Best NAS for a Home Office

Most home offices should buy the Synology DiskStation DS225+, a two-bay box with a 2.5GbE network port and memory you can expand. Check Synology's drive compatibility list before you buy drives for it (see below). If you want more room or more RAID choices, the four-bay DS425+ is the step up, and the QNAP TS-233 is a simpler two-bay alternative with no drive list to worry about.

A NAS (network-attached storage) is a small computer that holds hard drives and shares them with every device on your network. It is a good home for shared files and for the backups of several computers, but on its own it is not a backup plan. Our complete guide to backing up your computer shows where a NAS fits in a 3-2-1 plan.

The short version

• Best for most home offices: Synology DS225+. Two bays, Intel Celeron J4125, 2.5GbE and 1GbE ports, up to 6GB of memory.
• Best if you want room to grow: Synology DS425+. Four bays, two M.2 NVMe slots, and RAID 5, RAID 6 and RAID 10 on top of RAID 0 and RAID 1.
• Simplest two-bay option: QNAP TS-233. Two hot-swappable bays, one Gigabit Ethernet port, 2GB of memory that cannot be expanded.
• Before you buy: none of these comes with drives. For the Synology models, check the compatibility list first. And a NAS is one copy of your files, not the whole plan.

How the three compare

All figures are the makers' own. Synology's storage figures are "raw" capacity, so what you can use depends on the drives and the RAID setup you choose.

What is a NAS, and do you need one?

A NAS is a box with one or more drive bays and a network port. You plug it into your router, and computers on your network can save files to it, open them from it, or back up to it. It runs its own operating system, which you manage from a web browser or an app: Synology calls its system DSM and QNAP calls its system QTS.

A NAS makes sense when more than one computer needs to share or back up to the same place, or when you want to keep your files at home rather than on a cloud account. If you have one laptop, an external drive is usually enough. Our NAS vs external drive vs cloud comparison walks through that decision, and our best external SSDs guide covers the drive option.

A NAS is not a backup by itself

RAID combines several drives into one storage space with some built-in redundancy. QNAP is blunt about it: RAID is not a backup. It mainly guards against a failed hard drive, and that is not the only way to lose data; file corruption from memory errors or a power failure, a fire, or water spilled on the NAS take out every drive at once. QNAP's advice is at least two copies of your data, with at least one stored offsite.

That fits the 3-2-1 rule from US-CERT (hosted by CISA): three copies of any important file, on two different types of media, with one copy offsite. A NAS in your office can be the second copy. It is never the offsite copy, because it sits in the same building as your computer.

So the NAS needs its own offsite backup. Synology's Hyper Backup can send one to remote servers, external drives or cloud storage, including Synology's C2 Storage, which needs a subscription. The backup guide covers the offsite copy for your computers.

How to choose a NAS for a home office

Start with the bays

More bays give you more RAID choices and more room. With two bays, both makers list RAID 0 and RAID 1. The four-bay Synology adds RAID 5, RAID 6 and RAID 10. If you are not sure, a two-bay model is easier to start with. If you know you will be storing a lot, or sharing between several people, look at four bays.

Drives are usually a separate purchase

None of the three comes with drives, and for the two Synology models, which drives you buy matters more than it used to.

When Synology launched its 2025 Plus models, including the DS225+ and DS425+, it limited full support to Synology's own or certified hard drives. The policy drew heavy criticism, and Tom's Hardware reported both the restriction and the reversal. DSM 7.3, released on October 8, 2025, lets those models install and build storage pools on third-party hard drives that Synology has not validated. M.2 storage pools and SSD cache still need drives from its compatibility list, and Synology still recommends listed drives and gives only limited support for others.

In practice: update the NAS to DSM 7.3 or later before you set up storage, and check Synology's current compatibility list for your model before you buy drives. If you would rather not think about it, the QNAP TS-233 doesn't have this history.

Check the network port

A NAS can't be faster than your network. Both Synology models have a 2.5GbE port, and the QNAP has a single Gigabit port. A 2.5GbE port helps only if your router, switch or computer also supports it. If your office is mostly on Wi-Fi, the wireless connection will usually decide the speed, so use a cable to the NAS where you can.

Look at the processor, memory and software

The Synology models use an Intel processor and can take extra memory. The QNAP uses an ARM processor with fixed memory. For simple file storage and backups, any of them is a reasonable starting point on paper. The Synology J4125 is a 2019 chip, so if you want to run extra apps on the box, read the maker's software page for the app you have in mind first.

Warranty

Synology lists 3 years, extendable to 5 with its Extended Warranty Plus. QNAP lists 2 years as standard. Read the terms before you rely on either.

How to set up a NAS as a backup target

The exact steps depend on the maker, so follow the setup guide that comes with your model. In outline:

1. Install your drives in the bays and connect the NAS to your router with a network cable.
2. Complete the setup in your web browser and choose a RAID option that suits your drive count.
3. Create a shared folder for backups and a separate user for each computer.
4. On Windows, Microsoft says File History can save to a network location, so you can point it at the NAS share. On a Mac, follow Apple's and your NAS maker's instructions for Time Machine.
5. Set up an offsite copy as well, and restore one file to prove it works.

Which is best for you

• Two or three people, shared files and computer backups: the Synology DS225+.
• A small team, or files you know will keep growing: the four-bay Synology DS425+.
• A plain two-bay box on a gigabit network, without a drive list to check: the QNAP TS-233.
• One laptop and a simple backup: you don't need a NAS. An external drive and a cloud backup service cover it.

If most of your office is on Wi-Fi, read our Wi-Fi 7 vs Wi-Fi 6 comparison too, and plan a cable to the NAS.

How we chose

We have not tested these NAS models. We started from NAS boxes sold by US retailers from the two makers most people compare, then read each maker's US page for bays, processor, memory, ports, RAID types, warranty and what is in the box. We added the Synology drive policy because it is the most widely reported problem with these two models and decides which drives you can buy. We did not pick hard drives. We link to a US retailer that sells the exact model; we don't show or compare prices.