Synology BeeStation Plus Review: Super-easy streaming and storage

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Synology BeeStation plus (8TB)

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Want your own personal OneDrive, Dropbox, iCloud, or Google drive without the mega corporation or advanced network savvy that’s typically required? Perhaps you’re looking to set up a personal streamer for your massive collection of digital music and movies you’ve ripped from discs over the years. If you are, you should take a look at Synology’s BeeStation Plus, a NAS box that can operate as your own personal cloud and streaming service.

The BeeStation Plus not only allows you to access your data and personal media from anywhere and on any compute-capable device–laptop, mobile phone, tablet, and so on–it’s exceptionally easy to set up. You don’t even need to add storage, there’s already an 8TB hard disk drive inside.

The only possible issue is that Synology’s rigorous focus on simple-to-set-up-and-use means many of the features found in the company’s other NAS boxes are missing here. NAS aficionados–the acronym stands for Network Attached Storage, by the way–will care about that; the mainstream audience Synology is targeting with this product probably won’t.

Specifications and features

As you might have guessed from my introduction, the BeeStation Plus is a simplified NAS box and media server. Stripping out some of the other features that NAS boxes are known for render it much easier to set up and use than more robust products that might interest hardcore users or the SMB crowd (allow me to spell out that acronym, too: it stands for Small to Medium-sized Businesses). the BeeStation Plus is certainly easier to set up than any other NAS box I’ve tested. So much so that it probably deserves its own classification.

The box itself is a well-ventilated, rounded-corner, dark gray rectangle measuring 5.8 x 2.5 x 7.7 inches (HxWxD). It weighs in at just north of two pounds, with its mechanical hard drive no doubt accounting for most of that bulk.

The front and sides are barren except for logos, while on the back there’s the power button, USB-A and -C ports, a reset pinhole, a gigabit ethernet port, and a power jack.

There’s no video output, as some boxes have, so your only access to the files stored on the box is through Synology’s online portal and its local client apps, at least initially. You can enable SMB access to reach the unit locally via Explorer (Windows) or Finder (macOS) as well as via a browser without routing through the portal after initial setup. (In this context, the acronym SMB stands for the protocol Server Message Block.)

The BeeStation Plus will serve as a destination for macOS Time Machine backups (with a 4TB limit), and the local desktop client will sync folders to the BeeStation. There are also BeeFiles apps for backing up your Android and iOS devices.

Synology offers a full backup option in BeeProtectis an online storage service which costs $120 per annum for up to 8TB (60 dollars for the first 8TB). 4TB Beestation Model). These prices aren’t bad for the amount of storage you get. But there’s also a 3-month trial period if you’d like to test it out first.

Less obvious is the small text link below the BeeProtect ad that tells you that you can also back up to external storage, another NAS box, or If you already have an account, you can use Synology’s C2 cloud storage service (19459266) if it is available. You can only store one copy, so if you don’t have BeeProtect then you will need to create a third.

This is a good time to remind you about the need to backup your data if it’s irreplaceable. HDDs, while more reliable than in the past, are still mechanical devices that are more susceptible to failure than SSDs.

BeeStation Plus can support up to eight users. Each user gets their own storage area. The only functionality available beyond file storage and backup at the moment is media streaming through Plex media server. (There is a 4TB limitation on media files). We’ll get to that in a moment.

When you attach external storage it does not show up until you use a function which requires it. The storage section in the interface did not show the USB SSDs that I had attached, but I could still transfer files and see them as USBShares on Windows Explorer and macOS Finder.

Using the desktop app, you can create a local storage folder that will sync with the BeeStation internal storage. This is similar to DropBox, OneDrive and Google Drive. This is mainly for performance. Transfers within the local network are relatively quick without it, but not so much over the internet.

BeeStation Plus is NAS designed for people who do not know about NAS, don’t care about it, or don’t want to learn about it. Connect the power cord and ethernet cable and follow the prompts. Mostly.

How easy is it to set up the BeeStation Plus?

The BeeStation Plus setup, while not the browse-to-a-local-URL (e.g., 192.168.1.101) approach I’m accustomed to, is by far the easiest I’ve encountered. At least, for the basics. By “easier than”I include personal cloud devices made by industry giants like Seagate and Western Digital. The “personal cloud” concept is not a new one.

You first surf to the Synology BeeStation Web Portal There’s also a QR code that takes you to Synology, but it only takes you there. Then, you’ll need to create an account and download the desktop application. For a few steps, you’ll need to physically be near the BeeStation.

One-time setup is rather tedious, but the wizard-like approach ensures that even the least experienced user can get the BeeStation Plus up and running.

That said, I did find one step to be puzzling: With all of the focus on ease of use, why would Synology force you to tediously download and install the operating system? Just pre-load it at the factory and have it check for updates, guys.

Anyway, setting up the Plex media server (for streaming movies, music, and photos) isn’t quite as easy as getting online and connecting. Mostly because it’s less-than-intuitively located under the heading “Integration” in the main web page. Perhaps it would be better to label this “Apps,” Synology?

Also, as Plex is currently the only app available and intimately linked to the BeeStation Plus’ usefulness, why isn’t it pre-installed?

Tip: Use the BeeStation’s “Upload media files to Plex” function, which opens the browser-based BeeFiles at the correct location. If you try to add media within the Plex server, you’ll be confronted with a rather daunting list of Linux system folders that precede the folders you actually want. Assuming of course, you would actually know what those folders were.

As mentioned above, if you want to use Windows Explorer/macOS Finder to manage files instead of a web browser or Synology’s desktop app, you’ll need to enable local access and SMB in the BeeStation web portal’s advanced settings. Why it’s disabled to begin with, I can’t say.

I’m very accustomed to local SMB folder access, so I turned that on. But to be honest, I often found the web browser interface and BeeFiles easier to use. It supports drag-0and-drop file transfers and you don’t need to guess which folder is which.

How easy is it to use the BeeStation?

Although it’s not quite as easy as the initial set-up, using the BeeStation will be easier than your average NAS box. It also includes handy dedicated functions to transfer your media from existing services, specifically those used by Android or iOS devices. This should cover the majority of users. I must admit that iCloud was a pleasant surprise. Apple is known for denying third parties access.

Viewing your media files, and even PDF and Office files, can be done via the web portal, right within the browser. It’s remarkably quick given a local network connection, which the BeeStation automatically uses if available.

What NAS features is the BeeStation Plus missing?

It became clear to me during my hands-on experience that the BeeStation Plus was either a work-in progress (should sales warrant it) or laser-focused on being a private cloud and nothing more.

It’s admirable for the target market, but it’s missing a lot that could be found in a more traditional NAS such as Synology single-bay. DS124.

Just some of the missing features are: Hybrid Backup/Sync (software that backs up remote computers without the need for local clients), security camera surveillance, virtualization (Docker and the like), BitTorrent, two-way sync, the HybridMount cloud storage manager, access to other network locations, and quite a lot more.

Also missing is the ability to expand internal storage. Multi-bay NAS boxes allow you to add drives, and/or mirror them for increased safety and availability. All this makes a strong case for advanced users to go old-school.

What is this portal you keep mentioning?

Remote servers relay data from one URL/location to another. Logging in with your data source (e.g. the BeeStation Plus) registers the device’s existence, ownership, and internet location. When you log in to the portal using your other devices, and the appropriate client software, the portal will direct traffic to/from the device that serves data.

Portals usually provide web interfaces to allow you configure them and manage the files on the servers. The BeeStation Plus portal is excellent in both respects.

The major upsides to portals are ease of setup and hassle-free access from anywhere (given internet freedom, which is not universal). You also needn’t unduly expose your server (the BeeStation) to the internet, as you would if you configured your router to forward ports to it. Said configuration can also be quite trepidatious for less experienced users.

On the other hand, I can name at least two portals (Cisco NAS, and PogoPlug) that disappeared, rendering the products that relied on them far less useful.

Additionally, your info is passing through someone else’s servers, which could potentially lead to data breaches. Companies can promise all the security and encryption in the world, but when all is said and done, if they decide they want to access your data, they can.

That comment is not aimed at Synology in the slightest, I’ve had nothing but good experiences with the company. It’s simply inherent to the technology and it also applies to Microsoft, Google, Apple, and every other company in the modern connected world.

How much is the BeeStation Plus? The BeeStation Plus 8TB retails at $409, which isn’t much more than Synology’s single-bay DS124,with an 8TB HDD (around $300 combined). There’s a much more affordable If you think your movie, music, and image collections will fit on a 4TB BeeStation, it is available for $209 .

HDDs can be purchased in capacities up to 36TB today, so I’m surprised that there aren’t more options. The HDD is covered for three years by the BeeStation Plus, as far as I know.

How fast is the BeeStation Plus?

Both the hard drive and gigabit ethernet of the BeeStation are fast enough to handle most file operations as well as streaming media.

In fact, the data rates needed for multimedia delivery aren’t as high as you might think. Even 4K video streaming is only a few megabytes per sec, depending on the codec. Blu-ray is a different animal. It can be higher. Audio requires much less bandwidth and images are a relative trickle.

According to the BeeStation Plus, it reads at 115 megabytes a second and writes between 90-100MBps. This is slightly below the average for a Gigabit box but still within reasonable limits. The speed of the transfer to and from remote locations will depend on your broadband connection.

AmorphousDiskMark was largely in agreement with Disk Speed test (shown above) when it came to transfers across my home 2.5Gbps network. An Apple Studio with an M4 Max and a 10Gbps ethernet port was at the other end.

The Intel Celeron J4125 CPU made the web interface quite responsive. Indeed, I was pleasantly surprised at how quick the BeeStation Plus navigated, downloaded apps, and changed settings. The latter especially can be laggardly on NAS boxes.

I had several people simultaneously test the Plex streaming and there were no issues. Admittedly, it was all 1080p video and music, and you might get fewer streams with 4K in play. But there were no complaints.

In total, the BeeStation Plus will get the job done handily, although I wouldn’t complain if it had a 2.5Gbps ethernet port.

Should you buy the BeeStation Plus?

If you want an easy-to-set-up-and-use personal cloud for file access, media streaming and viewing both in your home and from afar, either the BeeStation Plus or the smaller-capacity BeeStation are fantastic options.

Tech savvy users who are looking for more server-grade capabilities will be better served by a straight up NAS box. It offers much greater capabilities and is likely to cost less. It’s less likely that a product like this will end up being orphaned.

Synology BeeStation 8TB (8TB): Best prices today

$409.99

$409.99

Jon L. Jacobi, Author Contributor to PCWorld