Synology
Synology DS223
- Native integration
- Local control
- Ethernet
Prices verified October 2026
Our verdict
The sensible first NAS for a Home Assistant house: two bays, quiet, and DSM is the most polished NAS software going. Home Assistant has a first-party Synology DSM integration that pulls drive health, temperatures and volume usage, exposes Surveillance Station cameras and can even store HA backups on the box. It is a modest ARM machine, so don't expect it to transcode 4K or run heavy Docker stacks, and DSM is a closed ecosystem: you are buying into Synology's software and, increasingly, its drive preferences. Amazon UK stock of the bare diskless unit is patchy, so check the buying options before assuming the price.
What can Home Assistant control on the Synology DS223?
| Control | Type | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Disk and volume health | Sensor / binary sensor | Per-disk SMART status, temperature, bad-sector and remaining-life warnings plus volume usage: the useful part for a data-loss alert. |
| Surveillance Station cameras | Camera | One camera entity per camera added in Surveillance Station, plus a Home mode switch. |
| Reboot / shutdown | Button | Restart or power off the NAS from HA; handy in a UPS shutdown automation. |
The core Synology DSM integration is local polling over the DSM API. It gives you CPU, memory, network, uptime, per-disk SMART/temperature and per-volume sensors, binary sensors for drive warnings, reboot and shutdown buttons, a Surveillance Station Home mode switch and one camera per Surveillance Station camera. Basic functions need an administrator account (you can deny that account web and file access), and if 2-step verification is enforced you must log in once to set up the one-time password before adding it in HA. HA can also use a shared folder as a backup location.
Specs
| bays | 2-bay desktop NAS (diskless unit) |
|---|---|
| note | Exact CPU/RAM/port counts not re-verified on the live listing; see Synology's spec sheet |
| network | 1x Gigabit Ethernet |
| ha integration | Official Synology DSM integration (local polling) |
How does the Synology DS223 compare?
| Product | From | Protocol | Local control | Integration |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Synology DS223 (this product) | — | Ethernet | Yes | Native |
| Amazon eero Max 7 | £599.99 | Wi-Fi, Ethernet | Cloud | HACS |
| Amazon eero Pro 6E | £179.99 | Wi-Fi, Ethernet | Cloud | HACS |
| ASUS RT-BE58U | £124.99 | Wi-Fi, Ethernet | Yes | Native |
Synology
Synology DS223
Check price at Amazon UK