TrustRadius: an HG Insights company

Save this comparison

Save this comparison

Add Product

Recommended Comparisons

    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    FreeNAS

    Score5.4 out of 10
    N/AFreeNAS is an open source operating system that allows nearly any hardware serve as a network-attached storage device. It was developed by iXsystems.N/A

    macOS

    Score9.4 out of 10
    N/AmacOS is the graphical operating system for Apple desktop devices.N/A
    Pricing
    FreeNASmacOS
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    FreeNASmacOS
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    FreeNASmacOS
    Considered Both Products
    iXsystems
    Chose FreeNAS
    Before swapping to FreeNAS, we'd been using plan old Linux servers running Samba and NFS with ZFS storage underneath. This worked really well for our requirements at the time but required a lot of administration when new versions came along, or new users had to be added or …
    Incentivized
    Apple
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Would buy again
    8 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    No answers on this topic
    88%
    Delivers good value for the price
    7 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    8 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    7 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    8 Answers
    Features
    FreeNASmacOS
    Operating System
    Comparison of Operating System features of FreeNAS and macOS
    Feature
    FreeNAS
    -
    Ratings
    macOS
    9.5
    4 Ratings
    8% above category average
    File Management00 Ratings9.04 Ratings
    Software Application Management00 Ratings9.84 Ratings
    System Update Frequency00 Ratings9.84 Ratings
    Operating System Security00 Ratings9.54 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    FreeNASmacOS
    Small Businesses
    DiskStation
    Score8.8 out of 10
    CentOS Linux
    Score8.9 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    DiskStation
    Score8.8 out of 10
    IBM AIX
    Score9.4 out of 10
    Enterprises
    DiskStation
    Score8.8 out of 10
    Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
    Score9.1 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    FreeNASmacOS
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.0
    (7 ratings)
    9.1
    (8 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Usability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.4
    (7 ratings)
    Availability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    FreeNASmacOS
    Likelihood to Recommend
    iXsystems
    FreeNAS is well suited for most storage serving scenarios, whether it be for an office file server, backup destinations, data replication across the internet, or as backend storage for virtual machines. It can serve various types of clients via a plethora of standard protocols and can easily integrate with existing infrastructure using LDAP authentication and so on. It's pretty simple to use (it helps to have at least a basic understanding of the underlying technologies) and almost maintenance-free. One scenario that springs to mind that it may not be appropriate for (yet) is as S3 storage. However, S3 functionality was added in a recent release and may have improved greatly since then. I'm sure it will eventually work very well for this.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Apple
    Macs, macOS, and the appropriate Mac applications really shine in ease of use. Specifically, the system's media-handling features are excellent. The developer frameworks (libraries) are excellent and provide easy programmatic access to the operating system's features. macOS is very stable and is built on a solid foundation of a Unix kernel. The Swift programming language is very approachable, and macOS supports many scripting and programming languages, opening up a wide variety of coding libraries.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    iXsystems
    • The FreeNAS web interface is modern looking. It makes tasks like provisioning drives into raid volumes easy.
    • The ZFS raid option allows you to add in an SSD as a cache drive to increase performance.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Apple
    • Unified hardware and software drivers
    • Power users can have full access if needed
    • Upgrade cycles are so easy with OS transfer
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    iXsystems
    • Not good for beginners as it requires deep understanding of networking and storage.
    • Most of the good and required features are not available in free version.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Apple
    • upfront costs to getting the most benefit from macOS requires you to purchase a Macbook...this is expensive
    • it's windows snapping function just isn't as good as Windows OS
    • as good as the M chips are, gaming just isn't a big strong suit
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    iXsystems
    No answers on this topic
    Apple
    Its simply the best operating system
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    iXsystems
    No answers on this topic
    Apple
    I'm sure I'm biased. I've been using a Mac for 30+ yrs. I am significantly more productive on a Mac than on any other platform. It comes down to some personal preference and familiarity, but I just think the interface is more intuitive and streamlined
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    iXsystems
    No answers on this topic
    Apple
    macOS tends to be very reliable, and Apple distributes updates as needed to patch known vulnerabilities or issues. It is very seldom that a macOS-based system is unavailable, and if that happens, the cloud-based storage and identity management support make it very easy to slot in a loaner machine while the user's primary machine is repaired.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Performance
    iXsystems
    No answers on this topic
    Apple
    The Apple Silicon hardware allows macOS to perform very well, with rapid response. Local processing for Apple Intelligence-related items is quite fast, and the response is impressively complete. Our experience with integrations to other enterprise systems is that the other system is usually the bottleneck in the process, rather than macOS.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    iXsystems
    There were some things that can be found by other users on forums and Google and some things that were not.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Apple
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    iXsystems
    FreeNAS effectively uses all resources really well and it is highly recommended for in premises NAS. It has unlimited ROI as it is really free and open-source. The only payment we need to pay is when we need any support from those guys. FreeNAS helps us to effectively do our work with the legacy systems as it manages all the components really well. FreeNAS although rebranded to TrueNAS will still be there until our legacy systems run.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Apple
    Just that simplicity of day to day activities and management. It's basically zero hassle with the ability to scale and power up if needed
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scalability
    iXsystems
    No answers on this topic
    Apple
    macOS is very easily deployed with central MDM/DDM management systems. There are several of these available to select, depending on the amount and type of deployment needed. We use Jamf Pro to support a "zero touch" deployment model, which makes it almost as easy to deploy 100 endpoints as 10 (other than delivery and unboxing).
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    iXsystems
    • Low-Cost Network Attached Storage
    • Provides additional network storage to support client & business operations
    • FreeNAS secures our data using custom encryption keys
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Apple
    • Apple supports their hardware longer than most manufacturers, which is good.
    • Apple's hardware is more expensive than similar equipment competition, which is bad but offset somewhat by its longevity.
    • Apple in an Apple world works great.
    • Apple in a Windows world has some work to do to get things talking.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots