Acutis Best NAS for home & small office
A NAS gives you one always-on place for backups, media, files and self-hosted apps — without paying a cloud subscription forever. Here's what actually matters when you choose one, then picks in three tiers.
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get-it-done · Intermediate prosumer / IT generalist · Pro daily-driver for techs
What to look for
- Bay count. More bays mean more capacity and safer RAID. Two bays is the entry point; four gives you room to grow and better redundancy. Buy more bays than you think you need today.
- RAID. RAID protects against a drive failure — but it is not a backup. Plan for redundancy and a separate copy of anything you can't afford to lose.
- CPU & RAM. Light file storage needs little; Plex transcoding, Docker containers and many users need a stronger CPU and more RAM. Match the silicon to the workload.
- Apps. Plex for media, scheduled backups for your machines, and Docker for self-hosting — check the vendor's app ecosystem supports what you want before you buy.
- 2.5G / 10G networking. Gigabit caps a NAS at roughly 110 MB/s. A 2.5G or 10G port (and a switch to match) is what lets fast drives or SSD caches actually stretch their legs.
- Vendor: Synology vs QNAP vs UGREEN / TerraMaster. Synology has the most polished software; QNAP packs more hardware per dollar; UGREEN and TerraMaster undercut both on price. Drives are usually sold separately — budget for them.
Network-attached storage (NAS)
An always-on box for backups, media and self-hosted apps. Match the tier to your capacity needs, how many apps you'll run, and whether you need fast (multi-gig) networking.
Remember drives are usually sold separately, and RAID is redundancy — not a backup. To actually feel 2.5G/10G speeds, your switch and cabling have to match; keep a known-good Cat6/6a patch cable on the run to your NAS.
Is your NAS actually reachable at full speed?
Backups silently slowing down, or the NAS dropping off the network? Acutis Go is free: run it on the machine that talks to your NAS and watch latency, packet loss and throughput so you know whether it's the NAS, the switch or the cable.
Download Acutis Go — freeFrequently asked questions
Is RAID a backup?
No. RAID protects against a single drive failing so the NAS stays online, but it won't save you from accidental deletion, ransomware, or the NAS itself dying. Always keep a separate backup of anything you can't afford to lose — follow the 3-2-1 rule.
How many bays does a NAS need?
Two bays is the entry point and lets you mirror two drives for redundancy. Four bays gives room to grow and better RAID options. Buy more bays than you think you need today — storage fills faster than expected.
Do I need a powerful NAS for Plex?
For direct play or a stream or two, a modest NAS is fine. Transcoding several streams at once needs a stronger CPU — ideally an Intel chip with Quick Sync hardware transcoding. Match the CPU and RAM to how many people will stream at once.
Synology vs QNAP vs UGREEN — which should I buy?
Synology has the most polished, beginner-friendly software; QNAP packs more hardware per dollar; UGREEN and TerraMaster undercut both on price. Choose Synology for ease of use, QNAP or UGREEN when you want more raw hardware for the money.
Do NAS units come with hard drives?
Usually not — the enclosure and the drives are sold separately. Budget for NAS-rated drives such as WD Red or Seagate IronWolf on top of the price of the NAS itself.
Will gigabit Ethernet limit my NAS speed?
Yes. Gigabit caps throughput around 110 MB/s, which fast drives or an SSD cache can exceed. A 2.5G or 10G port on the NAS plus a matching switch is what lets that extra speed actually reach your computer.
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