openmediavault vs TrueNAS
Pros and cons
Each system's own strengths and weaknesses, plus the specs where openmediavault and TrueNAS differ.
openmediavault
Pros
- Free and open source
- Runs on ARM boards and needs only 1 GB of RAM
- Drive protection and pooling through plugins
- Running on ARM boards
- Booting from a USB stick
Cons
- Docker and VMs need plugins
- Mixing drive sizes needs a plugin
TrueNAS
Pros
- Free and open source
- Detects and repairs corrupted files, with quick snapshots and copies to another machine
- Docker apps and VMs built in
Cons
- Drives in a group should match in size
- Needs at least 8 GB of RAM
- Must boot from an SSD or NVMe drive
openmediavault vs TrueNAS: specs side by side
Every setting for both systems in one table, from how they pool drives to what they boot from. Values in bold are where one has the edge.
| Spec | ||
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Low-power ARM boards and old PCs | Data integrity, snapshots and replication |
| Price | Free | Free |
| Licence | GPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 / LGPL-3.0 |
| Based on | Debian | Debian |
| Apps | Docker Compose plugin | TrueNAS Apps (Docker) |
| Boots from | Advantage: USB / SSD / NVMe | SSD / NVMe |
| Storage | RAID, mergerfs, SnapRAID | ZFS |
| Mixed drive sizes | With mergerfs | Each vdev uses its smallest drive |
| Virtual machines | Via plugin (KVM) | Yes |
| Architecture | Advantage: x86 and ARM | x86 only |
| Min hardware | 1 GB RAM | 8 GB RAM |
Updated