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Houston UI vs QNAP QTS: catalog facts
Houston UI	QNAP QTS
Free Free and open source.	Freemium Included with QNAP NAS hardware; some apps and services are paid add-ons.
Linux, Web, Self-hosted	Linux, Self-hosted
Built on the widely used Cockpit framework rather than a proprietary UI stack Open source, so the management layer can be inspected or extended	Wide app catalog through the QNAP App Center for expanding NAS functionality Built-in Container Station and virtualization support for running extra services
Primarily developed and tested around 45Drives' own hardware lineup Smaller plugin ecosystem than mainstream NAS OSes like OpenMediaVault	Only runs on QNAP's own hardware, unlike open NAS operating systems ext4 base lacks the snapshot and dedupe depth of QNAP's ZFS-based QuTS hero
Self-hosted, Web application	Self-hosted
Open source	Closed source
License not stated	License not stated
Not stated if an account is needed	Not stated if an account is needed
Not stated if it works offline	Not stated if it works offline
Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 22, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 22, 2026

Catalog facts only. Anything “not stated” is unconfirmed. Check full listings for details.