Ranking Synology's BEST Apps in 2024: Synology Tier List

There are a TON of Synology apps you can use, but these are the best apps for Synology devices, ranked for home use!

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DISCLAIMER: The information in this video has been self-taught through years of technical tinkering. While we do our best to provide accurate, useful information, we make no guarantee that our viewers will achieve the same level of success. WunderTech does not assume liability nor responsibility to any person or entity with respect to damage caused directly or indirectly from its content or associated media. Use at your own risk.

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0:00 Intro
1:30 Ranking Synology's Best Apps: Process
1:50 Audio Station
2:31 Web Station
3:02 Synology Photos
4:13 VPN Server
5:11 Active Insight
5:55 Virtual Machine Manager
7:08 Snapshot Replication
8:28 Synology Drive
10:19 Container Manager
11:37 Cloud Sync
13:02 DNS Server
14:01 Video Station
15:10 Hyper Backup
16:37 Synology Surveillance Station
18:33 Active Backup for Business
20:08 Storage Analyzer
20:42 Note Station
21:30 Mail Server
22:00 Final Thoughts on Synology's Best Applications

Thanks for watching!

[MarkS-fu]

Fantastic rundown! I consider myself a novice NAS owner. This video has given me a great start to focus my attention in getting my gear in order. Thank you!

[coolcat]

I very much appreciate the level of standard you are demanding. Some YouTubers would place every app two or more ranks higher up due to being too close to Synology to have the critical distance required to see room for improvement.

[ronaldvargo]

The only comment I would add is that the mail server on Synology is top class bringing together all the pieces needed to match the big boys. But be prepared to make sure you have all the foundational components in place. Your own domain name, static IP from your ISP, good understanding of DNS records, and keeping up to date with new security features (domain key) when mail exchange happens. I have been running mail servers since I read the Linux bible which had used postfix, as mail exchange, and Squirrell mail as the IMAP mail client. My biggest challenge was making sure my IP was static and that the ISP did not block the all-important port 25. If you are comcast home user, you are pretty much out of luck inbound port 25 is blocked and even with a special request without a business account you can't unblock it. This is my 5th year with Synology mail server self-hosted at home and I have yet to have any issues with using it. For the average home user, I agree don't do it, if you are a home lab or tech enthusiast give it a shot.

[cyberwasp]

Great video as always and I don't disagree on anything you said. On that note. I do use Synology's mail server only not the way it was intended. I use it as a mail client that goes to my ISP's web mail and downloads my mail, as I hate webmail!! I do wish the full features of the server were available, "especially filtering and virus protection." I've left tons of feedback regarding this, as other users agree only to have it ignored.

[CedroCron]

I'm glad I see these applications in the same way. It's like Synology has the right idea but misses the mark either completely or in a lot of regards. They just need to do focus groups and listen to feedback to power users like yourself to make Synology "the choice" instead of "one of the choices" for Prosumer / power users.

[dqyttmp]

I have two Macs; and I have never been able to get Active Backup for Business to even set up, let alone work. So I ended up using Synology as a destination for my Time machine backups.

[Mostheater]

Oh my god. Why didn’t I know about storage analyzer…I always asked myself why Synology does not have a tool like this…lol…thanks a lot! That’s awesome!

[QuikTechSolutions]

Excellent video! Very informative for users.

[reyskidude]

Office apps (baked in Drive) are good enough replacement for usual MS Excel and Word esp nowadays that they're subscription and cloud based, also Google Sheets and etc... keeps your data private

[Steve_Just_Steve]

You forgot Synology Contacts and Synology Calendar, but I'll save you the trouble... They Suck! These might not actually be preinstalled apps but non the less. Thanks for all your vids!

[kevinhughes]

Excellent overview very useful thank you

[astacc]

for anyone considering Synology Notes.. don't.. you already have synology nas with synology drive to sync your files

Just pick local editor (preferably with markdown support like Obsidian) and place your Notes folder within SynologyDrive synced folder... you will have much better experience

[TazzSmk]

nice list!
I'd probably put DNS to same lowest category like VPN - because it's better done elsewhere, and especially you don't want DNS down when updating/rebooting NAS,
Video Station and Audio Station - frankly the main advantage for casual users is, it works flawlessly with QuickConnect (both mobile apps and web interface) - being able to play own content privately over internet effortlessly is unmatched (unless configuring VPN, proxies, ddns etc...) - for people without public IP address from ISP, it's a godsend, in such cases, it's a top tier category for sure,
File Station deserved to be one the list - just like Video and Audio station it can be easily accessed via QuickConnect (again, both mobile apps and web interface), but also can serve as simple photos backup from mobile devices (for users that don't want Photos app), and is even able to play videos and open various files (without need of Video Station or Photos installed on a NAS at all)

[Pootch]

I have replaced most of the nativ synology apps with docker containers. Why..? There is a better support and the images getting updated more regular.

[paultech]

I use notestation. Works good but makes me nervous. I sent in feedback as I have had it overwrite and lose information when editing on two devices. The recommendation is to compare and pop up an option to keep a, keep b or merge. Hopefully this will be implemented soon.

[CarlRyds]

Synology really need to revamp their entire first party App offerings (NoteStation, VideoStation, AudioStation, etc)

[timdineen]

Hey, great video. I have two Synology NAS . I use one as my main file/media storage and the other as the backup destination. Right now I use Active Backup for Business to backup the Storage NAS and 3 Windows PCs to the Backup NAS. Is there any advantage to switching to Hyper Backup?

[jenniferw]

Thanks for this great video! Enjoy watching it. 
Virtual Machine Manager is in the top tier for me. I use it to run Proxmox Backup Server on the NAS via NFS. 2GB RAM only -- I currently have a DS1522+ with 8GB of RAM. Runs great and backs up my proxmox cluster. It's the only VM I run and seems appropriate it's on the same server the data is stored on. Also I get snapshot replication of the VM as well as the PBS datastore -- which I perform at the same time so I can rollback both of them together if I want everything to match perfectly.

[TechMeOut]

Loved the video Frank. great job. Very informative!

[DavidM]

I would add Syncthing from the Community section of the Package Center.