Running out of Google Drive storage? Since Google raised Google One prices in Indonesia in February 2025 (the 2TB plan went from IDR 135,000 to IDR 158,000/month), more people are eyeing a NAS (Network Attached Storage) — pay once, no monthly fees ever.

But is a NAS actually cheaper? I ran the 3-year total cost of ownership numbers myself in Indonesian rupiah, and the result surprised me.

The 3-year cost math

NAS setup (2-bay, ~4TB usable):

  • Synology DS223j unit: ~IDR 3,200,000
  • 2x WD Red Plus 4TB NAS drives: ~IDR 4,100,000
  • Electricity for 3 years (16W, 24/7): ~IDR 619,000
  • Total: ~IDR 7,919,237

Google One 2TB: IDR 158,000/month x 36 = IDR 5,688,000

Google One wins by about IDR 2.2 million over 3 years. The break-even point only arrives at month 52 — a NAS starts paying off after 4+ years of use. (Full breakdown with my calculation script: https://www.miftahulrizki.eu.org/2026/10/nas-vs-google-drive-mana-yang-lebih.html.)

Speed: no contest on local network

A home NAS over Gigabit LAN does ~110 MB/s — roughly 44x faster than a typical home internet upload (my reference: ~2.5 MBps on a 100 Mbps plan). Moving a 50GB video file takes ~8 minutes locally vs ~6 hours to the cloud.

Privacy vs convenience

NAS wins privacy: your files live on hardware you own. Google encrypts your files but holds the keys, and its ToS allows file scanning. Google Drive wins convenience by a mile: 5-minute signup, real-time collaboration, instant link sharing.

Risks nobody mentions

NAS risks are physical: drive failure (mitigated by RAID 1), ransomware (mitigated by snapshots), power outages. You're the admin — full power, full responsibility. Drive risks are administrative: Google can lock your account, and it already raised prices unilaterally in 2025.

Verdict

Choose Google One if you need under 2TB, collaborate often, and hate tinkering. Choose NAS if you need 4TB+, care about privacy, move big files daily, or plan to use it 5+ years. Many people end up with both.

I published the full Indonesian version with detailed tables and setup steps here: https://www.miftahulrizki.eu.org/2026/10/nas-vs-google-drive-mana-yang-lebih.html.