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The decision really comes down to hardware transcoding. The Plex package on a Synology NAS does not support hardware transcoding, which means if you’re streaming media that needs to be transcoded (different format, lower quality for bandwidth, etc.), the CPU has to do all of the work. On most Plus series devices, that’s fine for one or two streams. Beyond that, you’ll start to see buffering or quality drops. Docker is the only way to get hardware transcoding working on a Synology NAS, and it only works on devices with an Intel CPU that supports QuickSync. Any Ryzen-based Synology will not supp

Before installing any update, ask yourself if you actually need to. Media servers are designed to stream media to client devices, so if everything is working and you’re not looking for new features, there might not be a reason to update. If you’re exposing Plex outside of your local network, you have more of a reason to keep it updated for potential security fixes. But if you’re only using it for local network streaming, you can introduce new bugs that you weren’t experiencing before, so updating “just because” isn’t always the right call.

A Synology NAS makes the most sense if you want an all-in-one storage device that is easy to manage. You are buying the hardware and DSM together, so you do not have to build your own server, choose your own operating system, or troubleshoot hardware compatibility. That convenience is the main reason I recommend Synology for a lot of people. The hardware is not always the most powerful for the money, but the overall package is hard to beat if you want something stable, power efficient, and easy to manage. If you’re still deciding which NAS platform makes sense, these comparisons are the best p