QNAP NAS
Ranked 3 of 3 network attached storage by recommenders
Recommended as an easy first NAS with ZFS storage, though critics warn its proprietary ZFS fork makes pools hard to move elsewhere.
Recommended as an easy first NAS with ZFS storage, though critics warn its proprietary ZFS fork makes pools hard to move elsewhere.
12 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 5
- criticize it
- 7
- approval share
- 42%
Recommended in 3 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 5 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 0.7 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 3 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not 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
Easy for beginners
“QNAP is terrible for experienced users, but as Baby's First NAS it's absolutely sublime.”
Comment from 26 Jun 2026 in “PlayStation Is Deleting 551 Movies from Customers' Accounts” Restriction-free ZFS storage
“Restriction-free and ZFS storage.”
Comment from 18 Jun 2026 in “Ubiquiti: Enterprise NAS, Built on ZFS” Ubuntu runs well on hardware
“most of my old qnap hardware ran Ubuntu pretty well”
Comment from 19 Jun 2026 in “Ubiquiti: Enterprise NAS, Built on ZFS”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Proprietary ZFS fork, incompatible with OpenZFS
“QNAP unforgivably uses a proprietary version of ZFS with their own extensions that are not compatible with mainline OpenZFS.”
Comment from 19 Jun 2026 in “Ubiquiti: Enterprise NAS, Built on ZFS” “I would be really worried if they are diverging further from OpenZFS rather than converging.”
Comment from 19 Jun 2026 in “Ubiquiti: Enterprise NAS, Built on ZFS” “You can not take a zpool out of a QNAP system and access it on another system with ZFS.”
Comment from 19 Jun 2026 in “Ubiquiti: Enterprise NAS, Built on ZFS” - Comment from 19 Jun 2026 in “Ubiquiti: Enterprise NAS, Built on ZFS”
Other network attached storage people recommend
The two most recommended other network attached storage, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Synology NAS | 39 | 39 | 50% | 11 | 9 yrs9 owners | — |
| Ubiquiti UNAS Pro | 9 | 6 | 60% | 4 | — | — |
| QNAP NASThis page | 5 | 7 | 42% | 3 | — | — |
What people said
11 of the 13 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“as soon as you update the OS all/most of the changes end up being broken.”
“Both need replaced, so why not combine them?”
“QNAP is terrible for experienced users, but as Baby's First NAS it's absolutely sublime.”
“You can not take a zpool out of a QNAP system and access it on another system with ZFS.”
“I would be really worried if they are diverging further from OpenZFS rather than converging.”
“most of my old qnap hardware ran Ubuntu pretty well”
“Don't buy a QNAP if you care about real ZFS.”
“QNAP unforgivably uses a proprietary version of ZFS with their own extensions that are not compatible with mainline OpenZFS.”
“Restriction-free and ZFS storage.”
“their backup configuration won't let you arrange for a nas to pull from the source”
“QNAP and Synology pricing is rent seeking behavior on per drive bay pricing models”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.