Best 4-bay NAS — every model, every vendor, one table

How to choose a 4-bay NAS in 2026

Four bays is the sweet spot of the whole market: RAID 5 becomes possible, capacity scales past what two drives offer, and every vendor fights hardest here. In 2026 the headline trio is Synology's DS925+/DS423+ (best software, Newegg's #1-selling NAS), QNAP's TS-464 (~$639 for 8 GB, best mid-range flexibility with PCIe expansion) and UGREEN's DXP4800 Plus ($619-699, 10GbE + DDR5 + NVMe — the raw-hardware value pick). TerraMaster's F4-424 family undercuts everyone at the entry end, and the F4-424 Max adds 10GbE under $500.

Our own data adds a dimension the spec sheets skip: how deep each vendor's official drive list runs for the exact model. The "drives listed" column below is read from each vendor's own compatibility tool — a deeper list means more certified choices (and easier warranty conversations) when you go drive shopping.

Buyer-type shortcut: photography and media libraries → DS925+/TS-464; Docker/VM homelab on a budget → DXP4800 Plus or F4-424 Max; surveillance-first → UniFi UNVR/UNAS 4 with their spec-based (no-whitelist) drive policy.

Current-generation picks

The models you can actually buy new today — one card each, with the official drive-list depth most spec sheets never show:

All 4-bay models, ranked by official drive-list depth

CPU/RAM shown where the vendor publishes them (Synology/QNAP specs); "drives listed" = rows on the vendor's own compatibility tool. UniFi consoles follow spec-based requirements instead of a whitelist — their rows link to the requirement breakdown.

Drives the most 4-bay machines share

Cross-checked against every 4-bay model's official list on this site — the safest part numbers when you're not sure which box you'll end up with:

Other bay counts