09 guides
NAS Buying Guides
Reviews, comparisons and buying advice for Synology, QNAP, UGreen, Asustor and DIY TrueNAS builds.
Buying a NAS comes down to a handful of decisions made in the right order: whether a NAS beats cloud storage for your data, how much capacity you need over the next few years, whether to buy a prebuilt unit or build your own, and which platform you are comfortable maintaining. Hardware transcoding matters only if you stream to devices that cannot play your files directly.
- New to this? Start with what a NAS is and what it is good for and whether a NAS is cheaper than cloud storage over five years.
- Sizing: how much NAS storage you need, then check it with the RAID capacity calculator.
- Choosing: Synology vs UGreen vs QNAP vs TrueNAS, prebuilt NAS vs a DIY TrueNAS build and the best budget NAS under $500.
- Media servers: best NAS for Plex and best NAS for Jellyfin.
Index
All nas buying guides guides
- 01NAS Noise, Heat and Placement: How to Live With It at HomeMake a home NAS quieter and cooler: why vibration is the real noise source, where to place it, safe drive temperatures and what to change first.Oct 3, 2026 · 5 min
- 02NAS Capacity Planning: Calculate How Much Storage You NeedPlan NAS capacity for five years: calculate data growth, RAID usable space, snapshots, free-space headroom, drive size and backup capacity.Jul 28, 2026 · 5 min
- 03Best Budget NAS Under $500 in 2026Best budget NAS under $500 in 2026. Cheap 2- and 4-bay picks with Intel Quick Sync, plus a DIY option — without buying junk that can't transcode.Jul 1, 2026 · 6 min
- 04Best NAS for Jellyfin in 2026 (Hardware Transcoding Picks)Best NAS for Jellyfin in 2026. Our top picks for smooth 4K hardware transcoding — UGreen, DIY Intel N100, ASUSTOR, QNAP and Synology — plus which AMD units to avoid.Jul 1, 2026 · 6 min
- 05Best NAS for Plex in 2026 (Hardware Transcoding Picks)Best NAS for Plex in 2026. Top picks for smooth 4K hardware transcoding, why you need Intel Quick Sync, and how Plex Pass affects your choice.Jul 1, 2026 · 6 min
- 06Synology vs UGreen vs QNAP vs TrueNAS (2026 Guide)Synology vs UGreen vs QNAP vs TrueNAS in 2026. Which NAS should you buy? Software, hardware value, transcoding, drive rules and price compared.Jul 1, 2026 · 7 min
- 07NAS vs Cloud Storage: Which Is Cheaper (and Better) in the Long Run?NAS vs cloud storage in 2026: cost break-even, privacy, speed and control compared. When a NAS beats a monthly subscription — and when it doesn't.Jul 1, 2026 · 5 min
- 08What Is a NAS? A Beginner's Guide (2026)What is a NAS? A beginner's guide to network-attached storage: what it does, what you can run on it, who needs one, and whether to buy or build.Jul 1, 2026 · 5 min
- 09Prebuilt NAS vs DIY TrueNAS: Which Should You Build in 2026?Prebuilt NAS vs DIY TrueNAS in 2026. Cost, effort, flexibility, power and support compared — so you pick the right path for your homelab.Jul 1, 2026 · 5 min