The top NAS from Synology in 2022

Numerous NAS enclosures are produced by Synology, ranging in price from several thousand dollars for enterprise-grade systems to around $100 for simple home usage systems. Between those two extremes, there is a lot of room.

Although it's difficult to tell by looking at them, each of these Synology NAS devices includes internals that are tailored to a certain user demand. Others give you an all-around performance for mixed use at your home office but are designed for corporate use alone and aren't very good Plex servers.

We've compiled a list of the top Synology NAS enclosures so you don't have to second-guess your purchase and to help you avoid confusion.

1. Synology DiskStation DS920+

With all the improved internals the DS920+ offers over its less expensive siblings, it fills a niche for prosumers who want to accomplish more without going overboard. The NAS has the added power to perform more demanding software and tasks like multi-camera surveillance and team collaboration thanks to the more powerful Celeron CPU and 4GB of default RAM. While most users and home offices should be able to get by with the four-drive system, the DS920+ allows you to buy an expansion unit if your storage demands change in the future, making it a future-proof purchase.

2. Synology DS220+ DiskStation

Anyone wanting to purchase their first NAS will find the DiskStation DS220+ to be the ideal package. It strikes a good mix between performance and value offer, which is essential for a product aimed at home users. Even after taking into consideration redundancy, the 32TB of total storage that can be added to it using its two bays is more than enough for home use. The DS220Intel +'s Celeron processor and 2GB of RAM make it ideal for 4K streaming with Plex and other demanding use cases. This is the finest part.

4. DiskStation DS420+ from Synology

The DS420+ should suit your needs if two drive bays seem insufficient and you'd like to have more at your disposal. You can have a storage pool of up to 64TB with four HDD bays, which is quadruple what you get with the DS220+. If you choose to start out with only a couple of drives, it should be able to provide you with more headroom for years to come. The DS420+ also gives you the option to add two NVMe sticks for caching, allowing you to employ RAID 5, 6, and 10 for better data integration and even speed up data transfers.

5. Synology DS1522+ DiskStation

The DiskStation DS1522+, the newest addition to Synology's NAS portfolio, attempts to fill the space between the DS920+ and the incredibly pricey DS1621+. With a total of four 1GbE LAN ports on the DS1522+, you can wired connect to many PCs in your office or use link aggregation.

The finest feature is that the NAS has a (proprietary) slot where a 10GbE network port can be added separately, keeping the price affordable for people who don't require a faster port while yet providing power users with an upgrade option.

The DS1522+ receives an upgrade to a more potent dual-core AMD processor that is designed for demanding corporate environments in comparison to its immediate predecessor. And you may run as many virtual machines and server applications as you like with the 8GB of regular RAM (which is expandable to a stunning 32GB). Although streaming already transcoded material shouldn't be a problem, don't expect it to transcode your videos on the run without a GPU.

7. Synology DS220j DiskStation

In terms of pure performance, the DS220j falls short of the DS220+ and is not particularly suitable for tasks like handling multiple video streams. But the pricing is its main selling feature. A Synology NAS that costs less than $200 can run the same version of DSM 7.0 and high-quality first-party software as its far more powerful siblings. If all you want to use it for is storage of all your data or as an off-site backup alternative, its basic hardware makes it a fantastic price.

8. Synology DS120j DiskStation

Spending several hundred dollars up front shouldn't be necessary to purchase your first NAS enclosure. For considerably less than $200, you can get a single-drive DiskStation DS120j with a 4TB HDD (which supports up to 14TB). Additionally, you have the same superior Synology software for that kind of money as the more expensive NAS systems. The DS120j is ideal for using as a backup system for your main NAS or as an alternative to Google Images for storing your family's photos and movies.