Best budget NAS hard drives
Cheapest and best value aren't the same thing. The right budget NAS drive is the lowest cost per terabyte that's still a CMR, NAS-rated disk - because an SMR bargain that drops out of your array during a rebuild costs far more than it ever saved.
The list below ranks current CMR NAS drives by live price per terabyte across the regions we track, so the order reflects what's actually good value right now.
* Shown as a full table on desktop, and as cards on tablet and phone.
| Drive | Capacity | Tech | Class | Interface | AFR | $/TB | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
ST20000NT001 Seagate IronWolf Pro
|
20 TB | CMR | NAS-Pro | SATA | - | $33.50 | $670 |
| 2 |
ST16000NT001 Seagate IronWolf Pro
|
16 TB | CMR | NAS-Pro | SATA | - | $33.75 | $540 |
| 3 |
ST24000NT002 Seagate IronWolf Pro
|
24 TB | CMR | NAS-Pro | SATA | - | $35.83 | $860 |
| 4 |
ST12000NT001 Seagate IronWolf Pro
|
12 TB | CMR | NAS-Pro | SATA | - | $38.33 | $460 |
| 5 |
WD221KFGX WD Red Pro
|
22 TB | CMR | NAS-Pro | SATA | - | $38.73 | $852 |
| 6 |
ST12000VN0008 Seagate IronWolf
|
12 TB | CMR | NAS | SATA | - | $40.06 | $481 |
| 7 |
WD181KFGX WD Red Pro
|
18 TB | CMR | NAS-Pro | SATA | - | $40.83 | $735 |
| 8 |
ST14000NT001 Seagate IronWolf Pro
|
14 TB | CMR | NAS-Pro | SATA | - | $41.01 | $574 |
| 9 |
WD161KFGX WD Red Pro
|
16 TB | CMR | NAS-Pro | SATA | - | $44.06 | $705 |
| 10 |
WD241KFGX WD Red Pro
|
24 TB | CMR | NAS-Pro | SATA | - | $44.13 | $1,059 |
Ranked by price per TB. $/TB uses the cheapest live price where available.
Getting the most terabytes per dollar
Compare $/TB, not the sticker
A 12TB drive can cost more than an 8TB and still be cheaper per terabyte - and per-terabyte is what counts for bulk storage. The table above sorts on exactly that, so the cheapest sticker price won't always sit at the top.
Don't trade reliability for a few dollars
The classic budget trap is an SMR drive or a bare desktop disk. Both are false economy in a NAS: desktop drives lack the error-recovery timing that keeps them in an array, and SMR drives can choke during a rebuild, right when you need them to hold. A drive that drops out and forces a resilver has already wiped out its savings in stress alone.
Mid-capacity is the value sweet spot
The newest, largest drives carry an early-adopter tax. Drop one or two tiers - think 8-14TB - and you usually land the best $/TB on a current, well-supported model that'll still get firmware updates for years.
Frequently asked questions
- What's the cheapest safe NAS drive?
- Look for the lowest price-per-terabyte among CMR, NAS-rated drives. Mid-capacity models (8-12TB) usually hit the best $/TB sweet spot, while the very largest drives carry a premium.
- Are SMR drives cheaper?
- Sometimes, but the savings aren't worth it for a NAS. SMR drives can stall under sustained writes and during RAID rebuilds. Stick to CMR even on a budget.
- Is it cheaper to buy fewer large drives or more small ones?
- Fewer larger drives are usually cheaper per terabyte and leave bays free for expansion, but they also mean a longer rebuild and more data at risk per drive. Balance $/TB against your redundancy plan.