ownCloud vs. QNAP NAS

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
ownCloud
Score 9.2 out of 10
N/A
ownCloud is a self-hosted open source file syncing and sharing option, from the Boston-based company of the same name.
$5
per month
QNAP NAS
Score 8.2 out of 10
N/A
QNAP offers a wide array of network-attached storage units for SMBs, home, and enterprise.N/A
Pricing
ownCloudQNAP NAS
Editions & Modules
Standard
$5
per month
Enterprise
$12
per month
For Teams
$13
per month
For Single Users
$15
per month
Community
Free
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
ownCloudQNAP NAS
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
ownCloudQNAP NAS
Considered Both Products
ownCloud
Chose ownCloud
The most important advantage for our research group is security and access control to our files, which cannot be guaranteed with 3rd party services

The sync client is great and outperforms OneDrive for sure and sometimes even Google Drive depending on the number and size of the …
Chose ownCloud
The paid cloud services are expensive if you need a lot of data. You're giving your personal and business information to a data-hungry organization. Local NAS solutions are too slow. We run ownCloud on an older business PC and the performance is outstanding, even for remote …
Chose ownCloud
ownCloud is better than Google Drive and Microsoft's OneDrive. I have not used Google Drive in some time now, so it may have improved. OneDrive has become better over time too, but my go-to is still ownCloud. Firstly, I prefer to have my data under my control. No other service …
Chose ownCloud
I have a very similar experience between Google Drive and DropBox. Both offer real-time sharing and collaboration. Google Drive limits external access and requires the recipient of shared files to have a Google account. In the case of both DropBox and GoogleDrive, they limit …
Chose ownCloud
The sync client is great and outperforms OneDrive for sure and sometimes even Google Drive depending on the number and size of the files.

If you already have your own home-lab or server room, it's really not expensive to buy a couple hard drives and have TBs of storage. Compared …
Chose ownCloud
Other tools with similar functionality have been much better for me to use. However, my company uses ownCloud as its software of choice, so I use it to remain consistent with them.
Chose ownCloud
This is another alternative to Google Drive as well, but less able to edit and use documents.
Chose ownCloud
I have used several products based on public (DropBox, Google Drive, Microsoft Drive, etc) and private cloud (Citrix). Most of them work on public cloud space so they could present problems with compliance. Also, it is usually difficult to protect the information contained in …
Chose ownCloud
Due to the need to support many external workers it was mainly cost effectivity of open source solution: ability to allow external workers to access company files without the need to pay a license for each of them every month. Unfortunately, ownCloud does not offer until now as …
Chose ownCloud
ownCloud's ease of install, maintenance and use as well as a modern interface were major reasons for the choice.
Chose ownCloud
ownCloud is one of the only self-hosted solutions worth it. It is open source and free, meaning that anyone with a Linux VM or an old laptop can host its own feature-rich cloud server. Many all-in-one firewalls will mix OwnCloud and Crashplan, joining document management and …
QNAP NAS
Chose QNAP NAS
QNAP NAS offers several advantages over TrueNAS and Synology. Compared to TrueNAS, QNAP provides a more user-friendly experience, with a simple setup process and intuitive interface, making it ideal for those who don’t want to deal with complex configurations. QNAP also has a …
Chose QNAP NAS
Our historical supplier was a QNAP partner so we started with them.
We resell on request also NETGEAR and Synology. Maybe is for the practice on them but we think that they are easier to use and configure.
The thing i can affirm with convinction is that are realy durable! I think …
Chose QNAP NAS
QNAP is a professional in this business, we think it wouldn't be so good if they were doing it in other jobs. In the free do-it-yourself scenarios we used, he could not meet our needs somewhere. Another NAS product from another manufacturer that we tried for a fee did not have …
Chose QNAP NAS
Cost-effective over EMC Celerra, QNAP was chosen due to its costs and easy maintenance. QNAP can be constantly upgraded and easily maintained over many years.
Features
ownCloudQNAP NAS
File Sharing & Management
Comparison of File Sharing & Management features of Product A and Product B
ownCloud
8.5
Ratings
1% above category average
QNAP NAS
-
Ratings
Versioning9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Video files7.80 Ratings00 Ratings
Audio files8.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Document collaboration7.80 Ratings00 Ratings
Access control9.50 Ratings00 Ratings
File search8.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Device sync9.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Cloud Storage Security & Administration
Comparison of Cloud Storage Security & Administration features of Product A and Product B
ownCloud
8.5
Ratings
2% below category average
QNAP NAS
-
Ratings
User and role management9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
File organization8.70 Ratings00 Ratings
Device management7.70 Ratings00 Ratings
Cloud Storage Platform
Comparison of Cloud Storage Platform features of Product A and Product B
ownCloud
8.8
Ratings
3% above category average
QNAP NAS
-
Ratings
Performance8.80 Ratings00 Ratings
Reliability9.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Storage Reports8.40 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
ownCloudQNAP NAS
Small Businesses
SugarSync
SugarSync
Score 5.7 out of 10
DiskStation
DiskStation
Score 8.8 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Druva Security Cloud
Druva Security Cloud
Score 9.7 out of 10
Dell Unity XT Unified Storage
Dell Unity XT Unified Storage
Score 10.0 out of 10
Enterprises
Druva Security Cloud
Druva Security Cloud
Score 9.7 out of 10
Dell Unity XT Unified Storage
Dell Unity XT Unified Storage
Score 10.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
ownCloudQNAP NAS
Likelihood to Recommend
7.8
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.7
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Performance
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
ownCloudQNAP NAS
Likelihood to Recommend
OwnCloud/Nextcloud is a great application for cloud storage of files, and makes sharing specific files or folders easy and fast. It also makes a great tool for real-time collaboration, including real-time chat and simultaneous editing of documents or spreadsheets. I have used ownCloud to assist clients in sending large files that could not be emailed -- for example, one of my clients is a Video Production agency. They produced a commercial to air, but could not email the file as it was 400MB. OwncCloud came to the rescue. I set up a temporary share and allowed him access to upload into that folder. Once the file was in the folder, I generated a share link that was then forwarded to TV stations for instant viewing in a browser. Each TV station then downloaded it and was able to add it to their scheduling system quickly. From the Photography side... I am able to deliver large amounts of files quickly and easily to my clients, and they can download or view on mobile devices easily. Since I use ownCloud on a daily basis, I cannot think of any reason why I would not use this software
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We save a lot of money using QNAP for the backup of Virtual machines. We installed a QNAP in the datacenter of our Cloud Provider and the cost of the backup and storage that we use is, at least, 1/10 of the cost that we had in the past. We can choose what kind of drives we can install, so if we want affordable we can use 5400/7200 hard drives, if we need speed we can use SSD drives.
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Pros
  • 100% of our data is stored ONLY on our servers and workstation. No external hosting anywhere.
  • Open source, no recurring fees for any amount of data we need.
  • Feature rich browser based application.
  • Mature desktop sync client for PC and Mac.
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  • Ability to scale and increase storage as needed.
  • Safe RAID setups to protect on hard drive failures.
  • A lot of apps to address many aspects of business.
  • Ability to expand memory.
  • New 10GB connection available.
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Cons
  • Requires you to manage the infrastructure, software updates, backups and security because it is self-hosted
  • The picture viewer in ownCloud is not really snappy by default (You need to setup plugins or some kind of cache)
  • No video viewer by default
  • The web UI requires a cache setup to have reasonable load times (to be fair, it is recommended in the admin page)
  • I stopped using the calendar and contacts plugins because after each update they would break
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  • I've had difficulties upgrading firmwares
  • Reboot it's even very slow , like 15/20 minutes but that's not so critical
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Usability
OwnCloud is easy for me to use, and I believe it would be for others too. The barrier for most people will be the set up. For a technology professional like myself, ownCloud's setup is pretty straightforward, but it's not the sort of thing most casual users will be able to handle. Also, it's on the user to maintain the service. These can be taken care of by paying someone to do it for you.
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QNAP NAS's usability is excellent, making it accessible to both beginners and more experienced users. The setup process is straightforward, with clear instructions that guide you through everything. The user interface is intuitive, allowing you to navigate easily between settings, apps, and features. Even with its powerful functionality, such as remote access and advanced file management, it doesn’t feel overwhelming. The mobile apps make it convenient to access files on the go, and everything integrates smoothly. Whether you need basic storage or more advanced features, QNAP balances ease of use with powerful capabilities, making it a highly user-friendly NAS option.
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Performance
Compared with other cloud services, ownCloud has been the most efficient. It doesn't create a noticeable drain on resources and very quickly syncs across all my devices. I'm usually able to save a file on my laptop and by the time I walk over and sit down at my desktop machine, it's already there. I don't need to wait as often as I have with services like OneDrive.
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No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Regarding the community edition, there is a reasonably good support on the IRC, forums and in the issue section on Github. Perhaps a much more individual approach would be available if the premium support was chosen and the instance of the server was provided by the Owncloud company that also offers some premium extensions, not available generally. However, we did not need this level of support yet.
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QNAP NAS is a really good product, but I think the best part is the support for the products. Whenever I have a question or imagine something that won't happen, I can ask the support side. When the support engineer understands what I want to do, he does his best.
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Alternatives Considered
ownCloud is better than Google Drive and Microsoft's OneDrive. I have not used Google Drive in some time now, so it may have improved. OneDrive has become better over time too, but my go-to is still ownCloud. Firstly, I prefer to have my data under my control. No other service can offer the level of control that ownCloud does. Setting that aside, in my experience Google Drive never quite got syncing right. Unless you have a very small collection of files and you're not synced across many devices, Google Drive fails to achieve a complete sync. The icon is always showing that Drive is syncing (and not up to date). I've had similar issues with OneDrive, but these days on Windows 10 OneDrive usually can achieve a complete sync across multiple devices, but it often hogs CPU and Network resources to do so, and it's still slower than OneDrive.
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QNAP NAS offers several advantages over TrueNAS and Synology. Compared to TrueNAS, QNAP provides a more user-friendly experience, with a simple setup process and intuitive interface, making it ideal for those who don’t want to deal with complex configurations. QNAP also has a robust app ecosystem, offering extensive multimedia, backup, and security features, which are easier to install and manage compared to TrueNAS. Against Synology, QNAP stands out for its greater hardware variety and expandability, with better options for PCIe expansion, memory upgrades, and 10GbE networking. Its hybrid storage approach also combines SSD and HDD caching, offering performance boosts Synology lacks.
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Return on Investment
  • The company grew from 4 employees in 2013 when ownCloud was initially deployed to about 40 in 2017 and still using it with a very similar setting without any major upgrade on the same Linux VPS. 95% of all company data are stored and shared via ownCloud successfully. No clear data about ROI but clearly the perfect adoption rate by all people and its ubiquitous use makes it an essential part of the company workflow.
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  • The NAS Server itself is expandable, so you can develop it instead of changing it whenever you need it. Such as Ram, Network Bandwidth, Disk Capacity.
  • We have not experienced any hardware malfunctions in these years, the hardware structure is very stable. Even at first, the environment in which we were running the device was not what it should be, but it still did not cause any problems.
  • We stopped doing investment cost analysis because it looks like it will work until we retire.
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ScreenShots