I'm a staunch advocate of a proper 3-2-1 backup strategy even for non-professional users, but the fact of the matter is that NAS drives have increasingly become too feature-rich and complicated. The Synology BeeStation is the answer to that. The company's ready-to-go mini NAS is positioned as the perfect entry point into a cloud-connected, machine-learning-enabled, backup solution.

The Synology BeeStation takes a single hard drive and pairs it with all the necessary computing power needed to run a backup utility, and photo organization apps. Further, it can connect to cloud storage services and even backup photos and files from your smartphone. The BeeStation offers AI-based facial recognition, and the ability to share files directly from your drive making it a compelling self-hosted alternative to Google Photos and Google Drive. Moreover, the quality of construction and relative ease of use make it a good gateway product for those with simpler needs.

Price, specs, and availability

Built to a cost

The Synology BeeStation is available in a single 4TB configuration and is priced at $220. The drive can be purchased from both Amazon and Synology's online store. Powered by a Realtek 1619B chipset with 1GB of RAM, the BeeStation lacks the power to run demanding apps like Plex, or dive into interesting projects using Docker containers. The RAM, nor the storage can be upgraded. Nor can the BeeStation be used as a media server as the drive lacks DLNA support.

Synology's entry-level NAS is designed exclusively for file backups and non-demanding photo storage workflows. The port selection is fairly robust and includes a single USB-C port and a single USB-A port. Both of these support the USB 3.2 Gen 1 standard. Additionally, you'll find a single gigabit Ethernet port. The drive is powered by an external power adapter connecting to a DC jack.

What I like about the BeeStation

Affordability, ease of use, decent apps

Ease of setup is paramount when it comes to a beginner-friendly NAS solution, and the BeeStation makes it a breeze. Plug it into the power supply, connect the Ethernet cable, and head on over to the dedicated website. The BeeStation Portal will automatically locate the BeeStation and give you options to connect using a Synology account or a local account. Synology will also let you sign in with a Google or Apple account should you prefer that.

It's worth noting that SMB access is disabled out of the box. Synology expects most users to access the drive using the accompanying apps. However, it is possible to enable SMB access by diving into the advanced settings menu that will let you access the drive using a file browser on your computer.

For most users, the BeeFiles and BeePhotos apps are how you'll be interacting with the NAS. In my time testing out the BeeStation, I found the BeePhotos to be a surprisingly good alternative to Google Photos, as long as you keep your expectations in check.

Your locally hosted Google Photos alternative

BeePhotos offers two different ways to upload files to the app — drag and drop via the browser, or via the accompanying smartphone apps. The latter is recommended for most users and during my testing, it took just about an hour to back up over two thousand photographs from an iPhone.

You'll also find helpful additions like a focused backup mode that dims the screen to circumvent the iPhone's proclivity to switch off background backup tasks. That is not a concern when using the Android app. Additionally, you can configure up to eight users to backup files and photos to the BeeStation making it a capable home backup server. All users are isolated from each other guaranteeing privacy.

BeePhotos is a capable Google Photos alternative that has all the core functionality you need.

On your desktop or laptop, BeePhotos can be accessed via the browser and offers categorization in the form of albums, and can even detect people, locations, and tags. It's all very familiar if you're coming from Google Photos. That said, I observed that the machine learning algorithms didn't always pick up multiple people from a photograph. Predictably, it isn't quite as powerful as what Google offers but will suffice for most users who just need an easy way to backup and glance through photos.

A surprisingly capable Google Drive alternative

Switching over to the BeeFiles app, there's a lot more to take in. In addition to the web-based access, and smartphone apps, BeeFiles also offers an accompanying desktop app. The desktop app lets you synchronize or back up any folder to BeeFiles. If you opt for the former, any file deletions on your computer will be replicated on the network drive. However, if you select the backup option, BeeFiles will safely store files on the BeeStation even if you delete the files from your computer.

The desktop app can also be used to bulk backup a folder of photos straight to BeePhotos. The app can be configured to upload photos from your computer, a connected USB drive, or even a local NAS drive.

Elsewhere, Synology has factored in users wanting to switch from Google Photos or wanting to download all iCloud Photos to local storage. While you can't connect the drive directly to Google or Apple's servers to download the files, Synology will automatically sort through Google Takeout or iCloud zip files and parse the photos in relevant storage.

Accessing BeeFiles via a browser presents a few more options to access files. For example, the USB Backup option lets you configure automatic backups for external drives. Once selected, every time you connect that specific flash drive or hard drive over USB, BeeFiles will automatically back it up to a pre-defined folder. Additionally, it is also possible to access files on external drives and copy and paste them over manually.

BeeFiles offers robust options for backing up and syncing local as well as cloud-based files.

It is also possible to connect BeeFIles with cloud service providers like Dropbox, Google Drive or OneDrive which offers an additional way to backup files saved to your cloud storage provider. For the most part, BeeStation has you nicely covered for backup and syncing tasks. You can even create password protected shareable links for files and folders stored on the BeeStation.

Everything just works once configured, and I haven't had to touch the settings page over the last month or so of testing. Additionally, if you enable local storage, you can even set it as a Time Machine target to back up Apple MacBooks or desktops. The essential functions aren't very different from alternatives like the Aiffro K100 all-SSD NAS that we reviewed recently.

What I don't like about the Synology BeeStation

Limited performance, even more limited functionality, zero expansion

I understand that Synology wanted to build a product to a cost, but there's no denying that the NAS isn't particularly versatile. You can't use it like a music server or video server. Sure, the low-end hardware wouldn't be very useful for transcoding video files, but the lack of DLNA support means that you can't even use it as a network hard drive connected to a streaming box. Of course, there's no HDMI support either unlike some other products.

The lack of DLNA support, transcoding and slow transfer speeds limit the capabilities of the hardware.

My other gripe is with transfer speeds. As long as you're plugged into the BeeFiles ecosystem, transfers work smooth enough. However, I observed that average file transfer speeds barely crossed 80Mbps over SMB. That's definitely on the lower end of the spectrum, but not unsurprising given the entry-level nature of the product. That said, we achieved faster file transfer speeds on the not-much-more expensive TerraMaster F2-423 that we reviewed recently.

Should you buy the Synology BeeStation?

You should buy the Synology BeeStation if:

• You are just getting started with backups.
• You want a device that seamlessly connects to iPhones and Android devices.
• You want a robust photo backup and management app.
• You want to maintain local copies of cloud drives.

You should NOT buy the Synology BeeStation if:

• You want to run a media server.
• You need the fastest transfer speeds and storage expansion.
• You want to use it as an office file server.

The Synology BeeStation is a great choice for novice users getting into a proper backup strategy. Think of it as a gateway into the world of NAS drives. Enthusiasts and technically-inclined users will likely benefit from the flexibility offered by Synology's own full-fledged NAS solutions for not much more money. However, the BeeStation makes it extremely easy to offload files and photos from phones, and serves as an effective way to build your own locally hosted Google Drive and Google Photos alternative.