Why UNAS is a joke replacement for Synology Currently

[zombiephysicist]

Since this thread closed down dialogue I thought I'd throw up my own thread.

To summarize, those seeking to flee synology (i feel your pain) and think the pastures are greener with a UniFi UNAS, sadly it aint so, unless you have extremely limited needs. Yes they let you use any drive (so does any other make other than synology). Unfortunately UNAS is very immature and has limited use.

Basically it just offers SMB and the performance of SMB is less than half of that of an ancient 1821 synology. It doesnt even have fan control for the drives it overheats. Yes, it has a control on the physical panel, but when you move the scrubber, it just moves back to "auto" and keeps frying your drives. Not to mention, it's supposed to be a NAS and youre supposed to be able to adjust it remotely, and right now there is no UI to let you do something simple like that.

Also, it has near zero apps. Nothing a NAS should. Simple things like a Synology Drive, or business active backup tool. Much less the suite of office and multi media things. And if your argument is I just want it to be a dumb SMB server (at which it sucks) and I'll have another server for all those app/services, then at that point just get a TrueNAS scale.

That said, they are actively and regularly updating the UNAS. And who knows, maybe in a year or two it will actually be competitive. I'm actively rooting for UNAS to make it useful so mine becomes more than a glorified Time Machine backup machine, but for now, it's more of a joke than a true competitive offering.

Frankly, I hate to admit it, but Synology did their (jerk off) math right. As much as their hardware sucks and is lagging, as much as their user hostile "only our drives" money grab stinks, youll still stick with them because all the other alternatives suck so much worse.

I hope this changes. And frankly, I hope UniFi really ups their game. I love their hardware and eco system. But this isnt even a pig that bothered to put on lipstick, as of right now.

 

[Rusty]

Frankly, when the 7-bay model was released last year, I was tempted to purchase it on day one, fully aware of its limitations as you mentioned. Still, given its low price, the hardware combination is decent, and software improvements can be implemented over time. As a Unifi user myself, I’m hopeful for changes, as competition is the best driver for progress.

Additionally, my OCD struggles with the 7-bay front panel, so I’m hoping the upcoming models will not only be more aesthetically pleasing but also smarter.

 

[zombiephysicist]

Yea I think posted somewhere of rumors of an 8bay and I think it was a 12 or 16 bay as well. It is a very decent price point, but I think you did the right thing holding back for later versions. I'm using it and get the 'pleasure' of the early adopter 'journey'. In hindsight, I would have waited like you rightly did.

 

[Telos]

Synology apps never excited me. Their philosophy seems to be “this is good enough”, and with that, their development, and new features stop. My Synology NAS, uses only Tailscale, Hyper Backup (for configuration backup only), and Docker (for one container which will soon be migrated away). Nearly everything else has gone to Debian.

A NAS need not be fancy. It's basically a RAID device. Snapshots and Backup satisfy my needs.

I'm not an advocate of brand lock-in. I've never fallen in love with brands, be it car, guitar, phone, cereal, etc. Everything has its niche. My next NAS may be UGreen, running TrueNAS (or Debian). Who knows. For me Synology is overpriced, offers uncompelling apps, and overly restricts the use of hard drives, NVMe, memory, and USB functionality. Different strokes ...

 

[Rusty]

I would agree. The number of Syno apps that I use is less than 5. Also the love for the brand (be it Syno or Apple in my case) is only strong until it makes sense. For me for example any lock in is not a dealbreaker. But that’s me. I’m sure I will explore (and do from time to time) other solutions or brands when a piece of equipment backs me into a corner.

Presently that is still not the case.

Just to end on topic, I am not ecstatic about unas but if there will be progress who knows.

 

[zombiephysicist]

Synology apps never excited me. Their philosophy seems to be “this is good enough”, and with that, their development, and new features stop. My Synology NAS, uses only Tailscale, Hyper Backup (for configuration backup only), and Docker (for one container which will soon be migrated away). Nearly everything else has gone to Debian.

A NAS need not be fancy. It's basically a RAID device. Snapshots and Backup satisfy my needs.

I'm not an advocate of brand lock-in. I've never fallen in love with brands, be it car, guitar, phone, cereal, etc. Everything has its niche. My next NAS may be UGreen, running TrueNAS (or Debian). Who knows. For me Synology is overpriced, offers uncompelling apps, and overly restricts the use of hard drives, NVMe, memory, and USB functionality. Different strokes ...

Good enough apps are better than non-existent apps. Also, apps like Synology Drive, while far from perfect, are ice water in hell compared to even the 'gold standard' open source versions. And if one doesnt care about the apps, then one can do better going full open source with TrueNas, if one is truly against 'brand lock in' which there is plenty of with Ubiquity. See their "welcoming" stance on 3rd party cameras.

Bottom line, I hear a lot of apologies for a slow, limited feature, overheating product. With a lot of apologies like that, it gives Ubiquiti less reasons to improve. Just like apologies for Synologies lock-in and anti user stances.

 

[dkasvis]

A NAS is a device that, mainly, stores, data. As of that, the only quality it should possess is that of reliability. No point in offering fancy UI and apps when your data is in jeopardy. Synology is tried, tested and proven for decades in those areas. Maybe they overprice their hardware, maybe they are more cautious on the hardware selection BUT when the time comes and you lose your data, then it's the time of regretting putting fancy looks over reliability.

 

[zombiephysicist]

You could define it that way. But the NAS market has evolved to be more. Again, if youre satisfied with just a glorified SMB server, you can just build your own with no limitations whatsoever. Be of your convictions if thats your "purity" view.

But the market disagrees and the majority of the NAS offerings these days do include apps. At the very least basic ones like dropbox file sync, hyper backup like incremental backups, and remedial multimedia support (plex et al). The proof is in surveying the market and seeing most do that, and the reason is the buying public wants that.

That you may not, is all fine and reasonable, but that the market in general wants the apps etc is also fine and reasonable.

And I accept your laughs of concession of lost arguments.

 

[BBHJR]

The grief associated with moving your data to a new ecosystem keeps me with Synology. I am a "hobbyist" that travels internationally a bit (retired airline pilot). The fact that I can access my data from Japan, for example, is somewhat thrilling. I have several movies that bear rewatching as well as the old 1950's "Victory at Sea" Documentary that I can watch via PLEX and Video Station. I am also a Mac guy and use my 218+ for Time Machine. I have a folder set up to just drop documents like receipts, etc, from my Apple desktop directly into a "Synology Direct" folder on my NAS. I don't NEED (a very harsh mistress, btw) any more capability, but am tempted by ethernet upgrades (which I don't need) and supposedly "faster" CPUs. First World Problems, right?

 

[Telos]

The grief associated with moving your data to a new ecosystem keeps me with Synology

Little different than moving from one Synology unit to another. Maybe the “familiarity factor” dominates?

 

[rysn800]

Since this thread closed down dialogue I thought I'd throw up my own thread.

To summarize, those seeking to flee synology (i feel your pain) and think the pastures are greener with a UniFi UNAS, sadly it aint so, unless you have extremely limited needs. Yes they let you use any drive (so does any other make other than synology). Unfortunately UNAS is very immature and has limited use.

Basically it just offers SMB and the performance of SMB is less than half of that of an ancient 1821 synology. It doesnt even have fan control for the drives it overheats. Yes, it has a control on the physical panel, but when you move the scrubber, it just moves back to "auto" and keeps frying your drives. Not to mention, it's supposed to be a NAS and youre supposed to be able to adjust it remotely, and right now there is no UI to let you do something simple like that.

Also, it has near zero apps. Nothing a NAS should. Simple things like a Synology Drive, or business active backup tool. Much less the suite of office and multi media things. And if your argument is I just want it to be a dumb SMB server (at which it sucks) and I'll have another server for all those app/services, then at that point just get a TrueNAS scale.

That said, they are actively and regularly updating the UNAS. And who knows, maybe in a year or two it will actually be competitive. I'm actively rooting for UNAS to make it useful so mine becomes more than a glorified Time Machine backup machine, but for now, it's more of a joke than a true competitive offering.

Frankly, I hate to admit it, but Synology did their (jerk off) math right. As much as their hardware sucks and is lagging, as much as their user hostile "only our drives" money grab stinks, youll still stick with them because all the other alternatives suck so much worse.

I hope this changes. And frankly, I hope UniFi really ups their game. I love their hardware and eco system. But this isnt even a pig that bothered to put on lipstick, as of right now.

UNAS may offer basic NAS functions, but it lacks the polish, software ecosystem, and support that make Synology stand out. It's not quite a true alternative yet.

 

[Telos]

it lacks the polish, software ecosystem

Polish? No. UNAS Pro construction quality far exceeds Synology.

Ecosystem? Yes, UNAS Pro has no mediocre apps. Just backup and snapshot. And you get 7 slots for $500.

In contrast, Synology 1621+ (an old work) comes in around $1000, and the DS1825+ shows up at $1300.

O wait... there's no 10GbE with Synology? And drive lock-in?

Go ahead and spend that extra $800 (add to that the premium for Synology-labeled drives) for those amazing Synology apps. Enjoy your NAS.

 

[BBHJR]

Little different than moving from one Synology unit to another. Maybe the “familiarity factor” dominates?

Synology allows me to “migrate” avoiding the need to spend hours copying from a backup.

 

[BBHJR]

And...it was a pretty effortless issue to upgrade my 218 to 2.5gps ethernet with a dongle and the GitHub drivers for the dongle.

I tried out a Ugreen DXP 2800 because it was soooo cheap ($300) and had Amazon's 30 day return ability. Great Machine.Solid as a rock, But the software was either too kludgy, or too complicated. I don't want to "docker" everything rather than a direct install. PLEX in particular. After a couple of weeks, I sent it back with the "internal" caveat that my 218+ does everything I need it for until it actually dies. Then....I'll check out UGOS again or a pre-2125 Synology.

 

[Jan Janowski]

Or my approach:
I’m set in my ways. Lazy some would say! Have spent much time & effort into learning what can or can’t be done with my Synology NAS. It works. The drive thing IS a deal breaker. Fortunately, the NAS’s I own have CPU & Ram power left to continue on, and DONT HAVE a drive limitation.
So - I will do just that — continue on with what works fine right now. I won’t have a drive limitation…I won’t have to learn anything new…
If in the future, if the need for greater Processing power than what I have now….rears it’s head….
Then I can revisit this subject, Then.. and by then maybe someone will have something better. Or maybe I’ll never need more processing power!



Now if the truth be known I’m probably facing the same potential thing (EOL) with 2600 router… in next couple years.

 

[zombiephysicist]

Have to say one thing the unas is brilliant at and way way way better than the synology is Time Machine backups. It’s a single switch to turn on. Zero configuration and “just works”. I’ve been trying to get synology to work with Time Machine using smb for 10+ years and has never worked. It works with afp with no problems but afp is going away in the next Apple update.

So if you want a zero effort Time Machine backup solution the UNAS is king.

 

[BBHJR]

I have not had the problems with Time Machine that you seem to have experienced. It was one of the things that was "fixed" and pretty simple with UGOS. Simple backups were difficult with Green. How hard could it be to set up "I want this data here backed up there, and in a readable format". USBCopy for example. When my 218+ dies (showing no signs of distress now...) I will again revisit my modest needs. As I mentioned, the UGreen machine itself was quite impressive. Makes Synology look like a cheap Chinese imitation. I have read that some computer geeks have run DSM on the Green platform. I could live with that.

 

[zombiephysicist]

With each update the UNAS UI grows to be more and more a mess. Want to encrypt the drive? You might think you should go to settings > console > storage, but no. Part of it is under services for encrypting the storage pool. Then you can go to each users personal drive under their personal settings to store it. Passwords for each can be different and confusing. It’s sprawling and growing more incoherent rather than gel’ing.