Shared file storage for a small office is chosen on bay count, network speed matched to the switch, RAM type, and whether multi-user file-sharing is a documented feature - which it is on every NAS we track, as a standard capability rather than a differentiator. This page selects on those hardware and capacity facts only.
Updated
Four bays in RAID 5 is the common shape for a small team: one drive of fault tolerance, three drives of usable capacity, and a bay count that fits under a desk. A two-bay mirror covers a single-person office adequately; six or eight bays make sense once the team or the file volume genuinely outgrows four - not before, since idle bays cost money and power without adding anything.
4 of the 27 models we track document ECC (error-correcting) memory as shipped. That is a hardware fact worth checking for a machine that will run unattended holding business records - not a claim that non-ECC models are unsuitable, only that the two are documented differently and the live table below states which is which per model.
6 models we track document 10GbE. A faster port than the switch it plugs into adds nothing - check the Network column in the live table and match it to what your office switch actually provides before paying for a speed you can't use on either end.
Every NAS we track documents standard network file-sharing protocols (SMB for Windows-style shares, NFS for Unix-style shares) with per-user or per-group permissions as a core operating-system capability. This is baseline functionality across every brand in our catalogue, not something that differentiates one from another - the decision for a small office comes down to bays, network speed and RAM, covered above.
Cheapest in-stock 4-bay (TerraMaster F4-425 4-Bay, $343.99) plus four MDD 12TB drives at $329.95 each = $1663.79 for 36TB usable in RAID 5, priced live today.
| Brand | Model | Condition | Bays | CPU | RAM | Network | Wty | Price | Buy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Synology | DiskStation DS223 2-Bay Diskless DSM 7 | Used / renewed | 2 | Realtek RTD1619B (4-core) | 2GB DDR4 | 1GbE | 3yr | $232.79 | Buy on Amazon |
| QNAP | TS-233 2-Bay Desktop NAS Diskless QTS 5 | New | 2 | ARM Cortex-A55 (4-core) | 2GB | 1GbE | 3yr | $239.00 | Buy on Amazon |
| UGREEN | NASync DH2300 2-Bay UGOS Pro | New | 2 | โ | โ | 2.5GbE | 2yr | $239.00 | Buy on Amazon |
| TerraMaster | F2-425 2-Bay TOS 6 | New | 2 | โ | โ | โ | 2yr | $239.99 | Buy on Amazon |
| TerraMaster | F4-425 4-Bay TOS 6 | New | 4 | โ | โ | โ | 2yr | $343.99 | Buy on Amazon |
| UGREEN | NASync DXP2800 2-Bay UGOS Pro | New | 2 | Intel N100 (4-core) | 8GB DDR5 | 2.5GbE | 2yr | $346.99 | Buy on Amazon |
| Synology | DiskStation DS225+ 2-Bay DSM 7 | New | 2 | โ | โ | 2.5GbE | 3yr | $364.99 | Buy on Amazon |
| Synology | DiskStation DS425+ 4-Bay Diskless DSM 7 | Used / renewed | 4 | โ | โ | 2.5GbE | 3yr | $504.89 | Buy on Amazon |
| UGREEN | NASync DXP4800 Plus 4-Bay UGOS Pro | New | 4 | Intel Pentium Gold 8505 (5-core) | 8GB DDR5 | 10GbE + 2.5GbE | 2yr | $583.99 | Buy on Amazon |
| Asustor | Lockerstor 4 Gen2+ AS6704T 4-Bay ADM | Used / renewed | 4 | Intel quad-core | 4GB DDR4 | 2x 5GbE | 3yr | $586.18 | Buy on Amazon |
| QNAP | TS-664-8G 6-Bay QTS 5 | Used / renewed | 6 | Intel Celeron N5105 (4-core) | 8GB DDR4 | 2x 2.5GbE | 2yr | $631.47 | Buy on Amazon |
| TerraMaster | F4-424 Pro 4-Bay TOS 6 | New | 4 | Intel Core i3-N305 (8-core) | 32GB DDR5 | 2x 2.5GbE | 2yr | $644.99 | Buy on Amazon |
| UGREEN | NASync DXP4800 GT 4-Bay UGOS Pro | New | 4 | AMD Ryzen Embedded R2514 (4-core) | 8GB DDR4 | 2x 10GbE | โ | $659.99 | Buy on Amazon |
| Synology | DiskStation DS925+ 4-Bay DSM 7 | Used / renewed | 4 | AMD Ryzen V1500B (4-core) | 4GB DDR4 ECC | 2x 2.5GbE | 3yr | $669.97 | Buy on Amazon |
| UGREEN | NASync DXP4800 Pro 4-Bay UGOS Pro | New | 4 | โ | โ | โ | 2yr | $699.99 | Buy on Amazon |
| TerraMaster | F8 SSD Plus 8-Bay All-SSD | New | 8 | โ | โ | โ | โ | $719.99 | Buy on Amazon |
| UniFi | UNAS Pro 4 4-Bay UniFi Drive | New | 4 | โ | โ | โ | โ | $735.72 | Buy on Amazon |
| UGREEN | NASync DXP6800 Pro 6-Bay UGOS Pro | Used / renewed | 6 | Intel Core i5-1235U (10-core) | 8GB DDR5 | 2x 10GbE | 2yr | $919.59 | Buy on Amazon |
| UGREEN | NASync DXP6800 Plus 6-Bay UGOS Pro | New | 6 | Intel Core i3-1215U (6-core) | โ | โ | 2yr | $1,043.50 | Buy on Amazon |
| UGREEN | NASync DXP8800 Plus 8-Bay UGOS Pro | New | 8 | Intel Core i5-1235U (10-core) | 8GB DDR5 | 2x 10GbE | 2yr | $1,207.99 | Buy on Amazon |
| Synology | DiskStation DS1525+ 5-Bay DSM 7 | New | 5 | AMD Ryzen V1500B (4-core) | 8GB DDR4 ECC | 2x 2.5GbE | 3yr | $1,309.99 | Buy on Amazon |
| Synology | DiskStation DS1825+ 8-Bay DSM 7 | New | 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 | New | 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 | โ | 6 | โ | โ | 10GbE | 3yr | Out of stock | Check availability |
| QNAP | TS-464-8G 4-Bay QTS 5 | โ | 4 | Intel Celeron N5105 (4-core) | 8GB DDR4 | 2x 2.5GbE | 2yr | Out of stock | Check availability |
| Synology | DiskStation DS423 4-Bay Diskless DSM 7 | โ | 4 | Realtek RTD1619B (4-core) | 2GB DDR4 | 2x 1GbE | 3yr | Out of stock | Check availability |
| TerraMaster | F4-425 Plus 4-Bay TOS 6 | โ | 4 | Intel N150 (4-core) | โ | โ | 2yr | Out of stock | Check availability |
Every 4-bay NAS ยท ECC and non-ECC memory, live prices ยท 10GbE for a NAS ยท UPS for a NAS ยท NAS Builder.
Four is the common starting point: RAID 5 gives one-drive fault tolerance with three drives' worth of usable space, enough for a small team's shared documents and project files without the cost or power draw of six or eight bays. Grow into a bigger chassis only once the capacity math actually requires it.
It is a documented hardware fact worth knowing, not a performance claim: ECC (error-correcting) memory detects and corrects certain memory errors that non-ECC memory does not, which matters more the longer a filesystem runs unattended holding business records. Some models in our catalogue ship ECC memory and some do not - check the live table below for which.
Whatever matches the switch it plugs into - a NIC faster than the network around it adds nothing. 2.5GbE covers most small-office file sharing; 10GbE matters once multiple people move large files concurrently. Check the Network column in the live table for which models ship which speed, and match it to your switch before paying for a port you can't use.
Every NAS in our catalogue documents standard file-sharing protocols (SMB/NFS) with per-user or per-group permissions as a core operating-system feature - this is standard NAS functionality across every brand we track, not a differentiator between them.
Cheapest in-stock 4-bay (TerraMaster F4-425 4-Bay, $343.99) plus four MDD 12TB drives at $329.95 each = $1663.79 for 36TB usable in RAID 5. Computed live from today's catalogue.
Both are defensible; the honest answer depends on redundancy. A RAID 5 or 6 array is exactly where a refurbished drive's higher early-life failure risk is absorbed by parity, and refurbished enterprise drives are frequently the cheapest terabyte in our catalogue. The trade is a reseller warranty rather than a manufacturer one - reasonable for a parity array, less so for a single irreplaceable copy.