Out of stock on Amazon, or no longer listed. Each page keeps its specifications and points to what is in stock now; none of them has a current price.
10GbE, Intel CPU and DDR5 at a price rivals charge far more for.
DSM remains the most polished, appliance-grade NAS operating system.
Intel iGPU with Quick Sync — hardware 4K transcode that ARM boxes can't do.
| Brand | Model | Bays | CPU | RAM | Network | Wty | Price | Buy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Synology | DiskStation DS223 2-Bay Diskless DSM 7 | 2 | Realtek RTD1619B (4-core) | 2GB DDR4 | 1GbE | 3yr | $232.79 | Buy on Amazon |
| QNAP | TS-233 2-Bay Desktop NAS Diskless QTS 5 | 2 | ARM Cortex-A55 (4-core) | 2GB | 1GbE | 3yr | $239.00 | Buy on Amazon |
| Synology | DiskStation DS225+ 2-Bay DSM 7 | 2 | — | — | 2.5GbE | 3yr | $256.06 | Buy on Amazon |
| TerraMaster | F2-425 2-Bay TOS 6 | 2 | — | — | — | 2yr | $299.99 | Buy on Amazon |
| Synology | DiskStation DS423 4-Bay Diskless DSM 7 | 4 | Realtek RTD1619B (4-core) | 2GB DDR4 | 2x 1GbE | 3yr | $399.99 | Buy on Amazon |
| TerraMaster | F4-425 4-Bay TOS 6 | 4 | — | — | — | 2yr | $429.99 | Buy on Amazon |
| UGREEN | NASync DXP2800 2-Bay UGOS Pro | 2 | Intel N100 (4-core) | 8GB DDR5 | 2.5GbE | 2yr | $439.99 | Buy on Amazon |
| QNAP | TS-464-8G 4-Bay QTS 5 | 4 | Intel Celeron N5105 (4-core) | 8GB DDR4 | 2x 2.5GbE | 2yr | $483.55 | Buy on Amazon |
| Synology | DiskStation DS425+ 4-Bay Diskless DSM 7 | 4 | — | — | 2.5GbE | 3yr | $509.99 | Buy on Amazon |
| Asustor | Lockerstor 4 Gen2+ AS6704T 4-Bay ADM | 4 | Intel quad-core | 4GB DDR4 | 2x 5GbE | 3yr | $581.11 | Buy on Amazon |
| UGREEN | NASync DXP4800 Pro 4-Bay UGOS Pro | 4 | — | — | — | 2yr | $615.83 | Buy on Amazon |
| QNAP | TS-664-8G 6-Bay QTS 5 | 6 | Intel Celeron N5105 (4-core) | 8GB DDR4 | 2x 2.5GbE | 2yr | $724.12 | Buy on Amazon |
| UGREEN | NASync DXP4800 Plus 4-Bay UGOS Pro | 4 | Intel Pentium Gold 8505 (5-core) | 8GB DDR5 | 10GbE + 2.5GbE | 2yr | $729.99 | Buy on Amazon |
| UniFi | UNAS Pro 4 4-Bay UniFi Drive | 4 | — | — | — | — | $735.72 | Buy on Amazon |
| Synology | DiskStation DS925+ 4-Bay DSM 7 | 4 | AMD Ryzen V1500B (4-core) | 4GB DDR4 ECC | 2x 2.5GbE | 3yr | $769.99 | Buy on Amazon |
| TerraMaster | F4-424 Pro 4-Bay TOS 6 | 4 | Intel Core i3-N305 (8-core) | 32GB DDR5 | 2x 2.5GbE | 2yr | $859.99 | Buy on Amazon |
| UGREEN | NASync DXP6800 Pro 6-Bay UGOS Pro | 6 | Intel Core i5-1235U (10-core) | 8GB DDR5 | 2x 10GbE | 2yr | $967.99 | Buy on Amazon |
| Synology | DiskStation DS1525+ 5-Bay DSM 7 | 5 | AMD Ryzen V1500B (4-core) | 8GB DDR4 ECC | 2x 2.5GbE | 3yr | $998.37 | Buy on Amazon |
| UGREEN | NASync DXP6800 Plus 6-Bay UGOS Pro | 6 | Intel Core i3-1215U (6-core) | — | — | 2yr | $1,043.50 | Buy on Amazon |
| Synology | DiskStation DS1825+ 8-Bay DSM 7 | 8 | AMD Ryzen V1500B (4-core) | 8GB DDR4 ECC | 2x 2.5GbE | 3yr | $1,317.49 | Buy on Amazon |
| Asustor | Lockerstor 6 Gen3 AS6806T 6-Bay ADM | 6 | AMD Ryzen quad-core 3.8GHz | 16GB DDR5 ECC | 10GbE | 3yr | $1,770.99 | Buy on Amazon |
| Asustor | Flashstor 6 Gen2 FS6806X All-Flash ADM | 6 | — | — | 10GbE | 3yr | Out of stock | Check availability |
| TerraMaster | F4-425 Plus 4-Bay TOS 6 | 4 | Intel N150 (4-core) | — | — | 2yr | Out of stock | Check availability |
| UGREEN | NASync DH2300 2-Bay UGOS Pro | 2 | — | — | 2.5GbE | 2yr | Out of stock | Check availability |
| UGREEN | NASync DXP8800 Plus 8-Bay UGOS Pro | 8 | Intel Core i5-1235U (10-core) | 8GB DDR5 | 2x 10GbE | 2yr | Out of stock | Check availability |
Specs come from manufacturer documentation; a dash means we have not verified that field rather than guessed it. Out-of-stock devices show no price and are excluded from the winner callout and rankings until stock returns.
9 models have their own dedicated page with the manufacturer's own hardware spec sheet, the live cost to fill every bay at three tiers, and what each drive-compatibility list actually restricts.
For a decade, buying a NAS meant choosing between Synology and QNAP. That two-horse race is over. UGREEN — a brand most people knew for USB chargers — entered with the NASync line and reset the hardware-per-dollar baseline: Intel CPUs, DDR5 memory, and 10GbE networking at prices where the incumbents still ship entry silicon and 2.5GbE. TerraMaster carved out the budget position with capable x86 boxes that cost less than anyone else's, and became the default chassis for people who install TrueNAS or Unraid and never touch the bundled OS. UniFi extended its networking ecosystem into storage with the UNAS line for people already running a UniFi rack, and Asustor kept its niche with the Lockerstor and all-flash Flashstor series.
Synology, meanwhile, introduced new drive compatibility policies for its 2025 models. Its own table, written for DSM 7.3 and above, now lets a hard drive that is not on its list create a storage pool on 2025 DiskStation Plus, Value and J models, while its RS Plus and enterprise lines allow an unlisted hard drive for migration only. That matters to buyers: a current DiskStation accepts standard NAS drives, and the policy is a reminder that software is as much a part of a NAS purchase as hardware. The practical result of all this competition is the best buyer's market NAS shoppers have ever had — provided you can see real prices, which is exactly what this page tracks, re-checked about once a day.
Synology is the software pick. DSM is the closest thing to an appliance OS in this market: excellent Photos and Drive apps, mature snapshots and replication, and the least tinkering of any platform. The trade-off is weaker hardware per dollar — you pay a premium for polish, and 10GbE usually costs extra. Buy it when the people using the NAS are not the people who enjoy configuring one.
QNAP gives you the most hardware for the money among the incumbents: more RAM, M.2 slots, PCIe expansion on many models, and HDMI out. QuTS hero brings ZFS to its bigger boxes. The UI is busier than DSM and the app store noisier, but for power users who want expansion options, the TS-464 and TS-664 remain the reference all-rounders — and the best Plex boxes at their price.
UGREEN is the 2026 value king. The NASync line ships newer Intel silicon, DDR5, and 10GbE where rivals charge several hundred dollars more for less. UGOS Pro is younger than DSM or QTS — it covers the essentials (containers, snapshots, media serving) and is maturing quickly, but its app ecosystem is thinner. Buy UGREEN for raw specs per dollar, or as premium hardware for a third-party OS.
TerraMaster sells the cheapest capable x86 hardware in the market. TOS has improved but remains the weakest first-party OS here — which is precisely why TerraMaster boxes are beloved as bare-metal hosts for TrueNAS and Unraid. If your plan is to replace the OS anyway, nobody gives you more machine for less money.
UniFi treats storage as an extension of the network stack. The UNAS line is a storage appliance in the literal sense: a clean UniFi Drive interface, tight integration with UniFi consoles, and aggressive pricing per bay. It is not an app platform — no Docker playground, no media-server ambitions — and that focus is exactly why UniFi-shop operators like it.
Asustor owns two niches: the Lockerstor line for spec-heavy traditional NAS (ECC memory options, four M.2 slots, fast networking) and the Flashstor line, the most accessible all-NVMe NAS on the market. ADM is a competent middle-ground OS. If you want all-flash without building a server, Flashstor effectively is the category.
WD's My Cloud line sits at the consumer entry point, but none of its models currently verify in stock at a live price, so we exclude the brand from the rankings above until that changes.
Two bays buy you a mirror: one drive of usable capacity, one drive of protection — the right shape for household backup and small photo libraries. Four bays are the mainstream answer because RAID 5 turns four drives into three drives of usable space with one-drive fault tolerance, and the per-terabyte economics improve meaningfully over a mirror. Six and eight bays are for media libraries and small businesses: at those capacities you should be running RAID 6, because rebuild windows on today's large drives are long enough that two-drive protection stops being optional. Each size has its own live-priced page — 2-bay, 4-bay, 6-bay and 8-bay — and the NAS Builder totals any configuration as a complete build. Model the exact capacity math for your drive count and RAID level in the RAID planner, and if you are upgrading an existing array rather than starting fresh, the upgrade planner computes the net cost of jumping to bigger drives after reselling your current ones.
One planning rule saves most buyers money: purchase bays for the data you expect in three years, not the data you have today. A half-populated six-bay costs little more up front than a full four-bay, but it grows by sliding in drives instead of migrating an entire array — and in the current drive shortage, being able to defer drive purchases until prices dip is worth real money. The reverse mistake is buying a two-bay to save a hundred dollars and outgrowing it in a year; the migration to a bigger chassis costs more than the bays would have.
Every device on this page was verified against a live Amazon US listing through the Creators API before it entered our database, and prices refresh on a 2-hour cycle from the same pipeline that powers our drive trackers. We track diskless enclosures only — bundle listings with included drives are excluded, because bundle pricing hides the real cost of both parts. Hardware specs come from manufacturer documentation, and when we could not verify a field we print a dash rather than a guess. When a device goes out of stock it keeps its row but loses its price, its ranking, and any callout placement until a live in-stock price returns. No price on this page is ever typed in by hand.
Every NAS on this page is diskless, so the enclosure price is only the down payment — the drives usually cost more than the box. That is why we price both sides live, from the same database, refreshed on the same cycle.
Cheapest in-stock 4-bay: Synology DiskStation DS423 4-Bay Diskless at $399.99. Four WD 20TB drives at $539.99 each = $2,159.96. Complete RAID-5 build: $2,559.95 for 60TB usable — about $42.67 per usable terabyte.
Drive choice matters as much as the enclosure: stick to CMR NAS drives, and compare live per-terabyte prices on the NAS drive tracker and the 20TB capacity page before you buy. If you already own drives, run your configuration through the upgrade planner to see whether reusing or replacing them is cheaper per usable terabyte. If you are weighing a 10GbE model, the 10GbE NAS page lists which units ship the port and makes the honest case for 2.5GbE instead. A handful of higher-end NAS and server-class boxes now expose 25GbE too - see the 25/40/100GbE hub for live card, cable and switch prices if that is the tier you actually need.
It depends on what you value. On raw hardware per dollar, UGREEN's NASync line is the 2026 value leader — the DXP4800 Plus pairs a 10GbE port and an Intel CPU at a price where rivals still ship 2.5GbE. For the most polished software, Synology's DSM remains the reference, with the DS925+ as the mainstream 4-bay pick. QNAP's TS-464 remains the best all-rounder for Plex and tinkering. Every price on this page is live, and 21 devices are in stock right now.
On hardware, usually yes at the same price: UGREEN ships faster CPUs, DDR5 memory, more RAM headroom, and 10GbE at prices where Synology offers 2.5GbE and smaller configs. On software, Synology is still ahead — DSM is more mature than UGOS Pro, with a deeper app ecosystem, better surveillance and photo tooling, and a longer security track record. Buy UGREEN for performance per dollar or as a TrueNAS host; buy Synology if you want the appliance experience with the least tinkering.
Not on a DiskStation. Per Synology's own table (Synology, DSM 7.3, last updated 27 May 2026), on 2025-and-later DiskStation Plus, desktop FS, Value and J models a hard drive that is not on Synology's list can create a storage pool, so standard NAS drives like Seagate IronWolf and WD Red Plus work - shown as Unverified in Storage Manager. On 2025-and-later RS Plus and enterprise machines an unlisted hard drive is supported for migration only. Models launched before 2025 are not covered by the policy.
Almost never — every model listed on this page is diskless, meaning you buy the enclosure and add your own drives. That is a feature, not a gap: you choose NAS-rated CMR drives at today's best per-terabyte price rather than accepting whatever a bundle includes. Budget for drives separately using our live NAS drive tracker, and remember RAID overhead when sizing.
Two bays cover mirrored backup for a household. Four bays are the mainstream sweet spot — RAID 5 gives you usable capacity of three drives with one-drive fault tolerance, plus room to grow. Six and eight bays suit large media libraries and small businesses running RAID 6 for two-drive protection. More bays also means better economics per usable terabyte at scale.
For hardware-transcoded 4K Plex, you want an Intel CPU with a Quick Sync iGPU. The UGREEN NASync DXP2800 2-Bay at $439.99 is the cheapest in-stock Intel-iGPU box we track right now. ARM-based budget models (Synology DS223, QNAP TS-233) cannot hardware-transcode — fine for direct play, wrong for mixed-client transcoding.
At today's live prices: the cheapest in-stock 4-bay (Synology DiskStation DS423 4-Bay Diskless, $399.99) plus four WD 20TB drives at $539.99 each comes to about $2,559.95 for 60TB usable in RAID 5 — roughly $42.67/usable TB. Prices refresh about once a day, so this math stays current.
Yes. Every price on this page comes from Amazon US via the Creators API on a 2-hour refresh cycle, the same pipeline that powers our drive trackers. Out-of-stock devices are shown without a price and excluded from rankings until stock returns — we never display a stale or fabricated number.
Pricing the whole build? What it costs to fill a NAS multiplies each model's bay count by today's drive prices - the number the chassis price leaves out.