The best NAS drives 2024: backup, store and access your data from anywhere

A NAS drive sounds like something from Star Trek but it's actually simple. Investing in one of the best NAS drives for 2024 means you can keep all of your files safe and secure, as well as access them from anywhere. These NAS drives work both as backup devices and as a straightforward way to create your own personal server for file sharing. Now it all makes sense right?

With a NAS drive connected directly to your router, you can connect to it and share files from it even when your computer is switched off. It's like having a private cloud storage service of your own, without relying on a company such as Google or Apple to look after your files. Convenient and secure.

Whether you’re looking for storage for the best laptops, best 2-in-1 laptops or best lightweight laptops, a NAS drive is a reliable option that will keep all of your files safe and secure. Having a NAS drive is just like having one of the best SSDs connected to all your devices, all of the time.

Check out this guide to find out which NAS drive is suited to your needs. Or if you're a Mac user, we also have a guide to the best external hard drives for Mac. However you need to set up your storage at home, we've got something that can help.

The best NAS drives in 2024: all the best options

The best NAS drive for most people

There's a whole lot to like about the TS-231P3 from QNAP, which makes some of the best NAS drives in the business: if you're wanting to get started with a NAS drive without spending too much money, then this is definitely up there among the top picks. You get plenty of features and versatility, and it looks pretty stylish too.

The drive has two Ethernet ports and three USB ports, a wealth of connectivity options, and there's built-in support for AES 256-bit encryption as well as many of the most popular cloud storage options. As with any QNAP drive, the software support is excellent, and the NAS isn't difficult to set up at all.

From snapshots of the system state to the easy photo management features, the QNAP TS-231P3 is a more capable device than you might think from the price. Another useful feature here is the ability to hot-swap lower-capacity drives for larger-capacity drives as and when needed, so if you need more storage, you can have it.

The best premium NAS drive

The DiskStation DS923+ from Synology is going to set you back a significant amount of money, but it's a premium-level NAS drive that justifies its price and its packed with features that power users can take advantage of – you can even expand the RAM up to 32GB and you can add a Synology DX517 to reach a massive 9 bays.

With up to 625 MB/s encrypted sequential reading and 559 MB/s writing performance, this is a piece of hardware that isn't messing about, and there are two built-in M.2 SSD slots you can take advantage of too. You don't get these sorts of features on cheaper models, and they can make a significant difference to performance.

From backing up your computer(s) to having a media streaming library that the whole family can share, the Synology DiskStation DS920+ is capable of doing it all. With the right drives, you can get up to a huge 72TB storage capacity. You've also got two USB ports and an eSATA port to make use of besides Wi-Fi and Ethernet.

The best budget NAS drive

Here's a 2-bay NAS drive for not very much money at all from TerraMaster, a brand that's worth a look if you want something a little different from the norm (and want to save yourself some cash too). While its specs can't match more premium models and it's not the easiest on the eye, it covers all the NAS basics nicely, which will be fine for most people.

You do get read and write speeds up to 114 MB/s thanks to the quad-core 1.4GHz processor and 1GB of on-board RAM, and the drive also supports 3.5-inch and 2.5-inch disks (HDD and SSD). It's possible to pack the TerraMaster F2-210 with as much as 16TB of storage, which the majority of users should be happy with.

Add in support for Emby and Plex media servers, and this is a perfect NAS drive for beginners or for those who won't be placing too many demands on their hardware while it's in operation. If someone tells you that getting started with a NAS drive is expensive, then show them this.

Another excellent value NAS drive

From 3.5-inch SATA drives to M.2 NVMe drives, you can fit a variety of different types of storage inside the Asustor Lockerstor 2, and that's just the start of the story: this is a capable, well-priced NAS that is going to provide enough capacity for most people while also being straightforward to use and configure, on the whole.

We've got an integrated HDMI port here, support for Wake on LAN, and a wide selection of apps to pick from – another bunch of reasons that you might want to pick this NAS over any other. The drives vary in how easy they are to install, but it's really hard to pick faults here.

What's more, we think this is one of the better-looking NAS drives out there. In other words, it looks like something that you won't necessarily want to hide away when there are guests coming. With decent performance and lots of configuration options, it's undoubtedly one of the best two-bay NAS drives out there right now.

The best mid-range Synology NAS

As you can see from the number of Synology entries on this list, it's a brand that you can trust when it comes to your NAS needs. The DiskStation DS723+ sits somewhere in the middle of the range, aiming for that sweet spot where price and performance are perfectly balanced against each other.

There's also support for M.2 NVMe SSDs here if you don't want to use conventional hard drives, and you've got two Gigabit Ethernet ports to integrate this unit into your existing network. On the same topic, the NAS has an eSATA port you can use to expand the storage further.

A word too on the build and design quality here: this feels and looks like a premium product. The aesthetics of a NAS might not be the most important consideration when you're deciding which one to buy, but with the Synology DiskStation DS723+ it feels like your data drives are in good hands.

The best NAS drive upgrade

If you've already done a bit of dabbling in the world of NAS drives – maybe you're looking for a second one, or you want to replace and upgrade your current one – then may we suggest the QNAP TS-431X? A 4-bay, high-performance NAS enclosure that's going to be able to take care of a multitude of tasks at the centre of your home (or office) network.

With encrypted read and write speeds of up to 312 MB/s, the TS-431X gives you a serious amount of speed to play around with, as well as a serious amount of security (there's also built-in fast disaster recovery). There are three USB ports, two Ethernet ports, and even a 10GbE SFP+ port for the fastest network needs.

You can upgrade the RAM to 8GB if you need to, which is another sign of the premium level we're at with this NAS drive. Of course there's a premium price attached too – and for a lot of users this is going to be way more than they actually need – but we'd recommend it as one of the best NAS drives for those who need a substantial upgrade.

Excellent all-rounder NAS drive

If you're in the market for a reasonably priced NAS drive then Synology is absolutely one of the brands you should be checking out, and the DS218 is a model suitable for those with more modest needs and a more modest budget. If you need an affordable 2-bay device that's one of the best NAS drives around, it's worth a long look.

That 2GB of on-board RAM gives you a little bit more headroom when it comes to applications and file operations, while the 112 MB/s sequential read and write speeds are decent enough for the amount you're paying. With two USB ports here as well as Wi-Fi and Ethernet, you've got a choice of options for transferring data.

You can fit drives up to a total capacity of 16TB in capacity with the Synology DiskStation DS218, so there's a huge amount of flexibility in that regard too. As always with a Synology product, it's simple and straightforward to set up, and comes with a selection of useful software tools for managing files, streaming video files, and so on.

The best starter NAS drive

Western Digital has been in the hard drive game a long time, and its NAS drives are polished, reliable, and user-friendly (especially in the case of the EX2 Ultra). In fact, user-friendliness is one of the unit's key strengths, so it's worth a look if you're just getting started with networked storage.

You get two 3.5-inch drive bays, 1GB of RAM, and a dual-core 1.3GHz processor. Around the back are two USB 3.0 ports for plugging in additional drives. Allowing access to different users is a breeze, transfer speeds are quick, and it looks quite nice too, which helps.

To see how this stacks up against top competition, then check out the T3 QNAP TS-332X vs WD My Cloud Expert EX2 comparison feature. Whatever your budget, there are going to be quite a few top-notch NAS drives to pick from.

The best NAS drive for creative professionals

Here's a stylish, compact, powerful NAS from QNAP that would suit someone who needs a drive that's comfortably above the budget end of the market without getting into the heavy duty, business models that can cost a significant amount of money. This is quite a pricey drive, but it's not that pricey in the grand scheme of NAS drives.

You get a couple of drive bays here, 4GB of RAM, a quad-core 2.0GHz processor, five USB ports, two Ethernet ports, and all the usual and excellent software that QNAP bundles with its hardware. Add all of those specs up together, throw in looks that are better than the average NAS, and you can see how the TS-253D more than justifies its price.

There's also Wi-Fi 6 here, PCIe expansion options, and 4K HDMI output and encoding, so it sets a pace that the more affordable NAS drives on the market can't keep up with. Being from QNAP, you also know the drive is going to be well put together and well-supported with software updates in the future.

The best simple NAS drive

WD My Cloud Home is very user-friendly, with access via an app for either iOS or Android, plus it comes in a variety of sizes from 2TB to 4TB. It’s very reasonably priced but only has one bay, meaning it can’t automatically back itself up, which is the only downside, but you can back it up manually to an external hard drive using the USB port. If it’s just for personal use, the WD My Cloud Home is a very reliable option.

How to choose the best NAS drive for you

The first thing to consider when picking the best NAS drive of 2024 is capacity: that's how much data your drive can hold, set by the number of bays and the maximum drive sizes you can afford, so check these details carefully. If you just want to store a few photos and documents, you probably won't need a larger one.

Go for a NAS that offers as much room as you need – and watch the budget, some units come with hard drives fitted, some don't and this can seriously drive up the price. Whether drives are included or nor, every NAS will have a maximum capacity in their specs, so make sure you check. When comparing prices between models, make sure you're including the cost of the drives.

Also look for RAID configuration options, which is how a NAS allows you to configure the drives you're installing. Several RAID configurations offer some kind of data redundancy, so if one disk fails, another can step up – all of this happens automatically, once you've configured it.

Of course, you’ll also want to go through the plethora of extra features available, like powerful on-board processors that can get your media files into different formats as you stream them. Take your time and use our guide to the best NAS drives of 2024 as a solid starting point.