Best NAS on Amazon
For most buyers the best NAS on Amazon is the QNAP TS-464 or the TerraMaster F4-424 — 4 bays, dual 2.5GbE and hardware transcoding, for less than the Synology equivalent. The QNAP TS-264 is the 2-bay version of the same argument, and the Synology DS224+ is the turnkey beginner box if you value DSM over 2.5GbE. The counterintuitive part: the most expensive machine here, the Synology DS923+, cannot hardware transcode at all — its AMD Ryzen R1600 has no integrated GPU — so it is the wrong buy for a media server despite costing more. Its premium buys ECC memory, not Plex. And every one of these is an empty enclosure: the drives are a separate, often larger cost, and they must be CMR.
The mistake this page exists to prevent: buying the pricier "prosumer" Synology to run Plex. ECC memory and a Ryzen CPU read as the serious choice, but without an integrated GPU there is no hardware transcoding — and transcoding is the single most common reason people buy a 4-bay NAS in the first place.
The field at a glance
| Feature | Synology DS224+ | QNAP TS-264 | UGREEN DXP4800 | TerraMaster F4-424 | QNAP TS-464 | Synology DS923+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bays | 2 bays | 2 bays | 4 bays | 4 bays | 4 bays | 4 bays |
| CPU | Intel Celeron J4125 | Intel Celeron N5105 | Intel N100 | Intel N95 | Intel Celeron N5095 | AMD Ryzen R1600 |
| Memory | 2GB DDR4 (to 6GB) | 8GB DDR4 (to 16GB) | 8GB DDR5 (to 16GB) | 8GB DDR5 (to 32GB) | 4GB DDR4 (to 16GB) | 4GB DDR4 ECC (to 32GB ECC) |
| Networking | 2× 1GbE | 2× 2.5GbE | 2× 2.5GbE | 2× 2.5GbE | 2× 2.5GbE | 2× 1GbE |
| Hardware transcoding | No iGPU-class transcoding | Hardware transcoding | Hardware transcoding | Hardware transcoding | Hardware transcoding | NO — no integrated GPU |
| Who it suits | Turnkey beginner 2-bay | 2-bay speed and value | Newcomer 4-bay value | Most hardware per dollar | 4-bay power-user value | ECC + DSM, not media |
Every unit above is sold as an enclosure only. Drive cost is separate and is frequently the larger half of the total.
Best for most people: QNAP TS-464 and TerraMaster F4-424
These two answer the question most buyers actually have. Both are 4-bay, both ship dual 2.5GbE so you get faster-than-gigabit transfers with nothing more than a switch, and both do hardware transcoding. The TS-464 adds a PCIe Gen3 slot for a 10GbE card later; the F4-424 counters with 8GB DDR5 expandable to 32GB and the option of running TrueNAS or Unraid instead of the stock OS.
Pick the QNAP if you want the expansion slot, the TerraMaster if you want the most hardware per dollar or intend to run a third-party OS. See best 4-bay NAS and 2.5GbE vs 1GbE for whether that networking step actually shows up in your workflow.
Best 2-bay: QNAP TS-264, or DS224+ for turnkey
Two bays in a mirror is the right starting point for documents, photos and backups. The TS-264 brings the same 2.5GbE and transcoding story in a smaller box with 8GB of memory as standard. The Synology DS224+ is slower on paper — 2× 1GbE, 2GB of RAM — but DSM is the most polished NAS software there is, and for a first NAS that counts for a lot. Best 2-bay NAS and how many bays you need.
When the Synology DS923+ is the right buy
One reason, and it is a good one: ECC memory, expandable to 32GB ECC, which nothing else here offers at this size. ECC catches single-bit errors before they reach disk — and RAID does not protect you from bad data, only from a dead drive. If memory corrupts a byte on its way to being written, RAID faithfully writes the corrupted byte to every drive.
Buy it if the NAS is your system of record. Do not buy it for media: no integrated GPU means no hardware transcoding, full stop. The full head-to-head is Synology DS923+ vs QNAP TS-464, and do you need ECC RAM puts the benefit in proportion.
The cost everyone forgets: the drives
Every NAS on this page ships empty. Drives are a separate purchase and often the larger half of the bill, so budget for them from the start. Buy NAS-rated CMR drives — WD Red Plus or Seagate IronWolf.
Never put SMR drives in an array. SMR rewrites whole zones on write, which can slow a RAID rebuild to a crawl or drop the drive out of the array entirely — dangerous, because a second drive can fail during the rebuild. The plain WD Red in the 2–6TB range is SMR; the word "Plus" is load-bearing. That is the 2020 controversy in one line: CMR vs SMR, and WD Red Plus vs Seagate IronWolf for choosing between the two.
And it is still not a backup
RAID protects against a drive dying. It does not protect against deletion, ransomware, a bad firmware update, theft or fire — all of which propagate faithfully across every drive in the array. A NAS is resilient primary storage. Pair it with a real offsite copy of anything you cannot recreate: RAID is not a backup and the 3-2-1 rule. If you are still weighing this against a subscription, NAS vs cloud storage cost has the 5-year math.
Frequently Asked Questions
For most people it is the QNAP TS-464 or the TerraMaster F4-424 — both are 4-bay, both have dual 2.5GbE and hardware transcoding, and both cost less than the Synology equivalent. Buy the QNAP TS-264 if two bays are enough and you want the same speed in a smaller box. Buy the Synology DS224+ if you want the most turnkey software experience and do not care about 2.5GbE. Buy the Synology DS923+ only if you specifically need ECC memory, because it has no integrated GPU and therefore cannot hardware transcode.
No. Every NAS on this page is sold as an empty enclosure, and the drives are a separate purchase that is frequently the larger half of the total cost. Budget for them from the start, and buy NAS-rated CMR drives — WD Red Plus or Seagate IronWolf. Do not put SMR drives in a RAID array: SMR rewrites whole zones on write, which can make a rebuild crawl or drop the drive out of the array entirely. The plain WD Red in the 2-6TB range is SMR, which is what caused the 2020 controversy; the word "Plus" is load-bearing.
Any of the Intel-based boxes here — the QNAP TS-264 and TS-464, the TerraMaster F4-424, or the UGREEN DXP4800 — because they have integrated graphics and can transcode in hardware. Specifically not the Synology DS923+: its AMD Ryzen R1600 has no integrated GPU at all, so there is no hardware transcoding. That is not a small performance gap, it is a missing capability, and it catches people out because the DS923+ is the more expensive machine.
Only for a specific reason: ECC memory, expandable to 32GB ECC, which none of the others here offer at this size. ECC detects and corrects single-bit memory errors before they are written to disk, protecting against silent corruption that no RAID level catches — RAID protects against a drive dying, not against bad data being written correctly to every drive. If the NAS is your system of record that is worth real money. If you want a media server, you are paying more for a machine that cannot do the job.
Two bays in a mirror is the sensible starting point for documents, photos and backups: you get redundancy against a single drive failure and the simplest possible setup. Four bays make sense when you want more usable capacity per drive through RAID 5 or SHR, when you expect the array to grow, or when you want to run containers and virtual machines alongside storage. Buying four bays and populating two later is a common and reasonable strategy, since the enclosure is the part you cannot upgrade.
No, and this is the most expensive misunderstanding in the category. RAID protects you against a drive dying. It does not protect you against accidental deletion, ransomware, a failed firmware update, theft, or a fire — all of which write themselves faithfully across every drive in the array. A NAS is primary storage that happens to be resilient. Any honest setup pairs it with a real offsite copy of the data you cannot recreate, following the 3-2-1 rule.