| Category | Winner | Why |
|---|---|---|
| CPU Performance | Ugreen NASync DXP4800 Plus 4-Bay NAS | The Ugreen's Intel Pentium Gold 8505 (1P + 4E hybrid Alder Lake-N) wins on both single-thread (one Golden Cove P-core) and multi-thread (5 cores total). The QNAP TS-264's Celeron N5095 quad-core is solid but is pure Tremont E-cores. The Synology DS224+'s J4125 Goldmont Plus is the slowest of the three — adequate for DSM workloads but a generation behind. |
| Networking | Ugreen NASync DXP4800 Plus 4-Bay NAS | Ugreen DXP4800 Plus has built-in 10GBASE-T plus 2.5GBASE-T — both ports out of the box. QNAP TS-264 has one 2.5GbE plus one 1GbE. Synology DS224+ has two 1GbE only with no upgrade path. For households with multi-gig switches, the Ugreen is dramatically better. For 1GbE-only networks, this axis does not matter. |
| OS Maturity & Polish | Synology DS224+ 2-Bay NAS | DSM 7.2 has 20 years of refinement, the cleanest UI, the best mobile apps (Synology Photos, Drive, DS file), and ~150 polished first-party packages. QNAP QTS is feature-rich but more cluttered with a steeper learning curve. UGOS Pro launched in 2024 — functional but ~50 apps and a much smaller community. Software polish is the entire reason to pay Synology's premium. |
| Drive Compatibility / Lock-In | QNAP TS-264 2-Bay NAS | QNAP and Ugreen impose minimal restrictions on HDD or M.2 SSD selection — buy any CMR NAS-grade drive, any M.2 NVMe SSD. Synology has tightened drive whitelist enforcement and requires Synology-brand M.2 SSDs for storage pools (~$200 for 400GB). For users who want full freedom over drive choice, QNAP and Ugreen tie; Synology loses meaningfully. |
| Security Track Record | Synology DS224+ 2-Bay NAS | QNAP has a concerning history — Deadbolt ransomware (2022) hit ~10K units, Qlocker (2021) hit ~7K units. Both targeted QTS units exposed to the internet. Synology DSM has had fewer high-profile incidents. Ugreen UGOS Pro is too new to have a meaningful track record. If you must expose your NAS UI to the internet, none of these are safe — but Synology has the best history of the three. |
| Price-to-Capability | QNAP TS-264 2-Bay NAS | At $500, the TS-264 has 8GB RAM (vs 2GB on DS224+), Quick Sync transcoding, 2.5GbE, HDMI 2.0, and two M.2 NVMe slots — all included. The DS224+ at $300 is cheaper but you pay for software polish, not hardware. The DXP4800 Plus at $700 is two more bays and 10GbE built-in but a lot more money. For a single user buying one 2-bay turnkey NAS, the TS-264 is the best hardware deal. |
Data from PAM Finds