Best NAS Under £500 UK 2026: Top Picks Ranked
What under £500 actually buys, ranked, with UK prices
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The best NAS under £500 is the Synology DS923+, around £267.55 at last check for the diskless DS223 alternative if you want to stay lower, but for genuine headroom under this budget the standout is stepping up to an Intel or AMD 4-bay box rather than settling for a 2-bay ARM unit. In practice, this budget is best spent on the QNAP TS-216G (around £249) for a strong 2-bay all-rounder, or the Asustor Drivestor 4 Gen 2 (around £259) if you need four bays. Both give you real multi-drive flexibility that sub-£300 2-bay units can't match.
Best NAS under £500: three ways to spend it
These are the units actually worth buying at this budget, from lean and capable through to genuinely future-proofed.
Which should you pick
Choose a 4-bay box (Drivestor 4 Gen 2) if
- You want room to grow storage without buying a second NAS in two years
- You're building redundancy with RAID 5/6 across four drives rather than two
- You don't need hardware transcoding and mainly want capacity and resilience
- You're happy with a leaner app ecosystem in exchange for more bays per pound
Choose a 2-bay Intel box (TS-216G or DS223) if
- Two drives in mirrored RAID is genuinely enough storage for your needs
- You want a smaller footprint on a desk or shelf
- You value QNAP's or Synology's software polish over raw bay count
- You'd rather spend saved budget on larger-capacity drives instead of more bays
What changes once you're under £500 rather than under £300
Below £300 you're mostly choosing between ARM-based 2-bay units like the QNAP TS-233 or entry Asustor models, both of which are fine for simple backup and file sharing but struggle with anything demanding, such as multiple users, Plex transcoding, or heavier virtualisation. Once you're working with a budget nearer £500, you open up genuinely capable Intel quad-core silicon, more RAM headroom, and in several cases 4-bay chassis rather than 2-bay. That's a meaningful step up in what the box can actually do day to day, not just a spec-sheet bump.
It's worth being honest about where the ceiling still sits, though. None of the units in this specific price bracket from the in-stock list carry 10GbE, ECC memory, or Intel Pentium-class silicon; those live in the UGREEN DXP4800 Plus or Synology DS923+/DS925+ territory, which typically push past £500 once you account for realistic RAM and drive-bay populated pricing. If your workload genuinely needs ECC RAM for a business file server, or 10GbE for video editing workflows, this budget tier isn't where you should be shopping, full stop. Save up rather than compromise on the wrong box.
A straight caveat on transcoding claims
Don't buy any NAS in this list expecting hardware-accelerated video transcoding to just work out of the box for every codec and app. Even where the CPU supports it in principle, actual transcoding performance depends heavily on which app you run (Plex, Jellyfin, QNAP's own media apps) and how it's licensed on that platform. If Plex transcoding is a hard requirement, check the specific app's current hardware acceleration support for your chosen NAS before you buy, not after.
NAS under £500, UK prices
Prices are indicative — last checked 8 September 2026, from Amazon.co.uk. They are not live; check the current price on Amazon before buying. Best £/TB is the lowest at last check.
Frequently asked questions
Is a 4-bay NAS always better value than a 2-bay under £500?
Not always. A 4-bay gives you more capacity and RAID flexibility, but if you only ever need two drives' worth of storage, a well-specified 2-bay like the QNAP TS-216G puts more of your budget into CPU and networking rather than bays you won't fill.
Can I get 10GbE networking under £500?
No, not from the appliances currently in stock at this budget. 10GbE-equipped models such as the UGREEN DXP4800 Plus sit above this price point once realistically configured. If 10GbE is essential, budget higher rather than compromise here.
Do any of these units support ECC memory?
No. ECC RAM in this line-up is reserved for Synology's DS923+, DS925+ and DS1525+, all of which typically exceed a £500 device-only budget. None of the picks here offer ECC.
Will the Asustor Drivestor 4 Gen 2 handle Plex transcoding well?
It has a capable quad-core CPU, but check Asustor's current app support for hardware-accelerated transcoding in your specific media app before assuming smooth 4K transcoding, as software support varies by release.
Is it worth paying more for the DS223 over the TS-216G?
Mainly if you want Synology's DSM software ecosystem and long-term update track record. Hardware-wise they're broadly comparable 2-bay units, so this comes down to which software platform you'd rather live with day to day.
Should I just save up for a 10GbE or ECC model instead?
If your use case genuinely needs those features, such as running a small business file server or high-throughput video work, yes. This budget tier is built for capable general-purpose use, not those specific demanding workloads.