Editorial, 22 Aug 2026. Specs from maker pages and named street reports. We have not burned these units in. Affiliate tags are not live. Confirm the diskless SKU before you click — Amazon is full of drive bundles.
DS224+ vs DS423+: 2-bay or 4-bay Synology Plus
Same CPU. Same 1GbE. Same official 6 GB lid. The difference is bays, M.2, fans, warranty, and about $200 of street.
This is not Synology vs UGREEN. If you want 10G and Docker, the existing first-NAS guide already made that pick. Stay here only if DSM is the decision and the question is two bays or four.
| DS224+ | DS423+ | |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | J4125 4C/4T, 2.0 / 2.7 GHz | Same |
| RAM official | 2 GB + 1 slot, max 6 GB | 2 GB + 1 slot, max 6 GB |
| NIC | 2× 1GbE, MTU 1500 | 2× 1GbE, MTU 1500 |
| Bays | 2× 3.5" / 2.5" SATA | 4× SATA + 2× M.2 2280 NVMe |
| RAID | SHR, Basic, JBOD, 0, 1 | Those plus 5 / 6 / 10 |
| Fans | 1× 92 mm | 2× 92 mm |
| Maker power / noise | 14.69 W / 4.41 W, 22 dB(A) | 28.30 W / 8.45 W, 19.8 dB(A) |
| Brick | 60 W | 90 W |
| Warranty | 2 years (to 4 with EW Plus, NA/EU) | 3 years (to 5 with EW201 / EW Plus) |
| Street, found | ~$300 class MSRP; Amazon B0C6927XPX (confirm diskless) | B&H $499.99 diskless; Amazon B0BXMS9GFF was unavailable 22 Aug 2026 |
SHR on two identical disks is enough when the job is laptop backup, Photos, and Hyper Backup. Empty bays matter more than a faster NIC the day you know the third disk is coming — because neither of these boxes gets a NIC upgrade. M.2 on the DS423+ is the only place a VM or app volume has a chance; 5400 / 5640 RPM HDD in either chassis is not an iSCSI datastore. SHR vs RAID 1. CMR drives.
Buy the DS224+ if the box lives in a bedroom and two disks is the plan. Buy the DS423+ if you already want four bays or NVMe cache and you are staying in DSM. Do not buy four bays “for later” if later is actually 2.5G — you will still be on gigabit.
Skip
Skip using this comparison to justify a used DS918+. Skip either Plus if 2.5G is the actual bottleneck; look at DXP2800 or AS5402T. Skip SMR in SHR. Skip drive bundles on Amazon.
Sources
DS224+ product page + spec PDF (17 Jun 2026). DS423+ spec PDF (23 Apr 2025). B&H 1781611-REG and 1757288-REG. Amazon B0C6927XPX / B0BXMS9GFF. WunderTech SHR calculator. We have not burned either unit in.