The best Synology NAS in Canada

The DSM 7.3 reversal, and why it changes the ranking

This is the fact most Synology "best" lists still get wrong. On 16 April 2025 Synology announced that its 2025 Plus models (DS925+, DS1525+) would only create a storage pool with Synology-listed drives. That made third-party IronWolf and WD Red Plus a problem — and it is why so many buyers fled to UGREEN. Then, with DSM 7.3 (version 7.3-81180, released 8 October 2025), Synology reversed it for hard drives and 2.5-inch SATA SSDs: IronWolf and WD Red Plus now install, initialise, pool and report health normally. Only M.2 NVMe still requires a Synology-listed drive.

So in 2026 the DS925+ and DS1525+ are back to being ordinary, drive-agnostic DiskStations for their spinning drives — which puts them back in contention on price rather than ruling them out on policy. Older models (DS923+, DS423+, DS224+) were never affected: the restriction "applies only to new models from 2025."

SHR and ECC: the two reasons people still pay the Synology premium

SHR (Synology Hybrid RAID) is the standout: it lets you mix drive sizes without wasting the difference and expand by swapping one drive at a time — genuinely easier than the classic RAID that UGREEN and QNAP use, and matched only by TerraMaster's TRAID. On five drives, SHR-2 gives you double fault tolerance without surrendering more than a third of capacity. Size it in the Synology capacity calculator.

The Plus models here also run ECC RAM (the DS925+, DS1525+ and DS923+ do; the Celeron-based DS224+ does not). ECC quietly corrects memory bit-flips before they reach your data — worth it for a box holding the only copy of your photos. See whether ECC matters for you.

Where Synology still loses

Two honest cautions. First, transcoding: the Ryzen-based Plus models have no iGPU, so they do not hardware-transcode 4K in Plex the way an Intel UGREEN or QNAP does — the older Intel DS423+/DS224+ actually transcode better for Plex than the pricier Ryzen units. Second, NVMe is still locked to Synology's own list even in DSM 7.3, so budget for Synology-branded M.2 if you want a cache. If Plex 4K or open NVMe is your priority, read Synology vs UGREEN before committing.

What this costs in Canada

The prices in the table above are live from Amazon.ca in Canadian dollars, so there is no exchange-rate guesswork. That matters more than usual for NAS boxes: the same model carries a wide, moving spread across Amazon.ca, Best Buy, Canada Computers, Newegg.ca and Memory Express — a two-minute cross-check before you buy is worth real money on a $600–$1,600 purchase.

Importing the enclosure from Amazon.com rarely wins once you add exchange, duty, brokerage and a harder warranty path. The honest metric is total landed cost plus how easy an RMA is — and a NAS you will run for years is exactly the device where local warranty support pays for itself.