This post was done in partnership with Wirecutter. When readers choose to buy Wirecutter's independently chosen editorial picks, Wirecutter and Engadget may earn affiliate commission. After testing five new two-bay network-attached storage (NAS) devices and comparing them against our previous picks, we found that the Synology DiskStation DS218 is the best home NAS for most people. The fastest NAS we tested, it offers powerful hardware for the price, includes AES-NI hardware encryption acceleration for added security, has upgradable RAM, and comes with software that's easy to use. In addition to speed, the Synology DiskStation DS218 offers a variety of backup and syncing options, plus it has mobile apps for media streaming, file management, and more. It also supports a wide range of third-party apps, such as Plex, BitTorrent Sync, and GitLab. You can use the DS218 as a home backup device, a media streamer, a mail server, a website-hosting device, a BitTorrent box, or a video-surveillance recorder--nearly anything you can do with a Linux computer, while consuming about as much electricity as a couple of LED bulbs. The QNAP TS-251B is a good choice if the DS218 is out of stock, or if you want to display media on a TV. It is almost as fast during file transfers as the DS218 and adds an HDMI-out port so you can hook it up to a TV for media playback. It uses the same QTS management interface as QNAP's other NAS devices--we like Synology's DSM software a little more, but it's largely a matter of preference. If you need more storage space, the Synology DiskStation DS418play uses the same CPU, hardware encryption engine, and hardware transcoding engine as the DS218, but it adds two drive bays.