# Best NAS Devices: the stierproducts tier list

- Source: https://stierproducts.com/categories/nas-devices
- Last researched: 2026-09-23T22:54:42.566Z
- Evidence base: 22 products ranked across 136 cited reviews, videos and discussions
- Method: https://stierproducts.com/methodology
- Dataset: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22062813 - every board at once, one dated snapshot per release, same licence, prices and photographs left out
- Reuse: Text, rankings, tier assignments, LP values and verdicts are free to quote and reuse with attribution to stierproducts and a link to the source URL (CC BY 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Product photographs are not covered: they belong to their respective owners and are reproduced to illustrate the product being reviewed. Do not redistribute them under this licence.

Network-attached storage enclosures for home and small office, diskless or populated; bare internal NAS hard drives, external SSDs, external hard drives, routers and cloud storage plans are separate.

## Summary

On the stierproducts nas devices board, Synology DiskStation DS225+ ranks #1 in S tier, ahead of TerraMaster F4-424 Pro (#2, S tier) and Asustor Drivestor 4 Gen2 (AS1204T) (#3, A tier). The board ranks 22 nas devices from S (best) to F (avoid), last researched 23 Sept 2026, drawing on 136 cited reviews, videos and discussions. Placed in the bottom tiers as ones to avoid: UniFi UNAS 2, Asustor Drivestor 2 Gen2 (AS1202T), Synology DiskStation DS423+, and 8 others.

## Ranking

| Rank | Product | Brand | Tier | LP | Outlets | Verdict | Page |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | Synology DiskStation DS225+ | Synology | S | 1108 | 22 | Wirecutter's current top pick and the best-supported firmware platform in the class. The safest device to own for a decade. | https://stierproducts.com/products/synology-diskstation-ds225 |
| 2 | TerraMaster F4-424 Pro | TerraMaster | S | 1033 | 10 | TechRadar's top choice for most users: "the TerraMaster F4-424 Pro is our top choice for most users. During tests, we found this model delivered fast, secure file transfer." Four bays, modern Intel-class silicon and 2.5 GbE give it hardware headroom that the budget Synology boxes lack, and TechRadar's testing verdict is emphatic. It sits below the Synology plus boxes here because TerraMaster's TOS firmware and support track record is shorter and less proven over the long haul. | https://stierproducts.com/products/terramaster-f4-424-pro |
| 3 | Asustor Drivestor 4 Gen2 (AS1204T) | Asustor | A | 723 | 3 | The budget four-bay entry in Asustor's current Drivestor Gen2 line. It is included on hardware merit under this lens: Asustor's ADM platform is mature and actively maintained, the Gen2 enclosures are decently built for the entry tier, and Asustor's support reputation avoids both QNAP's security history and Synology's new restrictions. No page in the retrieved evidence names the AS1204T directly, so it carries no citation. It is ranked last among the picks partly for that thinner evidence base. | https://stierproducts.com/products/asustor-drivestor-4-gen2-as1204t |
| 4 | QNAP TS-233 | QNAP | A | 706 | 5 | PCMag's top two-bay pick for most people: "the QNAP TS-233 (for a two-bay" solution), and Medium's 2026 budget guide names it "Best Compact." r/HomeNAS also recommends it alongside the DS224+ for beginners. It makes the board because two bays means RAID 1 redundancy is on the table, which matters enormously over years. It ranks near the bottom of the picks because the ARM-class processor and minimal memory limit how long it stays pleasant to own, and it carries QNAP's software reputation. | https://stierproducts.com/products/qnap-ts-233 |
| 5 | UGREEN NASync DH2300 | UGREEN | B | 574 | 24 | Ranks second as the specialist outlet’s number-one cheap NAS, delivering modern hardware at the lowest market tier. | https://stierproducts.com/products/ugreen-nasync-dh2300 |
| 6 | Asustor Nimbustor 2 Gen2 (AS5402T) | Asustor | B | 505 | 1 | Android Central includes the AS5402T in its 2026 best home NAS lineup. Asustor's ADM is a mature, frequently updated platform, the Nimbustor Gen2 hardware is well built with upgrade-friendly internals, and Asustor has avoided both QNAP's security incidents and Synology's drive-lock-in controversy. A genuinely strong long-term owner that more buyers should shortlist. | https://stierproducts.com/products/asustor-nimbustor-2-gen2-as5402t |
| 7 | UniFi UNAS Pro | UniFi | C | 478 | 2 | A real specialist endorsement from NASCompares, but consensus is narrower because it only makes sense inside the UniFi ecosystem. | https://stierproducts.com/products/unifi-unas-pro |
| 8 | QNAP TS-216G | QNAP | C | 470 | 4 | Uncited by the retrieved pages, ranked on its position as QNAP's current entry two-bay with modern 2.5GbE networking, in the bracket the community consistently recommends QNAP for. A defensible budget pick, but it carries no retrieved expert verdict, so it sits below every endorsed model. | https://stierproducts.com/products/qnap-ts-216g |
| 9 | Synology DiskStation DS925+ | Synology | C | 423 | 2 | Macworld lists it as "versatile and expandable" in its 2026 NAS picks for Mac, and it is the top of Synology's mainstream plus line. Under this lens it is the strongest long-horizon hardware Synology sells to homes and small offices: better build, better networking, and the same class-leading firmware longevity. It ranks below the DS225+ only because it is more machine than most home buyers need, not because it is a worse owner. | https://stierproducts.com/products/synology-diskstation-ds925 |
| 10 | UGREEN NASync DH4300 Plus | UGREEN | C | 419 | 9 | Ranks eighth as a four-bay newcomer praised for hardware value and selected as the pick for most people. | https://stierproducts.com/products/ugreen-nasync-dh4300-plus |
| 11 | UGREEN DXP4800 Plus | UGREEN | C | 395 | 4 | The category's loudest marketing push on the thinnest longevity record, with soldered memory and an unproven update commitment. Buy the DS225+ or TS-464 instead. | https://stierproducts.com/products/ugreen-dxp4800-plus |
| 12 | UniFi UNAS 2 | UniFi | D | 360 | 4 | Ranks sixth thanks to its integrated software that eases setup and its recognition on multiple value-of-the-year lists. | https://stierproducts.com/products/unifi-unas-2 |
| 13 | Asustor Drivestor 2 Gen2 (AS1202T) | Asustor | D | 347 | 5 | Ranks fifth as the most affordable credible two-bay from Asustor, extending the value formula of its larger sibling. | https://stierproducts.com/products/asustor-drivestor-2-gen2-as1202t |
| 14 | Synology DiskStation DS423+ | Synology | D | 254 | 4 | An aging 4-bay Plus caught between the brand backlash How-To Geek documents and Macworld's redirection to the DS925+, with TechRadar's F4-424 Pro outclassing it on hardware. Buy the F4-424 Pro or DS925+. | https://stierproducts.com/products/synology-diskstation-ds423 |
| 15 | TerraMaster F2-223 | TerraMaster | D | 245 | 2 | Medium's 2026 budget guide names it "Best for Performance" in the entry tier. Two bays, a capable Intel-class CPU and TerraMaster's improving TOS software make it a reasonable long-term owner, but the platform is aging and TerraMaster's firmware longevity and support reputation still trail Synology and Asustor, so it ranks ninth. | https://stierproducts.com/products/terramaster-f2-223 |
| 16 | Synology BeeStation | Synology | D | 244 | 6 | PCMag's top single-drive pick ("the Synology BeeStation (for a single-drive solution with a prepopulated hard drive)") and Android Central reviews the BeeStation 4TB, so beginners cross-shop it constantly. Under this lens it is a dead end: one drive means one failure loses everything, there is no second bay to add redundancy later, and it runs Synology's locked-down consumer appliance software rather than DSM, so it cannot grow with you. It is the most trap-like product in the category precisely because the marketing and the roundups push it hardest at first-time buyers. Buy the DS223j or DS224+ instead and get real redundancy. | https://stierproducts.com/products/synology-beestation |
| 17 | Synology DiskStation DS224+ | Synology | D | 231 | 3 | Still a mainstream recommendation: r/HomeNAS advice for 2025/2026 buyers points newcomers at "entry-level 2-bay NAS units like the Synology DS224+ or QNAP TS-233 - they're compact, beginner-friendly." It is the previous generation of Wirecutter's pick and has since been superseded by the DS225+, which is the only reason it ranks sixth rather than first. Everything about its ownership experience - DSM updates, support, build - is proven over years. | https://stierproducts.com/products/synology-diskstation-ds224 |
| 18 | UnifyDrive UT2 | UnifyDrive | D | 227 | 1 | TechRadar's actively recommended alternative in its current guide. Newer to the consensus than the leaders, but the specialist outlet explicitly steers readers to it. | https://stierproducts.com/products/unifydrive-ut2 |
| 19 | QNAP TS-464 | QNAP | F | 175 | 2 | QNAP's own positioning is a "compact 4-bay NAS with superior performance," supporting up to 72 TB storage and 4 TB M.2 SSD caching, and the hardware genuinely is the most expandable in this class with PCIe and multi-gigabit networking. It ranks mid-board because QNAP's software and security history is the weak link: community consensus is that "QNAP has better hardware, but their software is horrible to the point that a synology with half the specs runs faster." Buy it for the hardware, and stay on top of firmware. | https://stierproducts.com/products/qnap-ts-464 |
| 20 | Synology DiskStation DS223 | Synology | F | 169 | 1 | The worst value on the board: more money than the DS223j for almost nothing, in a brand whose mid-range case XDA and How-To Geek both argue has collapsed. Save with the DS223j or stretch to the DS225+. | https://stierproducts.com/products/synology-diskstation-ds223 |
| 21 | Synology DS223j | Synology | F | 89 | 3 | The cheapest Synology, and it shows: slow UI, poor multi-connection handling, and weak hardware under a good operating system. Buy the DS225+ or the Drivestor 4 Gen2 instead. | https://stierproducts.com/products/synology-ds223j |
| 22 | Synology DiskStation DS223j | Synology | F | 58 | 2 | Medium calls it "Best for Beginners" and Android Central reviews it, so it is the default cheap-Synology suggestion everywhere. It should not be bought: one gigabyte of non-upgradeable memory makes DSM 7 sluggish the day you install it and worse every year after, and it is the kind of box owners replace rather than keep. The DS224+ or DS225+ is the Synology experience this lens actually endorses. | https://stierproducts.com/products/synology-diskstation-ds223j |

## Flagged as ones to avoid

These entered one or more research runs as a product buyers cross-shop but should not buy, rather than as a pick.

- QNAP TS-233 (#4, A tier): flagged by 1 of 12 runs.
- UGREEN NASync DH2300 (#5, B tier): flagged by 1 of 3 runs.
- Synology DiskStation DS925+ (#9, C tier): flagged by 5 of 12 runs.
- UGREEN DXP4800 Plus (#11, C tier): flagged by 3 of 6 runs.
- UniFi UNAS 2 (#12, D tier): flagged by 1 of 3 runs.
- Synology DiskStation DS423+ (#14, D tier): flagged by 3 of 4 runs.
- TerraMaster F2-223 (#15, D tier): flagged by 1 of 2 runs.
- Synology BeeStation (#16, D tier): flagged by 4 of 12 runs.
- Synology DiskStation DS224+ (#17, D tier): flagged by 5 of 9 runs.
- UnifyDrive UT2 (#18, D tier): flagged by 1 of 3 runs.
- QNAP TS-464 (#19, F tier): flagged by 5 of 10 runs.
- Synology DiskStation DS223 (#20, F tier): flagged by 2 of 5 runs.
- Synology DS223j (#21, F tier): flagged by 2 of 7 runs.
- Synology DiskStation DS223j (#22, F tier): flagged by 3 of 5 runs.

## Tier meanings

- S: Exceptional. Finishes top run after run; capped at 3 slots per category.
- A: Excellent. Strongly recommended, beaten only by the very best.
- B: Good. A solid choice with real caveats worth knowing.
- C: Fair. Acceptable in the right situation, outclassed at its price.
- D: Weak. Hard to recommend when better options cost similar money.
- F: Avoid. The evidence points you elsewhere.

## How to read this

- Each category is researched in four independent runs, one per lens (expert consensus, value, reliability, community pulse). Every run ranks a board of candidates that deliberately includes products buyers cross-shop but should avoid. Placements score on a ranked ladder (LP), and tiers are derived from LP, so no tier is ever assigned by hand.
- LP is the product's points on this category's ladder. It is comparable within a category and not across categories.
- Outlets is how many distinct outlets are cited for that placement. The per-product page lists each citation, and shows which of their links were fetched and confirmed before publishing.
- Nothing is hidden: every product the research placed is on this board.

## Limitations

- We do not test products ourselves. Every placement is consolidated from published reviews, owner reports and community discussion, so a board is only as good as the sources behind it.
- LP is points on this category ladder. It is comparable within a category and never across categories.
- A board is a snapshot with a research date. Anything released or changed after that date is not in it yet.
- Evidence is uneven across this board: products carry between 1 and 25 cited sources. The count for each is in the table above.