5 Best Synology For Plex 2026 in the United States

The Synology DS1823xs+ is a solid choice for Plex users looking for a powerful and expandable network-attached storage (NAS) solution. It supports up to 8 drives natively and can be expanded to 18 drives with additional units, which is great if you need a lot of storage for media libraries. The metal build and features like hot-swappable drives and high availability clustering make it reliable for keeping your media accessible without interruptions.

You’ll need to add your own hard drives since it comes diskless, which adds flexibility but also extra cost and setup. It supports a range of network connections, ensuring good speeds for streaming. Synology’s software is user-friendly and offers backup and recovery tools without extra licenses, which helps protect your data and makes managing the NAS simpler. Setting it up might be a bit challenging for those without a technical background.

If you want a dependable, scalable NAS mainly for Plex and media serving with room to grow, the DS1823xs+ is well suited, especially in small business or serious home media setups.

The Synology 4-Bay RackStation RS822+ is a solid choice if you want a reliable NAS to run Plex, especially for small to medium-sized media libraries. It offers fast data transfer speeds, which means your videos will stream smoothly, even when multiple users access content. The unit supports up to four drives initially, with the option to add more via an expansion unit, so you can grow your storage as your Plex library increases. The four 1GbE network ports allow for stable and balanced connections, and if you need faster network speeds, you can add 10GbE or 25GbE cards. This is helpful if you plan to stream high-definition or multiple 4K movies at once.

Since the product is sold diskless, it gives you flexibility to choose your own hard drives or SSDs, and adding SSD cache can boost the speed for frequently accessed files. The processor and memory are designed to handle media transcoding, which means Plex can convert your videos on the fly to fit the device you’re watching on. However, if you expect very heavy transcoding demands or many simultaneous streams, higher-end models might be more suitable.

The metal build ensures durability, and Synology’s software is user-friendly, making setup and management accessible even if you’re not a tech expert. If you want a scalable, performance-capable NAS to support a Plex media server with room to expand, the RS822+ fits well, with the caveat that you’ll need to purchase your drives separately.

The Synology RS422+ is a compact 4-bay rackmount NAS well-suited for Plex media server use, providing stable and relatively fast data transfers. It supports read speeds over 600 MB/s, which facilitates streaming high-quality videos across your network. Featuring dual 1GbE network ports with failover and load balancing, the device also allows an upgrade to 10GbE, enabling it to handle multiple users streaming simultaneously with minimal slowdown.

The 4 drive bays offer flexibility for large storage capacity, allowing you to install multiple hard drives to store movies, shows, and music. It supports SATA drives spinning at 7200 RPM, which are sufficiently fast for streaming media without buffering. Synology’s DSM operating system is user-friendly and includes Plex server compatibility, simplifying setup and management.

This model is diskless, so hard drives must be purchased separately. While the 1GbE ports are adequate for many setups, an optional 10GbE upgrade is recommended for handling numerous simultaneous streams or 4K content. Its compact size benefits space-saving rack installations, but it might be more than necessary for users needing a simple home NAS. The RS422+ provides a reliable and expandable Plex server solution with strong network options and storage capacity, suitable for users prepared to add drives and potentially upgrade their network for optimal performance.