How We Test & Review
How We Test & Review
How ubnas forms its NAS and self-hosting recommendations — our independence, testing approach, sourcing and corrections policy.
At ubnas we write about NAS, self-hosting and homelabs to help you make confident decisions and keep control of your data. This page explains how we work and how we form our recommendations.
Our promise
- Reader-first. Our job is to help you pick the right gear and get it working — not to push whatever pays best.
- Independent. We are not owned by any NAS vendor. A product earns a recommendation on merit.
How we form recommendations
- Real-world criteria, not spec sheets. For hardware we care about what actually matters day to day: transcoding performance, power draw, noise, reliability, ease of setup and value — not just the numbers on the box.
- Hands-on where possible. We test on real hardware whenever we can and show our findings. Where a recommendation is currently based on manufacturer data and research rather than our own hands-on testing, we say so — and we update the article once we've tested.
- We use real reliability data. For drive reliability we lean on large public datasets (such as Backblaze's Drive Stats) rather than anecdotes.
Independence & affiliate links
ubnas is reader-supported. Some links are affiliate links and we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you — see our Affiliate Disclosure. Commissions never decide our recommendations.
Accuracy & corrections
Hardware, software and prices change fast. We date our articles, revisit our picks, and fix mistakes quickly. Spotted an error? Tell us and we'll correct it.
Sourcing
We cite manufacturer documentation for specs, reputable public datasets for reliability, and official project docs for software setup — and we link out so you can verify.
Last updated: July 2026.