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Comparison · 4 picks
Best DIY NAS 2026: Synology vs UGREEN vs Asustor
If you have outgrown Google Drive, you are paying too much for iCloud, or you have started caring where your photos actually live, a home NAS is the natural next step. The UK NAS market in 2026 has four credible buying paths and they appeal to genuinely different people - not 'one is better' but 'one fits you better'.
This compares Synology DS224+ (2-bay), UGREEN DXP4800 (4-bay), Asustor Drivestor 4 (4-bay), and a build-your-own approach (TrueNAS Scale on a small mini PC). All four can store the same data. The choice comes down to whether you want a finished consumer product or a flexible platform - and how much time you want to spend on day-2 maintenance.
At a glance
All 4 options side by side.
| Synology DS224+ | UGREEN DXP4800 | Asustor Drivestor 4 AS1104T | Build-Your-Own (TrueNAS Scale on Mini PC) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | £325 | £500 | £300 | £550 |
| Best for | The right pick if you want the easiest, most polished NAS experience and you do not want to think about it after setup. | The right pick if you want a 4-bay with 2.5GbE built in and modern hardware, and you can live with a less mature OS. | The right pick if you want 4 bays at the £300 mark and you are happy with ADM. | The right pick if you genuinely enjoy the setup and you want a platform that can grow with you. |
The picks in detail
Synology DS224+
Bottom line. The right pick if you want the easiest, most polished NAS experience and you do not want to think about it after setup. The app ecosystem (Photos, Drive, Surveillance Station) is genuinely the best in the category.
UGREEN DXP4800
Bottom line. The right pick if you want a 4-bay with 2.5GbE built in and modern hardware, and you can live with a less mature OS. Materially faster than Synology at a similar price.
Asustor Drivestor 4 AS1104T
Bottom line. The right pick if you want 4 bays at the £300 mark and you are happy with ADM. Solid hardware, fewer flashy features, the practical workhorse choice.
Build-Your-Own (TrueNAS Scale on Mini PC)
Bottom line. The right pick if you genuinely enjoy the setup and you want a platform that can grow with you. The most flexible option but expects ongoing attention.
Which is easiest to live with?
Synology, clearly. DSM 7.2 is the most polished NAS operating system on the market, the mobile apps actually work, the photo backup flow from iOS and Android is genuinely better than Google Photos for offline-first use, and the support documentation is thorough. The community is large enough that any problem you hit has been solved before.
UGreenNAS OS (UGOS Pro) is improving fast - quarterly major updates, the app library is broadening - but it is still 2-3 years behind DSM on polish. Asustor's ADM is functional but feels older. TrueNAS Scale is powerful but its UX explicitly assumes you understand storage concepts (ZFS pools, datasets, snapshots) - it does not hold your hand.
If 'I want to set it up once and not think about it' is your goal, Synology is the answer. If 'I want to actively maintain it' is your goal, the others open up.
Which has the best hardware per pound?
UGREEN, comfortably. The DXP4800 at £500 has 8 GB RAM, dual 2.5 GbE, modern Intel N100 CPU, four NVMe slots in addition to the four 3.5" bays. Synology's equivalent (the DS923+ at £550) is slower on paper across every spec. Asustor lands between them on price-performance with a focus on 2.5 GbE networking.
The build-your-own approach can match or beat any of them on raw hardware - a £350 mini PC with an Intel N305 has more raw performance than any consumer NAS - but the case, drive trays, and PSU eat the savings unless you genuinely care about the flexibility.
The honest truth: hardware specs matter much less than people think. A 1 GbE network and 4 GB of RAM is enough for everything most home users actually do (photo backup, file sync, occasional Plex streaming to 1-2 devices). The hardware-per-pound winner only matters if your specific workload pushes the box.
What about Plex and media streaming?
All four can run Plex. The differences appear when you need hardware transcoding (the NAS converts video format on the fly for devices that can't play the source file).
Synology DS224+ has an Intel Celeron J4125 with Quick Sync, which transcodes one 4K HEVC stream comfortably and 2-3 1080p streams. UGREEN DXP4800's N100 is materially stronger - 2-3 4K transcodes in parallel, or 5+ 1080p. Asustor Drivestor 4's Realtek RTD1619B is ARM-based and Plex transcoding is much weaker on it - 1080p direct play is fine, but 4K transcoding is not its strength.
Build-your-own gets the best transcoding per pound because you can pick CPUs (any Intel N305 or N100 trounces any consumer NAS on this specific workload). For a Plex-heavy household, build-your-own or UGREEN is the right starting point.
Which is best for photographers?
Two distinct sub-categories. For someone wanting to escape Google Photos / iCloud and have a local photo library backed up automatically, Synology Photos is the strongest app in the category - face recognition, location maps, dated timeline, all running entirely on your NAS without subscriptions. UGREEN's photo app is catching up; Asustor's is functional; build-your-own with Immich (open source) is now genuinely excellent but requires the install effort.
For working photographers who shoot RAW and edit in Lightroom or Capture One, the bottleneck is network throughput, not the NAS OS. 2.5 GbE (UGREEN, Asustor, most build-your-own) is materially faster for previewing large raw libraries than 1 GbE (Synology DS224+). A pro shooting 20MP+ files will notice the difference daily.
What is the real 3-year cost?
Drives dominate every 3-year cost calculation, not the NAS itself. Four 8 TB WD Red Plus drives are £600-£700 at 2026 UK prices. That dwarfs any £300-£550 NAS sticker price.
Approximate 3-year totals (assuming 4 × 8 TB WD Red Plus, no expansion, normal use):
- Synology DS224+ (2-bay): £325 + 2 × £170 = £665
- UGREEN DXP4800: £500 + 4 × £170 = £1,180
- Asustor Drivestor 4: £300 + 4 × £170 = £980
- Build-your-own (4 × 8 TB + mini PC + case): £550 + 4 × £170 = £1,230
The 2-bay vs 4-bay choice is a bigger cost driver than the brand. Decide capacity first, then brand.
What about long-term software support?
Synology has the strongest track record - DSM major versions are supported for 5-7 years on most hardware, and the upgrade path is smooth. Asustor has been similarly steady, if slightly slower on feature rollouts. UGREEN is genuinely new to this market and its long-term commitment is the open question - the hardware is excellent today, but five-year support trajectories will only be visible by 2028. Build-your-own with TrueNAS is the most future-proof because the OS is open source and not tied to one hardware vendor - if TrueNAS itself died (unlikely), you could move to Unraid or Proxmox without losing data.
For a 5-7 year purchase horizon, Synology and TrueNAS are the safest bets. For a 3-year horizon, UGREEN's hardware advantage is the deciding factor.
Which should you actually buy?
Four honest answers.
- Buy the Synology DS224+ if you want the easiest, most polished NAS experience, you are happy with 2 bays, and you value the app ecosystem (Photos, Drive, Surveillance).
- Buy the UGREEN DXP4800 if you want 4 bays with modern hardware (8 GB RAM, dual 2.5 GbE, N100 CPU), Plex transcoding matters, and you are happy to bet on a newer OS.
- Buy the Asustor Drivestor 4 if you want 4 bays at the lowest credible cost, you do not need flashy software, and you mostly want file storage with occasional media streaming.
- Build your own with TrueNAS Scale if you genuinely enjoy the project, you want maximum future flexibility, and you understand that ongoing maintenance is part of the deal.
For most UK households, the practical default is the Synology DS224+ if 2 bays are enough or the UGREEN DXP4800 if you want 4 bays. The other two are right answers for specific buyers but the wrong answer for the typical first-time buyer.