Introduction to TrueNAS
TrueNAS (previously known as FreeNAS) is an open-source NAS operating system developed by iXsystems, a private company based in San Jose, California. The project started in 2005, and it’s based on FreeBSD and Linux.
On its official website, TrueNAS proudly states that it’s trusted by thousands of companies and organizations. Indeed, the enterprise market is the main focus of TrueNAS developers, and the choice of the default file system (OpenZFS) reflects this.
Of course, that doesn’t mean you can’t use TrueNAS at home—many people do just that—but you better be ready to jump through a few hoops when setting it up.
Introduction to Unraid
Unraid is a proprietary NAS operating system developed by Lime Technology, Inc, a small software company with headquarters in California. The project started in 2005, and it’s based on Linux.
The original idea behind Unraid was to make RAID technology more accessible by removing disk size, speed, brand, and protocol restrictions, making it possible to expand RAID arrays by adding more disks and minimizing the chance of data loss.
Over time, Unraid has evolved into a mature operating system that’s not only accessible to people from all walks of life but also highly flexible.
Pricing
Regular home users who are looking for the best NAS operating system are understandably concerned with price. In this regard, TrueNAS is a clear winner because it’s not only open-source but also completely free—at least TrueNAS CORE, the version aimed at home users and other non-critical storage applications, is.
There is also TrueNAS ENTERPRISE (best for mission-critical storage applications) and TrueNAS SCALE (best for hyper-converged computer and storage applications), but we won’t really talk about them in this comparison.
Unraid isn’t free, but at least it does use a fair pricing model that doesn’t include any subscriptions or hidden fees. There are three Unraid plans to choose from, and the only difference between them is the number of storage devices you can attach.
The Basic plan costs $59, and it lets you attach up to 6 storage devices. The Plus plan costs $89, and it lets you attach up to 12 storage devices. The Pro plan costs $129, and it lets you attach an unlimited number of storage devices.
What’s great is that you can upgrade from Basic to Plus for $39, from Basic to Pro for $79, or from Plus to Pro for $49. As such, there’s no need to start with a plan that greatly exceeds your current needs just because you might expand your NAS in the future.
Winner: TrueNAS wins with its free plan, but Unraid’s pricing isn’t hard to swallow either because you only have to pay once.
Usability
As we’ve explained earlier in this article, the development of TrueNAS and Unraid is guided by two completely different philosophies. The former strives to meet the needs of enterprise customers, while the latter aims to make RAID technology accessible to a broad spectrum of users. The two different design philosophies result in two vastly different user experiences.
With TrueNAS, you have to plan ahead because you can’t easily expand your array with random hard drives, which is exactly what most home users want to do at some point. TrueNAS does let you replace all hard drives in your array with large ones, and you can also add additional arrays, but both of these options are not practical.
Unraid users don’t face this limitation because the NAS operating system uses a proprietary file-level distribution system that essentially creates a JBOD (Just a Bunch of Disks) array with dedicated parity drives. As a result, you can pick any old hard drive, connect it to your Unraid box, and add it to your array without any issues whatsoever.
The only downside of Unraid’s approach that regular home users may notice is its limited performance. Because Unraid always puts a single file on just one hard drive, it doesn’t take too many simultaneous requests for the hard drive to become a major bottleneck. For enterprises, this would be unacceptable. For hobbyists, it’s rarely ever a major issue.
Winner: Unraid makes RAID technology accessible with its proprietary file-level distribution system that sacrifices performance in the name of usability.
Features
Both TrueNAS and Unraid offer support for NFS shares, SMB for Windows, and AFP for macOS and iOS. TrueNAS additionally offers iSCSI services, LDAP, Active Directory, and Kerberos, while Unraid doesn’t.
True to its enterprise background, TrueNAS can move local data to the cloud with its out-of-the-box support for Amazon S3, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure cloud storage services. Third-party solutions that can be used by Unraid users do exist, but they are not easy to use.
Unraid supports Docker containers, and it gives users access to all applications that Lime Technology publishes to its public Docker repository plus a wider set of community applications, making it easy to run everything from Plex to a torrent client to AdGuard.
Because Unraid is based on Linux, it can be used to configure virtual machines using KVM and assign PCI/USB devices like graphics cards to them. This way, you can use the same computer as your home media center and as a Windows 11-based gaming machine.
TrueNAS comes with its own containerization technology called Jails (inherited from FreeBSD) and its own virtualization option called Bhyve (pronounced “Bee-Hive”). The most popular third-party applications, like Plex, can be installed with ease, but the overall selection of available software is much smaller compared with Unraid.
Winner: TrueNAS supports more enterprise-oriented features, while Unraid focuses on features that regular home users are most likely to appreciate, so there’s no clear winner.
Documentation & Community
TrueNAS Documentation Hub is a highly comprehensive library of resources that covers everything from basic setup to APIs and the various hardware platforms that iXsystems builds and sells for use with TrueNAS.
The Documentation section found on the Unraid website is less comprehensive but easier to navigate. Unfortunately, Unraid doesn’t make it possible for its users to ask questions under individual support pages as TrueNAS does.
If you need to ask a question as an Unraid user, you’re encouraged to do so on the official community forum. Unraid describes its community as “one of the most friendly, informative, and helpful forums you’re likely to run across,” and we can only agree.
It doesn’t matter if you’re a complete newbie or a seasoned IT professional—your questions will always be answered with the same respectful and friendly attitude.
TureNAS also has its own official community forum, but it’s not nearly as friendly and helpful as the Unraid forum. That’s probably because many of its users are IT professionals tasked with enterprise storage management, and they don’t have patience for home users asking basic questions.
Winner: Once again, there’s no clear winner. TrueNAS has more comprehensive documentation, but its community is not as welcoming to beginners as the Unraid community.
Conclusion
Both TrueNAS and Unraid are capable and mature NAS operating systems, but there are major differences between them that determine who they can be recommended. Generally, TrueNAS is a great solution for those who are deeply familiar with RAID technology and know how to take advantage of it to achieve the best performance possible. Unraid, on the other hand, is fantastic for home users who want to use all kinds of random hard drives to create a single central data storage repository.
TrueNAS Pros and Cons
- Free and open-source
- Provides the power of OpenZFS
- Great performance
- More difficult to use
- Unfriendly community
Unraid Pros and Cons
- Easy to use
- Plenty of third-party applications
- Friendly community
- Limited performance
