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Proxmox vs TrueNAS vs Unraid: Which One Should You Actually Use?

KeepItTechie

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Trying to decide between Proxmox, TrueNAS, and Unraid for your home server?

The problem is that all three platforms can now handle storage, applications, containers, and virtualization in some form, which makes the decision a lot more confusing than it used to be.

But just because they can perform many of the same tasks doesn’t mean they’re designed around the same priorities.

In this video, I break down what Proxmox, TrueNAS, and Unraid are actually best at and explain how I would choose between them depending on what you’re trying to build.
We’ll look at:

• Why Proxmox makes sense for virtualization and homelab infrastructure
• Why TrueNAS puts storage and data protection first
• Why Unraid works so well as an all-in-one home server
• Docker, virtual machines, ZFS, storage, and applications
• When combining platforms actually makes sense
• Why your server’s primary job should determine the operating system

There isn’t one universal winner.
The better question is:

What is this server supposed to do?

If you’re building your first home server, expanding your homelab, setting up a NAS, or trying to decide where to run your self-hosted applications, hopefully this comparison helps you choose the right foundation.

Let me know in the comments what you’re running: Proxmox, TrueNAS, Unraid, or some combination of them.

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20 Comments

@ThePerpetualDeveloper 1 month ago

You really showcased the differences so well. I dabbled with Unraid very early on and it wasn't for me. Then I went to Proxmox but needed more storage features. So I tried TrueNAS but the virtualization features were not enough for my needs. So I'm back to Proxmox on several servers. I also run a Turnkey Linux fileserver LXC on each box for SMB access when needed. Now all I need to implement is cloud backups with rclone. For me Proxmox really can do it all and does it very very well. YMMV as they say.

@84Actionjack 4 weeks ago (edited)

I use Windows Server for my NAS, TrueNAS as my backup server, and UNRAID as my remote backup server. I run docker apps on both UNRAID and TrueNAS. I use ProxMox for a dedicated hypervisor but I plan to use it to host apps with failover for those services. Been a long journey and a whole lot further to go and I've recently started to dabble in Ai. So many things to do; never enough time to burn.

@CalvinHenderson 1 month ago

Interesting update on Proxmox changes. I looked at the Truenas and Unraid as being similar. Cool info!

@mattblakeman7269 1 month ago

I mostly wanted to run Plex, and Vaultwarden. Nice easy home lab and I started with Unraid and that is still my go to for server apps. I added proxmox because even with decent hardware the Unraid VM's were a little laggy. The proxmox, Unraid combo have been great for me. Two services for two goals. Apps on one and a virtual learning environment on the other.

@blairandrews2972 2 weeks ago

started with proxmox because i need to run a bunch of different services on the same hardware. some for home, some for my small business. but i also added unraid to the mix cuz i needed a NAS and using mismatched drive sizes and abaility to add them without rebuilding pools made sense. right now unraid runs as a vm in proxmox. but im in the process of seperating them.

@klink91 1 month ago

Thanks for this video. I found your channel a little while ago and I really appreciate how you take a simple and solution-based approached on your topics. I was just thinking that you'd be able to breakdown some of these homelab OS's pretty well and you definitely did in this! I have been using a Synology NAS as my all-in-one solution for the past 8 years and with it getting older I've been looking around at what the next set-up might be. Thanks again. (also awesome Bulls hat)

@niuhooperparent 2 weeks ago

Great video. I have been a heavy user of Unraid for over 15 years. So it was way before the lifetime price of today. yet I would still pay it because its worth it to me. Hundreds of terabytes, many dockers, huge Plex Database and many VM's including training VM's and my server for our business. With AI integrated now, it's just great for me. The maturity over the years have been great and looking forward to what's next. I'm also a System Architect for a large school system and Unraid has been a life saver for my career due to experimentation of systems.

@AdamEisan 1 month ago

I started w/ Unraid. Eventually converted an old Mac mini to a Proxmox host. Then converted the Unraid server to TrueNAS and added another old PC to the mix, also w/ TrueNAS, as a backup storage server to point ZFS replications to. Since then have added a coupler newer mini PCs as PVE nodes. I run PBS on both TrueNAS servers as a VM and have redudant backup sof all my Proxmox data. Is it too much? Maybe. But it's fun and it's bene pretty reliable.

@northtribemusic 4 weeks ago (edited)

I first tried Proxmox but found it to overwhelming when I started out. I settled for TrueNAS for my media and storage server. Just bought another old PC that I will install Home Assistant, Adguard and maybe some gaming server for the kids. Have been looking into what OS I should run on it. Proxmox or Unraid. Probably will go for Unraid since I prefer more graphical interface than tinkering with terminal.

@deanbrooks929 3 weeks ago

I started with unRAID due to the fact I could use whatever hard drives I had laying around as I did not have matching drives for TrueNAS to work. But I do have a smaller TrueNAS server running now, just really do not use it to be honest. I also have a proxmox server I use for numerous VM's and LXC's. I also run proxmox backup so each VM/LXC is backed up in case I mess something up. Which I have, a few times.

@kattsplosion 1 month ago

great information. i will be buildin my server soon and am always looking for advice on what to do. I want to start on the basics first, but i get so confused as to which nas software to use.

@InnocentLock-er6et 3 weeks ago

I run both Proxmox and TrueNAS for my lab. I have an old HP Gen 8 MicroServer dedicated to TrueNAS and an old gaming PC as my Proxmox server. I have run Proxmox on the HP before and installed TrueNAS underneath, but this old server only has 2 CPU cores and 16GB of ECC DDR3. I felt it was better to run TrueNAS bare metal as I don’t really have room to experiment and run VMs on this machine.

The gaming machine on the other hand has 32GB of RAM and 8 cores / 16 threads. Plenty of room to experiment and I have a GPU in it I can pass to VMs for graphical workloads or LLM processing.

@Txbill 4 weeks ago

I’m running truenas with one vm running home assistant 👍

@szymon-i1n 4 weeks ago

Openmediavault + docker/podman compose plugin + kvm plugin

@jartran 2 weeks ago

Great video! I did have a question though, what's going on with your eyes?

@dodger7565 1 month ago

I think Unraid is the one .. Unraid makes shit so easy .. if you are able to look past the GUI .. it’s a set and forget it kind of thing .. and if GUI is your complaint .. then stick with synology qnap ugreen and them kind of things.. and there is so much support ❤