Synology DS220+ Review: The Best 2-Bay NAS for Home Use

Most tech products cycle out within a couple of years. The Synology DS220+ has been in production since 2019 and is still the standard recommendation for home NAS use.

That kind of staying power usually means a company got the fundamentals right and hasn't needed to change them.

We ran the DS220+ for 6 months as the primary network storage device for photos, Plex media, and device backups to find out where that reputation holds up, and where it doesn't.

DSM Software

DSM 7 is the primary reason to choose Synology over the competition. The package center provides first-party apps for every common NAS use case:

• Synology Photos: automatic photo backup from phones, with AI face and subject recognition
• Drive: cloud-style sync between the NAS and computers
• Plex Media Server: installable from the package center
• Hyper Backup: scheduled backups to external drives or cloud destinations

The software integration is complete — no need to stitch together third-party tools for basic use cases.

Plex Performance

1080p direct play works without issue for any number of simultaneous streams the home network supports. Hardware transcoding (Plex Pass required) handles 1080p to 480p and 720p downscaling for remote streaming. Software 4K transcoding at the Intel Celeron's speed is too slow for real use.

Noise Level

At normal operating temperatures, the DS220+ fan is quiet enough to be placed in a living room or bedroom. Under heavy load (large file transfers or Plex transcoding), the fan spins up audibly — typical for this class of hardware.

Verdict

The DS220+ is the right choice for most home NAS users. The upgrade path is the DS923+ when 4K transcoding or more bays are needed.

Related Guides

• Synology vs QNAP - platform comparison
• NAS Buying Guide - drive and RAID guide
• How to Set Up a NAS - setup guide