FreeNAS vs NAS4Free - FreeNAS - Open Source Storage Operating System
Posted: Tuesday, August 8, 2017 by Tyler Durden in
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FreeNAS vs NAS4Free - FreeNAS - Open Source Storage Operating System
High Level Comparison
Both FreeNAS and NAS4Free are open source storage operating systems/projects based on FreeBSD and therefore support many of the same features like CIFS, SMB, AFP, and NFS sharing protocols. Each system works with OpenZFS (v5000) with feature flags, is capable of full disk encryption, and has some degree of support for virtualization.
FreeNAS
Started in October 2005 by Olivier Cochard-LabbĂ, FreeNAS is a free and open-source software network-attached storage (NAS) system based on FreeBSD and the OpenZFS file system and is licensed under the terms of the BSD License. In September 2009, the development team realized that FreeNAS would need to be completely re-written in order to incorporate modern features like a plug-in architecture, updates to the base system, and an up-to-date User Interface. To carry this out, the FreeNAS Team transferred the project over to iXsystems, who moved from a m0n0wall and PHP-based architecture to one based on FreeBSD’s NanoBSD embedded build system, the Python programming language, the Django CMS, and the dojo JavaScript toolkit.
NAS4Free
NAS4Free is a free and open source project based on the original FreeNAS 0.7 code led by developers Daisuke Aoyama and Michael Zoon. NAS4Free preserves FreeNAS’s original m0n0wall/PHP architecture and introduces experimental support for the ARM architecture.
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 |  | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | FreeNAS 9.3 | NAS4Free |
| Ease of Use | Advanced UI, Very Little Command Line Required | UI, Some Command Line Required |
| Storage Experience Required | Some Recommended (less) | Some Recommended (more) |
| UNIX Command Line Only Experience Required | Minimal | Moderate |
| Documentation | Complete Manual & User Guide | Wiki |
| Languages Supported | 49 | 15 |
| Educational Resources | Professional Training/Certification Available | None |
| How-To Videos | Yes | None |
| Certified Hardware Available | Yes | No |
| Professional Support Available | Yes (on iXsystems hardware) | No |
| Professional Training Available | Yes | No |
| Professional Certification Available | Coming Soon | No |
| Open Source | Yes | Yes |
| Base Operating System | FreeBSD 9.3-STABLE | FreeBSD 9.3-STABLE |
| File System | OpenZFS v5000 w/ feature flags (UFS available on <v9.3 | OpenZFS v5000 w/ feature flags & UFS |
| 64 Bit Hardware Supported | Yes | Yes |
| 32 Bit Hardware Supported | Yes (on <v9.3) | Yes |
| ARM Architecture Support | No | Experimental |
| Installation Method | Flash Module or Hard Disk | Flash Module or Hard Disk |
| Project Activity | ||
| Source: https://www.openhub.net/p/compare?project_0=FreeNAS&project_1=NAS4Free | ||
| Active Developers | 49 | 3 |
| Project Activity | Very High | High |
| Project Commits | 17,000+ | 1100+ |
| Development Language | Mostly Python | Mostly PHP |
| Lines of Code | 450,000+ | 78,000+ |
| Commits in Past Year | 3,800+ | 370+ |
| Project Community | ||
| Open Source Repository | https://github.com/freenas/freenas | http://sourceforge.net/projects/nas4free/ |
| Core Developers | 49 | 2 |
| Forum Activity | Higher | Lower |
| Forum Members | 27,000+ | 5,000+ |
| Forum Posts | 170,000+ | 36,000+ |
| YouTube Community Videos | 38,000+ | 2,300+ |
| IRC Channel | #FreeNAS on Freenode | #NAS4Free on Freenode |
| Facebook Page | 20,000+ Likes | 100+ Likes |
| 5,700+ Followers | 450+ Followers | |
| Google+ | 2,800+ Followers | N/A |
| Features | ||
| Graphical User Interface (GUI) | Yes | Yes |
| UI Speed/Responsiveness | Fair | Faster |
| Setup Wizard | Yes | No |
| Downloadable/Uploadable Configuration file | Yes | Yes |
| Default Settings Restore | Yes | Yes |
| Visual Reporting | Yes | Yes |
| Simple IP Management | Yes | Yes |
| Web-based Volume Management | Yes | Yes |
| Online Upgrades | Yes | No |
| RAID Levels Supported (ZFS) | ZFS Stripe*, ZFS Mirror, RAIDZ1, Z2,Z3 | ZFS Stripe*, ZFS Mirror, RAIDZ1, Z2,Z3 |
| RAID Levels Supported (UFS) | RAID 0, 1, 5, 6*, 10, 50, 60* (on <v9.3) | RAID 0, 1, 5, 6*, 10, 50, 60* |
| Hot-Swap Hard Drives | Yes | Yes |
| Encryption support | Yes | Yes |
| Third Party Services (Plugins) | Yes | Command Line Only |
| Web API | Yes | No |
| Compression | lz4, gzip, zle, lzjb | lz4, gzip, zle, lzjb |
| Deduplication | Yes | Yes |
| Snapshot management | In Web UI | Command Line Only |
| ZFS Replication | In Web UI | Command Line Only |
| Remote Replication | In Web UI | Command Line Only |
| Root-on-ZFS | Yes | No |
| Boot from RAID-Z | Yes | No |
| ZFS Import/Export to Other Systems | Yes | Yes |
| Export/Import pool | Yes | No |
| Mirrored Boot drive | Yes | No |
| ZFS Monitoring (email) | Yes | Yes |
| SSD TRIM Support | Yes | Yes |
| Live CD Option | No | Yes |
| Protocols, Utilities, and Directory Services | ||
| NFS (Supported Versions) | Yes (v3, v4) | Yes (v3, v4) |
| CIFS/SMB | Yes | Yes |
| Apple Shares (AFP) | Yes | Yes |
| iSCSI Management | Yes | Yes |
| Kernel iSCSI | Yes | No |
| rsync | Yes | Yes |
| FTP | Yes | Yes |
| TFTP | Yes | Yes |
| WebDAV | Yes | Yes |
| LLDP | Yes | No |
| Unison | Yes | Yes |
| SSH | Yes | Yes |
| Dynamic DNS | Yes | Yes |
| UPnP | Command Line Only | FUPPES |
| Active Directory Integration | Yes | Yes |
| Active Directory Domain Controller | Yes | No |
| LDAP | Yes | Yes |
| Kerberos | Yes | Command Line Only |
| NIS | Yes | Command Line Only |
| NT4 | Yes | Command Line Only |
| S.M.A.R.T. | Yes | Yes |
| SNMP | Yes | Yes |
| UPS Integration | Yes | Yes |
| Virtualization Support | ||
| Virtualization Host Support | KVM/XEN/VMware/VirtualBox | Yes, Virtualbox |
| VirtualBox Guest Support | Yes | Yes |
| Hyper-V Guest Support | Yes | Yes |
| KVM Guest Support | Yes | Yes |
| ESXi Guest Support | Yes | Yes |
| ESXi (VMXNET3) support | Yes | Yes |
| VMWare Coordinated snapshots | Yes | No |
| VMWare VAAI Support | Yes | No |
| Third Party Plugins & Additional Services | ||
| Bacula network Backup Server | Plugin Available | No |
| BT Sync | Plugin Available | No |
| CouchPotato Movie Downloader | Plugin Available | No |
| Crashplan | Plugin Available | No |
| Crucible WDS | Plugin Available | No |
| Firefly Media Server | Plugin Available | Included |
| HTPC-Manager (graphical HTPC software manager) | Plugin Available | No |
| LazyLibrarian eBook Downloader | Plugin Available | No |
| Maraschino XBMC HTPC Web Interface | Plugin Available | No |
| MediaBrowser Media Center | Plugin Available | No |
| MineOS Minecraft Server | Plugin Available | No |
| Mylar (Comic Book Downloader) | Plugin Available | No |
| Owncloud | Plugin Available | No |
| Plex Media Server | Plugin Available | No |
| s3cmd Amazon S3 backup utility | Plugin Available | No |
| Sabnzbd | Plugin Available | No |
| Sickbeard PVR | Plugin Available | No |
| Subsonic | Plugin Available | No |
| Syncthing | Plugin Available | No |
| Transmission (BitTorrent client) | Plugin Available | Included |
| XDM eXtendable Download Manager | Plugin Available | No |
