Hi there, I know this topic is almost the ABC of this and similar subreddits, and I guess it could be kinda annoying to answer the same question again and again, so I am sorry in advance. But from what I’ve seen, most people asking about DIY vs commercial pre‑built NAS focus mainly on price and/or energy consumption.
My main concern with a pre‑built NAS isn’t price (though I can’t say it doesn’t matter at all). I’m in absolutely no hurry, so I can just buy it a month or two later or whenever. What matters to me more is flexibility, restrictions, etc. I don’t even know how to describe it better due to my poor knowledge of the topic, but my general rule in life is to maximize independence, flexibility, and autonomy as much as I can especially if its about government or corporations. Of course, I weigh the pros and cons in every case (or I would probably go insane and live in the woods without electricity and phone with that approach lol), but if I can, I almost always go for the more independent and flexible solution — even if it means more hassle.
I low‑key hate all modern cloud‑based, subscription‑based, authorization‑required solutions with all that “we can restrict, ban, or change whatever we want in the product you already bought.”
The problem is, I’m absolutely not a tech guy. Despite my upgrade from “I don’t know what a router is” several years ago to now being able to say something like “uga‑buga, with some magic, Reddit guides, and a YouTube video from a 12‑year‑old, I finally set up my own VPS/VPN/SDR/home video surveillance system/mesh/Home Assistant server/LLM — and it only took an hour and a half, ahhh,” I still lack some basic knowledge. I rely completely on my ability to search for information and the god‑blessed internet.
So, with the two previous paragraphs combined, you can see that I constantly make my life harder with tech stuff — but I’m still happy with the results if it really makes things more flexible, controllable, and independent. (Plus, it’s kinda annoying at times, but also kinda fun!)
I’ve heard that pre‑built NAS devices like Synology have their own fixed OS, you can’t change the software, you can’t upgrade the hardware, some functions require the internet, some require cloud services, some inner logic is closed, some features are restricted, sometimes you can’t turn off auto‑updates, and they require their own or approved HDDs. I don’t like any of this at all.
So I’m here to ask you two questions:
- How true or false are all these statements about pre‑built NAS?
- How hard is it to set up and maintain a DIY NAS for a non‑tech guy if I don’t mind the extra work?
Thanks!
