NovaNAS vs TurnKey File Server
NovaNAS
novanas.orgTurnKey File Server
turnkeylinux.orgSide by side
| Figure | NovaNAS | TurnKey File Server |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 3 |
| Spec score · NAS Software | 8.5 (#3) | 7.5 (#18) |
| Purpose | NovaNAS is an open-source NAS operating system managed through a desktop-like web interface. | TurnKey File Server is a ready-to-use network attached storage appliance combining Windows-compatible file sharing with a web-based file manager. |
| Security | The site lists UFW firewall controls, DynDNS, and automatic Let's Encrypt SSL/TLS certificate management. | Automatic security updates are listed as an appliance feature, and passwords are set during system initialization rather than supplied as defaults. |
| Support | The README points users to documentation and GitHub Issues for support and bug reports. | The maker describes free community help through its website and offers Hub paid plans with email or priority support. |
Plans
TurnKey File Server
- Hub Backup and Migration — FreeFree
- Hub Cloud Servers — FreeFree
- TurnKey File Server applianceFree
In their own words
NovaNAS
NovaNAS is a free, open-source NAS operating system managed through a desktop-like web interface. Its browser file manager supports browsing, uploading, downloading, and previewing files. Storage features include ZFS and EXT4, RAID management, and SMB/CIFS and NFS shared folders with access controls. A community app store offers one-click deployment of Docker applications such as Plex, Nextcloud, and Pi-hole. The project describes automated backups to external drives or cloud storage, and network backups between NovaNAS systems using API key authentication. Security and network tools include UFW firewall management, DynDNS, automatic Let's Encrypt certificates, and WebAuthn/FIDO2 passkey login. The interface monitors CPU, memory, disk, and network activity in real time. NovaNAS currently supports Debian 13 only, and its installer is intended for a fresh system, not an existing one. Minimum requirements are 2 GB RAM, a 1-core CPU, and a 20 GB system drive, plus data drives. Virtualization, historical monitoring, and scheduled tasks are listed as coming soon.
TurnKey File Server
TurnKey File Server is a free Linux appliance for network-attached storage on self-hosted systems. It combines Windows-compatible file sharing with a browser-based file manager and supports SMB, FTP, SFTP, NFS, WebDAV, and rsync. The WebDAV CGI interface offers web access, previews for major formats, and drag-and-drop handling. Samba is preconfigured with user home directories and public storage, using /srv/storage as its default shared path. Webmin includes a Samba configuration module. The appliance also provides SSL, zip, rar, and bz2 compression, plus a utility for converting text file endings between UNIX and DOS formats. Automatic security updates are included, and passwords are set during initialization. TurnKey supplies a 723MB ISO and supports TurnKey Hub deployment on Amazon EC2. Documented build types include bare metal, VirtualBox, VMware, OpenStack, Proxmox, Xen, LXC, and Docker. The appliance is free and open source. Hub Cloud Servers — Free costs nothing, with AWS usage billed separately.