this post was submitted on 18 Apr 2025
431 points (98.9% liked)

Selfhosted

46357 readers
378 users here now

A place to share alternatives to popular online services that can be self-hosted without giving up privacy or locking you into a service you don't control.

Rules:

  1. Be civil: we're here to support and learn from one another. Insults won't be tolerated. Flame wars are frowned upon.

  2. No spam posting.

  3. Posts have to be centered around self-hosting. There are other communities for discussing hardware or home computing. If it's not obvious why your post topic revolves around selfhosting, please include details to make it clear.

  4. Don't duplicate the full text of your blog or github here. Just post the link for folks to click.

  5. Submission headline should match the article title (don’t cherry-pick information from the title to fit your agenda).

  6. No trolling.

Resources:

Any issues on the community? Report it using the report flag.

Questions? DM the mods!

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Synology's telegraphed moves toward a contained ecosystem and seemingly vertical integration are certain to rankle some of its biggest fans, who likely enjoy doing their own system building, shopping, and assembly for the perfect amount of storage. "Pro-sumers," homelab enthusiasts, and those with just a lot of stuff to store at home, or in a small business, previously had a good reason to buy one Synology device every so many years, then stick into them whatever drives they happened to have or acquired at their desired prices. Synology's stated needs for efficient support of drive arrays may be more defensible at the enterprise level, but as it gets closer to the home level, it suggests a different kind of optimization.

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] nerdschleife@lemm.ee 123 points 1 week ago (2 children)

It’s like they don’t understand their demographic.

[–] alvvayson@lemmy.dbzer0.com 61 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Yeah, I think their CEO might have QNAP stock or something.

It's hilarious how dumb this is.

[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago

Hilarious and pathetic.

Like Brexit.

[–] Xanza@lemm.ee 33 points 1 week ago (2 children)

They absolutely do. But it's a symptom of capitalism. They must seek higher and higher profits each year. And this is one of their ideas to seek higher profits....

[–] stephen@lazysoci.al 13 points 1 week ago

Growth imperative. Greed will never be satiated.

[–] BastingChemina@slrpnk.net 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The worst is that it will probably increase profit or a quarter or too while running the brand to the ground.

[–] Xanza@lemm.ee 1 points 3 days ago

That's capitalism, baby! /s

[–] root@lemmy.world 100 points 1 week ago (1 children)

That would be my exit sign

[–] shellington@lemmings.world 8 points 1 week ago (12 children)

Mine too. Already priced a new build half the price just the data migration I'm not looking forward too.

load more comments (12 replies)
[–] Allero@lemmy.today 47 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

That's a massive shot in the foot.

As a Synology owner, I already had enough - they have arbitrarily cut customer support to sanctioned jurisdictions, leaving me without the support they promised and I expected when paying for a device.

Next one will definitely be built from the ground up.

[–] higgsboson@dubvee.org 7 points 1 week ago

They are probably betting they will make more money from businesses. I.e., actual pros, vs prosumer.

I do like my Synology NAS I bought 10 yrs ago, but these days there are more and better alternatives for people who dont really need to pay for the support and stability.

[–] Kyrgizion@lemmy.world 47 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The enshittification/rent seeking continues. Nothing is sacred.

[–] justsomeguy@lemmy.world 14 points 1 week ago

If I had known how bad it'd get I would've chosen a different field to work in. Sure, I can avoid it in my private life but on the job it's like I'm in some kind of hostage situation.

"Oh hi there customer! You know our product your users are accustomed to will only come as a subscription from now on and it'll also be really bad and force full screen ads. We'll push two updates per day because our unpaid interns are so agile. Bugs? Oh, no, we call those 'micro disruptions'. They're a feature but don't cost extra! How much the license costs? Well, how much do you have? Yes, it'll be that much."

[–] ragebutt@lemmy.dbzer0.com 35 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I remember arguing with some nerd that this overpriced shit was not fucking worth it and my build based on old server parts I got from a local computer recycler was infinitely superior in every way

I wish I saved that post so I could reply with this link. I feel so validated. Never trust companies. It’s why I say you should never fuck with plex, even if it is a bit easier to deploy than Jellyfin.

[–] N0x0n@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (4 children)

Yeah... Never had a specific "server" certified hardware and always repurpose my hold hardware stuff. Never failed me !!

However, there are some functions specific to NAS' like low power and other stuff people mention but I already forgot.

IMO all this NAS and certified server stuff is good for Enterprise shit and the like... But for homelabbing it's probably overkill and way to much overpriced for the little gain...

Except maybe for the ease of use and plug and play function? Each one it's own I guess !

[–] marauding_gibberish142@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 1 week ago (3 children)

There's plenty of N100/N350 motherboards with 6 SATA ports on AliExpress, grab them while you can

load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments (3 replies)
[–] AustralianSimon@lemmy.world 31 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I get why they do this sort of thing but it didn't stop us re-adding video station and h265 support back into our Synos.

Someone already made a script to overwrite the existing compatible drive checker so someone will write a new script to fix the new one.

https://github.com/007revad/Synology_HDD_db

https://github.com/007revad/Video_Station_for_DSM_722

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] marauding_gibberish142@lemmy.dbzer0.com 28 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Synology is like Ubiquity in the self-hosted community: sure it's self-hosted, but it's definitely not yours. End of the day you get to deal with their decisions.

Terramaster lets you run your own OS on their machine. That's basically what a homelabber wants: a good chassis and components. I couldn't see a reason to buy a Synology after Terramaster and Ugreen started ramping out their product lines which let you run whatever OS you wanted. Synology at this point is for people who either don't know what they're doing or want to remain hands-off with storage management (which is valid; you don't want to do more work when you get home for work). Unfortunately, such customers are now out in the lurch, so TrueNAS or trust some other company to hold your data safe.

[–] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Lol! Not like uGreen put any roadblocks to running your own OS (like disabling the watch dog feature in the BIOS and some other setting to enable custom boot).
And you don't have any fan control on their NAS. Either you estimate and configure correcrly or you need to schedule downtime.
Actual servers let you live tune (some of) the power settings. Synology supports changing the fan profile in the live OS.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] Scrath@lemmy.dbzer0.com 23 points 1 week ago (6 children)

Welp, guess I definitely won't be buying synology again in the future. I was planning to transition to a rackmounted NAS at some point and synology is overpriced in that category anyway but this puts the final nail in for me.

It's a shame because I quite liked the simplicity of their UI.

load more comments (6 replies)
[–] Gibibit@lemmy.world 23 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Lmao what is Synology smoking. I have used their hardware in the past, now I'm so glad that I chose a Nextcloud setup for my home storage solution.

Also why does the nonsense reasoning for these limitations always include "security". That's a rhetorical question btw, I know they are just making shit up.

This comment by Frodo Douchebaggins in the Ars Technica comments sums up my newfound disrespect for Synology pretty well:

Suck a turd, you enshittifying sons of bitches.

[–] thequickben@lemm.ee 21 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I own a Synology NAS. It’ll be the first and last one I buy. When I need an upgrade I’ll go back to building my own again.

[–] Wiz@midwest.social 8 points 1 week ago (4 children)

I was thinking of buying a Synology system. I was actually looking at prices this past week.

That being said, I've got an old 2019 desktop running Windows that is coming to the end of its support, that I was considering making a Linux machine.

How complex is making a roll-your-own NAS?

[–] MonkeMischief@lemmy.today 6 points 1 week ago

How complex is making a roll-your-own NAS?

It really depends on what you want out of it. I personally installed ProxMox on an old gaming machine (DDR3 RAM old lol) and have an Open Media Vault virtual machine running on it with access to my ZFS mirrored pair of storage drives.

Enabling Samba support in Open Media Vault gives you a nice little NAS. I believe it's okay to install bare metal if you really want to also.

It also has a nice Docker interface, so although I should probably not bundle services together so tightly, it runs things like Jellyfin for media, Paperless NGX for document storage, and NextCloud AIO for a convenient (if slightly resource-hungry) interface.

ProxMox lets me do fun things though, like back up the VMs, spin up virtual machines for PiHole ad blocking and Klipper for controlling my 3D printer.

My most important data gets synced to a subscription to a service called iDrive as my offsite. Pretty affordable for 5TB and my own encryption keys. :)

I want to stress that I'm not an IT professional or anything either. If you're reasonably comfortable with Linux and understand some basic networking, I'd say at least getting Proxmox and/or Open Media Vault up and running so you can access it on your home network isn't too hard.

Outside of that, and if you want HTTPS and stuff? There's lots of guides but I would recommend using TailScale instead of opening any ports to the web.

Sorry if this post was meandering but hope it gave you a little bit to go on! :)

load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] heythatsprettygood@feddit.uk 17 points 1 week ago

Died 1990s, born 2025 - welcome back Mac hard drive firmware lockdowns

[–] Cyber@feddit.uk 16 points 1 week ago
[–] laurelraven@lemmy.blahaj.zone 15 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Well, I had been considering one, but I guess not

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] whodatdair@lemmy.blahaj.zone 14 points 1 week ago

Fuuuck that

[–] Alloi@lemmy.world 13 points 1 week ago (1 children)

i was considering these devices for my home media set up, now im just building my own NAS with some old parts i had laying around and using open source software.

fuck this shit.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] just_another_person@lemmy.world 13 points 1 week ago

This will not end well for them.

[–] rumba@lemmy.zip 12 points 1 week ago

They should be careful, they're just selling small form factor computers with removable drive bays. Standing up and unraid or a true Naz isn't all that difficult. And then there's plenty of competition out there ready and willing to eat their lunch.

[–] Kagu@lemmy.ml 11 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (7 children)

Is the main appeal of prebuilt NAS cases the aesthetics and the reduction of DIY concerns?

Because they seem to me like overpriced and underpowered computers. Most tech-oriented folks I know have more powerful PCs in a closet somewhere that they could easily convert into a NAS

Edit: some very thoughtful responses thanks y'all! I definitely see the appeal for people who just need something that doesn't need tinkering or care significantly about power draw and noise.

[–] TedZanzibar@feddit.uk 14 points 1 week ago (4 children)

I am a tech oriented person, I work in IT, and a Syno ticks the boxes in many respects.

  • Low power draw. Power efficiency is very important to me, especially for something that runs 24/7. I don't know how efficient self-build options are these days, but 10 years ago I couldn't get close to the efficiency of a good NAS.

  • Set and forget. I maintain enough systems at work so I don't really want to spend all of my free time maintaining my own. A Syno "just works", it can run for months or years without a reboot (and when it does need one, it does it by itself overnight), and I can easily upgrade or swap a dead drive in a couple of minutes. When the entire NAS dies I can stick the drives in a new one and be up and running almost instantly.

  • Size and noise. I don't have a massive house, so I need something that can sit on a shelf and be unobtrusive. In our last house it was literally sat in the living room, spinning drives constantly, and nobody was bothered by it.

The Syno I have is plenty good enough to run a bunch of Docker containers and a few VMs for all of my self hosted stuff, and it just does the job efficiently, quietly, and without complaining or needing constant maintenance.

I don't like this creep towards requiring branded drives and memory, though I'm pretty sure it's not legal in the EU. Regardless there are ways around it.

load more comments (4 replies)
load more comments (6 replies)
[–] redpandabeer@feddit.org 10 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Actually perfect timing (for me, it's all in all terrible)... I was about to buy myself a NAS and struggled to figure out which to get, and this removes at least one option.

Honestly if you're comfortable with Linux I just built my own at this point, but if you're not then obviously don't take my advice

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] kurcatovium@lemm.ee 10 points 1 week ago

I was looking at simple 2 bay home NAS and Synology was - quite logically - one of the contenders. Now I'm glad I ordered differently. Went with Asustor AS5402, which might be not as polished package as a Synology option, but they're very open about it and say it's just regular PC so you can instal e.g. TrueNAS if you want. This openness convinced me.

[–] ToiletFlushShowerScream@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Damn it I already own own one. I guess I funded this cunt corporate move

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] foggy@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Synology is made for the tech literate tech idiot.

They solve one problem and create a dozen more. That problem not only doesn't need a physical solution, it doesn't need to be a standalone device. It doesn't need its own shitty proprietary operating system.

Anyways. Fuck them.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] M0oP0o@mander.xyz 6 points 1 week ago

Such a silly move. Like shooting yourself in the foot to sell more bullets

Just lol at Synology trying to do an Nvidia

load more comments
view more: next ›