TrueNAS Gains Ground as Users Flee Synology’s Vendor Lock-in

The Great NAS Migration

Longtime Synology users are increasingly jumping ship to TrueNAS Scale, according to multiple user reports and industry analysis. What began as a trickle of early adopters appears to be building into a noticeable trend as storage enthusiasts cite growing frustration with Synology’s hardware restrictions and feature changes.

“Synology was the gateway drug for many home lab and small business users,” one industry analyst noted. “But as their needs evolved, the limitations became more apparent.” The shift represents a broader movement toward open-source storage solutions that offer greater hardware flexibility and fewer restrictions on drive compatibility.

Breaking Free from Vendor Constraints

Sources indicate the migration stems from fundamental philosophical differences between the two platforms. Synology reportedly preloads its DiskStation Manager (DSM) operating system on proprietary hardware and restricts which drives users can install—a practice that’s becoming increasingly unpopular among technically sophisticated users.

Meanwhile, TrueNAS Scale operates on what industry reports describe as a “massive variety of hardware” without similar restrictions. This flexibility allows users to repurpose existing equipment and choose their own storage components, creating what one migration story called “more room to breathe” when managing personal or business data.

The distinction becomes particularly important for users who’ve invested in specific drive configurations. “I couldn’t use the drives I already had with Synology in the ways I wanted,” one convert explained in their migration account. TrueNAS’s ZFS file system implementation reportedly enables more flexible storage pooling and self-healing capabilities that appeal to users seeking enterprise-grade features.

The Technical Transition

Migration stories suggest the switch requires some technical elbow grease but delivers significant long-term benefits. Many users are reportedly virtualizing TrueNAS within Proxmox Virtual Environment, creating a hyper-converged infrastructure that handles both storage and application hosting.

“Passing through PCIe controllers and HBAs to the TrueNAS VM wasn’t hard, but it needed a plan and careful implementation,” one user documented in their transition story. The setup reportedly allows for comprehensive backup strategies, including VM backups through Proxmox and ZFS snapshots within TrueNAS.

This approach creates what migration accounts describe as “the best of both worlds”—dedicated NAS resources alongside separate virtualization capabilities for running containers and applications. The separation ensures that storage performance remains consistent even when other workloads spike.

Application Ecosystem Expansion

TrueNAS Scale’s application store is emerging as another key differentiator. With 281 apps currently available according to user reports, the platform offers alternatives to many Synology packages while adding new options that were previously difficult to implement.

Popular open-source applications like Copyparty, Calibre, and Frigate are reportedly readily available, reducing the friction for users migrating their self-hosted services. The application availability appears particularly valuable for users who’ve grown frustrated with Synology’s changing feature set and application limitations.

As one migration story noted, “There are alternatives for everything I was using on Synology, and things that were a pain in the butt to get working with some of the design choices Synology made.”

Data Portability as Insurance

Perhaps the most significant advantage users report is data portability. TrueNAS’s ZFS implementation means storage pools can theoretically be transferred to any system running TrueNAS or even other Linux distributions—a feature that future-proofs storage investments.

“My data is no longer bound to the operating system,” one convert emphasized in their account. This represents a fundamental shift from the vendor lock-in model, where data migration typically requires network transfers or physical drive replacement rather than simple pool transplantation.

Industry observers suggest this portability addresses a core concern for storage administrators: the ability to evolve infrastructure without massive data migration projects. As network-attached storage becomes increasingly central to both home and business operations, flexibility in platform choices grows more valuable.

Market Implications

The migration trend highlights a broader industry shift toward open-source solutions in spaces traditionally dominated by proprietary systems. While Synology built its reputation on user-friendly interfaces and integrated hardware, technical users are increasingly prioritizing flexibility and control.

According to market analysis, this represents a maturation of the NAS market, where early adopters who started with consumer-friendly systems are graduating to more powerful, flexible platforms as their needs evolve. The success of TrueNAS Scale suggests there’s significant demand for enterprise-grade features without enterprise-level restrictions.

As one industry watcher noted, “Users aren’t just choosing a different product—they’re voting with their wallets for a different philosophy of data ownership and control.” This sentiment appears to be driving what could become a significant realignment in the network storage landscape.