Published Jun 9, 2026, 3:31 PM EDT Ayush Pande is a PC hardware and gaming writer. When he's not working on a new article, you can find him with his head stuck inside a PC or tinkering with a server operating system. Besides computing, his interests include spending hours in long RPGs, yelling at his friends in co-op games, and practicing guitar. Back in the day, Synology used to be at the apex of the Network-Attached Storage ecosystem, and for good reason. Synology’s DiskStation Manager was (and low-key still is) more beginner-friendly than the unintuitive proprietary distributions rival manufacturers used to ship with their NAS rigs. Sure, Synology’s hardware has always been pricey, but the plug-and-play experience and stable nature of DSM made its premium NAS servers worth the extra cost. But with its rivals catching up, typical home server platforms becoming more accessible, and Synology itself making some anti-consumer moves, it’s no longer the domineering force it used to be. The best part?…