Difference Between My Cloud Home Duo vs EX2 Ultra-My Cloud EX2

Home NAS systems are popular choices for centrally storing media content within your home network perimeter. It can be one of the most important options to ensure better storage with in-built redundancy. Too much reliance on locally attached storage for a considerable number of online and offline content consumption is common in today’s time. It has now become essential to consolidate your content into a central NAS system. It helps to simplify the storage options to a greater extent.

Related: Best Streaming Hard Disk Drives For DVR, NVR, TV or Plex

Western Digital does sell a wide range of NAS boxes. They price their products competitively as well. Of them, we will compare the My Cloud Home Duo and My Cloud EX2 Ultra in today’s post. Let us check out the two devices and find which of them would be the right choice.

The Design Parameters – My Cloud Home Duo vs EX2 Ultra-My Cloud EX2

The WD My Cloud Home Duo comes with the new two-tone, half-sculpted design language from WD. This was a design we initially observed with the My Passport series of drives from WD around three years ago. It does look rather simple enough and does not resemble a NAS device. That’s perhaps an indication to prove that the device is designed for the primary users as of now.

The drive comes with a single gigabit ethernet port and two Type-A USB 3.0 ports on the rear. You can even go with a single drive unit that has a single USB drive. You would also find an AC port along with a reset switch and power button.

The My Cloud EX2 Ultra comes with Marvell Armada 385 CPU and 1GB of memory. The drive comes with two USB Type-A (USB 3.1 Gen 1 (5 Gb/s)) and one RJ45 (Gigabit Ethernet) port for the connectivity.

The features

The My Cloud Home Duo provides you access to several apps and services. Notable among them would be IFTTT and Plex Media Server. However, you would not find access to a few applications that other products in the same genre are not supported. The lack of iTunes and DLNA servers should be a huge negative point for some users.

It does not back up to the directly attached USB drive, either. The USB ports are designed only for import alone. It does provide you access to the syncing capability to support Dropbox, OneDrive, and Google Drive.

The interface available on My Cloud EX2 is similar to the one available on the other My Cloud NAS boxes. The collection of apps supported on the device is enviable. This includes apps like IceCast, Dropbox, aMule, Joomla (content management), Transmission (for BitTorrent), and Z-way (for use with a Z-Wave IoT dongle).

The drive also comes with support for HTTP and FTP backups. The streaming services offered on the device would include an integrated DLNA server and a Logitech media server. You also have access to the Plex server for your download needs.

In contrast to the My Cloud Home Duo, which is designed for home users, the EX2 is offered explicitly for use with the business and corporate users.

Comparison chart for My Cloud Home Duo vs EX2 Ultra-My Cloud EX2:

Having checked out the two capable NAS drives from WD, we thought we would list out the best options these drives offer you in a head to head comparison chart here below. Check out the features and arrive at the best decision.

The Pros –

Having understood the best features offered by the two competing clouds NAS drives provided by Western Digital, the comparison would not be complete without mentioning the Pros and Cons provided by each of the platforms. Let us check out a few positive and negative points provided by each of these two platforms.

WD My Cloud Home Duo

• An elementary setup and ease of use
• Works well enough with mobile devices and online storage options.
• Cleaner design language

WD My Cloud EX2 Ultra

• High-end performance.
• Best suited for high-end users including corporate and business users
• Affordable option if you are going with the without drive alternative.

The Cons –

WD My Cloud Home Duo

• Performance may be quite slower.
• Takes time for writing even smaller files
• Self backup functionality not available

WD My Cloud EX2 Ultra

• Expensive if you are going with the hard drive option
• There is no option for the power button.

Before we conclude…

The WD, My Cloud Home Duo, is a perfect option for almost every need you may have when it comes to the setup and accessibility. However, slow writing performance can be of severe concern to pro users. The lack of backup functionality would be yet another huge issue that may leave you wanting for more.

The EX2, on the other hand, offers you an excellent option for your needs in faster and all-round performance. It can even take care of high-end multimedia performance like simultaneous streaming. Of course, they can be expensive if you are checking out the options with additional hard drive features.

You can choose an option that best meets your requirements and get the best of both worlds. Make an educated choice. The comparison above should help you buy the right device best suited for your needs.