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NAS on Debian · lifetime licence

Your data is yours again.

Install it on the computer you already have: your photos, your backups, your cameras and your apps, from the browser. No monthly fee, and your files never pass through anyone else's server.

Buy a licence Download the installer See everything it does

One single payment · updates included · 60 days to try it

Try it right here

It is the real panel, whole, with the data of a sample NAS. Open the apps, go into the folders, look at the disks, switch the theme: nothing you touch exists.

LGM-OS · sample data Live demo Open full screen

Loading the panel…

The console and the cameras' live video are the only things that do not work here: they need a NAS and a camera. Everything else is the product as it is.

0 €a month, ever
+1,000apps you can install
257versions released
1person writing it

What is underneath

Four layers, none of them hidden.

  1. The panelThe whole NAS from the browser, and from your phone as an app.
  2. Docker and virtual machinesMore than 3,000 community apps and 31 prepared by us, and Windows or Linux on KVM.
  3. StorageBtrfs or ZFS, with snapshots and integrity checks.
  4. The base: Debian 12A normal Debian underneath, stable and with its updates.

Everything it does, one by one

No asterisks, no Pro edition and no features you unlock by paying more. This is what you get from day one.

Storage

Your disks become one volume with the redundancy you choose, and from then on you forget about them. The wizard tells you how much usable space each option leaves you before creating anything, which is when knowing it helps.

  • Btrfs and ZFS
  • Snapshots
  • SMART and scrub
See the 6 details
  • Btrfs by default, or ZFS: RAID 0, 1 and 10 with Btrfs; mirror and parity (RAID 5/6) with ZFS
  • Scheduled snapshots: getting back yesterday's file is one click
  • SMART and scrub with real progress and a notice when they finish
  • Swap a disk while it runs, without shutting the machine down
  • Instant detection when you plug in a new one
  • Space report: which folders take the room, per-user quota and duplicates

Files

A real file explorer inside the browser: drag, drop, rename, compress. And the same folders show up on Windows, on a Mac and on your phone, with the same permissions.

  • SMB, NFS and WebDAV
  • Recycle bin
  • Share links
See the 8 details
  • SMB, NFS and WebDAV on the same folder, without setting it up three times
  • The NAS shows up on its own in Windows Network and in the Finder
  • A recycle bin per folder, which you can turn off on the ones you do not want it
  • Share links with an expiry date and a password
  • Zip and unzip without downloading anything
  • Search by name and inside the contents of the files
  • Permissions per user and per group, folder by folder
  • Notepad: change a .txt or a .conf right there, without downloading it

Gallery

The photos and videos already in your folders, sorted by month and with their own viewer. This is the app that brings the family into the NAS: it opens from a phone, it does not expire and it pays no fee.

  • Timeline
  • Albums
  • HEIC and RAW
See the 8 details
  • A timeline by month, built on its own in the background
  • Videos too, streamed in pieces: a 3 GB one is not downloaded whole
  • iPhone HEIC, RAW and ProRAW from your camera: shown without converting anything
  • Live Photos: one photo that moves, not a photo and a video twice over
  • Real albums, without moving a single file on the disk
  • Favourites, rotate, zoom, full screen and download from the viewer itself
  • Duplicates: it groups what is repeated and never lets you delete the last copy
  • Upload from the app, and whatever you delete goes to the NAS recycle bin

Your clouds, as just another folder

Connect your Drive, your Nextcloud, Dropbox or an S3 bucket and they show up in the explorer as a NAS folder. Copying from the cloud to the disk is a drag and drop. And they show up from Windows too, because to the system they are an ordinary folder.

  • Browse them from Files
  • Source for a backup
See the 4 details
  • Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, Nextcloud, S3, Backblaze B2 and more
  • Your personal cloud, separate from where your backups live
  • You browse them from Files, over the network and from the search box
  • They can be used as the source of a backup

Package centre

31 apps prepared by us —Jellyfin, Nextcloud, Home Assistant, Vaultwarden, Pi-hole…— and more than 3,000 from the community (Unraid's Community Applications, CasaOS and Big Bear), such as Immich. One click and it works, with its shortcut on the desktop and its data inside your volume.

  • Our own and community catalogues
  • Visual editor
  • docker-compose
See the 5 details
  • Our own catalogue plus the community ones, searchable and by category
  • A visual editor for ports and folders, without touching YAML
  • A docker-compose editor for the advanced bits, if you want it
  • Containers you created by hand: they also show up as an app with their own link
  • Everything lives in your volume, not on the system disk

Virtual machines

Windows, Linux or whatever you need, on KVM, with the screen inside the panel. No client to install, no ports to open and no leaving the browser.

  • Graphical console
  • Boot from ISO
  • On your phone too
See the 4 details
  • A built-in graphical console, from your phone as well
  • Boot from an ISO and have it ejected on its own when the install finishes
  • Processor, memory and disks all set from the panel
  • Their disks live in the volume, with whatever redundancy you gave it

Cameras

Real video surveillance, with your cameras and without the manufacturer's cloud. Your NAS records them, on your disk, and nobody else sees them.

  • ONVIF and RTSP
  • Video wall
  • Motion detection
See the 6 details
  • Any ONVIF or RTSP camera, and they are found on the network on their own
  • A configurable wall and full screen
  • Continuous recording in chunks, with retention by days and by size
  • Motion detection so you jump straight to what happened
  • A thumbnail for every recording and a filter by date and time of day
  • The recordings are just another folder: reachable from Files and over the network

Backups

What separates a NAS from an expensive disk. Automatic backups to another disk, to another NAS over SSH or to the cloud, with versions you can go back to.

  • Local, SSH or cloud
  • Incremental versions
  • Restore from the panel
See the 6 details
  • A local, SSH or cloud destination (any provider)
  • Incremental versions: each one restores in full and only takes up what changed
  • Retention by number of versions or by days
  • Real progress while it copies, and a check that what is over there matches what is here
  • Object Lock on S3 and B2: not even you can delete a backup before its time
  • Restore from the panel, the whole thing or just what you pick

Access from outside

Reaching your NAS from the street without opening the door to the internet. The VPN is the recommended way and it takes three clicks, with a QR code for your phone.

  • WireGuard VPN
  • Dynamic DNS
  • Let's Encrypt
See the 5 details
  • A WireGuard VPN with clients by QR code and configurable routes
  • Dynamic DNS so you get there by name even when your IP changes
  • Let's Encrypt certificates, with DNS validation that does not need open ports
  • A reverse proxy to publish one app with its own domain
  • Local DNS and DHCP, static routes and network card bonding

Security

A NAS keeps what you cannot afford to lose. This one takes that seriously out of the box, not as a list of boxes you have to go and find.

  • Two-factor sign-in
  • Automatic blocking
  • Audit log
See the 6 details
  • Two-factor and a configurable password policy
  • Automatic blocking of whoever keeps trying, on the panel or over SSH
  • A firewall that opens the port only when you turn the service on
  • Anti-ransomware: snapshots not even the administrator can delete
  • Jailed SFTP, with no access to the rest of the system
  • An audit log of everything that gets touched, downloadable

Control panel

Thirty screens so you never have to open a terminal. And if you like the terminal, it is there too, with root and a second sign-in.

  • Users and groups
  • Notifications
  • UPS
See the 6 details
  • Users and groups, with per-service permissions on each
  • Join an existing Active Directory / LDAP
  • Alerts over Telegram, Discord, ntfy or email, with a delayed digest
  • UPS: an orderly shutdown when the power goes
  • Kiosk mode: the panel full screen on the machine's own monitor
  • Region, language, themes and accent colour — light and dark in all of them

Monitor

What is happening now and what happened last night. With nothing else to install.

  • With history
  • Alerts
  • Who is connected
See the 4 details
  • Processor, memory, network and the temperature of every disk, with history
  • Threshold alerts before it becomes a problem
  • Who is connected, from where and since when
  • Network diagnostics: ping, ports and speed, from the panel

Coming from a Synology, a QNAP or from nothing at all?

The same as a brand-name NAS does, on the computer you already own.

If you already have a brand-name NAS

Synology DSM and QNAP QTS do their job, and they do it well: that is why LGM-OS is like them in what matters —shared folders over SMB and NFS, backups with versions, apps in containers, cameras, virtual machines and access from outside your home, all from the browser—. The difference is in two places: here you choose the hardware (a mini PC, a second-hand server, the laptop you were about to throw away) and you pay once. And when a model stops getting updates, the machine does not turn into a paperweight: underneath it there is an ordinary Debian.

LGM-OS is an independent project. It is not affiliated with Synology, QNAP, TrueNAS or Unraid, and those names are trademarks of their owners.

If you are starting from scratch

A home NAS server is a computer switched on in a corner that keeps everyone's things: the photos from your phone, the documents, the laptop backups, the camera recordings. LGM-OS is the operating system that turns it into that without knowing any Linux: you install it on Debian, open the panel in your browser and start clicking.

  • An old PC or a mini PC will do: 64-bit, 4 GB of memory and one disk for data
  • Disks on Btrfs or ZFS, with snapshots and integrity checking
  • Your photos with their own gallery, and the phone uploading them on its own
  • Docker and more than 3,000 community apps, with no command line
  • Your own VPN to get in from outside without opening your home to the internet

And on your phone, an app

It is not the desktop squeezed down: on narrow screens the panel changes shape —a home screen with icons, every app full screen and a bar at the bottom—. You add it to your phone's home screen and it opens without the browser bar, like any other app.

The home screen on a phone The home screen on a phone (dark)
An app full screen on a phone An app full screen on a phone (dark)

What you pay once against what you pay forever

A paid cloud

  • A fee, every month, forever
  • They decide the price, and it goes up
  • Your files are on somebody else's server
  • If you stop paying, you lose access
  • 2 TB, and beyond that a bigger fee

LGM-OS

  • One payment and that is it. Updates included
  • The price you paid is the price
  • Your files are at home, on your disk
  • If you stop paying… there is nothing to stop paying
  • As much room as fits on your own machine

And how you get it running

Three steps. No Linux knowledge, no commands to type.

  1. Write the ISO to a USB stick

    It downloads free and comes in under a gigabyte. Any 2 GB stick will do, and the program to write it is the same one you would use for Windows or Ubuntu.

  2. Boot the machine from that stick

    It asks you four things — what it will be called, the network, your user and which disk the system goes on — and does the rest by itself. Disks are listed with their model and size, so there is no way to pick the wrong one.

  3. Open the panel in your browser

    From any machine in the house, using the address it leaves written on the screen. You create your administrator and you are in: there is no factory user or password for anyone to guess.

The full steps, with screenshots →

Who is behind this

A company did not make this: I write it, on my own. There are 257 releases out, and nearly all of them come from the same place — using the NAS at home and running into something: a camera that would not reconnect, a backup that said it had gone fine without having gone, a disk that filled up on a Sunday.

That is also why there are things it still does not do. I would rather you read them here than after paying:

  • 64-bit machines only. It does not fit on a Raspberry Pi: that is a different product, not a box to tick.
  • Per-person limits need ZFS. With Btrfs you cap a shared folder, which is not the same thing when five people share one.
  • There is no app in the phone stores. What there is is the panel, which you add to your home screen and opens just like one.

If that was exactly what you needed, better to know now.

Luis García Menéndez LinkedIn

Missing something, or something not working the way you expected? Ask in the community and I am the one who reads it.

Lifetime licence
29 €
one single payment · forever
  • Every feature, with no limits
  • Updates included for life
  • Checked on your own machine: once activated, it needs no internet
  • Transferable: if you change machine, it goes with you
  • 60 days to try it before you buy
Buy now

Secure payment with Polar · taxes included · your card never passes through here

You pay once and that is it

No fees and no surprises. You buy the licence, you get your key and you paste it into your NAS (Control panel → System → Licence). Done.

Would you rather look first? The installer is a free download and all the documentation is open, with no sign-up. And if you already have an account, sign in to the portal to see your licences.

Download Documentation Go to the portal

Want to chip in?

The licence already keeps the project going. If you also feel like chipping in, there is Ko-fi.

Buy me a coffee No account needed, and it unlocks nothing: people who do not donate get exactly the same.

What the money goes to

  • The server and the domain. This site, the downloads and the channel your NAS updates itself from all come from there. It is paid every month.
  • Disks and test machines. Almost every fix comes from reproducing the fault on real hardware, and that hardware has to be bought.
  • The hours behind the updates. Whatever gets released reaches every NAS, including the ones that got the licence for free.

It is not profit: there is no company here, no investors, nobody to share it out to. What comes in goes back into the project, and if that ever changes it will be said on this very page.

The usual questions

What machine do I need?

Any 64-bit PC with 4 GB of memory and a disk for the system. A second-hand mini PC is plenty; if you are going to run virtual machines or several cameras, make it 8 GB. The installer takes care of the rest.

What if the machine breaks? Do I lose the licence?

No. The licence is yours and transferable: you deactivate it on the old machine from the portal and activate it on the new one. And your data stays on the disks, which you can move to another machine running LGM-OS.

Does it need the internet to work?

To get started, yes: the trial comes from linking your lgm-os.com account from the panel, and a bought licence is activated once over the internet. After that, no: the licence is checked on your own machine, with a cryptographic signature, and the NAS keeps working offline. If within 7 days you neither link your account nor activate a licence, the NAS stays usable only to get your files out until you do.

Can I try it before paying?

Yes. The installer is a free download, and linking your lgm-os.com account from the panel starts a 60-day trial with everything open —except the LGM Connect address, which comes with the licence— and no card. When it ends, the NAS stays only for getting your files out until you activate a licence: nothing is deleted.

I already have a brand-name NAS. Can I migrate?

Yes. You copy the data over the network (SMB or rsync) from the old NAS and rebuild the shared folders here with their permissions. The documentation has the step-by-step guide.

What if you drop it tomorrow?

Your NAS keeps working. It is built on Debian, Btrfs or ZFS, Samba and Docker —all standard, all free software—: your disks can be read on any Linux and your apps are ordinary containers. There is no proprietary format to rescue you from.

Does it work as a file server for a small office?

Yes: users and groups with per-folder permissions, a recycle bin in each one, quotas, a log of who signs in, and joining a domain (Active Directory, LDAP) if the office already has one.

Can I stop paying for cloud storage?

That is the idea: your files on your disks, reachable from your phone and from outside your home. And if you want belt and braces, the NAS can keep an encrypted mirror in the cloud you already use, without depending on it.

What if a disk breaks?

With two or more disks in a mirror, nothing is lost: you swap the disk from the panel and the set rebuilds itself. The panel warns you through SMART before it happens.

LGM-OS, LGMOS or LGM OS?

They are the same. The name is written LGM-OS, with a hyphen, but you will also see it as LGMOS or LGM OS: they all lead here.

Questions, ideas, or a look at how someone else set it up?

There is a community on Discord: ask without fear —even what you think is a silly question—, people show their setups and new versions are announced there.

Join the community

Your cloud, at home. Forever.

60 days to try it. No card. No fees afterwards.

Buy a licence Download and try it

A coffee