When I first reviewed the UGREEN DXP4800 Plus, I ran into real problems and I was very vocal about them. I’ve kept using and updating that device ever since, tracking how UGOS has evolved, and today two UGREEN units run in my own backup pipeline alongside the Synology devices I’ve used for over seven years. That puts me in a decent spot to answer the question I get more than any other right now: should you buy a UGREEN NAS or a Synology?
The short answer: buy Synology if the software is the product for you, because DSM is still the most polished NAS operating system there is. Buy UGREEN if you want more hardware for the money, working Plex transcoding, or the freedom to run TrueNAS or Unraid later. The rest of this article covers where each one actually wins, what’s changed with the 2025 and 2026 hardware on both sides, and the specific models I’d buy today.
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Where Each Lineup Stands in 2026
From a hardware perspective, this isn’t a debate. UGREEN wins hands down, and the gap has grown since I made the video above. On the Synology side, the 2025 generation moved the DS925+ and DS1525+ to AMD processors with no integrated GPU, which means Plex and Jellyfin hardware transcoding is gone from the current Plus lineup. The 2-bay units still ship the Intel J4125, a processor that’s been end-of-life for years, and the 2025 firmware disables its iGPU driver anyway. You’re paying 2026 prices for hardware that would have been mid-range in 2021.
UGREEN went the other direction. The Intel DXP models (DXP2800, DXP4800 Plus, DXP4800 Pro, DXP6800 Pro, DXP8800 Plus) all have Quick Sync, so hardware transcoding works properly, and most of them include 10GbE at prices where Synology ships 2.5GbE. The new GT models add ECC memory support, dual 10GbE, and U.2 drive compatibility, which is a first for a pre-built NAS at this price. There’s also the budget DH line for people who just want photo and file backup. I broke down every model in my best UGREEN NAS guide, but the summary is that whatever your budget is, UGREEN gives you more hardware for it.
The Hard Drive Policy Problem
This section matters more than it should. Synology launched the 2025 lineup with drive verification that effectively pushed you toward Synology-branded drives, and the backlash was loud enough that DSM 7.3 walked most of it back and restored third-party hard drive support. That’s the right outcome, but it tells you something: Synology has shown they’re willing to change the rules on drives, and what was changed once can change again.
UGREEN never had a vendor list to begin with. Any SATA drive you own or want to buy will work, and I still can’t believe that’s a selling point in 2026, but here we are. If you’re migrating with a stack of existing drives, UGREEN is the option with zero asterisks.
Storage Pools, SHR, and Snapshots
Both platforms support the standard RAID types for storage pools and BTRFS or ext4 for volumes, so day-to-day storage behaves about the same on either one. The real differences are two features, one on each side.
Synology has SHR, which lets you mix drive sizes and actually use some of the extra capacity. Whether that matters depends entirely on the drives you own, because SHR isn’t a guarantee of more usable space, but for people upgrading drives one at a time over years, it’s a genuine advantage and UGREEN has no equivalent.
UGREEN’s side of the ledger has improved since the video. BTRFS snapshots landed in UGOS while I was literally in the middle of recording, and they’ve had time to mature since. There’s also a per-file versions tool, and UGOS recently added a surveillance center application that records ONVIF cameras locally like a traditional NVR, which is territory only Synology used to cover. The gap here is closing faster than I expected.
DSM vs. UGOS: The Software Gap
DSM has been the gold standard for years, and UGOS is the newer system that borrowed a lot of its layout. On a personal level, I’m not in love with how similar they are, but the practical upside is real: if you’ve used DSM, there’s basically no learning curve on a UGREEN. Navigation is actually where UGOS wins. It’s faster and more fluid in every way, just clicking around and opening features. DSM wins on depth.
On applications, UGOS covers the four things most people actually use: photos, music, cloud drive, and folder sync. The photos app competes directly with Synology Photos, backs up phone photos automatically, and even lets you train custom AI models for search. The music app surprised me, and I like it more than Audio Station. The cloud drive tool only syncs with OneDrive and Google Drive, where Synology supports far more destinations, and the folder sync tool works well but has no on-demand sync like Synology Drive. The UGREEN mobile app deserves its own sentence: it’s the best pre-built NAS mobile app I’ve personally used, and I say that as someone who managed every NAS through a browser and assumed the app was a gimmick until I caught myself opening it several times a day.
Backups are where Synology is still clearly ahead. Hyper Backup gives you versioned, encrypted archives to a long list of destinations, including cloud storage. UGOS gives you rsync and WebDAV, which means a plain copy on a second device with no versions, no encryption, and no cloud destinations. Even one cloud target like Backblaze B2, with encryption, would close most of this gap. Until that happens, serious backup workflows either lean on snapshots at the destination or move to a third-party OS, which is what I did.
Remote access is a split decision. UGOS has no VPN application, but the kernel is new enough that WireGuard runs in Docker, and I had it working in about five minutes with the wg-easy container. Synology’s kernel has been too old for WireGuard, so you’re on OpenVPN, with the one advantage that OpenVPN ties into NAS user accounts while the Docker route means managing a second set of credentials. For relay access, UGREENlink averaged around 4MB/s in my testing, roughly two to four times faster than Synology QuickConnect. Relay services are slow in general, but that’s a usable speed. On the security side of UGREENlink, there’s nothing bad on record, but it’s newer than QuickConnect and security has to be measured over time.
Virtualization is the sleeper win for UGREEN. On most pre-built NAS units I write off the VM app entirely because the hardware can’t carry it. The Intel DXP models have the performance to run a VM full-time, and the ones I ran performed very well. Docker works well on both platforms, and UGOS handles Jellyfin, Home Assistant, and the usual self-hosted stack without complaints.
The Upside of DIY NAS Operating Systems
Everything above compares the included software, and there’s one factor that shifts the whole debate. A Synology runs DSM, and that’s it. A UGREEN DXP model is a standard x86 machine, and if anything about UGOS bothers you, TrueNAS, Unraid, or Proxmox installs on it without a fight. UGREEN has said a third-party OS doesn’t void the hardware warranty, though I’d confirm the current policy before you commit.
This is not a theoretical point for me. My DXP4800 Plus runs TrueNAS and pulls a nightly ZFS replication as my on-site backup. My DXP8800 Plus started on UGOS as my off-site target, and the missing piece was encryption at rest, so it runs TrueNAS now with every dataset encrypted. I wanted specific things UGOS doesn’t do yet, and the hardware let me have them. You couldn’t repurpose a Synology that way, and for power users, that one fact makes the hardware advantage impossible to ignore.
Side by Side
| Category | Synology | UGREEN |
|---|---|---|
| Hardware for the money | Behind at every tier | Wins hands down |
| Plex/Jellyfin transcoding | Gone from the 2025+ Plus lineup | Works on every Intel DXP model |
| Drive compatibility | Restricted in 2025, walked back in DSM 7.3. Still SSD limitations | Any SATA drive, no vendor list |
| Mixed drive sizes | SHR | No equivalent |
| Snapshots | Mature | BTRFS snapshots, newer but working |
| Backup tooling | Hyper Backup: versioned, encrypted, cloud targets | rsync/WebDAV only, no cloud, no encryption |
| Mobile app | Split across several apps | Best pre-built NAS app I’ve used |
| VPN | OpenVPN (kernel too old for WireGuard) | No VPN app, WireGuard via Docker in minutes |
| Relay speed (my testing) | QuickConnect baseline | UGREENlink 2-4x faster (~4MB/s) |
| Third-party OS | Not possible | TrueNAS/Unraid/Proxmox on DXP models |
| OS maturity and ecosystem | Gold standard, two-decade head start | Good and improving, years behind DSM |
The Models I’d Actually Buy
Best Synology
Synology DiskStation DS925+
4-bay, AMD Ryzen V1500B (4C/8T), 4GB DDR4 ECC (to 32GB), 2x 2.5GbE, 2x M.2 storage pool, DSM 7.x
If you’ve read this far and decided the software is worth the premium, the DS925+ is the Synology to buy. DSM is at its best here, the dual 2.5GbE and M.2 storage pools are genuinely useful, and ECC memory comes standard. Know what you’re giving up: there’s no hardware transcoding, so this is a box for files, backups, and VMs rather than a Plex server.
Synology DiskStation DS1525+
5-bay (to 15 via 2x DX525), AMD Ryzen V1500B, 8GB DDR4 ECC (to 32GB), 2x 2.5GbE, 10GbE-upgradable, DSM 7.x
The DS1525+ is the step up when you outgrow four bays, and unlike most of the 2025 lineup, it’s a clear improvement over its predecessor: a better processor, and it kept the 10GbE expansion option. Same DSM strengths, same caveats on transcoding. If you want capacity plus Synology’s software, this is the one.
Best UGREEN
UGREEN NASync DXP4800 Plus
4-bay + 2x M.2 NVMe, Intel Pentium Gold 8505 (5-core, Quick Sync), 8GB DDR5 (to 64GB), 10GbE + 2.5GbE, UGOS Pro
The direct DS925+ rival, and on hardware it isn’t close: working Quick Sync transcoding, built-in 10GbE, and more CPU for similar money. It’s the UGREEN I run as my on-site backup (on TrueNAS, which says something about both the software gap and the freedom to route around it). For most people crossing over from Synology, this is the model to cross to.
UGREEN NASync DXP4800 GT
4-bay SATA/U.2 combo bays + 2x M.2 NVMe, AMD R2514 (no Quick Sync), 8GB DDR4 (to 64GB, ECC supported), dual 10GbE, UGOS Pro
The GT is UGREEN going after the exact buyer Synology courts with the DS925+: ECC memory support, dual 10GbE, and U.2 drive compatibility, at a price where Synology gives you two 2.5GbE ports. No Quick Sync, so it’s not a Plex box, and the included RAM isn’t ECC (you add that module yourself). For a fast home lab that values data integrity over transcoding, nothing at this price matches it.
Where I Stand
When the UGREEN NASync line launched, I recommended the hardware but not the software. Two years of updates later, the dealbreakers I hit are gone, and what impressed me is where UGREEN spent that time: improving what exists instead of piling on new features. Is UGOS at DSM’s level? No, and it will take years to get there. But for the average user who wants to store files, back up phones, and run some Docker containers, a UGREEN is a genuinely good option in 2026, and for power users, the third-party OS support makes it the more interesting platform outright.
So here’s my honest split. Buy Synology if Hyper Backup, SHR, the deeper app ecosystem, or two decades of polish are the things you’d actually use. Buy UGREEN if you want transcoding, faster hardware, drive freedom, or the option to run your own operating system down the road. I keep both in my setup, and if you want the model-by-model breakdown on the UGREEN side, my best UGREEN NAS guide covers all nine, with the rest of my current picks on the recommended hardware page. Not sold on either brand? I ranked the best Synology alternatives separately.
