DAS (direct-attached storage) is a drive or multi-drive enclosure plugged straight into one Mac over Thunderbolt or USB. A NAS (network-attached storage) is a small computer full of drives that sits on your network, so several Macs and phones can reach it at once. DAS is faster and cheaper for one person at one desk. A NAS is better when more than one computer needs the files, or when you want storage that runs its own backups and checks.
For a solo photographer or editor, a DAS is usually the right first purchase. For a small studio, or a home with several Macs, a NAS starts to earn its extra cost and setup time.
TL;DR: DAS: plugs into one Mac (Thunderbolt or USB), behaves like a local drive, fast (a 4-bay Thunderbolt HDD array often reaches several hundred MB/s), cheaper, no network setup. NAS: on your network for many devices, speed limited by the network (about 110 MB/s on 1 Gigabit Ethernet, around 280 MB/s on 2.5GbE, 1,000+ MB/s on 10GbE), costs more, runs its own apps, snapshots, and scrubs. Neither is a backup by itself: RAID protects against a dead disk, not deleted or damaged files.
NAS vs DAS at a Glance
| DAS | NAS | |
|---|---|---|
| Connects to | One Mac, by cable | Your network (Ethernet or Wi-Fi) |
| Who can use it | The Mac it's plugged into | Every device on the network, plus remote access if you set it up |
| Typical speed | Limited by the drives and the cable | Limited by the network |
| Shows up on Mac as | A local drive | A network share (SMB) |
| Setup | Plug in, format | Install drives, set up the NAS software, user accounts, shares |
| Runs its own software | No | Yes: backup jobs, snapshots, cloud sync, media servers |
| Cost | Lower | Higher (it's a computer plus drives) |
| Works when the Mac is off | No | Yes |
How Fast Is a NAS vs a DAS on a Mac?
With a DAS, the drives are usually the bottleneck. A single desktop hard drive reads and writes at about 150-250 MB/s. A multi-bay hard drive enclosure in RAID over Thunderbolt adds the drives together, and SSD enclosures on Thunderbolt or USB 3.2 Gen 2 reach 1,000 MB/s or more.
With a NAS, the network is usually the bottleneck:
| Connection | Realistic transfer speed |
|---|---|
| Wi-Fi | Varies widely, often under 100 MB/s |
| 1 Gigabit Ethernet | About 110 MB/s |
| 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet | About 280 MB/s |
| 10 Gigabit Ethernet | About 1,000 MB/s and up, if the drives keep up |
Most NAS boxes and most Macs ship with 1 Gigabit Ethernet. MacBooks need a Thunderbolt or USB Ethernet adapter, and 10GbE needs a NAS that supports it, a compatible adapter or Mac (10GbE is built into Mac Studio and Mac Pro, and a build-to-order option on Mac mini), and a switch that handles it. On a 1GbE network, a NAS is slower than a single external hard drive.
Which Is Better for Video Editing on a Mac?
DAS, for most editors. Editing 4K or 6K footage means reading large files continuously, and a Thunderbolt RAID or SSD enclosure delivers that speed with no network to configure. It also behaves exactly like a local drive, which some apps expect.
A NAS makes sense for editing when several editors share the same media, and then it needs 10GbE to every edit Mac. Over 1GbE, working from proxies on the NAS can be fine; working from camera originals usually isn't.
Which Is Better for Photographers?
It depends on the catalog. Lightroom Classic needs its catalog on a local drive (Adobe doesn't support catalogs on network volumes), and Apple warns against keeping a Photos library on a network share. The photos themselves can live on a NAS.
A common setup that works: the catalog on the Mac's internal SSD, current-year RAWs on a fast DAS or SSD, and older years archived to a NAS, where several devices can browse them. Our Lightroom external drive guide covers how to move photo folders without breaking the catalog.
Is a NAS or DAS Better for Backups?
A NAS is the more capable backup target. It's always on, Time Machine can back up to it over the network (the NAS shares a folder as a Time Machine destination over SMB), and several Macs can back up to it at once. Many NAS systems use the Btrfs or ZFS filesystem, which checksum file contents and can run scheduled scrubs to catch bit rot, and they can take snapshots that protect against accidental deletion and ransomware.
A DAS is simpler: a backup destination that's only available while it's plugged in. For a single Mac, a DAS (or two external drives) plus a cloud copy is a perfectly good backup. Our Mac and NAS backup workflow walks through the NAS version.
RAID Isn't a Backup (on Either One)
Both NAS boxes and multi-bay DAS enclosures usually run RAID: several drives combined so one can fail without losing the volume. That protects against one thing, a dead disk. It doesn't protect against deleting the wrong folder, a corrupted file being faithfully written to every disk, ransomware, theft, a power surge that kills the whole box, or a fire.
So whichever you buy, it's one copy. Keep a second copy on a different device and a third offsite, usually in the cloud. If you keep files across a DAS, a NAS, and a cloud bucket, the hard part becomes remembering which projects are on which; Tusk tracks that per file, including for devices that are switched off or unplugged.
Should You Buy a NAS or a DAS?
Choose a DAS if:
- One Mac does all the work
- You edit video directly from the storage
- You want the most speed per dollar and no network setup
Choose a NAS if:
- Several Macs or people need the same files
- You want Time Machine for several Macs in one place
- You want the storage to run its own backups, snapshots, or scrubs
- You need access when your Mac is off or from outside the house
Plenty of people end up with both: a DAS for current work and a NAS for the archive and backups.
FAQ
DAS (direct-attached storage) connects directly to one computer by cable, usually Thunderbolt or USB, and appears as a local drive. NAS (network-attached storage) connects to your network and shares its drives with every device on it over protocols like SMB. DAS is faster per dollar for one computer; NAS lets many devices share storage and runs its own software.
Usually not. A NAS is limited by the network: about 110 MB/s on 1 Gigabit Ethernet, about 280 MB/s on 2.5GbE, and around 1,000 MB/s on 10GbE. A DAS is limited by its drives and cable, and Thunderbolt RAID or SSD enclosures easily exceed what most home networks deliver.
For one editor, a DAS over Thunderbolt or USB 3.2, which is faster and simpler. A NAS works for shared editing when every edit Mac has 10 Gigabit Ethernet, or for proxy workflows on slower networks.
Yes. Most NAS systems (Synology, QNAP, and others) can share a folder as a Time Machine destination over SMB, and it shows up in Time Machine settings like a drive. It needs the NAS to be reachable on the network when backups run.
No. RAID keeps a volume running when a disk fails, but deleted files, corrupted files, ransomware, theft, and fire affect every disk in the array at once. A backup is a separate copy on a different device, ideally with one copy offsite.