Synology Active Backup for SaaS vs TurnKey File Server

Synology Active Backup for SaaS backs up Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace data to Synology NAS servers for recovery after data loss or service downtime. Microsoft 365 coverage includes OneDrive for Business, SharePoint Online, Exchange Online, and Teams. Google Workspace coverage includes Drive, Gmail, Contacts, and Calendar, including shared drives, labels, and attachments. Microsoft 365 backups can run continuously, manually, or on a schedule; continuous intervals adjust from one to ten minutes based on detected API request rates. Both services support file versioning, and Google Workspace versions can be retained for a chosen period or kept in full. The Microsoft 365 Recovery Portal lets administrators and employees restore or export backed-up data, with self-service access dependent on configuration. The product is a free add-on for a compatible Synology NAS, with unlimited accounts subject to NAS storage capacity. Active Backup for Microsoft 365 requires DSM 6.1-15217 or later. Deduplication requires an x64 NAS using Btrfs, and neither service supports secondary backups. Google Workspace setup requires configuring the Drive SDK API and creating a service key.

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.