Cheap NAS for Home Backup and Plex: Best Options

A modern home NAS quietly handling backups and Plex in the corner of a living room.

If you've ever lost a folder of family photos, or fought with a streaming app that buffers every thirty seconds, you've already discovered why a network-attached storage box (NAS) is one of the best purchases a household can make. The good news in 2026 is that you no longer need to spend a fortune. Between Synology's polished software, UGREEN's aggressive newcomer hardware, and a handful of genuinely cheap budget boxes, there's something here for everyone — and I've spent a good while getting to grips with all of them.

In this guide I'll walk you through the best affordable NAS options for two jobs most people actually care about: keeping reliable backups of your important files, and running a smooth Plex (or Jellyfin) media server for your films and TV. I'll be honest about where each one shines and where it falls flat, because the worst thing you can do is buy a box that can't transcode the way you assumed it could. Let's dig in.

Why bother with a NAS at all?

An external USB drive is fine until it isn't. It only backs up the one computer it's plugged into, it can't stream to your telly on its own, and if it dies, your single copy of everything goes with it. A NAS solves all of that. It sits on your network, available to every device in the house, runs around the clock, and — crucially — uses multiple drives so a single failure doesn't wipe you out.

For backups, a two-bay NAS configured in a mirror (Synology calls this SHR-1) keeps two copies of your data across two physical drives. Lose one drive, swap it, and the NAS rebuilds itself. For media, the same box can run Plex or Jellyfin, serving your library to phones, tablets, smart TVs and streaming sticks anywhere in the world. One device, two enormous problems solved.

The one thing that trips everyone up: transcoding

Before you spend a penny, you need to understand transcoding, because it's the single biggest reason people buy the wrong NAS. When you play a film through Plex, sometimes the device on the other end can't handle the original file — maybe it's a chunky 4K HEVC file and you're watching on an older phone over a weak connection. Plex then has to convert, or "transcode", that video on the fly into something the device can play.

That conversion is hard work. If the NAS has an Intel processor with Quick Sync, it can do this in dedicated hardware — fast, efficient and barely breaking a sweat. If it has an AMD chip without Quick Sync, it largely can't transcode efficiently and instead relies on "direct play", where the client device handles the file as-is. This matters enormously: a beautifully powerful AMD-based NAS can actually be a worse Plex server than a humble Intel box costing far less.

Hardware transcoding via Intel Quick Sync is what keeps Plex playback smooth on weaker client devices.

Synology DS224+ and DS423+: the safe, software-first picks

Synology earned its reputation on software, not hardware, and DSM (DiskStation Manager) remains the most polished, beginner-friendly NAS operating system out there. If you want a box that "just works" and holds your hand through setup, this is the family to look at.

The DS224+ is the sensible entry point. It's a two-bay box built around an Intel Celeron J4125 — the same chip generation as the older DS220+ — with 2GB of DDR4 RAM that you can expand to 6GB. Critically, that J4125 includes Quick Sync, so it manages limited Plex hardware transcoding. Two bays in a mirror give you redundancy on a single failed drive, which is exactly what most households need from a first NAS.

Step up to the DS423+ and you get the same J4125 platform in a four-bay chassis. This is the one I'd point Plex-focused Synology buyers toward. That Intel chip with Quick Sync handles 4K-to-1080p conversion smoothly, and the extra two bays give you far more room to grow your media library over time. Interestingly, the DS224+ and DS423+ share nearly identical spec sheets aside from the bay count — neither has NVMe slots, unlike the DS723+ — so the choice between them really comes down to how many drives you want.

Synology DS923+ and DS925+: power users, with a Plex caveat

Here's where things get interesting — and where you need to keep that transcoding rule firmly in mind. Both of these are excellent NAS boxes, but neither is a natural Plex transcoding machine.

The DS923+ is a four-bay unit powered by an AMD Ryzen R1600 dual-core (four threads) with 4GB of DDR4 ECC RAM that expands all the way to 32GB. It adds two M.2 NVMe slots for SSD caching and a PCIe slot that lets you fit a 10GbE card — and with an expansion unit you can grow to nine drives. In testing it manages up to 625/559 MB/s sequential read/write throughput, which is genuinely quick. The catch? Being AMD-based, it works with Plex only for direct play and cannot transcode efficiently.

Synology's four-bay boxes give you room to grow, but the AMD models prioritise raw throughput over Plex transcoding.

The DS925+ is Synology's newest four-bay flagship, released in April 2025. It swaps in an upgraded AMD Ryzen R1700 and — finally — native 2.5GbE networking, two ports of it, plus a PCIe slot for 10GbE. The USB ports jump to USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) versus Gen 1 on the DS923+. That faster networking translates into real-world gains: expect around 280–300 MB/s transfers versus roughly 115 MB/s on the DS923+, making it about 2.5× quicker over the network.

So who are these for? Power users who want speed, expandability, SSD caching and heavy multitasking — file serving, virtual machines, lots of Docker containers — rather than buttery Plex transcoding. The DS923+ is the best all-rounder for that crowd; the DS925+ is the same idea with much faster networking. Just don't buy either expecting it to chew through 4K transcodes, because that's not what the AMD silicon is built for.

UGREEN NASync DXP2800 and DXP4800 Plus: the disruptors

UGREEN arrived in the NAS world and immediately undercut the establishment on hardware, and these two boxes are genuinely exciting. The software (UGOS Pro) is younger and less mature than DSM, but the spec sheets are a different league, and both use Intel chips — which, as you now know, is exactly what you want for Plex.

The DXP2800 is a two-bay box that punches well above its class. It runs an Intel N100 quad-core (Alder Lake-N) with a generous 8GB of DDR5 RAM expandable to 16GB, 2.5GbE networking, a 4K HDMI output, and — unusually at this price — two M.2 NVMe slots alongside the two SATA bays. It maxes out at a hefty 76TB, compared to 32TB on the Synology DS220+ and QNAP TS-230. For Plex, the N100's Quick Sync supports AV1, H.264, VP8, VP9 and H.265 in both 8-bit and 10-bit. That's a remarkably complete codec list for an entry-level home NAS.

The DXP2800's 76TB ceiling dwarfs comparable two-bay rivals.

The DXP4800 Plus is the flagship of this pair and a properly ambitious machine. It pairs a five-core Intel Pentium Gold 8505 (12th Gen) with 8GB of DDR5, four SATA bays plus two M.2 NVMe slots, and the standout feature: 10GbE networking alongside a 2.5GbE port. That 8505 chip handles 4K media transcoding efficiently, and the box can reach up to 136TB across its four drive bays. The M.2 slots can be used for SSD caching or set up as a dedicated SSD storage pool for Docker and VMs, which is a clever, flexible touch.

Budget and alternative picks worth knowing

Beyond the two headline brands, three more boxes deserve a place on your shortlist depending on your priorities.

Head-to-head: how the contenders stack up

Here's the at-a-glance comparison I keep coming back to when advising friends. Notice how the choice between Synology's AMD boxes and the Intel-based options cleanly splits along the Plex transcoding line.

For pure Plex duty, the Intel-powered boxes win out; for raw power and software polish, Synology still has a strong case.

Choosing the right hard drives

Your NAS is only as good as the drives inside it, and this is where people often skimp at their peril. Desktop drives aren't designed to run 24/7 in a multi-drive enclosure; NAS-rated drives are. Three families dominate, and pleasingly, all three are now fully supported on Synology's DS925+ following the DSM 7.3 update.

Who should buy what?

Our overall rating

Taking the category as a whole — the balance of value, performance, software and Plex capability across these boxes in 2026 — here's how the affordable NAS landscape scores. The standout story is just how competitive the entry and mid-range have become.

Frequently asked questions

The right NAS depends on whether Plex transcoding, raw power or simplicity matters most to you.