How to Build Your Own NAS in 2026: TrueNAS vs Unraid vs Synology and What It Will Actually Cost

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A network attached storage device that sits on your home network and serves files to everything else in the house is one of the most useful things a home technology enthusiast can build or buy, and 2026 is a particularly good time to evaluate the options. Hard drives have stabilised at reasonable prices after the supply disruptions of 2023 and 2024. The software choices have matured. And the use cases have expanded beyond media storage to include backup targets, photo management, Plex servers, home assistant hubs and now local AI model hosting.

For a purpose-built self-managed NAS the two dominant software options are TrueNAS and Unraid. TrueNAS Scale uses ZFS as its filesystem, which provides data integrity verification and protection against silent corruption that no other consumer filesystem matches. It is more complex to set up and less flexible to change once configured but provides the highest data integrity guarantees. Unraid uses a parity drive system rather than RAID and allows mixing drive sizes, making it much more practical for building a NAS gradually by adding drives of whatever size is cheap at a given time. Unraid costs £49 to £89 for a licence and is generally considered easier for newcomers.

The alternative to building is buying a Synology DS223+ or DS423+, two-bay or four-bay units respectively priced at around £300 to £400 without drives. Synology's DSM operating system is polished, the ecosystem of apps is mature and the hardware is reliable. The trade-off is that you are locked into Synology's ecosystem and the hardware is not upgradeable. For most people who want a NAS that works without the satisfaction of building it themselves, a Synology is the right answer. For people who enjoy the building and tinkering process, Unraid on commodity hardware is the more rewarding route.

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