If, like me, you decide to run other applications outside of what Nextcloud offers, then you will need to include the maintenance of those apps too. You see, even if you decide you only need to run Nextcloud for syncing files and that’s all your server will do, you will still have the operating system to maintain.
But in terms of maintenance and your time, it’s still a lot more expensive than Synology. If that’s all you need, then Nextcloud is a lot cheaper to setup in terms of money in the bank. MaintenanceĪt this point Nextcloud had failed in everything I needed of it outside of basic file syncing. If you want to know more, this post talks about my Synology off-site backups in more detail. I use this to backup all of my important data locally, then I use another native Synology app, Cloud Sync, for my off-site backups to Backblaze B2. Synology on the other hand has a native application – Hyper Backup. This became a much bigger beast than it needed to be. But at this point, I not only had Nextcloud to maintain, but also the OS, Plex and Duplicati. Like Plex, Duplicati is an excellent application that works really well.
Synology drive server install#
So when running Nextcloud, I had to install yet another application – Duplicati. The 3-2-1 backup ruleĪgain, Nextcloud falls flat on its face here and has absolutely nothing for backing up either locally or off-site. Backups should always follow the 3-2-1 backup rule.Īt least 3 copies of your data in 2 different locations, 1 of which needs to be off-site.
Your file syncing application of choice is not your backup. I could also install Plex on my Synology if I wanted, but I decided to just use their native Synology app as it works really well and saves me from using 3rd party applications from outside of the Synology ecosystem. So I can access my video library from pretty much anywhere – big win! There are also accompanying apps for my Apple devices, and my Roku streaming boxes. Synology has the Video Station app for streaming videos using my web browser. So the fact that Next cloud has no way of managing a video library is a shame, and a big gap I think, as many people use their home server/NAS for streaming. When I think cloud, I usually think multimedia too.
Synology drive server software#
Plex is a great service, but it was another piece of software for me to maintain on my server. I wasn’t able to find such a service within Nextcloud, so I opted to install a Plex server instead. We have Netflix and Amazon Prime, but we also like to stream stuff from our home server. When my wife and I get some downtime from the kids, we like to watch TV. But the mobile experience has been far superior for me on Synology. So the desktop experience for Synology vs Nextcloud is pretty much on par. Photos are synced automatically using the Moments app, and unlike Nextcloud, it all works flawlessly. I use the Synology Drive application to sync files across all my devices – Windows, Linux and iOS. Instead, they would just queue up in the app and wouldn’t actually upload to the server until I opened the app on my device. There are options to backup photos automatically as they are taken, but I never managed to get this to work right. However, when it comes to the mobile experience, the Nextcloud files app is pretty poor. On Nextcloud, I had very few duplicate files and syncing was relatively quick. And to be honest, both do this very well. This is the bread and butter of both the Synology and Nextcloud. Everything else is just me mucking around. I do use my server for other things, but these 3 services are the crucial ones. There are only three things I need from my home server, which are: To be honest, they’re pretty basic as server hosting goes. I suppose a good place to start would be to talk about my needs from a home server.
Synology drive server crack#
Right, enough waffle let’s crack on with the post… My home server needs So when talking about Synology vs Nextcloud, I would say I have a fair amount of experience with both. I ran that for around a year and a half, before going back to Synology. That first Synology ended up dying and I decided to replace it with a home built server running Nextcloud. I wanted to preface this post by mentioning the experience I have with the two products – I’m currently running a Synology device as my home server and previously ran a different Synology device for ~5 years. TL DR – I think Synology is a far superior product. It is based solely on my needs and my experiences with both products. Before I get hung out to dry by the Internet, I’d like to point out that this comparison of Synology vs Nextcloud is my opinion only.