NovaNAS vs ZetaNAS
NovaNAS
novanas.orgZetaNAS
zetanas.comSide by side
| Figure | NovaNAS | ZetaNAS |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | $99/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | — |
| API | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 3 |
| Spec score · NAS Software | 8.5 (#3) | 7.5 (#19) |
| Audience | The site describes NovaNAS as a free, open-source option for DIY hardware and serious home or small-business storage. | The maker describes ZetaNAS as intended for SMBs, startups, and teams using AI/ML workloads. |
| Purpose | NovaNAS is an open-source NAS operating system managed through a desktop-like web interface. | ZetaNAS is an open-source NAS for SMBs and startups that combines file sharing, team collaboration, and AI/ML data pipelines. |
| Security | The site lists UFW firewall controls, DynDNS, and automatic Let's Encrypt SSL/TLS certificate management. | The maker lists EC replication, disk health monitoring, fault isolation, access control, and audit capabilities as security and reliability features. |
Plans
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.
ZetaNAS
ZetaNAS is an open-source network-attached storage platform for SMBs, startups, and teams running AI or machine-learning workloads. It combines file sharing, collaboration, and data pipelines with native S3 and POSIX access, plus NFS/PNFS support. The system runs on mainstream x86 or ARM hardware and can expand from one server to distributed clusters. Built-in deduplication, erasure coding, and intelligent compression are described as reducing physical storage use by 30% or more. Security and reliability features include EC replication, disk-health monitoring, fault isolation, access control, and auditing. Media tools provide multi-device sync, version history, previews, and chunked transfer. Shared workspaces add real-time synchronization and granular access control. Medical deployments support DICOM and WSI data, annotation, and quality control. AI workloads can stream through S3 and FUSE to GPU nodes. A Docker-based app store manages extensions.