Datto vs Synology

[Velvis]

I was wondering what advantages something like Datto has over using a Synology NAS with their active backup software.

 

[timeshifter]

Datto and Synology NAS take very different approaches to backup—both in technology and in how they’re sold.

Datto is built for MSPs. You buy the appliance from Datto and then pay a recurring monthly fee, which you typically mark up and resell to your client. Pricing often starts around $150/month (though it varies). The value is in its simplicity and reliability: it “just works,” sends daily reports, creates image-based backups, and even allows failover to a live virtual copy of the server if the primary goes down. In short, it’s a turnkey solution with baked-in support and monitoring.

Synology NAS is more of a do-it-yourself model. You purchase the hardware upfront (usually $500–$1,000 for a small setup) and then install the included software like Active Backup for Business, which covers servers, workstations, Microsoft 365, and Google Workspace—at no additional license cost. Synology has a strong ecosystem of apps, documentation, and community support, but phone support is limited; official help is mainly through online tickets and email. For many small businesses, it provides a lot of capability for the price, provided someone is there to configure and manage it.

In short: Datto is a fully managed, service-oriented product with ongoing costs, while Synology gives you powerful tools at a one-time hardware cost but with more responsibility on your side.

 

[Sky-Knight]

The following is MS Copilot output, based on a prompt I wrote as an original post. I'm putting it here instead of my text because frankly... it's easier to read.

Synology Active Backup for Business

• Backs up data to your local NAS
• Supports replication to another NAS or external storage
• Restore chain is entirely your responsibility — setup, testing, retention, and recovery are all on you

Datto BDR (Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery)

• Fully managed backup solution
• Includes local and offsite backups
• Offers built-in virtualization for rapid recovery
• Offloads the complexity of backup, restore, and retention management

Synology Active Backup for Microsoft 365

• Backs up M365 data to your NAS
• Again, you manage everything — storage, retention, restore processes

Datto SaaS Protection

• Cloud-native backup for M365, Google Workspace, etc.
• No storage limits
• Pricing tiers based on retention duration
• Fully managed — you don’t touch the infrastructure

Bottom Line
These are fundamentally different solutions one is DIY, the other is managed.
So again... what exactly are you trying to solve?

 

[sapphirescales]

Synology is no longer a cost effective solution because they force you to use their proprietary hard drives which are 2 to 3 times the cost of a standard hard drive. I don't know about you but I don't want to pay $750 for a 18 terabyte hard drive when you can get them for $250 from Western Digital or Seagate. And keep in mind that's just one hard drive. God forbid you have an 8 bay Synology NAS. That would cost $7000 using their proprietary hard drives whereas if you use comparable hard drives from western digital or Seagate it would only cost $3,000. I currently have an 8 bay Synology NAS and I'm using shucked Western digital hard drives that I got on sale from Best buy. They're great drives because they run cool and quiet and were very affordable.

 

[Velvis]

Synology is no longer a cost effective solution because they force you to use their proprietary hard drives which are 2 to 3 times the cost of a standard hard drive. I don't know about you but I don't want to pay $750 for a 18 terabyte hard drive when you can get them for $250 from Western Digital or Seagate. And keep in mind that's just one hard drive. God forbid you have an 8 bay Synology NAS. That would cost $7000 using their proprietary hard drives whereas if you use comparable hard drives from western digital or Seagate it would only cost $3,000. I currently have an 8 bay Synology NAS and I'm using shucked Western digital hard drives that I got on sale from Best buy. They're great drives because they run cool and quiet and were very affordable.

Is this just new models going forward that require proprietary hard drives? When did this go in to effect?

 

[Velvis]

Is there a better alternative to Datto? I am not a fan of Kaseya.

 

[Sky-Knight]

MSP BCDR Solutions | Axcient

MSP BCDR solutions that are built on Axcient's unified platform for comprehensive, proven security that is built to protect you and your clients from ransomware attacks.

axcient.com

These guys are usually what I see MSPs swap to if they want to stay away from Kaseya.

As for Synology... yes they're making you buy their drives, but the drives they're making you buy are the only ones on the shelf that reliably support RAID operations. The money they want for those disks is NOT out of alignment, the issue is too many people buying garbage drives that cause problems, and Synology is done supporting them.

 

[sapphirescales]

Is this just new models going forward that require proprietary hard drives? When did this go in to effect?

Yes it's just the newer models. I don't know the exact time when they switched over but I believe it was sometime in 2023. In any event, it's time to abandon Synology as a viable option. I wouldn't buy an old model to try and circumvent this. Not only would you be buying something that's probably been on the shelves for years but Synology could always push a firmware update that requires their branded drives, rendering your shiny new NAS unusable. If they're still manufacturing the old models, they may have modified the firmware so that they require their branded drives. This is a 100% unnecessary requirement that they're artificially imposing in order to screw over their customers. In order to avoid being sued over this, they do allow you to use some 3rd party drives, but nothing over like 4TB, but who the heck has a NAS with only 4TB hard drives?

 

[timeshifter]

The price difference in drives is less pronounced on lower capacity units. Just built a small NAS with 4 4TB drives at $99 each.

I consider it a tax worth paying considering all the good bundled software that’s included.

 

[timeshifter]

It’s only on the 2025 model units and I see no indication they’re going to push that policy on existing models.

 

[sapphirescales]

the drives they're making you buy are the only ones on the shelf that reliably support RAID operations.

I'm sorry but what a crock of sh*t. There's nothing wrong with WD Red Pro drives. They're specifically designed for NAS units and they're a third the cost. Synology drives are just really cheap rebranded drives from Toshiba. And I've used the absolute cheapest external WD hard drives that I've pulled out of the enclosures on many Synology NAS systems with no issues.

 

[sapphirescales]

The price difference in drives is less pronounced on lower capacity units. Just built a small NAS with 4 4TB drives at $99 each.

So you're gonna pay $1000+ for only 8TB of backup storage? what a ripoff! And that's your cost so it's probably going to cost your client twice that. You can pick up a single external 26TB hard drive for $250.

Edit: I'm assuming $600 for the 4 bay nas plus you're using two drives for redundancy. I would hope you're not using raid 5 in 2025.

 

[Sky-Knight]

I'm sorry but what a crock of sh*t. There's nothing wrong with WD Red Pro drives. They're specifically designed for NAS units and they're a third the cost. Synology drives are just really cheap rebranded drives from Toshiba. And I've used the absolute cheapest external WD hard drives that I've pulled out of the enclosures on many Synology NAS systems with no issues.

Synology’s move to support only their own branded drives in certain newer models isn’t about vendor lock-in for its own sake it’s about ensuring predictable performance and reliability across their ecosystem. These drives aren’t just rebranded consumer disks; many are enterprise-grade models (like Toshiba MG series) with firmware tuned specifically for NAS workloads. They offload key RAID functions and include internal recovery logic that aligns with Synology’s DSM software expectations.

The reality is, not all drives behave the same under stress. WD Red, for example, has a long history of issues especially with undisclosed SMR technology that caused RAID rebuild failures and degraded performance in multi-bay systems. Synology got burned by supporting too many third-party drives that didn’t meet the operational standards their systems rely on. Now they’re drawing a line to protect users from mismatched hardware and the support headaches that follow. I cannot blame them for this, they don't have a subscription service model to support the endless support requirements.

It’s not about punishing users it’s about delivering a consistent experience and reducing the risk of silent data corruption, failed rebuilds, and degraded array performance. If you’re serious about data integrity, this kind of vertical integration makes a lot of sense.

Of course, if you're the kind of person who thinks all of that is just marketing fluff, then sure go ahead and roll your own setup. There’s no shortage of FOSS platforms that’ll let you cobble together a RAID array with whatever drives you fancy. Or pick another vendor entirely; the market’s full of options. But as for me? I’m sticking with Synology. The Toshiba enterprise drives they’re selling under their own label? I’ve been using those exact models in every single unit I’ve ever deployed. Why? Because I engineer storage solutions to last not just to boot up and look pretty. Reliability isn’t a checkbox; it’s a design principle.

 

[Velvis]

Is the basic operating procedure against ransomware having enough days backed up available before becoming aware of the ransomware?

For example if you only kept one day of backups and the computer got ransomed on Saturday and someone didn't notice until Monday morning you would be SOL, right?

What is a good rule of thumb? 7 days of complete backups?

Is Synology Active Backup good protection against ransomware?

 

[Sky-Knight]

Is the basic operating procedure against ransomware having enough days backed up available before becoming aware of the ransomware?

For example if you only kept one day of backups and the computer got ransomed on Saturday and someone didn't notice until Monday morning you would be SOL, right?

What is a good rule of thumb? 7 days of complete backups?

Is Synology Active Backup good protection against ransomware?

Protection from ransomware is having A YEAR of backups, offsite, stuffed in immutable storage, utilizing a backup system that leaves no traces of schedule on the devices being backed up. Yes, you can use Synology as part of this solution, but it's not the solution on its own.

But you know what's better than that? Having an infrastructure that's fully isolated, and you're ready to format C: the entire environment and have it back online in 24 hours. This can only happen when AD is dead, AD itself is simply not defensible on this level.

 

[Markverhyden]

Synology does not require the purchase of Synology branded drives for new models.


From https://www.synology.com/en-eu/company/news/article/DACH_VL_plus

What they are doing is when you pick a chassis and then go to pick drives there is a button which defaults to Synology branded drives which you can just click to go to their store to purchase. If you click on the button you'll see 3rd party drives that when you select you'll see the list of approved brands and models. But you have to purchase them else where.

It then just falls back to what's been going on for years. OEM's refusing to support as soon as they catch even the tiniest whiff that the part(s) replaced did not come from them. Both in or out of warranty. Used to see this all the time with towers back when modems and CD's were used all the time.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

I was wondering what advantages something like Datto has over using a Synology NAS with their active backup software.

I've been with Datto since their first year out.....their second or third year a few of their upper level guys stopped by our office, congratulating us on our explosion of Datto sales. I went to training down at Dattos HQ (which was under 2x hours from our main office).
I loved the product....absolutely loved it. Been doing IT for businesses for over 35 years...I've used more backup/disaster recovery products that most people know exist.

That said, I can't stand Kaseya. And we watched as their white shirts descended upon Datto and ruined it. I saw the writing on the wall, and we started looking for another option. The closest is Axcient.
And it works quite well. I'll say damn near as good as Datto.
I also love that Axcient allows "month to month" commit. I get the "1x year commit" with Datto, or..perhaps 2 years if you get a higher end Siris product at discount...but...Krapseya has pushed "higher commits" like crazy.

Synology is...more basic than Datto. We've used Synology for many many years, while we didn't focus on their "backup"....we have deployed a few of their Active Backup for Business...at el cheapo clients that would not spring for a Datto (even though a Datto Alto is dirt cheap). Synology ABFB is...better than some server backup products out there, one could almost stretch and say it's a "poor mans Datto Alto". But you know what is...err...was...great about Datto? If you had a wonky server restore, their guys would call back right quick...and stay with you until it was done. And THAT..is one of the things you're paying for...top notch support for a VERY important service...that focuses on getting you back up and running right away. I highly doubt I'd find the same response with Synology support.

Know that Datto basically has 2x lines for servers...entry level Alto family, and higher level Siris family. Siris has more capability than Alto.

Axcient...quite similar to Datto, I've not had to engage their support for any restores...as those have all been smooth. I have had to engage their support on one not critical issue...and their support resolved it quickly. Located in Colorado if I recall. (at least HQ'd..I know much of their guys WFH all around)

 

[JoelM]

We looked into Datto, Axcient & Slide and did demos with all of them. We went with Slide. We like their product & inteface and they seem like they are trying to keep out in front.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

We looked into Datto, Axcient & Slide and did demos with all of them. We went with Slide. We like their product & inteface and they seem like they are trying to keep out in front.

You know who started Slide?

 

[JoelM]

You know who started Slide?

I think you had mentioned on another post that it was the original Datto person. They were certainly easy to talk to on the phone and it felt like they were happy to be starting from scratch as they could change things that were too far down the path with Datto.
We also got the slide unit for free with a year committment which was an unexpected bonus.