ZimaOS: Lightweight NAS OS from the makers of CasaOS
ZimaOS grew out of CasaOS into a full operating system: storage pools, shares and a one-click Docker app store behind a single dashboard. The free edition caps you at 4 disks and 3 users; a $29 lifetime Plus licence lifts the limits, and Zima's own hardware includes it.
Is ZimaOS right for you?
Choose ZimaOS if: You want simple app hosting through a one-click store with very little setup.
Pros
- One-click Docker app store behind a single dashboard
- Free edition, with a $29 lifetime Plus licence
- Runs on ZimaBoard, ZimaCube and most x86 PCs
Cons
- Free edition caps you at 4 disks and 3 users
- Mixed drive sizes only via JBOD, without redundancy
- Proprietary software
Compare with other NAS OS
See how ZimaOS differs on storage, licensing and what it runs on.
| Spec | ZimaOS | Unraid | TrueNAS | HexOS | openmediavault | FygoOS | MOS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free, $29 Plus | From $49 | Free | $199 lifetime | Free | Free, $199 lifetime | Free |
| Licence | Proprietary | Proprietary | GPL-3.0 / LGPL-3.0 | Proprietary | GPL-3.0 | Proprietary | AGPL-3.0 |
| Based on | Buildroot | Slackware | Debian | TrueNAS | Debian | Linux | Devuan |
| Boots from | SSD / NVMe | USB / SSD / NVMe | SSD / NVMe | SSD / NVMe | USB / SSD / NVMe | SSD / NVMe | USB / SSD / NVMe |
| Storage | RAID, ZFS or JBOD | Parity array or ZFS | ZFS | ZFS | RAID, mergerfs, SnapRAID | ext4, Btrfs or ZFS | XFS, Btrfs, mergerfs, SnapRAID, parity array |
| Mixed drive sizes | Via JBOD, without redundancy | Yes | Each vdev uses its smallest drive | Each vdev uses its smallest drive | With mergerfs | Not documented | Yes |
| Virtual machines | Yes (ZVM) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Via plugin (KVM) | Yes (best on x86) | Yes (QEMU/KVM) |
| Apps | One-click store (Docker) | Community Apps (Docker) | TrueNAS Apps (Docker) | Curated one-click apps | Docker Compose plugin | App Center and Docker | MOS Hub (Docker templates), LXC |
| Architecture | x86 only | x86 only | x86 only | x86 only | x86 and ARM | x86 and ARM | x86 and ARM |
| Min RAM | 4 GB | 4 GB | 8 GB | 8 GB | 1 GB | 2 GB | 4 GB |
| Best for | Simple app hosting with little setup | Growing a pool from mismatched drives | Data integrity, snapshots and replication | TrueNAS without the learning curve | Low-power ARM boards and old PCs | Photo backup and file sharing with little setup | Unraid-style storage without a licence fee |