I need a little advice before I purchase a NAS for my home use.

I had a Windows Home Server that I used until a few months ago. Loved it! It was the perfect solution for me. Nightly backups of all computers on my LAN. Internet connectivity. But unfortunately Microsoft pulled the plug on WHS several years ago. So I lost a hardrive on my WIN 10 computer, tried a restore from my WHS and it would not work. So it is time to step up to current hardware. Looks to me that a NAS is the closest thing that I can get that will do what I want.

I was ready to pull the trigger on a QNAP TS-451 and before ordering I looked once more at available units in the price range. Found the Synology DS416. A bit higher in price, and less in the hardware comparison between the two. But I have read that the software and firmware updates that Synology make up the difference and that Synology is more advanced in the NAS market.

I'm finding that it is very hard to find much information on NAS units other than marketing pitch. Anybody have any input on a NAS? Any advice on the two mentioned?

One question I have and can not get a clear answer. They both have many available Apps. Are the Apps free? Or paid for? If paid what is the cost?

I'm guessing that some are paid for, some are free.

Anyway mostly looking for help learning about NAS.

As a PS, I was into and used FreeNas back in the days before WHS. So have a bit of understanding with that, but also very dated memory.