compare

GENERAL NAS FEATURE COMPARISON

NAS	Plex (local 4K)	Plex HD (remote)	Plex 4K (remote)	BACKUP (MS/GOOGLE OFFICE)	BACKUP (BAREBONE)	PHOTOS (OBJECT AI)	VIDEO EDITING (4K)	VIDEO EDITING (8K)	DOCKER	VIRTUAL MACHINES	PC MODE (QVM)	2.5GbE	10GbE	25GbE	Thunderbolt	NVMe	Pcie	Expansion	HDMI	Drive Mixing
TVS-h874T	✓	✓	✓	✓		✓	ⓘ	ⓘ	✓	✓	✓	✓	ⓘ	ⓘ	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
TS-h1290FX	✓	✓	✓	✓		✓	ⓘ	ⓘ	✓			✓	ⓘ	✓			✓	✓
TVS-h1688X	✓	✓	✓	✓		✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	ⓘ	ⓘ	✓	✓	✓	✓
TS-432PXU	✓	-	-	✓		✓			✓			✓	✓				✓	✓
DS124	-	-	-						✓
DS423	-	-	-						✓
DVA1622	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓			✓	✓		ⓘ							✓
FS6712X	✓	✓	✓				✓			✓			✓			✓			✓
AS1104T	✓	-	-									✓
AS6602T	✓	✓	✓						✓	✓		✓				✓			✓

LATEST PRICE LIST

BEST FOR Virtualisation

BEST FOR MULTIMEDIA

BEST FOR FILE STORAGE

BEST FOR BACKUP

BEST FOR VIDEO EDITING

BEST FOR SURVEILLANCE (CCTV)

BEST FOR SMART HOME/ AI

LATEST VIDEOS RELATED

AVAILABILITY / RELEASE DATE

Brand	Model	TW	USA	UK	Released
Qnap	TVS-h874T	•	•	•	2023-09
Qnap	TS-h1290FX	•	•	•	2022-03
Qnap	TVS-h1688X	•	•	•	2020-09
Qnap	TS-432PXU	•	•	•	2020-08
Synology	DS124	•	•	•	2023-07
Synology	DS423	•	•	•	2023-03
Synology	DVA1622	•	•	•	2022-05
Asustor	FS6712X	•	•	•	2023-04
Asustor	AS1104T	•	•	•	2021-05
Asustor	AS6602T	•	•	•	2020-09

LATEST POSTS RELATED

SOFTWARE - 10/10

HARDWARE - 8/10

PERFORMANCE - 8/10

PRICE - 9/10

VALUE - 9/10

8.8

PROS

👍🏻Runs BOTH Surveillance Station + DSM
👍🏻All the DVA Task for fraction of DVA3221 Price
👍🏻Supports Local KVM Standalone Access
👍🏻8 Camera Licenses Included
👍🏻No HDD Compatibility Limits
👍🏻Run VERY Quietly
👍🏻MASSIVE IP Camera Support List
👍🏻Easily the \'BEST\' Synology 2-Bay
👍🏻Surveillance Station 9.1 Is Still BRILLIANT

CONS

👎🏻Cannot be Expanded
👎🏻6GB Default/Max Memory is Weird
👎🏻CPU is a little old
👎🏻No M.2 NVMe SSD Support
👎🏻Only 2x AI Tasks at once
👎🏻Only 1x Network Port (no failover)

SOFTWARE - 6/10

HARDWARE - 6/10

PERFORMANCE - 6/10

PRICE - 7/10

VALUE - 9/10

6.8

PROS

👍🏻Affordable 2-Bay Solution
👍🏻Snapshot Replication
👍🏻AI Photo Recognition
👍🏻DLNA Support
👍🏻Apple Time Machine Support
👍🏻Surveillance including 4 camera licences and supporting 10-12 cameras at once
👍🏻2.5Gbe LAN Support = 250MB/s
👍🏻Snapshot Support (previously the memory requirement was 4GB, but now reduced to 1GB)
👍🏻Email server
👍🏻Download server (FTP, HTTP, BT,NZB)
👍🏻CMS and CRM systems
👍🏻Media Center support

CONS

👎🏻Design is a pinch dated
👎🏻CPU is 32bit ARM
👎🏻Lack of embedded GPU limits application support in QTS

SOFTWARE - 8/10

HARDWARE - 9/10

PERFORMANCE - 9/10

PRICE - 8/10

VALUE - 8/10

8.4

PROS

👍🏻10Gb/TB3 Support
👍🏻2.5Gbe LAN Ports
👍🏻6 Core GPU enabled Xeon with over 15,000 CPUBenchmark Score
👍🏻3 Tier Storage System
👍🏻ZFS File System
👍🏻PCIe Gen3 x8 and 3×4
👍🏻Virtualization
👍🏻Thunderbolt is Optional – many will appreciate the choice (upto 4 ports)
👍🏻Larger 22110 NVMe Gen3 x4 Support
👍🏻Upto 128GB ECC DDR4 Memory
👍🏻5x USB 3.2 Gen 2 10Gb/s
👍🏻10 min Windows and/or Ubuntu VM install (included)
👍🏻Expandable (TR-106T and TR-1082T soon)

CONS

👎🏻Quite expensive
👎🏻HDMI is 1.4b (30FPS 4K)
👎🏻Shame we haven’t got 4/6 Bay options as found in TVS-682/882
👎🏻Surveillance Software versions and licenses are a bit confusing
👎🏻Noise/power levels are comparable to a small rackmount

SOFTWARE - 9/10

HARDWARE - 10/10

PERFORMANCE - 10/10

PRICE - 7/10

VALUE - 7/10

8.6

PROS

👍🏻Only brand rolling out i9 Turnkey NAS
👍🏻Only NAS Rolling out Thundebrolt4 NAS (for now!)
👍🏻Upto 20 Cores, 24 Threads and High End Integrated Graphics
👍🏻PCIe Gen 4 x16 Upgrade Slot for 10/25/100GbE Cards and 2x PCIe Gen 4 x4 M.2 NVMe Slots for 7GB SSDs
👍🏻No Obstinant 3rd Party Hardware Limitations on Support or Compatibility
👍🏻Much larger support of 3rd Party Software Services than most other NAS Brands
👍🏻10Gb/s USB Connectivity, in Type A and Type C
👍🏻Upto 64GB of Memory
👍🏻ZFS or EXT 4 File System Choice
👍🏻M.2 NVMe SSD Bays can be used for Storage or Caching
👍🏻Volume Encryption, SED SSD Support and WORM
👍🏻Enhanced AI Surveillance Services, with opt to upgrade with $30 Google TPU
👍🏻AI Photo Management Tool (QuMagie) Includes Thing Recognition and works offline
👍🏻ALL the ZFS Benefits, whilst also the GUI and App benefits of a Linux Software Platform in one

CONS

👎🏻No Smaller 4-Bay Version
👎🏻QVR Elite (not QVR Pro) only has 2 Cam Licences
👎🏻Lack of ECC Memory will annoy some users
👎🏻10Gbe is Missing (so no TB-TO-10GbE Pass-through)
👎🏻Too Many licenses on Enterprise Tools (Drive Analyzer, Face Tiger, etc) with too few free licenses

ASUSTOR provides their own ADM server software platform with all of their solutions and although it is not quite as advanced as offerings from most expensive NAS solutions in the market, it still arrives with a huge range of applications, services and is accessible via a web browser, mobile applications and desktop client tools. Their latest revision of this software is remarkably responsive and this alongside a number of their solutions also arriving with HDMI support means that you have a wide range of ways in which to access the data on your Asustor NAS in a tailored and appropriate way. The majority of their NAS solutions also arrive with BTRFS support too, as well as possibly the widest support in the market for 3^rd party tools available in their application center. They are a little less polishing in the design of some of their tools compared with their biggest competitors Synology and QNAP, but they also provide a better value for money in their hardware with many solution such as the Locksterstor series featuring some genuinely game changing hardware for the price point. Here are some of the highlights of the ADM software catalogue:

Plex - Hardware Transcoding (with a Plex Pass) is likely and with 1080p handled very well indeed, as well as some Plex 4K transcoding in H.265 - lower tier stuff though

Virtual Machines - A graphical embedded CPU like the Gemini Lake in this Nimbustor NAS will run Windows 10 and Android VMs very well. With the added support for Ubuntu and Hackintosh with VirtualBox

Storage Management - BTRFS Support, as well as EXT4 for the traditionalist, Multiple Snapshot storage and browsing for recovery, a large number of ISCSI and LUN target creation, fast-acting SSD caching use

Network Management - Support of LAG, Load Balancing and virtual switches, as well as maintaining top transmission over 2.5/5Gbe for editing or gaming over the network. As well as Jumbo Frame control, DDNS automation, Wake on LAN support and internet/external NAS access with EZ Connect

Backups - Supporting a wide range of multi-tiered backup options that can be carried out simultaneously thanks to the powerful CPU in the Nimbustor NAS, such as network RSync, USB Backups, NAS-2-NAS migration, Cloud Backups with Google Drive, Dropbox and Backblaze and numerous RAID levels internally for redundancy.

Content Management - Numerous Content Management Systems (CMS) and Customer Relationship Managers (CRMs) available in 1st and 3rd party forms, with simultaneous operations supported by the Asustor Nimbustor 4 NAS

User Account Control - Supporting over 4,000 accounts, each with their own bespoke privileges and access levels, as well as grouping methods to automate the process easily

Security - AES 256bit hardware encryption on data in/out of the device, as well as over backup methods, with the J4105 CPU in the AS5304T maintaining high R/W speeds throughout, as well as Windows ACL permission and configuration, auto blacklisting and multiple VPN provider support

Antivirus (ClamAV) – Scheduled Scans, Automatic Virus Definition Updates, Quarantine Infected Files

Download Center – Supports BT(Torrent & Magnet Link), HTTP and FTP Downloads, Torrent Search, Bandwidth Control, RSS Subscription and Automatic Downloading (Broadcatching), ASUSTOR Download Assistant for Windows & Mac

DropBox, OneDrive and Google Drive Sync – Each ADM Account is Able to Individually Log into one cloud Account, supporting Sync, Directly Upload Files to cloud from the NAS, or from cloud to NAS

LooksGood Media App –Built-in three main video library categories; movies, TV shows, home movies and smart video sorting management

• • The efficient global search function allows for searches by keywords followed by the execution of more detailed searches for the purpose of finding categories of movies, TV shows, home movies and parameters such as actors, director, year, genre, writer and title

  • Attractive poster wall and thumbnail display

  • Automatic production of video poster thumbnails

  • Centralized management and ability to configure the order of favourites and playlist history

  • The system administrator is able to configure video library and editing permissions according to user preferences

  • Can configure access permissions to share with

  • Multimedia conversion feature

  • Self-defined smart folder for video conversions

  • Supports digital TV recordings via digital

  • Easy streaming with Chromecast and DLNA

  • Supports playback of videos in Apple TV via AiVideos tvOS version

Mail Server – Each ADM Account can Become an Independent Email Account, Provides SMTP, IMAP and POP3 Mail Protocols, Spam Filter and Black List Settings, Antivirus Scanning for Emails, Exclusive Email Backup Mechanism, Auto-Forwarding and Auto-Response Protocols

Photo Gallary – “Album” and “Browse” Viewing Modes, Manage Photo Album Access Rights: Public Access, Restricted to Certain Accounts, Album Password, Multi-level Folder Structure Support, Supports Tagging of Photos, One-click Sharing to Social Media (Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Plurk, email), Intuitive Drag and Drop Management, Slideshow Viewing Mode, Supports a Wide Range of Image Formats: JPG/JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, TIFF, RAW and Supports Video Playback

Surveillance Center – Up to 64 channels in 720p on single live view display, On-screen camera controls including camera PTZ, manual recordings, take snapshots, configure camera settings and open Maps, Up to 4 channels of synchronous and non-synchronous playback with audio, Intelligent video analytics including motion detection and foreign object detection, Supported Browsers: Windows Internet Explorer, Microsoft Edge, Firefox, Mac Safari, Mac Firefox ESR, Event notification supports SMS, E-mail, and mobile push notification, AiSecure mobile app for iOS and Android with Push notification, Maximum IP Cam (4 Free Licenses; Additional Licenses to be Purchased)

Takeasy – Download from YouTube, Vimeo, Twitch and More, Selectable Video Type and Quality, Automatic Downloads with YouTube or Twitch Subscriptions, Preview Downloads in Progress and Online Playback

SoundsGood Audio App – Import Personal/Public Music Collection, Personal/Public Music Collection Permission Control, Playlist Editor, ID3 Tag Editor, Local Speaker Support: HDMI, USB, Audio Jack, Supported Audio Formats for Browser: MP3, WAV, Ogg, Supported Audio Formats for Transcoding Through Browser: AIFF, Flac, Supported Audio Formats for Local Speaker: MP3, WAV, Ogg, AIFF, Flac

Backup Tools – Rsync (Remote Sync) Backup, Cloud Backup, FTP Backup, External Backup, One-Touch Backup, EZ Sync, Btrfs Snapshots

How many of these tools are supported on any particular Asustor NAS and the frequency of applications your can run at once will still depend on the hardware of the solution you are looking at in their portfolio, but the bulk of them are available on ALL solutions from the brand. Find out more below in my reviews of ADM:

In terms of these two brands, there is been a long-running theme all the way through that Synology has focused on FIRST-PARTY (i.e. Synology-brand) software and hardware priority, then supporting THIRD-PARTY services/hardware when they haven’t got a viable alternative in-house – to mixed degrees of popularity. Whereas QNAP has been a much more level playing field where they have released their own innovative hardware/software (occasionally a little too quickly) and singing its praises, but also tried to keep customization and flexibility for 3rd parties as open as possible and shouting loud-and-proud about that too – which can be a tad overwhelming for the less tech-savvy. Both brands have done an incredible job evolve their platforms as much as they have to date, especially when Microsoft, Google and Amazon are pouring BILLIONS into the SaaS (and PaaS and IaaS – Platform and Infrastructure as a Service) in order to create entirely streamable ecosystems for businesses, with NAS brands like Synology and QNAP not only integrating with them but also thriving alongside them as a local/bare-metal failsafe. These are all very lofty ideas and ones that most home or small business users will likely have little time for right now (aside from where NAS fits in with their Google/Office 365 office tools like documents, email and spreadsheets at a pinch) and for those users, who the NAS stands on its own two feet is what is going to matter most. Synology is earning its position in the market as the complete 1st party software and hardware package, with a genuinely groundbreaking range of available services, but still managing to make NAS accessible for all in DSM 6.2/7.0/7.1. That said, the trends we are seeing in those sub-enterprise services that are slowly receding in support of popular 3rd party hardware, software and services, making using a Synology NAS alongside your own existing setup in a frictionless way cannot be ignored and leading some to think Synology is shifting their industry position towards something higher.

QNAP NAS on the other hand, although maybe trying to cover too many bases at once, is still trying to cover as much as it can to appear to their audience. Their support of considerably more 3rd party platforms/software/services, even when they have their own software available, is certainly admirable and aside from rather aggressive pricing on their QVR Pro surveillance platform, are still the better choice for those who want a much more adaptable and customizable platform. Its a pretty understandable fact that most people who buy a NAS will be arriving with an existing collection of software in their daily workflow (Office 365 for docs, Gmail for their email, Plex for their media, Chromebook for their commute, Skype/Whatsapp for their communication, TB3 for their editing, etc) and it has to be said that QNAP keeps a more open platform to adapt a NAS into this mix than Synology – occasionally less intuitively and not without a little setup-friction, but certainly to more customizable results. Unsurprisingly, I am going to tell you that both Synology and QNAP NAS are good NAS brands and have earned their place at the top of the industry (whilst both making their own respective moves to integrate into the next tier – ie SaaS providers, Hyperscale environments and Boundless cloud storage), but there is no denying that no one brand has managed to do EVERYTHING to perfection. So, if in double, below is how I would recommend QNAP and Synology NAS to you, for each user case scenario and I hope this guide and my recommendations help you with your next big data storage purchase.

LATEST PRICE LIST

DEAL WATCH - Is It On Offer Right Now? TS-432PXU-RP-2G 1U BAY 1.7GHZQC Amazon UK 7.5 OFF (WAS 1219) [LINK] QNAP TVS-h1688X-W1250-32G 16 Bay NAS – Intel Xeon W-1250 CPU, 32GB DDR4 ECC RA Amazon UK 10.61 OFF (WAS 4242) [LINK] Qnap NAS TS-h1290FX-7232P-64G Amazon UK 59.03 OFF (WAS 5733) [LINK] Synology DiskStation DS124 1-Bay 3.5inch Diskless 1xGbE NAS (Tower), Realtek RTD Amazon USA 25.35 OFF (WAS 247) [LINK] Synology 1-Bay DiskStation DS124 with 1 x HAT3300-6T Amazon USA 10 OFF (WAS 307) [LINK] Synology 4-Bay DiskStation DS423+ (Diskless) Amazon USA 21.54 OFF (WAS 536) [LINK] Synology Deep Learning NVR DVA1622, W127023602 Amazon USA 18.03 OFF (WAS 693) [LINK] ASUSTOR FLASHSTOR 12 Pro (FS6712X) Network Storage Amazon USA 16.83 OFF (WAS 848) [LINK] These Offers are Checked Daily