quieter consumer and NAS models, especially during seeks. I have little concern about that in a remote backup server or basement rack, but I would think harder before filling a NAS sitting on my desk with enterprise drives.

Would I Buy Refurbished Hard Drives Again?

Yes.

I would not use that answer as an excuse to buy the cheapest used disk I can find.

What changed my mind was realizing that drive reliability is only one part of data reliability.

I care about:

The drive
The seller
The warranty
The testing
The storage layout
The monitoring
The backup
Where that backup physically lives

A new hard drive used as the only copy of irreplaceable data is a bad storage plan.

A carefully tested refurbished enterprise drive sitting in a redundant off-site backup system can be part of a very good one.

For me, the attraction is not that refurbished drives are somehow just as good as new drives in every respect.

They aren’t new.

The attraction is that they can make large amounts of redundant storage dramatically more affordable.

When that lower cost allows me to keep another complete copy of my data somewhere else, I am willing to make the trade.

More Home NAS and Storage Guides

Published on July 21, 2024

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Best NAS Software for Home Use in 2026: TrueNAS vs Unraid vs OpenMediaVault

I originally wrote this article in 2024 while deciding what software to use for a home-built NAS. The basic question has not changed, but the software has.

TrueNAS has consolidated its Linux-based platform under the name TrueNAS Community Edition. Unraid has added much more ZFS support and changed its licensing. OpenMediaVault has moved to Debian 13 with OpenMediaVault 8.

My own answer has not changed very much.

My current NAS runs TrueNAS on a low-power Intel N100 system. I chose it because I wanted the NAS to behave primarily like a storage appliance. I have other computers for applications, containers and general home-server work. I want the box containing my files to be boring.

But that does not mean TrueNAS is automatically the best NAS software for everyone.

If I were building a home server around a collection of mismatched hard drives and wanted Plex, Docker containers and virtual machines on the same machine, I would look very seriously at Unraid. If I wanted a lightweight, completely free NAS operating system for modest hardware, OpenMediaVault would be hard to ignore.

Here is how I would choose between them in 2026.

Quick Answer: Best NAS Software for Home Use in 2026

NAS Software	Best For	Biggest Advantage	Main Tradeoff
TrueNAS Community Edition	Storage-first NAS, ZFS, snapshots and data integrity	Excellent integrated ZFS storage platform	Storage layout requires more planning
Unraid	Home servers, mixed drive sizes, Plex, Docker and easy expansion	Very flexible storage and application platform	Costs money and its classic array works differently from traditional RAID
OpenMediaVault	Free lightweight NAS, older hardware and Linux users	Simple Debian-based foundation with low overhead	More dependent on plugins and manual configuration for advanced features

If you want my short recommendation:

Choose TrueNAS if protecting and managing storage is the primary purpose of the machine.
Choose Unraid if you want one box to be both your NAS and your home server.
Choose OpenMediaVault if you want a free, lighter-weight NAS platform and are comfortable doing a little more yourself.

The Most Important Question: Is This a NAS or a Home Server?

A lot of NAS software comparisons start with features.

I would start somewhere else.

Decide what job you want the computer to have.

A dedicated NAS has a relatively simple job:

Store files
Share files over the network
Protect those files against a drive failure
Create snapshots
Monitor drive health
Replicate or back up important data
Stay running quietly for years

A home server may also run:

Plex or Jellyfin
Home Assistant
Immich
Nextcloud
Docker containers
Virtual machines
Game servers
Download clients
Web services
Dozens of other self-hosted applications

TrueNAS, Unraid and OpenMediaVault can all stretch beyond simple file storage.

But they approach the problem from different directions.

TrueNAS feels like storage software that learned how to run applications.

Unraid feels like a home-server platform that is also very good at storing files.

OpenMediaVault feels like Debian turned into a manageable NAS appliance.

That is a more useful way to think about the choice than counting checkboxes.

TrueNAS Community Edition: Best for a Storage-First NAS

TrueNAS is still my choice for my primary home NAS.

The main reason is ZFS.

ZFS combines the filesystem and volume-management layers and provides features that are particularly attractive for storage:

End-to-end checksums
Snapshots
Data scrubbing
Replication
Compression
RAIDZ redundancy
Mirrored pools
Dataset-level management

For a box whose main job is protecting a large collection of files, those are exactly the features I want.

TrueNAS CORE vs. SCALE Is No Longer the Decision

This was one of the biggest areas of confusion when I first wrote this article.

TrueNAS used to have two major community platforms:

TrueNAS CORE, based on FreeBSD
TrueNAS SCALE, based on Linux

That is no longer the way I would approach a new installation.

TrueNAS SCALE was renamed TrueNAS Community Edition in 2025 and is now the company’s primary free community platform.

TrueNAS CORE entered sustaining engineering, and TrueNAS says 13.3-U1.2 was the final release in that train. New development is happening on Community Edition.

If I were installing TrueNAS from scratch in 2026, I would use Community Edition rather than begin a new CORE system.

At the time of this update, TrueNAS 25.10 is the current stable release family, while TrueNAS 26 is still moving through beta development. You can check the current TrueNAS software status before installing.

TrueNAS Is More Flexible to Expand Than It Used to Be

One of the longstanding criticisms of ZFS was that you needed to plan your storage layout carefully before filling the pool.

That criticism is less severe than it once was.

TrueNAS now supports RAIDZ expansion, which allows an existing RAIDZ vdev to be expanded by adding drives one at a time.

That is a significant improvement for home NAS builders who do not want to buy every drive on day one.

There are still reasons to plan carefully. The capacity of drives inside a vdev, parity level and layout all affect usable capacity and performance. Adding a drive to RAIDZ also does not make every historical block magically identical to a freshly created larger vdev.

But the old advice that a RAIDZ configuration is essentially frozen forever is outdated.

TrueNAS Hardware Requirements

TrueNAS is not particularly demanding by modern computer standards, but it is heavier than a bare-bones Linux NAS.

The current minimum recommendations include:

64-bit x86 processor
At least 8GB of RAM
A dedicated boot device
Separate drives for the storage pool

More RAM becomes useful as storage, applications, virtual machines and client workloads increase.

My N100-based NAS is a good example of why I like building rather than automatically buying a commercial appliance. Modern low-power CPUs can provide plenty of performance for ordinary home file serving while using very little electricity.

If you would rather buy the whole box instead of building one, see our guide to the best NAS systems for home use in 2026.

You Can Run Apps on TrueNAS

TrueNAS is no longer merely a file server.

Community Edition can run applications and virtual machines, and the platform continues to expand its container capabilities.

You can absolutely use one TrueNAS machine as both your storage system and a broader home server.

I simply prefer not to.

Every extra service I put on the storage machine creates another dependency, another update and another thing that can break.

I would rather reboot a home-server machine without thinking about every computer in the house suddenly losing its file shares.

That is a preference, not a requirement.

What I Like About TrueNAS

Excellent ZFS integration
Strong snapshot and replication tools
Free and open source Community Edition
Good storage monitoring
RAIDZ and mirrored storage layouts
RAIDZ can now be expanded incrementally
Apps and virtual machines are available if you want them
Large user and documentation base

What I Don’t Like About TrueNAS

You should understand ZFS and vdev layout before creating the pool.
It is heavier than a minimal NAS operating system.
Mixing random drive sizes is less elegant than it is with Unraid’s classic array.
The number of storage options can be intimidating for a first-time builder.
It can tempt you to turn a storage appliance into an everything-server simply because the features are available.

Unraid: Best for Flexible Home Servers and Mixed Drives

Unraid solves a different problem extremely well.

Suppose you already own:

One 16TB hard drive
Two 12TB drives
An 8TB drive
A couple of SSDs

And you would like to turn all of that into one useful server without replacing the drives simply to make everything match.

That is exactly the kind of situation where Unraid becomes attractive.

How the Unraid Array Works

Unraid’s traditional array does not stripe every file across all of the disks in the way conventional RAID does.

Files live on individual data disks, while one or two parity disks can protect the array against drive failures.

The parity drive must be at least as large as the largest data drive, but the data disks themselves can differ in size.

That makes expansion unusually convenient.

If you need more capacity, you can often add another disk rather than rebuilding the entire storage layout around a matching set.

For a home user accumulating storage over many years, that flexibility has real value.

Unraid Also Supports ZFS

The old shorthand that “TrueNAS is ZFS and Unraid isn’t” is no longer accurate.

Modern Unraid supports ZFS storage pools in addition to its classic parity-protected array and other storage pools.

That gives you choices.

You might use:

The Unraid array for large-capacity media storage
An SSD pool for applications and fast data
A ZFS pool for data where you specifically want ZFS features

That combination is one of the reasons Unraid has become such an interesting all-purpose home-server platform.

Unraid Is Especially Good at Applications

This is where I think Unraid has its clearest advantage for many homelab users.

Docker containers, virtual machines and the Community Apps ecosystem are central to the experience rather than feeling like features added around a storage appliance.

If you want one machine running:

Plex
Jellyfin
Immich
Nextcloud
Home Assistant
Download applications
Game servers
Windows or Linux virtual machines

while also holding a large collection of files, Unraid makes a lot of sense.

Unraid Pricing in 2026

Unlike TrueNAS Community Edition and OpenMediaVault, Unraid is commercial software.

Current pricing is:

License	Price	Storage Devices	Updates Included
Starter	$49	Up to 6	1 year
Unleashed	$109	Unlimited	1 year
Lifetime	$249	Unlimited	Lifetime

The licenses themselves are perpetual. Starter and Unleashed include a year of updates; you can continue using the version you have after that or pay to extend update access.

Check Unraid’s current pricing before buying in case the structure changes.

For a server that may contain thousands of dollars of drives and years of your data, I do not consider $49 or $109 an inherently unreasonable software expense.

The question is whether Unraid’s flexibility provides enough value for your particular build.

What About Unraid 8?

Unraid announced Unraid 8 in August 2026, with planned changes including a new distribution base, Docker Compose integration and integrated backup features.

That is interesting, but I would not delay a NAS build or choose a platform based primarily on unreleased software.

Buy or install the platform based on what it does today.

What I Like About Unraid

Excellent support for mismatched drive sizes
Easy incremental expansion
Very good Docker and application experience
Strong community ecosystem
Virtual machines are well integrated
ZFS pools are now available alongside the classic Unraid array
Works particularly well as a combined NAS and home server

What I Don’t Like About Unraid

It is not free.
The classic Unraid array is a different storage model from RAIDZ or conventional RAID and should be understood before use.
Running every service on one machine can make that machine increasingly important and complicated.
Users who only want a storage appliance may never use much of what makes Unraid attractive.

OpenMediaVault: Best Free Lightweight NAS Software

OpenMediaVault is the option I think gets overlooked most often.

OpenMediaVault 8 is based on Debian 13 and provides a web interface for managing a NAS without requiring you to configure every service manually from the command line.

It supports ordinary NAS functions including:

SMB/CIFS file sharing
FTP
SSH
rsync
Drive health monitoring
Volume management
Network configuration
Notifications
Plugins

The result is something much closer to a conventional Linux server than TrueNAS, but much easier to administer as a NAS than installing Debian and building everything manually.

OpenMediaVault’s Biggest Advantage Is Simplicity

OpenMediaVault does not impose as much of a storage philosophy on you.

You have Debian underneath. You have a web interface on top. You can add the services you actually need.

That makes it useful for:

An old PC being repurposed as a NAS
A low-power small computer
A simple two-drive or four-drive file server
Users who already understand Linux
People who want free NAS software without adopting the full TrueNAS ecosystem

OpenMediaVault also has a large plugin ecosystem that can add functionality beyond the base installation.

The Tradeoff Is Integration

TrueNAS is built around ZFS.

Unraid is built around its storage array and home-server ecosystem.

OpenMediaVault is more modular.

That flexibility is useful, but it also means that some configurations depend on plugins, additional packages or more manual decisions.

If you want a carefully integrated ZFS appliance, I would choose TrueNAS.

If you want a deeply integrated Docker-heavy home server, I would lean toward Unraid.

If you want Debian with a good NAS management interface and the freedom to shape the machine yourself, OpenMediaVault becomes very appealing.

What I Like About OpenMediaVault

Free and open source
Based on standard Debian Linux
Lower hardware overhead
Web-based administration
Good choice for repurposed hardware
Modular plugin architecture
Easy to understand if you already know Linux

What I Don’t Like About OpenMediaVault

Advanced setups can rely heavily on plugins.
The storage experience is less unified than TrueNAS.
The application ecosystem is less central to the platform than it is with Unraid.
You may end up doing more Linux administration yourself.

TrueNAS vs. Unraid vs. OpenMediaVault: Feature Comparison

Feature	TrueNAS	Unraid	OpenMediaVault
Software cost	Free	$49-$249	Free
Best storage model	ZFS pools	Parity array plus storage pools	Flexible Linux storage
ZFS	Core feature	Supported	Possible with additional configuration/plugins
Mixed-size drives	Possible, but planning matters and each vdev is constrained by its smallest member	Excellent in classic array	Depends on chosen storage configuration
Easy drive-by-drive expansion	Improved with RAIDZ expansion	Excellent	Depends on configuration
Snapshots	Excellent with ZFS	Available depending on storage pool/filesystem	Depends on filesystem/plugin setup
Docker/apps	Yes	Excellent	Available through additional components/plugins
Virtual machines	Yes	Excellent	Not a primary strength
Minimum hardware	Moderate	Moderate	Light
Best personality	Storage appliance	All-in-one home server	Lightweight Linux NAS

Which NAS Software Is Best for Data Integrity?

I would choose TrueNAS.

ZFS is central to the platform rather than one filesystem option among many.

Checksums, scrubs, snapshots and replication are all integrated into how TrueNAS expects storage to be managed.

You can absolutely build safe storage with the other platforms. But if storage integrity is the reason the machine exists, TrueNAS is the easiest answer for me.

Which NAS Software Is Best for Plex?

I would probably choose Unraid if I were building a combined Plex server and NAS.

The combination of flexible drive expansion, Docker applications and hardware passthrough makes it particularly well suited to a large media server.

You can run Plex on TrueNAS too.

But if Plex and other self-hosted applications are central to the server rather than secondary functions, I think Unraid’s priorities line up better with the job.

Which NAS Software Is Best for Old Hardware?

I would look first at OpenMediaVault.

It is lighter and closer to ordinary Debian Linux.

TrueNAS officially recommends at least 8GB of RAM, while a simple OpenMediaVault system can be useful on much more modest hardware.

That does not mean every old PC is a good NAS.

Power consumption matters. A free twelve-year-old tower that idles at 80 watts can cost more to own than buying newer low-power hardware.

Which NAS Software Is Best If Your Drives Are Different Sizes?

Unraid has the clearest advantage.

The classic Unraid array was designed around exactly this problem.

You can add different-capacity data drives as long as the parity drive is large enough for the largest data disk.

If you have accumulated a pile of usable drives over the years and want to turn them into one system, Unraid can save a lot of money.

Which NAS Software Is Best If You Want to Add Drives Later?

Unraid remains the easiest answer, but TrueNAS is much more competitive than it was when I first wrote this article.

RAIDZ expansion now lets TrueNAS users add drives to an existing RAIDZ vdev one at a time.

That removes one of the biggest historical advantages Unraid had over ZFS for small home systems.

Unraid is still more forgiving if your future drives are likely to be whatever capacity happens to be cheap when you need more storage.

Should You Run Your NAS Inside Proxmox?

You can.

That does not necessarily mean you should.

Proxmox is primarily a virtualization platform rather than NAS software. A common homelab design is to run TrueNAS or another NAS operating system as a virtual machine under Proxmox.

If you do this, the storage controller or physical disks should be presented to the NAS in a way that gives the storage operating system appropriate direct access.

This can be an excellent design when you understand the virtualization and storage layers.

For my primary storage, I prefer fewer layers.

I want the NAS operating system running directly on the hardware because the ability to run another virtual machine on the same box is not worth making recovery more complicated for me.

Why Not Just Install Debian or Ubuntu?

You certainly can.

That is effectively what I did with some of my older home-server systems.

Install Linux, configure Samba, configure NFS, set up SMART monitoring, create filesystems, configure snapshots, configure notifications and maintain everything yourself.

It works.

It also made me appreciate NAS software.

The point of TrueNAS, Unraid or OpenMediaVault is not that Linux cannot share a directory.

The point is that I want storage management to behave like an appliance instead of becoming another custom Linux project I have to remember how I configured three years later.

What About Synology DSM, UGREEN UGOS and TerraMaster TOS?

Those are important NAS operating systems, but they are primarily part of buying their manufacturers’ NAS hardware rather than software I would normally install on a DIY server.

If you want the simplest home NAS experience, that may actually be the better route.

I would still recommend a prebuilt NAS to many friends before recommending that they build a server and install any of the software in this article.

Our 2026 home NAS buying guide compares Synology, UGREEN, TerraMaster and building your own.

Your Network Can Become the Bottleneck

Once you build a decent NAS, storage software is often no longer the thing limiting performance.

A single hard drive can already saturate a 1Gb Ethernet connection during large sequential transfers.

Modern SSD pools can go dramatically faster.

If you are building or upgrading a NAS, consider whether your network should move to 2.5GbE or 10GbE as well.

Our guide to 2.5GbE vs. 10GbE for a home network covers that decision.

Redundancy Is Still Not a Backup

Whichever NAS software you choose, RAID, RAIDZ and parity do not replace backups.

Redundancy can protect you when a drive fails.

It does not automatically protect you from:

Accidentally deleting a file
Ransomware
Filesystem mistakes
Software bugs
Theft
Fire
Flood
A major electrical event
Losing the entire NAS

Snapshots help with some of those problems. Replication helps with others.

Important data should still exist somewhere other than the primary NAS.

My Choice: TrueNAS, but for a Specific Reason

I still use TrueNAS.

My current system runs on an Intel N100 platform and primarily serves files.

I could load it with applications.

I don’t.

I have other systems for that.

I want the NAS to boot, make the storage available, monitor the drives and otherwise stay out of the way.

TrueNAS fits that philosophy extremely well.

If I instead wanted to consolidate my NAS, Plex server, Docker host and assorted homelab applications into one machine, I would be much more tempted by Unraid.

If I were turning an older low-power computer into an inexpensive two-drive file server, I might use OpenMediaVault.

There is no universal winner because these three platforms are trying to solve slightly different problems.

Frequently Asked Questions About NAS Software

What is the best NAS software for home use?

For a storage-first home NAS, I prefer TrueNAS Community Edition. Unraid is an excellent choice for a combined NAS and home server, especially if you have mixed drive sizes. OpenMediaVault is a strong free option for a lightweight Linux-based NAS.

Is TrueNAS better than Unraid?

It depends on the job. TrueNAS has an advantage if you specifically want a ZFS-focused storage appliance. Unraid is generally easier to expand with mismatched drives and has an especially strong home-server and application ecosystem.

Is Unraid worth paying for?

It can be. If Unraid allows you to reuse several mismatched drives, expand the server gradually and consolidate applications onto one machine, the license cost can be small compared with the hardware savings. If you only need basic file storage, a free platform may make more sense.

Is OpenMediaVault still good in 2026?

Yes. OpenMediaVault 8 is a current Debian 13-based NAS platform. It remains particularly attractive for lighter hardware, simple file servers and users who prefer a conventional Linux foundation.

Is TrueNAS CORE still recommended?

I would not start a new TrueNAS CORE installation in 2026. TrueNAS has moved new community development to the Linux-based TrueNAS Community Edition, formerly known as SCALE. CORE is now effectively a legacy branch.

Can TrueNAS use different-size hard drives?

Yes, but ZFS pool design matters. Within a vdev, usable capacity is constrained by the smallest drive, so matching drive sizes is usually more efficient. TrueNAS now supports expanding RAIDZ vdevs one drive at a time, which makes later growth easier than it used to be.

Does Unraid support ZFS?

Yes. Modern Unraid supports ZFS storage pools in addition to the traditional Unraid parity array and other filesystem options.

Do I need 10Gb Ethernet for a NAS?

No. 1GbE is adequate for ordinary file storage, backups and media streaming. 2.5GbE is an inexpensive and useful upgrade for many homes. 10GbE becomes more attractive for large transfers, multiple fast clients and SSD-heavy storage.

Can I use an old PC as a NAS?

Yes, assuming the hardware is reliable and has suitable storage connections. But check idle power consumption before assuming an old computer is the cheapest long-term choice.

Which NAS Software Would I Choose in 2026?

If I were starting again today:

TrueNAS Community Edition for a serious storage appliance
Unraid for an all-in-one home server with flexible drives
OpenMediaVault for a lightweight free NAS or inexpensive repurposed system

I chose TrueNAS because I wanted my storage to be storage.

Someone building a large Plex server from a pile of mismatched disks could make an equally rational choice and end up with Unraid.

And someone who wants little more than a reliable SMB share on modest hardware may find that OpenMediaVault is all the NAS operating system they need.

The software should follow the job you want the server to do.

Published on May 31, 2024

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