Synology vs UGREEN: which NAS should you buy?

Software and RAID: Synology's edge

DSM is the most mature NAS operating system, and its apps (Synology Photos, Drive, Surveillance Station) are genuinely good and have no turnkey equal. Synology also has SHR, which uses mixed drive sizes and lets you grow the array one larger drive at a time; UGOS Pro has no equivalent, so on UGREEN mixed sizes waste capacity. If you value finished software and flexible storage, Synology leads.

Hardware per dollar: UGREEN's edge

UGREEN's NASync line gives you more machine for the money: Intel N100, Pentium or Core-i CPUs with Quick Sync (Synology's Plus models use embedded Ryzens with no iGPU, so they cannot hardware-transcode Plex), more RAM headroom, NVMe slots and even 10GbE on models priced against Synology's 2.5GbE units. For Plex transcoding, containers and raw throughput, UGREEN is often the better value.

The drive policy, and the trade-off in short

Both are open enough today: UGREEN mandates no drive brand, and Synology reversed its 2025 hard-drive restriction in DSM 7.3 (M.2 NVMe still needs a listed drive on Synology). So drive choice is not the deciding factor now.

The honest summary: Synology sells you polish, longevity and SHR; UGREEN sells you hardware and Plex transcoding per dollar. Neither is wrong: match it to whether you want a finished appliance or a powerful box you will tinker with. Size either with the Synology or UGREEN calculator.

Buying in Canada

Canadians cross-shop Amazon.ca, Best Buy Canada, Canada Computers, Newegg.ca and Memory Express; the cheapest SKU moves between them, and we track Amazon.ca live in CAD as the baseline. It is worth a two-minute check across those before you buy a drive or a NAS.

On importing from Amazon.com: it rarely beats a local CAD price once you add exchange, any duty, brokerage and the harder path to a warranty claim or return. The exchange rate is not a penalty: the honest point is total landed cost plus how much easier a return or RMA is when you bought it in Canada. For a drive that will run 24/7 for years, local warranty support is worth real money.