Synology BeeStation vs DS124/DS223j NAS - Which Is Better?

[@NopWorks]

BeeStation looks very neat for what I want: I just want my own Google Drive & Google Photos, and BeeDrive & BeePhotos look like a literal copy which is great. It's even looks to be so easy to use. But having just 1 bay, not even removable drive, and no RAID redundancy, is 100% bummer. They could've included 4TB drive & an empty bay, but I guess they're trying to make it take up as little footprint as possible. Messing with hardware may be scary for some people, but slotting in a HDD is so dead simple! I'd buy a multi-bay BeeStation with replaceable drive, simple to use RAID, and has a good torrent & download manager.

[@sonarfreq]

I LOVE seagulls! 👍🤣 And personally I think the Beestation is a cracking proposition if you only require a limited feature set. I speak as someone who owns three DSM machines by the way.

[@nascompares]

Don't you DARE...

[@sonarfreq]

@@nascompares 🤣🤣🤣

[@skd]

I bought a bee station and a bee hub (4TB) at launch and never looked back. You can take the hub with you to drop files onto it on the go, then come home and drop it into the station and forget about it. It's also easy to dump all the data on beestation on a hard drive and empty it to get more space. Yes, if you are a video editor and work with 8k files and stuff, this won't do. But if you wanna dump the photos from your phone and some files, it's perfect.

[@matthewcurry425]

The most important part of this video is at 9:30 (and it’s not the seagulls); RAID 1 redundancy. You would hate to lose your family photos off of a dead BeeStation.

[@neilmaddocks4534]

First off, great video and a very in-depth review. I recently purchased a DS124 to replace my veryo old and out of date mycloud and used a 4TB ironwolf, I'm still learning about all the features it has to offer and I'm very pleased with it. If I had the choice between the DS124 and beestation, I would still go for the DS124 as I think I will eventually upgrade to a 2 bay and use that as a back up

[@Carole-tn6pq]

After centuries, Synology finally remembered to ask designers to do advanced design for their UIs.

[@IraQNid]

You can make backups off of the BeeStation NAS with the 2 USB 3.0 ports. You can import data off the two USB 3.0 ports as well. So it isn't like your data is locked in to the internal drive with no other means of backing it up. Obviously, there must be a way to remove the internal HDD. What you failed to do is show people how to open up the plastic case to do that.

[@richardlister9682]

Thanks for that. Brilliant summary and very watchable. Saved me hours

[@pietkei5487]

Thanks for a fantastic review! Now i know which one to buy!

[@ma3nni689]

So coz i want to use a surveillance camera i need the 224 over the beestation. Thx 4 ur explanations and efforts.

[@noHandle1776]

Bee is obviously geared towards home users looking to move off expensive cloud storage, not to mention the growing number of folks straight not wanting their stuff on a cloud.

[@RealMuperSan]

Can I put my Apple photos library on the Beestation and simply point to it from my Mac?

[@IndoGunsnGear]

If the Beestation had an 8tb model, that would be perfect

[@Shapingthoughts]

Will the Beestation enable me to play video's stored on the Beestation on my Sony TV? Could do that with my DS212j. Thanks.

[@nascompares]

If the TV supports SMB local, then yes. But currently there is no UpNp/DLNA media server application. The HOPE is that Synology migrates some of its baseline services over from DSM to BSM.

[@raycollington4310]

Would anyone that Bee Station might suit, be a subscriber to your fantastic channel. Most of us will be influenced by your knowledge and energy on configuring a NAS.

[@nascompares]

realistically... no. I think anyone who has used a Synology Diskstaiton NAS would find this very limiting. BUT, (I would argue a very important but) those same users might have relatives who want a simple NAS, they might know students who just want a drive to send data to the way they use google drive. I mean (and get ready for REALLY TENUOUS SIMILIE). Image this channel was all about sports cars... would the users who follow that channel ever buy a Ford Ka, or a Fiat 500? Almost certainly not. But I hope they also know that there are users out there that just want 4 wheels, an engine and a steering wheel.

[@annebokma4637]

​​@@nascompares just like a car enthusiast would buy a small car for his/her partner. A NAS user might buy a bee station for the rest of the family, with just a backup to the Nas. And then use the Nas as a homelab server too 😂

[@joeymacme]

​@@nascompares 💯 I would not want the Bee Station for my own use, but I may well choose it for my old man and other friends & family. I know I could lock down a "real" NAS, but just for the pure out of the box simplicity and limitations I think it would be easier to convince the old gits & other luddites to buy one. 🐣🐤🕊️🦅🔫💥🪶🪶🪶

[@MelissaB0999]

Does Synology BeeStation Photos detect duplicate photos so you may delete those easily? Thanks for all the BeeStation info!

[@BatakGemblung]

Beestation is far more suitable for me who is just want our own google drive of our own :)

[@matjazwalland903]

Which NAS system can I use without an internet connection and without registering on the website? I connect the device to the application and use! Data travels strictly only via the home network or via the Internet if I access it via an application on my phone. However, the data does not go to their servers and there is a direct connection between the mobile device and the NAS system!

[@jamesmeader6539]

I want to be able to map a network drive in Windows explorer and transfer files to the device with standard Windows file-handling procedures, without the internet or a manufacturers account. Can the Beestation do that?

[@dancarpenter419]

Which is better to use to back up Apple IPhone and or apple cell phone photos ?

[@nascompares]

For JUST phone backups and for simplicity, the Beestation/BSM. But for doing stuff with your data afterwards? Diskstation/DSM

[@dancarpenter419]

Thanks for the reply and the review ;).

[@calmlife8]

The seagulls make your video unique! Love them! Brings back good memories of the beach. Thanks for the great review - Being new to all this, I understand better now.

[@peterfowles5904]

I am currently running a DS115 and worry about its age so I am looking at an upgrade. Will I see a performance improvement with a Beestation?

[@tiffenberg]

So been looking to upgrade my woefully underpowered DS119J for some time, but can't decide which to go for. Been looking at DS224+, but ~£530 (2×4TB drives) for home use, mainly for photo & laptop backup seems OTT. Need to access photos for the family and files too, maybe music and videos. Like Synology, now used to it, but what option would you recommend?

[@slavonskibecar]

DO you know if this is good as iSCSI server for esxi datastore (LUN) just few machines no need for redundancy as this is just LAB

[@RAG0407]

I am keen to keep my life simple. I can live with less than 4gb. I do like the fact photos have object recognition. My 420j can’t do this given ram limit. It’s interest the bee can do it.

[@cristianc4238]

So, I just want to have 2 users to upload and visualise photos and videos. Is the BeeSTation enough for this use? I want to just use it ocasionally without lags if possible

[@adewouters]

The problem with the BeeStation is that it's called a NAS. It's a bit exaggerated , it's only an external storage accessible through the network and slightly more intelligent than a "normal" external storage. It is just you're own at home version of a Google Drive or DropBox, etc. What is making Synology interesting compared to other brands (in the NAS world) is the software, the DSM.

[@torfinnjohnsrud793]

"...external storage accessible through the network..." Sounds like Network Attached Storage, no? Even a hard drive plugged into the router could be your NAS. The software you refer to certainly lies in the NAS/also home server category. Even this does a lot of server duties like sorting/identifying photos, sharing links to users, and being accessible outside the network. I think this will be perfect for my parents.

[@adewouters]

@@torfinnjohnsrud793 IMHO a BeeStation is a very nice GoogleDrive, OneDrive, Dropbox replacement. Indeed it is probably what most home users need. I do prefer the flexibility and feature richness of a traditional Synology NAS however, exactly how it is said it in this excellent video :)

[@porter761]

Great video mate 👍 There is any chance to install DSM to a Bee station ?

[@njhwisdom]

Bro ❤your channel but please make a review,unboxing & upgrade video about Synology 4-Bay RackStation RS822RP+ because nobody else has done it yet. You have done one video talking about this rack station but nobody else made a single video about this Nas please I beg of you make a video about this rack station a lot of people is interested to get one of these rack station

[@sarahduggan4421]

Hey, can you stream music via the Beestation?

[@nascompares]

Yes, but you would need to do it locally using SMB (enable this in the settings) or remotely via the sharing options. It will be more being a question of how you want to stream it and to what device, as currently there is no native media streaming app. You might well be better off with the Synology DS124 comparative to this device for Media.

[@AABB-oi7hv]

Beestation is not NAS. Just external drive with few synchronization services...

[@mso]

Correct! Its even without an SSD 😅

[@ashtonwoodturnings225]

Ds124 and a 8tb red hard drive is cheaper than a beestation or it is at the moment

[@ArtsAssignment]

To me, it's very simple. Would I rely on Synology HDD instead of "WD Red Pro" or "IronWolf Pro"? Nope, I'm good. So, BeeStation is easily eliminated.

[@noHandle1776]

You think synology makes their own drives? Lol

[@nemiw4429]

​@@noHandle1776 he knows, because they do. Your confidence is fascinating.

[@noHandle1776]

@@nemiw4429 so you don’t think they are rebrands? They build a drive mfg facility overseas?

[@noHandle1776]

@@nemiw4429 looks like they are made by Toshiba.

[@mpmarvin999]

At the purported $199 price I "could" see a market for this. A bit more than some HP portables but more functionality so I see it BARELY fitting into that price. However I'm seeing B&H with a "New Release: New Item Coming Soon" price of $219 and at that price NO! HARD PASS! I think they out-priced themselves there.

[@Special-cg3sr]

as soon as I hear 1-bay I lose interest

[@Spazza42]

You mean because it’s clearly not for you? Don’t watch it then. Different users have different needs, casual users are likely only looking at a NAS as a backup server, it’s not the primary storage server.

[@wallenstein-dk9468]

I will never give money to a product like BeeStation

[@TheJLMDT]

Why is that?

[@wallenstein-dk9468]

@@TheJLMDT because I don't agree with product that does not allow people to upgrade

[@Alex-hv3ir]

@@wallenstein-dk9468but you can indeed upgrade it (although not officially)

[@n-xe3sc]

​@@wallenstein-dk9468 i give money to beestation cuz my mother inlaw takes alotof pic/vid though it is hard to use NAS for her.

[@afiffaizul]

​@@wallenstein-dk9468it is still appealing for people like me who dont have time to hassle finding good configuration and learn to use it. I need 4-5 years to fill 128 gb. 4tb is like my whole life storage space 😂