Synology hardware is still some of the tidiest small-form NAS gear you can buy. The bundled DSM apps are another story. Photo indexing has fallen behind Immich, Video Station’s transcoding is fragile in 2026, and Note Station never got a mobile client anyone loves. The good news is the same box runs the open-source alternatives just fine through Container Manager. We picked eight of them, each mapped to a specific DSM package the community has now clearly outrun.
What to look for in a DSM package replacement
Not every open-source app is worth swapping for the DSM one. The good ones tend to share the same handful of qualities.
- A Docker image that runs on Synology’s Container Manager without patching
- A mobile client the household will actually use, not a web view stuffed in a wrapper
- Import from Synology’s own database or export tools, so old data comes along
- Backup and restore worth trusting when the box next reboots after an update
- CPU and memory footprints that leave room for the rest of DSM
- Community large enough that the fixes to DSM oddities are already documented
Quick comparison
| App | Replaces | Free plan | Standout feature |
|---|---|---|---|
| Immich | Synology Photos | Yes | Face and location grouping that actually keeps up |
| Jellyfin | Video Station | Yes | Free clients everywhere, no license changes |
| Navidrome | Audio Station | Yes | Subsonic API for every music client |
| Paperless-ngx | Note Station scanning | Yes | Real OCR and tag rules |
| Nextcloud | Synology Drive | Yes | Full office suite plus sync |
| Vaultwarden | C2 Password | Yes | Compatible with Bitwarden apps |
| Frigate | Surveillance Station | Yes | Local AI object detection |
| Home Assistant | DSM smart home tie-ins | Yes | Runs Zigbee, Z-Wave, and Matter locally |
The apps
1. Immich — best replacement for Synology Photos
Immich is the reason most Synology owners now leave Synology Photos disabled. The mobile client backs up new photos with a foreground service that reliably survives Android’s battery optimizations, the timeline scrolls smoothly through tens of thousands of images, and the machine learning tier (face, object, and location search) runs entirely on the NAS.
Where it falls short: Face grouping is competitive with Google Photos but still trails on very similar-looking people. Shared albums with non-users require a public link.
Platforms: Docker on DSM 7.2 or newer. Mobile clients on iOS and Android.
Pricing: Free, AGPL-3.0.
Download: immich.app
Bottom line: The single biggest quality-of-life upgrade a Synology owner can make in 2026.
2. Jellyfin — best replacement for Video Station
Jellyfin streams your own library to a TV, phone, or browser and does not care what codec you threw at it. Intel Quick Sync transcoding works out of the box on the same Synology hardware where Video Station is now maintenance-only. The clients are free on every platform, and there is no paid tier waiting for you at any playback threshold.
Where it falls short: Metadata scraping is more manual than Plex’s out of the box. Live TV plus DVR takes some patience.
Platforms: Docker on DSM. Native clients for Apple TV, Roku, Fire TV, Android TV, mobile, and web.
Pricing: Free, GPL-2.0.
Download: jellyfin.org
Bottom line: The pragmatic answer for anyone who wants a working media library on their existing NAS.
3. Navidrome — best replacement for Audio Station
Navidrome speaks the Subsonic API, which is what most third-party music apps target. Point Symfonium, Feishin, or play:Sub at your NAS and you have a private streaming stack that indexes tens of thousands of tracks quickly. Playlists sync across devices without a login to any cloud.
Where it falls short: Discovery of new music is not the goal. If Spotify’s algorithm is why you subscribe, this is not a swap.
Platforms: Docker on DSM. Any Subsonic-compatible mobile or desktop app.
Pricing: Free, GPL-3.0.
Download: navidrome.org
Bottom line: The best library-first replacement for Audio Station and Spotify’s owned-music role.
4. Paperless-ngx — best replacement for Note Station’s scanning tier
Paperless-ngx does the one thing Note Station was often used for: ingesting scans, OCR’ing them, tagging them by rule, and letting you search a decade of paperwork in a second. It is not a note-taking app; it is a document archive that finally treats OCR as a first-class citizen.
Where it falls short: Handwritten notes are a poor fit. Rule tuning takes a few weeks of real use.
Platforms: Docker on DSM. Web interface, no first-party mobile app.
Pricing: Free, GPL-3.0.
Download: docs.paperless-ngx.com
Bottom line: The best answer for retiring a physical filing cabinet on a Synology.
5. Nextcloud — best replacement for Synology Drive
Nextcloud sync just works on desktop and mobile, and the app catalog turns a NAS into a light productivity suite: calendars, contacts, notes, and collaborative document editing via Collabora or OnlyOffice. External sharing links behave the way Dropbox users expect once you get TLS in front of the container.
Where it falls short: Setup requires a reverse proxy and a real domain if you want external sharing. Memory footprint is higher than Drive.
Platforms: Docker on DSM. Native clients for every platform.
Pricing: Free, AGPL-3.0.
Download: nextcloud.com
Bottom line: The right pick when Synology Drive stops feeling like enough.
6. Vaultwarden — best replacement for C2 Password
Vaultwarden is a memory-light server that speaks the Bitwarden API. The official Bitwarden apps on every platform point at your NAS with no changes, and you get password sync, 2FA storage, and family sharing without a subscription. Backups are a small SQLite file, which is a rare pleasure among self-hosted services.
Where it falls short: You now own recovery. Losing the server and the local vault at the same time means losing the passwords.
Platforms: Docker on DSM. Bitwarden clients everywhere.
Pricing: Free, AGPL-3.0.
Download: github.com/dani-garcia/vaultwarden
Bottom line: The cheapest, cleanest way to give a household five password-manager accounts.
7. Frigate — best replacement for Surveillance Station
Frigate turns any RTSP camera into a smart camera. Object detection runs locally on an integrated GPU or a Coral TPU, alerts fire on real events instead of every leaf, and the integration with Home Assistant makes automation trivial. On the same Synology, it is more responsive than Surveillance Station.
Where it falls short: Coral or a capable iGPU is effectively required. Camera compatibility is limited to what speaks RTSP.
Platforms: Docker on DSM. Web UI plus Home Assistant integration.
Pricing: Free, MIT license.
Download: frigate.video
Bottom line: The right pick for anyone who wanted Surveillance Station’s paid features but not the license cost.
8. Home Assistant — best replacement for DSM smart-home add-ons
Home Assistant owns the self-hosted smart-home space in 2026, and the Container Manager install runs happily on a Synology. Zigbee, Z-Wave, Matter, and Thread all live on your NAS instead of a vendor cloud, and the Frigate integration above ties video events into the same automations.
Where it falls short: Voice assistants still take work to set up well. Every major update wants a small yak shave.
Platforms: Docker on DSM, or a full HAOS on a dedicated device. Companion apps for iOS and Android.
Pricing: Free. Optional $6.50 monthly cloud for remote access.
Download: home-assistant.io
Bottom line: The right foundation for any smart home your NAS is going to touch.
How to pick the right stack
- Replace Synology Photos first. Immich is where the value shows up on day one.
- Add Jellyfin and Navidrome together, since they share the same storage.
- Layer Vaultwarden and Nextcloud for the productivity side.
- Bring in Paperless-ngx if you already scan documents.
- Add Frigate and Home Assistant if the NAS also plays smart-home hub.
FAQ
Do these run on older Synology hardware? Anything from a DS220+ or newer with Container Manager will run this list. Older ARM boxes struggle with Immich’s ML pipeline; disable that feature or offload to a Coral.
Will DSM updates break my Docker apps? DSM 7.2 updates have been well-behaved for Container Manager. Keep compose files in a mounted volume so upgrades never touch them.
How do I move photos from Synology Photos to Immich? Immich has a CLI importer that reads the DSM library folder directly. Point it at the same volume and let it index; original files are not copied.
What about performance next to Synology’s native apps? On the same hardware, Immich indexes faster and Jellyfin transcodes at higher quality than Synology’s native tier for most codecs.
Can I run these behind Synology’s own reverse proxy? Yes, and it is the least-friction way to get TLS. The built-in reverse proxy in DSM points at each container’s port.
Is any of this a risk to my data? Every service is stateful. Follow the same 3-2-1 backup rule you already apply to your NAS. Snapshots to an offsite location cover most of the risk.
