Skip to main content
TrustRadius
TrueNAS

TrueNAS

Overview

What is TrueNAS?

TrueNAS is a network-attached storage featuring all-flash and hybrid storage editions, from iXsystems headquartered in San Jose.

Read more
Recent Reviews

TrustRadius Insights

TrueNAS has been widely praised by users for its intuitive interface and versatility in various use cases. Users have found it easy to …
Continue reading

TrueNAS Review

10 out of 10
September 15, 2022
I've been using TrueNAS for about 5 years now, mostly in lab environments. It's been running solid for those 3 years, through …
Continue reading
Read all reviews

Awards

Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards

Reviewer Pros & Cons

View all pros & cons
Return to navigation

Pricing

View all pricing

What is TrueNAS?

TrueNAS is a network-attached storage featuring all-flash and hybrid storage editions, from iXsystems headquartered in San Jose.

Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services

Would you like us to let the vendor know that you want pricing?

58 people also want pricing

Return to navigation

Product Details

What is TrueNAS?

TrueNAS is a universal data platform that enables users to adopt a modern, open-source approach to store and protect their growing data. TrueNAS harnesses the ZFS file system to provide unified storage (File, Block Object, and Apps) with the reliability and performance demanded by virtualization, backup, and many other data-heavy workloads. The TrueNAS CORE edition (formerly FreeNAS) is based on FreeBSD for unified scale-up storage. The TrueNAS SCALE edition is based on Debian Linux for either scale-up or scale-out solutions and offers Linux Containers, VMs (KVM), and scale-out ZFS storage capabilities. Both versions are free to use and work well on a variety of hardware.

TrueNAS Technical Details

Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationNo

Frequently Asked Questions

TrueNAS is a network-attached storage featuring all-flash and hybrid storage editions, from iXsystems headquartered in San Jose.

TrueNAS starts at $0.

Synology DiskStation, Dell PowerScale, and HPE StoreEasy 1000 Storage are common alternatives for TrueNAS.

The most common users of TrueNAS are from Small Businesses (1-50 employees).
Return to navigation

Comparisons

View all alternatives
Return to navigation

Reviews and Ratings

(47)

Community Insights

TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!

TrueNAS has been widely praised by users for its intuitive interface and versatility in various use cases. Users have found it easy to spin up virtual machines, conduct testing, and sandboxing. It is also commonly used for setting up a Plex media server and storing documents, downloads, and media backups. The integration of TrueNAS with security protocols like ActiveDirectory, LDAP, and Kerberos networks ensures file and folder-level security. Additionally, the ZFS Filesystem in TrueNAS provides data safety in the event of hard drive failure. Its compatibility with UPS allows for power outage notifications. TrueNAS is also utilized for home security camera monitoring and recording through ZoneMinder instances. Users have reported using TrueNAS in professional environments for long-term file storage and spinning up virtual machines for testing purposes. Furthermore, in the video production industry, TrueNAS plays a crucial role in storing camera data and referencing it during edits. Educational institutions rely on TrueNAS as part of their core criteria for Networking and SMB solutions. Organizations choose TrueNAS as their main on-premises storage solution, particularly for photo and video media storage. With features like SSD-based caching, a 10GB Ethernet port, and expandable network connectivity, TrueNAS offers speed and cost-effectiveness. It is frequently used as an iSCSI Datastore in VMware for primary NAS/iSCSI servers and nightly backups of VMs. Home users benefit from using TrueNAS Core as their business data management tool or home media server due to its simplicity and reliability. TrueNAS is often implemented as a backup/sync server, replacing tape backup systems to enable snapshots and reduce file recovery time. Integration with Nextcloud makes it scalable for file sharing, collaboration, and cost reduction purposes. In server set-ups, TrueNAS serves as a SAN providing simplicity of management, high availability configuration, and excellent support. Its fast performance and power make it ideal for mission-critical backups. Users prefer TrueNAS over Docker containers or virtual machines for its efficiency in managing, storing, and sharing data. It is especially recommended as an inexpensive enterprise-grade storage option for low-cost high-performance NAS systems. TrueNAS Scale, whether installed on a Virtual Machine in VMware Workstation Pro or on dedicated hardware, offers a solid software and user experience. Users have found it easy to install and appreciate its good performance and various applications for advanced testing. For those requiring fast and robust performance in primary data centers, the all-flash devices like TrueNAS M40 are the preferred choice. Lastly, users have had positive experiences with the salespeople and support teams from iX Systems, the parent company of TrueNAS. This level of satisfaction with both the product and the company further demonstrates the trust and reliability that users have in TrueNAS.

Overall, TrueNAS has proven to be a highly versatile and user-friendly solution for a wide range of use cases. Whether it's for personal media storage, professional file management, virtual machine deployment, or data backup, TrueNAS provides the necessary features and performance to meet the needs of its users. The ability to integrate with various security protocols, collaborate through Nextcloud, and serve as a reliable SAN or backup server makes it a valuable choice for businesses and organizations of all sizes. With its affordability, speed, scalability, and excellent customer support, TrueNAS continues to be a preferred storage solution for many users across different industries.

Robust and Reliable File System: Many users have praised the ZFS file system in TrueNAS for its robustness and reliability, providing them with peace of mind for their storage needs.

Seamless Integration with Mac and Linux Machines: Several reviewers have appreciated the seamless integration of TrueNAS with Mac and Linux machines. This integration allows for easy sharing of data through protocols like SMB and NFS, enhancing collaboration among different operating systems.

Flexibility and Stability of Software RAID: The flexibility and stability of the software RAID in TrueNAS has impressed many users. They have highlighted how it allows for customizable storage configurations, providing them with a reliable solution for their specific needs.

Confusing User Interface: Some users have reported that they find the user interface of TrueNAS to be confusing and not intuitive, which can make it challenging to configure and perform tasks efficiently. This issue has been mentioned by multiple reviewers, highlighting the need for improvements in terms of usability and navigation.

Challenging Initial Installation Process: The initial installation process has been described as quite challenging by some users, requiring significant effort and time. Several reviewers have expressed their difficulties during the installation phase, suggesting that a more streamlined and user-friendly approach would greatly enhance the overall experience.

Lack of Certain Functionalities: Users have expressed their desire for additional functionalities within TrueNAS. Specifically, there are requests for better VNC support for VMs and Jails, improved DLNA services for seamless video asset serving, and increased plugin integrations. These suggestions indicate that there is room for enhancement in these areas to meet the diverse needs of users effectively.

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-25 of 38)
Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
Jorge Arturo | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
recover files & folder information from shadow copy after delete o r damaged file, folder or disk from user computer. its a really useful dataset features. Other awesome feature is the plugins either from IXsytem or from the community. this last has a extensive apps catalog that the user can install and customize.
Sean Gordon | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Over the years I have used several large enterprise storage solutions and TrueNas is Top of my list. I started with downloading the software on older enterprise hardware, and with this next project we are deploying 3 TrueNas hardware solutions along with 3 Host servers all purchased from TrueNas. A Mini-R storage solution is serving NFS shares directly, and the other solutions, a M30 and Mini-R will run all of our virtual infrastructure and backup-storage. Having a dual controller option was an absolute must on this project. I would highly recommend checking out TrueNas, or at the very least give the sales engineers a call and talk through your project to see if TrueNas is a good fit.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
It is the canonical source for all our data in our network. This solution has been a solid solution that we have used for over 10 years. It was straight forward to implement. The most challenging task was to plan the pools and grouping of disks in those pools. I have no need to look for another solution as this provides sufficiently for our current needs.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
I've been using TrueNAS for a bit now, and honestly, it's a game-changer for me. Before diving into TrueNAS, I was juggling external drives like it was my job. Enter TrueNAS, and suddenly, all my storage woes seem like a thing of the past.
A few reasons I like it are:

Find My Stuff: Everything’s in one place. Movies, music, work files – you name it. I can get to it from any device at home, which is super handy.

ZFS is Magic: Heard about ZFS? It's this techy thing that basically makes sure my data doesn’t get corrupted. Knowing my files are safe is a big relief.It Grows with You: Started with just a couple of old drives I had lying around. As I needed more space, adding more was a breeze.

Snapshots keep several versions of your files so you get a layer of protection incase things go really bad. Which is a huge +
Jesse Furr | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
I have run TrueNAS Core on small desktops to enterprise servers, in a home environment to an enterprise datacenter. Obviously better performance on the enterprise hardware, but even the small desktop deployments weren't slow.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We utilize TrueNAS as a replacement for multiple legacy file servers. TrueNAS's ability to integrate with Microsoft Active Directory seamlessly allows us to create SMB and NFS shares for our users and groups. TrueNAS's ZFS replication has enabled us to have off-site data copies to ensure we can recover from a hardware issue or if there is a site catastrophe.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
I use TrueNAS Scale at my own since a stable release of 2 year ago, it fits perfectly my needs, it is very reliable and ongoing through the various releases demostrates a great effort to make always a better product each time. I use the containerization and it is excellent for my purposes as the NAS feature also are. I believe that actually this great piece of software can be valuable for a wide range of needs starting from the very advanced NAS capabilities to virtualization and containerization features. It's reliable and the upgrade process between the releases it's fast and effective. It's great product that works really.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
As a digital retoucher I use TrueNAS as my main online storage solution, it is reliable, solid and trouble free. I also use TrueNAS as a Plex Media server, in a jail. The whole iteration backs up to Backblaze. I built my own NAS and this has proven to be a very cost effective route to having immediately available storage.
Justin Powers, MS | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I currently use TrueNAS as my primary storage for all my files. It holds my 3D printing files, personal information files, and video recordings.<br><br>It's a great system with a lot of functionality that I am still figuring out. With such a versatile system, it is easily scalable and workable for all systems.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We have been using TrueNAS to host two 150+ TB storage arrays for our video surveillance systems. On top of that each of the surveillance systems are hosted as virtual machines on their respective storage node. This setup has been solid from day one, providing the stability and reliability that one would expect from enterprise applications.
Rob Anderson | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
I've been using TrueNAS / FreeNAS (in earlier years) for out companies iSCSI Datastore in VMware.
It allows me to make use of older hardware to make secondary / primary NAS /iSCSI Servers.

I also use these servers to do nightly backups of all our VMs. The ability to use TrueNAS Core software
has really helped us out in the last 3 years especially.

We don't have to wait on new expensive hardware to get a new NAS / iSCSI server running. The chip shortage
has made it a very scary proposition to try and acquire new hardware in the face of such a shortage should we
have a failed server. It has let me leverage previous investments in hardware to cover any shortages in storage
availability.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
After exploring lots of other options and coming quite close to making a bad decision, I was able to avoid compromise and buy a TrueNAS system for my storage needs. I'm using this for software engineering support but the bulk of the usage is video production where TrueNAS both stores the data coming off of cameras but is also referenced by the NLE when doing all the edits/prints.
September 15, 2022

TrueNAS Review

Colin Mackay | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
I've been using TrueNAS for about 5 years now, mostly in lab environments. It's been running solid for those 3 years, through upgrades from FreeNAS 11 to the current TrueNAS release. I use it only with storage and sharing in mind, no VM's or jails and on my older Dell R510 system, it's run flawlessly.
Alexander Baese | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We are mainly using TrueNAS as a Storage Service Provider for our local network. Storing Data, Sharing Data and processing Data through various channels. The management of ZFS Storage is kept really simple in the UI and can be left untouched when it is all setup.<br>Therefor providing a higher level of management without that big of a learning curve.
September 14, 2022

Free and Easy to Use

Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
My organization uses TrueNAS Scale to run file servers for local data storage and backup and host Windows virtual machines. This solution is far superior to manually setting up a Linux server distro with all the packages and configurations for file shares and virtual machines. While I'm accustomed to using the terminal, I welcome the in-browser graphical UI which anyone can use. Remote administration has never been easier for me and my colleagues, with even those unfamiliar with Linux being able to pick up on things very quickly due to the intuitive design. We deploy NAS and server solutions for clients which can be remotely accessed by us for easy maintenance and administration.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
I setup TrueNAS Scale on a decommissioned engineering desktop I salvaged from being recycled in order to replace a 15 year old NAS appliance that was being decommissioned. It was incredibly simple to install and get going off the bat. I've had no performance issues with my setup, and am pleasantly surprised with the various applications (containers) I was able to get up and running with relative ease having never used a TrueNAS system before. I can't wait to really get into the weeds and test out the more advanced features of the system (potentially even serving as a sandbox hypervisor environment)!
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
I teach the next generation of students who go out directly after education to work in Networking and SMB solutions. FOSS has been a large focus, and TrueNAS is part of a core segment of our criteria on Raid, Storage, and Networking. I use it at home and also at the large server lab, where we have around 20 servers running TrueNAS Scale.
Peter Johnston | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
I use TrueNAS as the main on-premises storage solution for my organization. My typical use cases involve photo and video media storage for both PC and Mac end-users. I wanted a storage solution that offered both speed and cost effectiveness, and with SSD-based caching, 10GB Ethernet port and available free PCI-E slot, I have a good balance and am able to add additional network connectivity for LAG and teaming as needed.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use TrueNAS to maximize the value of our existing datacenter hardware into new storage solutions. While there is a still a place for Nimble and 3Par, TrueNAS gives us the flexibility we need to create data pools from our un used physical inventory for staging, deployment, backup, or other various activities with the datacenter.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
If you just want it to work and be expandable without having to reference dozens of help files and web pages to get it configured, try TrueNAS.<br><br>TrueNAS provided an automatic solution after the team spent several days trying to make other solutions work on top of RedHat. Configuration and control is a breeze through the web-based GUI, and it is easy to expand the storage and add other applications to the Jails.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
I have been using TrueNAS Core at home now for the past 12 months, as means to manage my business data and as a home media server. To be honest it took me a little bit of time to get my head around it, but once I understood the fundamentals the rest was like learning to bake a cake. I have an old HP Proliant dual processor box which handles it very well, I stacked it full of SSD and away I went. TrueNAS Core just made itself at home, no glitches and of it went. I love it, and I love that it is free more than anything else.
August 09, 2022

Amazing NAS

Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Currently, we are using TrueNAS as a backup/sync server for our fileserver which replaces the HP tape backup. By doing so we can do snapshots and reduce file recovery time. My next step is to move our fileserver from windows to a second TrueNAS which will be integrated into our Windows AD domain.
August 09, 2022

TrueNAS review

Geoff Paget | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
I am just using it as a home server at the moment but am looking at helping the typical home user to set up and use it for server backup use as it's so simple to use. It basically solved all the issues with Windows file and folder share that never works with Windows.
Return to navigation