I sought after a Synology domestic server till I noticed it used to be designed to prevent me from development one

For years, Synology used to be the secure resolution to nearly each and every NAS query. If any person sought after dependable garage, simple backups, and a blank interface, the advice used to be easy — purchase a Synology. And to be truthful, that popularity used to be earned. Synology’s DSM is extra polished than nearly any NAS working gadget in the market. Its backup equipment, report control options, or even its cellular apps are way more usable than maximum choices I have attempted.

However the NAS marketplace has modified, and a large number of us are now not purchasing a NAS simply to retailer recordsdata. I need one field in the home that may do the whole thing, together with operating Plex, House Assistant, Docker, native databases, VPNs, and extra. The theory is to have an actual domestic server that may run no matter I need in the neighborhood, however that is precisely the place Synology turns into rather less convincing.

Synology NAS units are nonetheless in a position to so much, whether or not it is operating packing containers, digital machines, or website hosting products and services, however the larger query is whether or not they are your only option for the task. When you examine them with more moderen NAS choices from UGREEN and TerraMaster, the solution turns into much less obtrusive.

The options are there, however they’re secondary

Synology additionally removed a large number of helpful options

Synology’s greatest power — DSM — could also be its greatest limitation. DSM is constructed to make a NAS secure, easy, and controlled, and that’s highest when the task is garage. It’s much less highest when the task is experimentation.

An actual domestic server most often runs a messy aggregate of products and services. One individual might need House Assistant, Pi-hole, Jellyfin, Immich, WireGuard, Nginx Proxy Supervisor, a dashboard, and a tracking stack. Someone else might need to check AI equipment, run a small internet app, host a password supervisor, or spin up random packing containers each and every weekend. The purpose of a house server is flexibility. It will have to really feel like your system, no longer like a product that permits you to use a couple of complicated options.

Synology technically helps this global thru Container Supervisor and Digital System Supervisor. You’ll create Docker initiatives, use Compose recordsdata, track packing containers, and run Linux or Home windows digital machines. However those options are layered on best of DSM, no longer handled because the tool’s core goal.

On an actual Linux server, you personal the surroundings. You’ll set up what you need, smash what you need, and rebuild it then again you favor. Over the previous couple of years, Synology has additionally got rid of or limited a number of options that fans and self-hosters depended on. In 2024, the corporate discontinued Video Station, its integrated media control platform. Whilst Plex and Jellyfin exist as choices, those that purchased into Synology’s ecosystem all of sudden needed to migrate their libraries and workflows to third-party instrument.

The corporate additionally got rid of improve for a number of open-source programs from Package deal Middle, together with equipment similar to GitLab, Redmine, and DokuWiki, in addition to quite a lot of building runtimes. Operating those packages remains to be imaginable with Docker, nevertheless it provides complexity and upkeep overhead that did not up to now exist. Even USB capability has been scaled again. DSM updates got rid of improve for a spread of peripherals, together with Wi-Fi adapters, Bluetooth dongles, USB DACs, and cellular broadband modems.

The believe factor has turn out to be unimaginable to forget about

Synology followed a large number of anti-consumer practices

Credit score:  

A loss of options and capability can nonetheless be labored round, however the larger drawback I’ve with Synology is the believe. Final yr, the corporate made a chain of adjustments that sought to restrict customers inside its ecosystem and save you them from making the decisions they would like.

With its 2025 Plus Sequence, the corporate moved towards a coverage during which simplest Synology-branded or accredited drives would obtain the entire vary of capability and improve on more moderen fashions. That affected essential NAS options like garage pool advent and pressure well being or lifespan research for non-approved drives. Later, after backlash, Synology walked again a part of this with DSM 7.3 and restored improve for third-party HDDs on 2025 DiskStation fashions. However the injury used to be already achieved.

And it does no longer forestall with onerous drives. Even after the partial reversal, M.2 SSD restrictions remained a subject matter in some spaces, particularly round garage pool utilization and authentic compatibility. It’s price noting that M.2 slots are now not only a bonus for caching. For lots of home-server customers, NVMe garage is the place they need to run many of the issues.

The {hardware} is regularly too conservative for the associated fee

You pay a top class for mediocre {hardware}

Synology {hardware} has all the time been conservative. That used to be appropriate when DSM used to be a ways forward of the contest. However now, each the {hardware} and DSM have long gone downhill, whilst Synology continues to price a top class for its units.

Take the Synology DS224+. It’s nonetheless a well-liked access level, nevertheless it makes use of an Intel Celeron J4125, ships with 2GB of RAM (maxing out at 6GB), and has twin 1GbE ports. Even the more moderen DS925+ is extra of a garage equipment than a house server. It has an AMD Ryzen V1500B, 4 cores and eight threads, 4GB ECC RAM out of the field, expandable to 32GB, twin 2.5GbE ports, and two M.2 NVMe slots. There is not any integrated 10GbE, and as the Ryzen V1500B does no longer have built-in graphics, it isn’t the most obvious selection for customers who care about {hardware} transcoding in media servers.

Now examine that with UGREEN’s NASync DXP4800 Plus. This is a 4-bay NAS with an Intel Pentium Gold 8505, 8GB DDR5 RAM, 10GbE plus 2.5GbE networking, HDMI, and two M.2 NVMe slots. UGREEN additionally overtly markets improve for third-party drives from manufacturers like Western Virtual, Seagate, and Toshiba.

TerraMaster is much more competitive. The F4-424 Professional comes with an Intel Core i3-class 8-core processor, 32GB DDR5 RAM, twin 2.5GbE ports, and twin M.2 NVMe slots. The F4-424 Max is going additional with an Intel Core i5-1235U, a 10-core, 12-thread CPU, 8GB DDR5 RAM, twin 10GbE ports, and twin M.2 NVMe slots.