Synology BeeStation Plus review: Easily the best starter Plex media server around

I tested the BeeStation when it came out last year, and liked the idea of the product. It distils the fundamentals of a NAS into an easy-to-use device that comes with an integrated hard drive, and it exceled at backing up photos, videos, and documents.

The biggest issue with the BeeStation was that it didn’t have any way to stream media, limiting its usability significantly. Thankfully, Synology is addressing that with the introduction of the BeeStation Plus; it shares the same design and feature-set as the standard model, but comes with an 8TB hard drive, and you get the ability to install Plex, turning it into a centralized media server.

The addition of Plex makes the BeeStation Plus that much more versatile, and if you just need a hassle-free way to back up important data and stream media, this starter NAS may just be the ideal solution.

Synology BeeStation Plus: Pricing and availability

Synology unveiled the BeeStation Plus in May 2025, and it is now available globally. It costs $409 on Amazon U.S. and £385 on Amazon U.K., and is heading to other regions over the coming weeks. The BeeStation Plus is sold in a single configuration with an 8TB integrated hard drive (BST170-8T), and while we may get additional storage models down the line, that isn’t the case right now.

Synology BeeStation Plus: Design and features

The BeeStation Plus looks identical to the regular model, and Synology didn’t change the design to any noticeable degree. The design is just as unobtrusive as DiskStation models; you essentially get a black box that you slow next to your router, and the vertical chassis doesn’t take up much room.

The front has an LED status indicator, but is otherwise plain. You get BeeStation branding on the sides, and the back has the power button, USB-A and USB-C connectors, and a solitary Gigabit Ethernet port. There’s no active cooling, with the BeeStation Plus instead getting a ventilated design at the top and bottom that cools the integrated hard drive passively.

The NAS is powered by the Intel Celeron J4125, and it comes with 4GB of RAM, which is a good choice as there’s no way to extend the memory on the device. There’s an 8TB HAT3310 drive integrated into the NAS, and that alone makes up half of the $409 asking price.

Synology BeeStation Plus: Performance

Just like the regular BeeStation, Synology is careful to not dub the BeeStation Plus as a NAS; instead, it is a “private and family cloud storage” solution. The difference is evident when you set up the product; unlike the traditional DiskStation Manager (DSM) software, the BeeStation Plus uses BeeStation OS, which is a lightweight OS that has limited utilities.

You get just BeePhotos and BeeFiles as standard, and these two utilities are derivatives of what Synology provides on its DiskStation models. If anything, the mobile BeePhotos app is nearly identical to Synology Photos — which is a good thing. I like that the brand retooled its existing utilities instead of reinventing the wheel.

That said, you miss out on most of the extras that you get on standard DiskStation models. There’s no way to install apps on the BeeStation Plus, nor can you use it as a mail server, private audio streaming platform, or any of the other useful features you get on most DiskStation devices.

If anything, that’s the allure of the BeeStation Plus; it’s billed as a hassle-free solution that lets you store photos and other data in a centralized area, and it does just as good a job backing up data from connected devices. I didn’t see any issues with uploading photos and videos taken on my Vivo X200 Pro, X200 Ultra, and Pixel 9 Pro XL to the device via BeePhotos (it automatically uploads photos to the BeeStation Plus in the background), and I was able to back up data from my gaming rig with relative ease.

There’s also the ability to back up data from public cloud provides like Google Drive to the NAS, and that’s just handy. You get user management as well — allowing you to share the BeeStation Plus with family members — and it uses the same relay network as DiskStation models when connecting to the device from outside your home network.

You can do these things with the regular BeeStation as well — where the BeeStation Plus stands out is the ability to stream media. You can install Plex, and set up a media server on the device that lets you stream movies and TV shows to any device in your house. Plex isn’t installed out of the box; you’ll need to go into the system settings and select the Integration tab to download the media server, but as soon as it’s installed, it’s just as easy to set up and use.

Coming to the hardware, the BeeStation Plus has the Intel Celeron J4125, a stalwart in this category. I used dozens of NAS models powered by this platform, and it is a reliable workhorse that delivers good performance and hardware transcoding. While it is showing its age, there aren’t any issues in day-to-day use, and the BeeStation Plus does a good job when it comes to backing up data as well as streaming media to connected devices on your home network.

Actually, the fact that the BeeStation Plus has transcoding gives it a definite advantage over some of the newer DiskStation models like the DiskStation DS925+. I didn’t notice any problems using Plex on the BeeStation Plus, and it handled 4K content as well as transcodes effortlessly. The BeeStation Plus is one of the best home NAS models, and if you just need the essentials, this is the ideal product.

Synology BeeStation Plus: The alternatives

If you don’t want an integrated solution and instead need the extensibility of a full-fledged NAS, the DiskStation DS224+ is the model to get. It has the same Celeron J4125 platform as the BeeStation Plus, and you get the full DiskStation Manager software, allowing you to install a host of extras. The downside is that you don’t get a built-in drive, so it will be costlier to buy the NAS and an 8TB drive — it comes out to around $500.

Synology BeeStation Plus: Should you buy it?

You should buy this if:

• You need an all-in-one media server
• You want integrated storage
• You need an easy way to back up photos and data

You shouldn’t buy this if:

• You need a full-fledged NAS

With the BeeStation Plus, Synology is proving that it is listening to customer feedback. The standard BeeStation is a good idea done well, but the lack of media streaming made it a non-starter to most consumers looking to get started with network-attached storage, and the BeeStation Plus solves that quandary.

So if you’re just getting started with a centralized storage solution and want something that’s easy to set up and use, I highly recommend the BeeStation Plus. It may not have the added utilities that you get with DiskStation NAS models, but it excels at the basics, and it is terrific as a Plex media server.