20% off Unraid Licences: Starter US$39.20, Unleashed US$87.20, Starter to Unleashed Upgrade US$55.20 @ Unraid

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20% off Unraid Licences: Starter US$39.20, Unleashed US$87.20, Starter to Unleashed Upgrade US$55.20 @ Unraid
Go to Deal
impoze on 02/08/2025 - 10:10 unraid.net (1029 clicks)
Last edited 04/08/2025 - 11:58 by 1 other user

Unraid is running a 20th anniversary sale with 20% off the following:

  • Starter and Unleashed licenses
  • All upgrades to Unleashed
  • All Unraid merch (entire month)

Sale Period: 7–26 August 2025

License Pricing (12 months of OS Updates)
License Type Number of Drives Price (USD) 20% Off Price (USD)
Starter Up to 6 $49 $39.20
Unleashed Unlimited $109 $87.20
Upgrade Pricing
Upgrade Path Regular Price (USD) 20% Off Price (USD)
Starter → Unleashed $69 $55.20
Unleashed → Lifetime $149 -
Lifetime

The best deal to get Lifetime is to buy the Unleashed plan and then upgrade to Lifetime
$87.20 + $149 = $236.20

FAQ

Q: What is Unraid?
A: Unraid is a flexible home server operating system that allows you to manage storage drives of mixed sizes, run Docker containers, and host virtual machines.

Q: Is there a free trial?
A: Yes, Unraid offers a 30‑day free trial with full functionality.

Q: How long do updates last with a new license?
A: Each new license includes 12 months of updates from the purchase date.

Q: What happens after 12 months?
A: You can continue using Unraid indefinitely with the features you already have.
If you want to receive new updates after 12 months, you can renew your license.

Unraid is a paid option chosen by users who want:
- Easy mixed‑drive storage (no strict RAID/ZFS requirements)
- Simple parity protection
- Integrated Docker and VM support with minimal setup

Alternatives
Computing Licence NAS Operating System Unraid

Related Stores

Unraid
Unraid

Comments

  • tanksinatra on 02/08/2025 - 10:23
    +1

    Does this discount apply to the Lifetime licence?

    • Mikael on 02/08/2025 - 10:36

      Also looking for lifetime discount. Got unleashed.

    • PR0r on 02/08/2025 - 10:38

      What's the lifetime licence? 🤔

      • impoze on 02/08/2025 - 10:38
        +1

        Lifetime of updates is $249 compared fo 12 months

        • Mikael on 02/08/2025 - 10:46

          Getting unleashed using this deal and upgrade is cheaper then directly buy lifetime. ;)

        • PR0r on 02/08/2025 - 11:01
          +3

          Ah yikes, didn't realise they changed their plan model. I'm hoping the old grandfathered pro plan escaped all this

          • impoze on 02/08/2025 - 11:14

            @PR0r: Yes, grandfather plans have no change. Updates as usual

      • Mikael on 02/08/2025 - 10:44
        +1

        Like RAM lifetime warranty, who knows what's gonna happen. Think yearly renew to get updates is USD $36. And my upgrade from unleashed to lifetime is USD $149. Would get it if around USD $100. plan to have it more then 3 years. They been around 20 years so not a "new" company that pop up and disappear after lifetime subs. But who knows.

    • impoze on 02/08/2025 - 10:38
      +1

      Doesn't look like it based on the details

      • tanksinatra on 03/08/2025 - 11:26

        Ah, in which case you should probably update your post to advise that ongoing updates will cost $36 USD per year. It significantly affects the value proposition.

  • Krazyy on 02/08/2025 - 10:32

    Can someone please give an honest (non ai) comparison of this vs truenas community aka Freenas?

    • impoze on 02/08/2025 - 10:37
      +2

      I will add more info later, did this on phone.

    • c1ockwork on 02/08/2025 - 10:47
      +6

      Unraid user here - I support about four boxes for myself, family and friends. It’s an excellent platform, the community is fantastic, and I’ve never had trouble justifying the cost of the license (though I’m on a perpetual license - I find subscription models a harder sell).

      Unraid’s unique parity system really sets it apart from TrueNAS and FreeNAS - you can use a bunch of essentially random disks of varying sizes, all still protected against drive failure. TrueNAS and FreeNAS might be free, but depending on your experience level, that may not be the case if you value your time (YMMV, of course).

      • Larsson on 02/08/2025 - 11:28
        +3

        In my experience, IF you are starting with no mixed drives, I’d go Truenas. It’s not any harder or easier than unraid and having zfs is a big plus (no unraids zfs doesn’t have the zfs perks) and it’s free and very capable.

        • impoze on 02/08/2025 - 11:39

          Mixing and matching drives is a big consideration down the track when it comes to adding more storage.

          Can't just add a single drive and you may not have enough bays.

          • Larsson on 02/08/2025 - 12:40
            +3

            @impoze: Why can’t you add a single drive?

            You totally can. Zfs expansion is a thing now.

            • impoze on 02/08/2025 - 13:12

              @Larsson: Don't you have to match the existing setup?

              E.g. 3 drive pool needs to expand by another 3 drives?

              Edit: looked it up and RAIDZ expansion is now available but still new. Re-writes all the data so depending on your vdev size could be quite some time.

              • Larsson on 02/08/2025 - 15:06
                +2

                @impoze: Nope, that’s pool expansion.

                You can expand and individual vdev by one drive now.

                It does not rewrite data unless you prompt it. Actually rewriting to even out distribution is an off process and you have to do it on the cmd line.

                • impoze on 02/08/2025 - 17:16

                  @Larsson: That's nice, do you also need to expand by same drive size?

                  • Larsson on 02/08/2025 - 17:28

                    @impoze: That I am not 100% sure. But obviously at minimum the same size as that’s how zfs works.

                    Not sure if a larger drive would be fine, but given the modern feature, I have to imagine the answer is yes.

                    • impoze on 02/08/2025 - 20:00
                      +1

                      @Larsson: Just watched lawrence video

                      Looks good

                      • Larsson on 02/08/2025 - 22:05
                        +1

                        @impoze: Mate, wait until you hear about zfs anyraid :)

                        They are coming for unraid… after this , I don’t see any reason to use unraid at all. Their UI is now amazing too.

                        It will be a bit until it’s fully built/tested and published but it is coming.

                        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tiSCvU2c-8

                        • Ifndefx on 03/08/2025 - 21:57

                          @Larsson: Might be a really stupid question - how do you actually chop and change ?

                          I'm guessing once you are on unraid you are on Unraid if you have, not that I'm saying I have this many isos, but 00's of terrabytes (it makes it unviable to buy 000s of dollars of HDs to copy everything over, not only that build an equivalent system).

                          Or is there a easy way to move from one to another.

      • kizzaaa on 02/08/2025 - 16:59

        In your opinion, how does Unraid compare to Synology DSM?

        Considering moving to Unraid in the future.

        • c1ockwork on 03/08/2025 - 11:39

          NAS units are great if you want that form factor - and I’ve got a lot of experience with both DSM and QTS - but Unraid’s ability to repurpose an old x86 PC and just load it up with drives is what really makes it shine. So comparing them at that level isn’t exactly fair.

          Unraid isn’t as turnkey as a NAS, but the hardware will likely be free (or cheap), though you may need to invest in an HBA (hard drive controller) depending on how many drives you plan to run. Its Linux underpinnings are arguably more exposed than those of DSM or QTS, so the expectation of some minor tinkering from time to time is definitely warranted - though I've found it to be very reliable (the Wife Acceptance Factor remains high).

          If you're asking from a features standpoint, Unraid will usually win out, largely due to its flexibility. There are things you can do with an x86 PC that even the most expensive NAS units will struggle to match - though in fairness, most of those I can think of are fairly niche use cases.

          If you can already admin your own NAS, are moderately handy with hardware, and a little bit resourceful, you should have no trouble making the jump from DSM to Unraid.

        • Ifndefx on 03/08/2025 - 22:02

          I started with synology and outgrew it in less than a year. It probably depends on your usecase, if you are a novice and don't have much then Synology might a good option.

          But for me soon as I outgrew a 4 bay nas, my only other option was to buy another synology nas or a synology expansion unit. But the thing that got me was that the hardware was so weak, but its good if all you wan it to be a nas.

          I also bought synology for their photos app - thought they were going to invest in it so I can move off Google Photos… but in reality its trash. Immich is better, but Google Photos is still the best.

          The rest of their apps I don't use, I didn't like their container implementation it was so confusing than something like portainer etc…

    • Futurist on 02/08/2025 - 11:27
      +2

      I'm in the IT world so consider myself a tech junky. I have built gaming machines since i was in high school and really dive into the details when it comes to my machine builds.

      I tried TrueNAS before i trialed Unraid. I found TrueNAS to be really hard to jump into, plus for the hardware I had it didnt have all the drivers to get it to work. After a week of tampering with TrueNAS I gave up. I was confused with the way TrueNas handled docker containers - which was something i wanted to do to run my apps etc.

      I then trialed Unraid and everything worked first go! The UI was very easy to use, went through video tutorials to talk about raid setup, share permissions etc and have been a fan since. Docker apps are very each to download setup and install. After the free trial ended, i upgraded to starters. Then a year later upgraded to Unleashed as i needed more than 6 drives.

      All the community apps and tools seem to be updated quite frequently. There are tons of video tutorials to help you out. Have'n't found any issues not being able to find the app (or similar) that i needed.

      • subaruwrt on 02/08/2025 - 11:40
        +1

        I used claude to help with install, setup and all other questions mostly regarding linux. Very helpful. Have to be careful though as sometimes it will contradict itself

        • impoze on 02/08/2025 - 11:44
          +1

          The latest Truenas update has alsp separated containers and VMs making it a bit easier.

          You could also do a proxmox setup and do all your apps via LXC or an Ubuntu VM with portainer/komodo/dockge but not as simple and easy as Unraid.

          • Ifndefx on 03/08/2025 - 22:05
            +1

            @impoze: IMHO unraids UI for docker is trash. Over complicated, and some containers are so poorly labled. Like a field for Path and you don't know what they are referring to.

            I'm now just using Portainer on Unraid.

      • Moismint on 02/08/2025 - 12:19

        This was exactly my experience too. The only negative from my perspective is having to boot from usb. As long as you have regular backups if a drive fails its not too bad recovering

      • hen dawg on 03/08/2025 - 06:22

        Agreed, it's totally worth paying a few bucks for UNRAID to save all the time with setup and installing Docker apps and general maintenance etc.

    • RedHab on 02/08/2025 - 13:45
      +3

      How much do you value your time?

      Unraid just works out the box, and expands when you add more disks, but you have to pay for it.

      If you want to mess around with config files etc then the free NAS options are for you. Running them in ProxMox is probably the way to go.

    • toliman on 04/08/2025 - 17:24
      +1

      Essentially, TrueNAS and FreeNAS are built on the kind of frame of it being a NAS OS - on the back of using Sun / Open ZFS.

      ~20 years ago when ZFS was new - it was answering a problem for the 1tb-4tb drive users - silent data corruption and missing data on these error-prone drives. Notably- JBOD was becoming useless if the files were being corrupted by PC hardware failures and drive faults.

      RAID-5 was a thing - but if one drive failed, so did the entire server. Some techies found a server solution, ZFS had a lot of these answers - but it was Solaris only. Eventually ports were made from Sun's development into Linux/Web, sic. and ZFS came to FreeBSD (sic).

      If you wanted to use ZFS, you could try to use Linux's version and suffer corruption, data integrity issues, drives detaching or controllers crashing, et al. Now, it's the other way around, and Linux's Kernels are newer and more stable, as the hardware and OS has matured.

      From a software POV, TrueNAS is built on the Pool as storage model. Everything as apps, runs in Virtual Machines, on top of the BSD kernel which is relatively stabilised. Any apps you want to download are run inside Jails, so the apps never come into contact with configuration or hardware, just the Jail / VM layer.

      There's really only ZFS available, and the pools are resilient. Snapshots are built into the system and changes can be stored over a day/week and those changes used to copy/merge with other remote or local systems. This allows for backups to be fast and resilient to corruption and easy restoration - as seen with OSX's Time Machine.

      UnRAID on the other hand is built on the Hot - Warm - Cold pool storage model.

      Incoming transfers, requests, writes and apps running on the system operate on Cache drives. Your VMs and apps operate here, as well as any incoming file transfers.

      As the files age out, ie usually overnight or when idle for a period, the "warm" files are moved to the RAID as Warm / Cold storage, and parity data is created while the system is idle. If the file is still being accessed, it will 'stay behind' on the Cache, until it's no longer in use, and then moved to the Pool later on.

      The other benefit of this Pooling strategy is that it allows for relative stripes of data - each drive stores it's own layer of the common filesystem (unless you install BTRFS or ZFS as the Pool Filesystem with Striping/Parity)

      The old UnRAID model also works similar to DrivePool and other software OS's, the files are stored across a common filesystem (E: has Movies A-B, F: has Movies C-D, and so on, until it cycles around and E: has Movies R-S. Idle/overnight Balancing and Movers also try to keep the drive's equally full by moving files and checking parity when doing so.)

      The Parity drives keep a copy of the Parity checksums, around 15% to 20% of the file's integrity information - enough to repair the content if a discrepancy is found.

      The Hot/Warm/Cold model also lets the cache drive absorb the stress and constant access, powering down and reducing file access to the pool and reducing the workload.

      With the recent addition of ZFS to UnRAID, most of the same advantages of TrueNAS are available on Linux, with some minor changes.

      Notably, unRAID is licensed, like ProxMox and other ZFS OS's. The $50 starter and the free trial are fine if you want to test it out, but ProxMox and UnRAID work in a similar fashion - offering similar support. Although - ProxMox is a whole lot harder to start with, the apps work the same way.

  • subaruwrt on 02/08/2025 - 10:47
    +1

    Oh no, my trial finishes in 1 day. Looks like i wont be turning it off for 4 days after that. hopefully that works

    • AdModnar on 02/08/2025 - 10:53
      +1

      I have no connection with the company, but maybe worth you to contact them, tell them you want to stay but this timing is unfortunate for you. Ask what they can do

      • AdModnar on 02/08/2025 - 10:55
        -1

        or maybe the remaining free functionality is enough of what you need for the 3 days…
        (?)

    • impoze on 02/08/2025 - 10:54
      +1

      You can usually ask for a trial extension

      • subaruwrt on 02/08/2025 - 11:20

        I'll definitely try for the extension and then buy during the sale

    • buffalo bill on 02/08/2025 - 11:06

      I've still got 6 months of my starter, so I don't know what's worse. Would the license extend too or only upgrade for a year?

      • impoze on 02/08/2025 - 11:11

        Looks like it will extend the date back 1 year. Maybe they will have more details once sale is live.

      • impoze on 02/08/2025 - 12:10

        @buffalo bill

        Confirmed by Unraid that it extends the license by 12 months.

    • AdModnar on 02/08/2025 - 13:18
      +1

      from the website, you're ok:

      How Do I Extend My Unraid Trial?
      Did you know that you can extend the 30 day free trial of Unraid? Hardware can be ill-suited. Things break. Life happens. We get it. To try out Unraid a little longer, once your original trial shows "expired" in the upper left of the header, Stop the array.

      Next, go to the Tools → Registration page, and now a button shows up where you can click for a 15 day extension. Please remember that you are only allotted up to two extensions, each for two weeks. No further extensions can be issued thereafter.

      Note: You cannot change the USB flash device for Unraid Trials if you wish to continue where you left off.

    • mantra on 02/08/2025 - 19:08
      +1

      few years ago i left it on for over a month after trial expired, worked fine until reboot

      • impoze on 02/08/2025 - 19:19
        +1

        Yep ‐ When an Unraid trial ends, the system will continue to function normally until the array is stopped or the server is rebooted.

  • Guybrush57 on 02/08/2025 - 10:54
    +8

    Still gutted I missed the lifetime unlimited before the gargantuan price hike and they've been no sales on it since.

    • Ifndefx on 03/08/2025 - 22:11

      The price rise keeps the product updated.

      I'm always shady with LifeTime licenses, I have a plex lifetime and unraid and feel guilty and afraid that they will fold at some point.

      • toliman on 05/08/2025 - 09:14
        +2

        Nah, it can also go the other way and the company doesn't fold, the apps get worse, or they deliberately split the original app up so they can charge another price for "Pro" features.

        This was also common when Freeware Windows and Mac apps were translated to use the Apple/Windows App Store

        Apple users - this is common. e.g. Pixelmator, Lifetime users tend to get shafted when suddenly the goodwill of an app that basically is "Text Editor" becomes "Text Editor Pro" and adds in AI, image editing, video editing and costs $499.

        The Lifetime becomes Lifetime (Basic), with tiered "lifetime" levels, each with features being sliced off into tiers, i.e. Lifetime+ or Lifetime Super, Lifetime Ultra Deluxe for 2x/4x more money.

        Or the Lifetime product becomes archived to that particular version - Version 2 has a monthly subscription and updates.

        Or your Lifetime subscription switches to a $5 monthly subscription, which then evolves into a $20 monthly and $80 monthly for the features you used to have.

        Or the company just decides to go with a Core lifetime license / free core license, and then feature subscriptions so now you have 12 modules to update separately for $5 each.

  • jong on 02/08/2025 - 10:54
    +3

    To describe it a different way, this is an operating system that lets you turn an old PC and whatever spare hard drives you have into a network file server. The advantage of UnRAID is that the drives don't have to be the same size; it'll still join them into a pool (so you just see one drive on the network, and it spreads the files between drives automatically) and you can still have parity (so you can lose a couple of drives without losing data).

    If you're like me, and get left in charge of upgrading and recycling family member's PCs (and this have a ton of old drives lying around), it's very handy.

    It'll do much more than that, too - it supports Docker, so you can one-click install about a million apps, and it'll do virtualisation too, if you want to install another OS on there.

  • impoze on 02/08/2025 - 10:55

    Yep, I'm on the classic plans before they introduced the new licensing plans.

  • impoze on 02/08/2025 - 11:08

    I recently tested out Casa & Zima OS. Great for beginners.

    Dockers are easy to setup but VM customisation was lacking.

    I wanted to pass through USB zigbee controller in a Home Assistant VM but I had to do it via terminal.

    Doing smb shares and storage pools was also a bit limiting.

  • rsop on 02/08/2025 - 11:09

    I let mine lapse and trailing out stream io for a lil while. Will get my NAS up and running but currently enjoying Streamio, which I know is different to "owning" media. but it currently works and is easier to manage

    • impoze on 02/08/2025 - 11:10
      +1

      There is a debrid media manager + zorg build which links it up with Jellyfin.

      If you're only using NAS for media then the free options like casa/zima would suffice.

  • mailbox on 02/08/2025 - 11:15

    Have since switched to streamio but with unraid and after configuring it all its probably one of my favourite bits of software out there. Its even got integrations with docker so a lot of apps just load up in containers

  • impoze on 02/08/2025 - 11:19

    With Unraid 7 stable, it added a lot of QOL updates and there isn't really any major updates that you would need for a long time.

    • Mikael on 02/08/2025 - 11:40
      +1

      Main update highlight for me was the support for Intel gpu for my aaostar n150 to hardware transcode PLEX.

      I'll say haven't noticed any downside using that now compared to my 5800x with RTX 3060 and 48gb RAM. The swap over from PC to AOOSTAR was almost too easy.
      Stop dockers and containers. Disable Nvidia. Shut down. Transfer all drives across. Boot up and voila. Like nothing happened. Just worked. (Beside had to add the Intel gpu passthrough).

      • impoze on 02/08/2025 - 11:41
        +2

        I believe N150 iGPU was a kernel update.

        Recently did the same transfer for my backup server.

        Disks all recognised and the physical size difference from an ATX case to the Aoostar is amazing.

      • jlogic on 02/08/2025 - 15:42

        Just a quick question, I just setup my AOOSTAR and just wanted to find out if I bind the GPU and Sound devices to VFIO, does that mean the dockers that are running won't have access to them? I am trying to setup a Windows VM. I can setup using the virtual card via VNC, but I don't want to lose the hardware acceleration to the dockers that are running if I bind them.

        Also very sad I paid for a starter licence already.

        • toliman on 05/08/2025 - 11:05

          you'd need an IO virtualisation 'plugin' i.e. For the N100/N150, Intel's integrated GPU needs the unRAID Intel SR-IOV plugin.

          https://forums.unraid.net/topic/154464-plugin-intel-igpu-sr-…

          Unraid 7.1 has everything set up once the plugin is installed - you can also debug it's working with intel GPU top in UnRAID.

          You then point QEMU to the 'new' GPU in the setup options (instead of virtual or /dev/dri) , and the Docker apps can use a similar / bound interface for the same GPU.

          you can bind and set up as many QF's as needed/wanted, each VF can be assigned to an App/VM/Docker, sic. e.g. 00:02.1, 00:02.2, etc.

  • dirkgonnadirk on 02/08/2025 - 12:52

    Do docker updates still happen if you're out of license? I assume it's just the OS itself that you can't update?

    • impoze on 02/08/2025 - 13:11

      Yes, completely separate.

    • tanksinatra on 02/08/2025 - 13:27

      The docker updates will happen but the OS updates are now subscription based. If you don’t pay your 12 monthly payments you won’t get updates.

      Eventually you’ll miss out on security updates and be vulnerable.

  • Guybrush57 on 02/08/2025 - 13:30
    +2

    If you only pay for 1 year of OS updates then doesn't that mean your NAS will be vulnerable after that?

    • Tollery on 02/08/2025 - 14:02
      +1

      Yes.

      • tanksinatra on 02/08/2025 - 16:15
        +1

        Not sure why you're being down voted… you are correct. If the user doesn't pay for OS updates then they will eventually be disconnected from security updates too.

        • Tollery on 02/08/2025 - 16:24
          +1

          The truth hurts, salty people, ozbargain life, take your pick.

          I think you have to download the patches?

    • firedomain on 02/08/2025 - 14:07
      +1

      You will continue to get sercuity patches until the OS is outdated by 2 minor versions.
      From their FAQ:

      What happens with security updates if I don't extend my Starter or Unleashed license?

      If your license extension lapses (as in, you do not pay your annual fee), you can download patch releases within the same minor OS version that was available to you at the time of the lapse.

      Our naming convention for releases is: <major>.<minor>.<patch>.

      For example: Your system is eligible for Unraid 7.1.0 when your extension lapses. You qualify for the remaining patch releases of the Unraid 7.1.x series. Once Unraid 7.2.0 is released, the 7.1.x patch releases will only include security patches. Once Unraid 7.3 is released, version 7.1.0 will be EOL, and there will be no more 7.1.x updates.

      https://docs.unraid.net/unraid-os/faq/licensing-faq/

  • firedomain on 02/08/2025 - 14:01
    +1

    I love Unraid!
    Been using it for years, absolutely love it.
    I’m lucky enough to be on a legacy plan before the change to update subscription style (bought a second licence for a backup server before the change too).
    Even though they switched to an updates sub model I still recommend this OS. Is a fantastic system for a home server. + their updates subscription approach means you own your licence for Unraid & won’t lose access to your server after your sub expires, you just won’t get the newer updates. I was a little disappointed at the licence change at first, but I can understand the need to keep funding development & having a small once off payment for a perpetual licence probably wasn’t sustainable.

  • bargainhuntr on 02/08/2025 - 14:05
    +2

    I would dare not say anything negative about unraid, its a very good OS.

    But if someone is looking for a hassle free, free alternative TrueNas is amazing.
    I have been using it for a while and don’t see any reason to change.

    Truenas now also support expansion of existing raid by adding more drives in the future.

    One advantage with unraid is that your drives dont need to be of the same size.

    • impoze on 02/08/2025 - 14:06

      Just read about the zfs expansion. Have you tried it yet?

  • juzza87 on 02/08/2025 - 14:09
    +2

    Never again after losing 12TB of data when a folder mysteriously disappeared without a trace one morning. Now I just use hardware RAID and Proxmox with an LXC running Docker.

    • impoze on 02/08/2025 - 14:15
      +1

      A NAS is not a backup.

  • afayd on 02/08/2025 - 16:13

    Just a few questions as I am about to get my first ever nas (quite exciting!):
    - Are the lifetime updates worth it? All I want to do is store files and stream some videos over the network
    - Is it possible to set some folders on unraid to back up/sync to cloud services like onedrive?
    - Say I am out and about and want to access a video on my nas using my mobile over 5g, does unraid allow me to do that? how does it work?

    • impoze on 02/08/2025 - 16:28
      +2

      1 - depends, with your use you could also just start with the free options. What storage configuration are you planning to do?

      2 - yes, using duplicati, duplicacy or similar. Alternatively mount the cloud drive and use clone

      3 - yes, using vpn like tailscale or reverse proxy with cloudflare tunnel and docker like filebrowser or set up nextcloud

      • SickDmith on 02/08/2025 - 19:07

        3 - Plex? :)

        • impoze on 02/08/2025 - 19:10

          ah I missed the 'access a video' part.

          Yes, plex or jellyfin will work fine.

          The others were more about accessing your files while out.

  • Dyl on 02/08/2025 - 16:48
    +4

    Not overly worth it imo, I opted for it but everything it offers is available with other solutions.

    I also find I'm often having to use little hacks and tricks to get around limitations of the software, ie no package manager, can't use docker-compose by default, no common tools like iftop, etc. There's tricks to solve most of it, but I find I'm fighting the software rather than it working for me. I've spent hours fighting the software just to get things like docker-compose functionality.

    • SickDmith on 02/08/2025 - 19:06
      +1

      I've spent hours fighting the software just to get things like docker-compose functionality.

      I find it very disappointing considering how heavy Unraid is relying on Docker.

      • impoze on 02/08/2025 - 19:08

        Unraid apps are docker images which you can customise all your environment and variables.

        You can set up docker-compose to do stacks and it's not that much more diffficult.

        • Dyl on 02/08/2025 - 19:19
          +1

          You can’t use features like docker networking as easily, also makes it much more difficult to move an existing stack if you have to set it up via a gui and manually enter all the details.

          Backup wise I just back up the config mounts and compose file, I could restore it all in like 15 minutes opposed to literally hours.

          • impoze on 02/08/2025 - 19:28

            @Dyl: The appdata backup plugin also does scheduled backups and can restore.

      • Dyl on 02/08/2025 - 19:20

        There’s a plugin workaround but I forget where I found it, docker-compose becomes available in the docker tab and the compose containers appear the same as any other containers

        You can’t have multiple still though

        • impoze on 02/08/2025 - 19:25

          It's just 'Docker compose manager' from apps

          Ibracorp video 19:14

          • Dyl on 02/08/2025 - 19:27

            @impoze: That could be the one, it’s stupid you need apps to work around restrictions though when firstly it should already exist and secondly why is a “solution” more limiting than raw Linux distros?? They could have at least included apk, alpine Linux is like 5MB so apk can’t be that much.

            The other plugin is “nerd tools” or something, has iftop and all that. Just silly having to find niche apps people have created purely to work around the fact there’s no built in app manager and many missing features.

            • impoze on 02/08/2025 - 19:29

              @Dyl: It is not straight docker but the curated apps make it a little more friendly than YAML.

              try casa or zima, it's even more limiting for advanced users.

              • Dyl on 02/08/2025 - 19:31

                @impoze: The built in docker images they make available are mostly friendly (preconfigured etc), anything beyond that I would say the GUI is less user friendly than any other solution for setting up a container.

                You get provided a compose file or run command in the particular app setup guide and have to analyse it to fill out unraids form for any custom containers. Can’t just copy paste a command / add to compose and be done with it

                • impoze on 02/08/2025 - 19:37

                  @Dyl: It is possible, like adding paths or variables but it does requires the extra steps compared to just typing it into the compose file.

    • vash12 on 02/08/2025 - 19:49

      The real selling point of unraid is flexibility. You can easily customize the size of your storage pool at any point in time. Great for home users. But for business use, there are definitely better software out there.

  • tm32 on 02/08/2025 - 18:00

    In the process of sorting out a replacement NAS for a very very old synology that has died.

    By the docs, can buy as an activation code, and defer the activation. Anyone done this?

    • impoze on 02/08/2025 - 18:35

      Yes, 12 months starta from activation and you could also do the 30 day trial + 15 day extensions

  • SpeedAU on 02/08/2025 - 21:48
    +2

    Truenas user here. My view Truenas is Free supports ZFS and with cloud backups your good. My brain cannot get around a boot system running of a USB drive.. also to note Unraid is alot slower than Truenas

    • impoze on 02/08/2025 - 22:01
      +2

      I only just learnt about ZFS expansion being added in to Truenas. This was a big factor of choosing Unraid many years ago.

      • SpeedAU on 02/08/2025 - 22:21
        +3

        now i fear truenas is getting good they will force users to pay for it lol

        • impoze on 03/08/2025 - 09:21

          that's why they have enterprise

  • hen dawg on 03/08/2025 - 06:36
    +1

    One thing I love about UNRAID is the OS runs on a USB flash drive.
    So when my last HP PC (refurb) completely died I built brand new PC, plugged in the old HDDs and the USB and everything was back working!
    Not loss of data, no loss of any settings/configurations, it just turned on, ran a parity check and all good, the Docker apps were all started.
    That saving of time and hassle paid for itself.

  • donkey33 on 03/08/2025 - 14:21

    Has anyone used snapraid before that has moved to unraid and think it was worth the move?

    I used snapraid plus drive pool and it works absolutely fine for me. Can have any number of parity drives, any size, used hardware, etc. I only require snapshot also.

    Has anyone moved across and thought it was worth it considering the cost of the licence now? I currently run 10 drives so would need the higher tier option.

  • motion2082 on 03/08/2025 - 20:19

    Bought lifetime a month ago. Now have TrueNAS, Unraid and Proxmox in my homelab. Unraid is great for mixing disks and installing apps quickly. Parity is a bit slow but for a media server it’s great

    • impoze on 03/08/2025 - 20:56
      +1

      ZFS anyraid is coming..

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