Photo and File Storage Solution

[Enquiries]

Hi there,

I'd love advice on what you guys recommend for home storage alternatives to ICloud and Google drive. I have been doing lots of research about NAS options. The most I've done tech wise is build a basic gaming PC myself. To be honest, I am tech newbie so I got easily overwhelmed on the forums with all the tech options and many acronyms. My main use for this will be personal data and photo storage. Essentially, going to use it as a e-photo album for all family photos/video for years to come. Would love any direction on the massive world of NAS.
Cheers,

[ed]

Thanks for reaching out — and good on you for thinking ahead about moving your family’s photos and videos off iCloud/Google Drive and onto your own hardware. You’re far from alone in feeling overwhelmed at first. The good news is you don’t need to dive into the really technical stuff to get a solid, easy-to-use solution that does exactly what you need.

For your budget ($800–1,500 CAD), intended use (family photo/video archive, e-photo album), and comfort level, here’s what I’d recommend:

Synology DS923+ (4-bay)
• Excellent balance of ease of use and long-term flexibility.
• Runs Synology Photos, which is basically your own private “Google Photos” with face recognition, albums, timeline view, sharing, etc.
• Very polished web and mobile apps.
• Great for beginners — their DSM interface is very user-friendly, but still powerful if you grow into it later.
• Quiet, compact, and well-supported.

For drives, you can start with 2×10TB NAS-rated drives (WD Red Plus or Seagate IronWolf) in a mirrored setup for redundancy. You can always add two more drives later as your needs grow.

If you’d rather save a bit upfront and don’t expect to expand much, the Synology DS423+ is also a good choice — still a 4-bay, but slightly lower specs and lower price.