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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.

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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 …
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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 …
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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

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Pricing

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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

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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).
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Comparisons

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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)
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Jorge Arturo | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
  • plugins some like backup
  • Dataset from shares with shadow copy
  • Shares : SMB NTF iSCSI
  • more graphical interface to admin features like plugins, jails, list are well but a tiles aproach will be better
  • allow bulk upload/download/update to Groups or user accounts from SMB shares.
  • some script language template featured to create/config/change/delete storage pools /dataset or shares .
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
  • web GUI or CLI for administration
  • provides for Linux, Windows, Mac client interoperability
  • easy basic deployment
  • web GUI in managing ZFS. You wind up on the CLI to administrate the devices and the pool.
  • With Scale, it provides the capability with for clustering storage, though seems to be growing in maturity. Core does not provide that due to FreeBSD limitations. Given having to migrate to Scale, I look forward to having a solution in hand as the need for clustering becomes a need in the future.
Jesse Furr | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
  • Runs on anything
  • Reliable on reliable hardware
  • Lots of ways to connect
  • Maybe too steep of a learning curve for Joe User
  • UI not as slick as Synology yet
  • No tiering storage levels yet (hot, cold tiers)
Rob Anderson | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
  • iSCSI Datastores for virtualization.
  • NFS store for unix storage or backups over networking.
  • Very fast performance, sometimes outclassing SSD arrays even in NFS.
  • The ZFS filesystem has given use much greater flexibility.
  • Using their newer servers we could in theory scale to any height of required storage.
  • Better explanations of what a 'jail' is.
  • Update the UI to support easier creation or clearer creation of new arrays.
  • More plugin integrations.
  • The ability to run scripts to copy things locally such as to a usb RDX hard drive.
  • Proper USB 3.0 support.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
  • Peace of mind (ZFS)
  • Integration with Mac and Linux machines (SMB and NFS)
  • Time Machine backup service was a plus I didn't expect
  • DLNA services could be better for serving video assets (Plex integration is good, but complicated)
  • Built-in dashboards aren't super well-organized
September 15, 2022

TrueNAS Review

Colin Mackay | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
  • ZFS is an amazing filesystem. Saved me from accidental deletes.
  • NFS / CIFS sharing works as expected.
  • UI interface is solid, but could use more robust sharing options; using the 'exports' formats right in the GUI
Alexander Baese | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
  • SMB Shares
  • Video transcoding via GPU and Docker Containers
  • Hosting mulitple fundamental network Services
  • Heavy loads on the host can interrupt container services heavily. "Always reserved ressources" option might be helpful
September 14, 2022

Free and Easy to Use

Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • The ZFS file system is remarkably robust and reliable.
  • Installing applications and virtual machines is easy.
  • Management and creation of permissions and datasets is intuitive.
  • TrueNAS Scale is less mature than TrueNAS Core
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
  • Scale allows for Apps to utilise TrueNAS to run in containers
  • Software raid in TrueNAS is really flexible and stable
  • Scale being based on Linux has now meant integrations are growing rapidly
  • TrueNAS Scale just needs time, IMO. It's maturing quickly
Peter Johnston | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
  • Allows multiple end-user platforms to share data
  • Allows me to leverage plugins, and community developed applications.
  • I can run virtual machines without the need for expensive and complex virtual infrastructure.
  • The configuration of SMB sharing permissions is not as intuitive as it could be.
  • AD integration with multiple DCs does not always fail over to the secondary server.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
  • ZFS datapools
  • Nested Virtualization
  • iWARP, RDMA
  • iSCSI
  • Virtualization support could use more features
  • User and group management is a unique challenge
  • Access to more detailed configuration options
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Easy to manage users and access to different shares
  • Shares remount natively under Windows11 and xNIX derivatives, providing easy integration
  • Jails let you try other applications on the server without affecting NAS operations
August 09, 2022

Amazing NAS

Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • ZFS filesystem rocks.
  • iSCSI (Internet Small Computer Systems Interface).
  • OS updates.
  • Clean user interface.
  • Snapshots.
August 09, 2022

TrueNAS review

Geoff Paget | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
  • It runs on a very low-power computer and is easy to set up and run.
  • Simple to use and set up.
  • Easy to add apps for other easy-to-use solutions in home.
  • Very easy to add more storage as well.
  • It was a little complicated updating Plex as it needs to be done manually.
  • It would be an improvement if the RAM use was less and automatic.
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