OpenZFS
Hacker ApprovedThe most recommended of 3 file systems
Recommended for reliable storage pools and safe migration between systems; main caveat is the external kernel module, which needs checking after kernel updates.
Recommended for reliable storage pools and safe migration between systems; main caveat is the external kernel module, which needs checking after kernel updates.
27 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 22
- criticize it
- 5
- approval share
- 81%
Recommended in 9 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 22 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 4.4 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 9 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Stable and reliable storage
“it has continually proven to be one of, if not the most reliable filesystem on the planet”
Comment from 19 Jun 2026 in “Ubiquiti: Enterprise NAS, Built on ZFS” “has been pretty stable as a kernel module for quite awhile”
Comment from 7 May 2026 in “SQLite Is a Library of Congress Recommended Storage Format” “I strongly recommend ZFS for daily-driver use.”
Comment from 11 Sep 2026 in “Stop making swap partitions—use swap files instead” Works on FreeBSD and Linux
“The code bases adhere (modulo ZFS version numbers) to a spec and you can safely migrate the pools between OS.”
Comment from 8 Jul 2026 in “How to Build a Minimal ZFS NAS Without Synology, QNAP, TrueNAS” “I personally found it easier to just run Samba on plain FreeBSD/OpenZFS”
Comment from 31 Mar 2026 in “How to Turn Anything into a Router” “I hand-built FreeBSD, OpenZFS, Bastille, and Samba how I want it”
Comment from 5 Nov 2025 in “Using FreeBSD to make self-hosting fun again” - Comment from 9 Aug 2026 in “NetBSD 11.0 Released”
Expandable pools and usable capacity
“turning existing storage into significantly more usable capacity”
Comment from 29 Apr 2026 on Hacker News “OpenZFS released the zpool expansion as stable last year.”
Comment from 19 Jun 2026 in “Ubiquiti: Enterprise NAS, Built on ZFS” Encrypted root-on-ZFS setups
“Openzfs and ZFSBootMenu has been my personal single greatest additions to linux.”
Comment from 21 Apr 2026 in “Creating a Bootable Backup USB with Encryption (for Pop!OS Linux)” “I have OpenZFS-native encrypted root-on-ZFS for Kubuntu 25.10”
Comment from 17 Mar 2026 in “I Love FreeBSD”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Kernel module needs version checks
“Still sucks that you need to verify if your kernel update is compatible with the external module.”
Comment from 19 Jun 2026 in “Ubiquiti: Enterprise NAS, Built on ZFS” “the zfs module only works with certain kernel versions”
Comment from 13 Nov 2025 in “A brief look at FreeBSD”
Other file systems people recommend
The two most recommended other file systems, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenZFSThis page | 22 | 5 | 81% | 9 | — | Approved |
| mergerfs | 6 | 1 | 86% | 5 | — | — |
| Berkeley Fast File System (FFS) | 5 | 3 | 63% | 3 | — | — |
What people said
26 of the 27 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“I strongly recommend ZFS for daily-driver use.”
“There are still workloads that are a great fit but I agree OpenZFS is currently not well suited as a general purpose FS.”
“The same helps me on my NAS as well, with ZFS and Linux.”
“it actually felt unreliable and I would not suggest it neither!”
“the focus on ginormous features over general stability and the constant problems due to the SPL/separate page cache”
“The code bases adhere (modulo ZFS version numbers) to a spec and you can safely migrate the pools between OS.”
“Still sucks that you need to verify if your kernel update is compatible with the external module.”
“it has continually proven to be one of, if not the most reliable filesystem on the planet”
“"OpenZFS" and "stable" rarely belong in the same sentence”
“OpenZFS released the zpool expansion as stable last year.”
“I haven't considered OpenZFS yet, mainly because my Synology does not support it”
“has been pretty stable as a kernel module for quite awhile”
“turning existing storage into significantly more usable capacity”
“Openzfs and ZFSBootMenu has been my personal single greatest additions to linux.”
“I personally found it easier to just run Samba on plain FreeBSD/OpenZFS”
“it's fiddly but not impossible”
“One way openzfs is more than the sum of its parts is that it closes the RAID write hole.”
“OpenZFS is ~35% slower than btrfs.”
“I have OpenZFS-native encrypted root-on-ZFS for Kubuntu 25.10”
“The CLI incantations though were pure wizardry level stuff, especially watching it in real time”
“I wish that ZFS had a better abstraction to say "all these discrete runtime things you have”
“ZFS is a great technology but it's documentation is terrible.”
“I've even been using ZFS on Linux with USB enclosures for 5+ years with no issues.”
“OpenZFS on Linux still isn't as seamless and most distros still don't make it easy to do ZFS on root.”
“the zfs module only works with certain kernel versions”
“I hand-built FreeBSD, OpenZFS, Bastille, and Samba how I want it”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.