# TrueNAS 48 Hacker News commenters recommended TrueNAS and 34 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 11 of 13 months. **Verdict:** Free ZFS storage software with an easy web interface that runs well on old or spare hardware. Common caveat: worries about the company's direction, including its move from FreeBSD to Linux. ## Why people recommend it - Runs well on old hardware (4 comments): "I'd take an old Xeon server with 64 GB of ECC memory, run its CPU in powersave mode, and slap TrueNAS (with ZFS) on it any day over buying a dedicated NAS" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49132800)) "You don't need a lot of RAM to run TruNAS. 16gb should be sufficient unless you are planning lots of VMs." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46379870)) "Using an older Gaming PC you already have is actually a very good option for TrueNAS or OMV." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47304084)) - Easy web interface for ZFS (3 comments): "TrueNAS made the software side trivial. It's basically plug-and-play and almost entirely configurable from the web interface." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46072497)) "The nice thing about TrueNAS is that all the ZFS management stuff is nicely integrated into the UI" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47305635)) "Everything crucial to the base experience works perfectly out of the box" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46075578)) - Fast with tuned defaults (3 comments): "TrueNAS with ZFS feels faster than Open Media Vault(OMV) did on the same hardware." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46066200)) "the tuned performance defaults made things a lot better for me" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46074221)) "it just is crazy fast, no matter what type of tasks I do" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46075105)) - Replication, cloud sync and app support (3 comments): "You can have immich on truenas that has the whole pool encrypted" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48768107)) "Truenas for example add replication, external cloud sync, gui" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48827930)) "NAS systems running Unraid or TrueNAS with community apps" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47132574)) ## What people warn about - Worries about company direction (7 comments): "TrueNAS was major source of the myths ... because part of the company wanted you to buy their certified systems" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48595519)) "I'll admit I've still stuck with the original FreeBSD based TrueNAS, and still am kinda bummed they swapped it." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47299441)) "I decided to stay away from truenas for my recent nas build precisely because it smelled of enshittification" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47318611)) - Locked-down appliance, hard to customize (3 comments): "eventually you run into a bug with their (bolted on) interface and you have to dig inside the guts anyway" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46075776)) "It really is a locked-down appliance. Good luck installing custom software on the base OS." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48680588)) "I ended up fighting the abstraction layer way more than I benefited from it" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47581490)) - Heavy features add complexity (3 comments): "everything got slower, harder to maintain and even managed to somehow screw up one of my old disks when I added it to my pool" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46097465)) "people insist on doing truenas on top of proxmox and then introducing a networking layer between everything they do" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48828379)) "the heavy features that came with TrueNAS' move to Linux (Kubernetes, etc.)" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46072735)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [Unraid](https://hackerapproved.com/p/unraid.md): 20 recommend - [TrueNAS SCALE](https://hackerapproved.com/p/truenas-scale.md): 7 recommend - [OpenMediaVault](https://hackerapproved.com/p/openmediavault.md): 5 recommend ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "TrueNAS", https://hackerapproved.com/p/truenas/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).