Cloud NAS for Video Editing Teams: On-Prem NAS vs Hybrid vs Cloud NAS (2026)

A cloud NAS is the better choice for video editing teams with remote editors or no IT staff, and an office NAS from Synology or QNAP still wins for one-site teams cutting high-bitrate media over 10GbE. If you want a cloud NAS that also handles review and AI search, Shade starts at $29.75 per seat per month.

Key takeaways

• On raw storage, an office NAS is cheaper. In our 3-year model for 10 editors and 20 TB, a Synology NAS with an offsite backup costs about $22,062, and almost half of that is IT time.

• Per-TB cloud NAS pricing adds up past 10 TB. LucidLink Business and Suite Studios each come to about $63,504 over 3 years for the same team, including a backup copy.

• Bandwidth decides what you can edit remotely. One stream of UHD ProRes 422 HQ at 30 fps needs 884 Mbps. A 1080p H.264 proxy needs about 8 Mbps.

• Hybrid works best for multi-office teams that already own NAS hardware, not for individual remote editors, because Synology Hybrid Share mounts on a NAS, not on a laptop.

• A cloud NAS pays off when it replaces more than storage: remote access, review links and search across the library.

All prices are list prices in USD, checked on vendor pages on November 9, 2026. Hardware prices are street-price estimates and change often. Shade does not publish its add-on storage price, so ask for a quote before comparing totals.

What is a cloud NAS, and how is it different from a NAS?

A NAS (network-attached storage) is a box of drives in your office that editors mount over the local network. A cloud NAS is cloud storage that mounts on each computer like a network drive. Files live in the cloud, the service streams the parts your editing software reads, and it caches them locally. A hybrid setup keeps a NAS in the office but connects it to cloud storage, so the cloud holds the full data set and the NAS holds a fast local cache.

Shade's own file system, ShadeFS, works the cloud NAS way: it mounts on your computer like a local drive, streams only the bytes you need with no full download or sync first, and lets you pin files to a local cache for offline or low-bandwidth editing without relinking.

On-prem NAS vs hybrid vs cloud NAS: which should your team choose?

Start with where your editors sit, then look at cost and IT effort.

Choose an on-prem NAS if most editing happens in one building, you cut full-resolution UHD or RAW all day, your library is large and growing fast, and someone on the team owns IT.

Choose hybrid if you have 2 or more offices that each already run a Synology or QNAP NAS, and you want one shared data set with local speed at each site.

Choose a cloud NAS if editors work from home or travel, you hire freelancers per project, footage arrives from the field, or nobody wants to own a server closet. Shade is the pick if you also need review and approval and AI search without buying separate tools; LucidLink if you only need streaming and already use Frame.io.

How much does a NAS cost vs a cloud NAS over 3 years?

Here is a worked example. Change the inputs to match your team.

Assumptions: 10 people editing, 20 TB of active media, 3 years, list or typical street prices (hardware prices are estimates), no growth in data. IT time is valued at $75 per hour. IT hours are our estimate, not a measured figure, and the model leaves out egress fees and data growth. Every option includes a 3-2-1 backup copy so the comparison is fair.

On-prem NAS (Synology DS1825+ class, 8 bays)

If you have remote editors pulling from the office NAS, add a faster office connection with high upload speed. At an assumed $150 per month, that is another $5,400, for $27,462 in total.

Hybrid (same NAS plus Synology C2 Hybrid Share)

Hybrid Share stores the full data set in Synology C2 and keeps a local cache on the NAS. You still need a separate backup copy, because the cloud copy is the primary. That means about 40 TB of C2 OneStorage (20 TB for Hybrid Share, 20 TB for Hyper Backup): 40 x $79.99 x 3 = $9,599. With the same hardware, power and IT time, the 3-year total is about $26,862. Remote editors still need a Synology NAS at their location to mount Hybrid Share. For more, see our Synology C2 vs LucidLink for video guide.

Cloud NAS options

Summary

Shade does not publish its add-on storage price, so ask for a quote before comparing totals. Shade's total will be higher once you add storage beyond the 5 TB included. LucidLink's $27 Business rate is unlabeled on its pricing page, which also shows $32, so the LucidLink totals are estimates on the $27 rate. Suite Studios' site also shows a $40 per TB figure in its page description; this article uses the $75 per TB plan price.

What the numbers say:

• IT time is the biggest hidden cost of a NAS. At 4 hours a month it is about half the on-prem total. If your editors do this work themselves, the cost is still real; it just comes out of editing time.

• Per-TB cloud pricing is the biggest cost of a cloud NAS. LucidLink charges $8 per extra 100 GB on Business, and Suite Studios charges $75 per TB. Both would cost less on a smaller library, and LucidLink suggests talking to sales above 25 TB.

• Add review before you compare. None of the NAS options, LucidLink or Suite Studios includes client review. At the listed $25 per member rate (check the billing period), Frame.io Team for 10 members is $25 x 10 x 36 = $9,000 over 3 years. Shade includes review, 1080p proxies and AI search in the seat price.

• Growth changes the answer. The NAS in this model has room for about 48 TB before you buy anything new. Cloud costs rise with every TB you add.

How much bandwidth does video editing need?

The codec decides the bandwidth, so size your network or internet connection around the formats you actually cut. Rates below are per stream.

Sources: ProRes rates are Apple's target data rates from the Apple ProRes White Paper (April 2022). Blackmagic RAW rates are Blackmagic Design's published storage rates for the Blackmagic Cinema Camera 6K, based on 30 fps; Blackmagic notes actual rates depend on the image. The H.264 figure is YouTube's recommended bitrate for 1080p uploads at standard frame rates, used here as a stand-in for an editing proxy.

How many streams fit on each connection?

Theoretical streams at full line rate, before protocol overhead and disk limits. Real numbers will be lower.

Two things follow:

1. In the office, the NAS port is the bottleneck. If 10 editors each play one UHD ProRes 422 HQ stream, the NAS has to deliver about 8.8 Gbps. That nearly fills a single 10GbE port, so a 1GbE or 2.5GbE NAS will not keep up.

2. For remote editing, each editor's own connection is the bottleneck. On a 300 Mbps home connection you cannot play UHD ProRes HQ in real time from any cloud. You cut on proxies, or pin the full-resolution files to a local cache before you need them. Shade creates 1080p proxies automatically and lets you pin files for offline work. Shade's help docs suggest 25+ Mbps for 1080p H.264 and about 1 Gbps or more for 4K ProRes.

Which NAS is best for video editing in an office?

If you decide to keep editing on premises, buy for the network first and the box second.

• Network: 10GbE at the NAS at minimum. 2.5GbE at each edit station handles proxies, HD and a single UHD ProRes stream; multi-cam UHD and high-data-rate RAW need 10GbE to the station.

• Drives: RAID 6 or Synology SHR-2, so the array survives 2 drive failures, plus a cold spare on the shelf.

• Cache: SSD caching helps when several editors scrub different clips at once.

• Bays: Buy at least 2 more bays than you need today.

Synology DS1825+: an 8-bay NAS with an AMD Ryzen V1500B, 8 GB of ECC memory (expandable to 32 GB), 2 x 2.5GbE ports and a PCIe slot for a 10GbE card, at about $1,149. Note that Synology restricted 2025 Plus models to its own validated drives in April 2025, then lifted that restriction for hard drives in DSM 7.3 in October 2025; third-party M.2 NVMe drives still need validation for advanced features such as cache.

QNAP TVS-h874T: an 8-bay NAS with Thunderbolt 4, the ZFS-based QuTS hero operating system and Intel Core i7 or i9 options. It costs considerably more but suits Mac-based suites that want direct Thunderbolt connections. QNAP lists Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve and Final Cut Pro compatibility.

Pair either one with an offsite copy: Synology C2 for Synology, or myQNAPcloud One for QNAP.

When is an on-prem NAS still the right call?

Be honest about this before you migrate. Keep, or buy, an office NAS when:

1. Everyone edits in one building and cuts full-resolution media all day. Multi-cam UHD ProRes HQ or 6K RAW over 10GbE is hard to match from any cloud.

2. Your library is large and growing fast. Drives at about $30 per TB are a one-time cost. Per-TB cloud fees are monthly, forever.

3. Your internet is slow, capped or unreliable. Rural studios, ships, and remote locations are better served by local storage.

4. A client contract requires on-prem or air-gapped storage. Check the contract first. Many studio security requirements accept certified cloud vendors; Shade is SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001 and TPN certified, and HIPAA and GDPR compliant.

5. You have IT staff or a managed service provider who already looks after servers.

Even then, most teams add a cloud layer for remote access, client review or the offsite copy. Moving off TrueNAS specifically? See the TrueNAS alternative guide.

What are the hybrid options?

Hybrid setups keep office speed and add cloud scale. Here is what each vendor offers today.

Synology C2 Hybrid Share. Stores a shared folder in Synology C2 and caches it on up to 10 Synology NAS hosts at once, with global file locking for teams collaborating across sites. It needs a NAS that supports Btrfs, 2 GB of memory, DSM 7.0.1 or later, a local cache of at least 300 GB, and a C2 OneStorage plan. OneStorage costs $7.99 per TB per month or $79.99 per TB per year, from 1 TB to 200 TB. Since June 22, 2026, new users need OneStorage for Hybrid Share and Hyper Backup. Users connect through the NAS (SMB, AFP, NFS, WebDAV, File Station or Synology Drive), so a remote editor without a NAS does not get the local cache. For outside access, many teams rely on QuickConnect; see Shade vs Synology QuickConnect. For a step-by-step on reaching an office NAS from home, see how to access a NAS remotely for video editing.

QNAP HybridMount and myQNAPcloud One. HybridMount connects a QNAP NAS to cloud storage such as Amazon S3, Azure, Google Drive or S3-compatible services, and in gateway mode keeps a local cache for frequently used files. It includes 2 free gateway connections, with more sold as licenses. myQNAPcloud One, launched in February 2026, is QNAP's own storage for NAS backups and S3-compatible object storage, from $8.39 per TB per month, or about $6.99 per TB per month on annual billing (QNAP's launch release says the annual plan saves up to 18%), with no transfer or API fees. See Shade vs myQNAPcloud.

LucidLink TeamCache. An add-on on LucidLink's Enterprise plan that caches LucidLink files on premises and streams them to local users. See Shade vs LucidLink.

Suite Studios onsite caching. Included on Suite Studios Enterprise, which is custom priced.

Shade Shared Cache. An on-prem server that lets teammates on the same LAN share files that another team member has already accessed. The second person gets the file from the cache at LAN speed instead of pulling it from the cloud again. It can cache to a local disk or an on-prem S3 target. See Shade's help docs for setup.

Which cloud NAS is best for video editing teams?

Three services are built to mount and stream video for teams. Frame.io now offers a mounted drive as well, within a smaller storage allowance.

Frame.io Drive is still rolling out across plans, so check frame.io/pricing for your tier. LucidLink Business shows "$27" on its pricing page without a billing label; we treat it as the annual rate.

Best for:

• Shade: teams of 3 to 15 that want the cloud NAS, client review and search in one product. It is SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001 and TPN certified, and HIPAA and GDPR compliant. See pricing.

• LucidLink: teams that only need streaming and already pay for a review tool.

• Suite Studios: small libraries with many occasional users.

• Frame.io Drive: Adobe teams whose main need is review, with light mounted access, or teams that need Camera to Cloud, which Shade does not have.

"If you're not using Shade, you should be. We used to lose about 60% of the footage we shot. Now, we upload from the field and edit in real time, so we're finally getting real value from what we produce. Our clients are way happier for it." Alexander Volberding, Video Director, FieldWrk

For a wider list that includes sync tools and object storage, see our guide to the best cloud storage for video editing.

How do you replace an office NAS without disrupting projects?

If you are looking for a Synology alternative for video editing, you do not have to switch everything at once. A safe sequence:

1. Split active from archive. Most NAS volumes are mostly finished projects. Only active projects need to move first.

2. Pilot one project. Move one live project and 2 or 3 editors to the cloud NAS. Time how long it takes to open the project and scrub footage on their real home connections.

3. Keep the NAS as your on-site backup. It becomes copy 2 in your 3-2-1 backup instead of the working drive.

4. Point the offsite copy at cheap storage. Synology Hyper Backup or QNAP Hybrid Backup Sync can send it to Synology C2, myQNAPcloud One, or S3-compatible storage such as Backblaze B2 ($6.95 per TB per month) or Wasabi ($7.99 per TB per month).

5. Retire remote access workarounds. Once editors work from the cloud NAS, you can turn off VPN or relay access to the office box.

Shade Enterprise includes data migration and a dedicated account manager, which helps when you are moving tens of terabytes. Ask Shade for a migration plan and timeline for your volume.

Who Shade is not for

• One-site teams cutting 6K RAW at full resolution all day. An office NAS on 10GbE or faster is the better tool.

• Teams with a very large, mostly static archive. A NAS plus object storage costs less per TB.

• Teams that need more than 15 seats or their own S3 bucket on day one. That requires Shade Enterprise, which is custom priced.

• Teams that only want streaming and are happy with their review tool. LucidLink is the established choice.

Frequently asked questions

Which NAS is best for video editing?

For a team editing in one office, pick an 8-bay NAS with room for a 10GbE card, such as the Synology DS1825+ (about $1,149, with 2 x 2.5GbE ports and a PCIe slot for 10GbE), or the QNAP TVS-h874T if you edit on Macs over Thunderbolt. Size the network first: one stream of UHD ProRes 422 HQ at 30 fps needs 884 Mbps, which nearly fills 1GbE. If your editors work remotely, a cloud NAS such as Shade avoids the hardware altogether.

What is the best cloud storage for video editing?

The best cloud storage for video editing mounts as a drive and streams footage instead of syncing whole files. Shade fits teams that also want review and AI search, from $29.75 per seat per month. LucidLink is the established pick for streaming alone, and Suite Studios bills a flat $75 per TB with 5 users included. For backup and archive, Backblaze B2 and Wasabi cost about $7 to $8 per TB per month.

Which NAS is best for 4K video streaming?

For editing 4K over a network, the network matters more than the NAS model. One stream of UHD ProRes 422 HQ at 30 fps needs 884 Mbps and Blackmagic RAW 12:1 at 4K needs about 280 Mbps, so plan on 10GbE at the NAS, 10GbE or 2.5GbE at each edit station, and SSD caching for several editors. For playing 4K movies to TVs with Plex, choose a NAS with hardware video transcoding instead.

What is a cloud NAS?

A cloud NAS is cloud storage that mounts on your computer like a network drive. Files live in the cloud, and the service streams the parts you open and caches them locally, so a team can share one set of folders from anywhere without a server in the office. Shade, LucidLink and Suite Studios are cloud NAS services built for video.

Is a cloud NAS cheaper than a Synology NAS?

Not on raw storage. In our 3-year model for 10 editors and 20 TB, an office Synology NAS with an offsite C2 backup costs about $22,062, about half of it IT time, while LucidLink Business and Suite Studios each cost about $63,504 with a backup copy. A cloud NAS pays off when editors work remotely, when you have no IT staff, or when it replaces separate review and search tools, which Shade includes.

Can I keep my Synology or QNAP NAS if I move to a cloud NAS?

Yes, and you should. Move active projects to the cloud NAS and keep the office NAS as the on-site backup and archive, which covers the second copy in a 3-2-1 backup. Then send a third copy offsite to Synology C2, myQNAPcloud One, Backblaze B2 or Wasabi.

How fast does internet need to be for remote video editing?

Remote editors on proxies need little: a 1080p H.264 proxy runs at about 8 Mbps per stream. Full-resolution media needs much more: ProRes 422 HQ is about 220 Mbps at 1080p 30 fps and 884 Mbps at UHD 30 fps. On a typical 300 Mbps home connection, cut on proxies or pin full-resolution files to a local cache before you need them.