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Best Apps to Run on TrueNAS for Your Homelab in 2025
Discover the top TrueNAS Scale apps for your homelab including Plex, Immich, Nextcloud, Frigate, Jellyfin, Home Assistant, and more.
Discover the top TrueNAS Scale apps for your homelab including Plex, Immich, Nextcloud, Frigate, Jellyfin, Home Assistant, and more.
TrueNAS Scale has evolved into one of the most powerful NAS operating systems for homelab enthusiasts. Built on Debian Linux and featuring a native Docker-based application catalog, TrueNAS Scale lets you run containers directly alongside your ZFS storage pools. Whether you are migrating from TrueNAS Core or setting up a fresh server, the apps available in the TrueNAS Apps Market can transform your NAS into a full-fledged homelab powerhouse.
In this guide, we explore the best apps to run on TrueNAS for your homelab in 2025, covering media servers, photo management, home automation, security cameras, file sync, and VPN access.
Before installing any apps, you need:
To install apps, navigate to Apps in the TrueNAS web interface, click Discover Apps, and search for the application you want. You can install using default ixVolume datasets or manually created host path datasets.
Plex is consistently one of the most popular TrueNAS Scale apps according to community surveys. It serves your movie, TV show, music, and photo libraries to any device on your network and remotely. Installation is straightforward from the TrueNAS Apps catalog. You simply point Plex to your media datasets and it handles the rest. With hardware transcoding support via an iGPU or dedicated GPU, Plex can stream media efficiently even to bandwidth-limited connections.
If you prefer an open-source, free alternative to Plex, Jellyfin is the top choice. Jellyfin has official documentation specifically for TrueNAS Scale installation. To install Jellyfin:
1. Go to Apps, click Discover Apps.
2. Search for Jellyfin.
3. Click Install to open the configuration screen.
4. You can use the default ixVolume (dataset created automatically by the system) or choose the host path option with datasets created before installing.
5. The system opens the Installed Applications screen with Jellyfin in the Deploying state.
Jellyfin requires appropriate permissions on your datasets. You can set the user and group that will run the container during setup. Ensure your media datasets have permissions allowing the Jellyfin container user to access them. For advanced users, host mount paths can be configured explicitly — for example, mapping /mnt/YOUR-POOL/jellyfin/config:/config, where YOUR-POOL is the name of your ZFS pool.
Note: Both Plex and Jellyfin benefit from dedicated datasets for configuration and media libraries.
Immich has become the self-hosting community's favorite photo and video management solution. It is a direct alternative to Google Photos with automatic backup, album sharing, timeline views, and AI-powered search. Installing Immich on TrueNAS Scale in 2025 is well-documented with multiple guides available.
Immich runs as a full-stack application with a Postgres database and a web frontend. It gives you full control over your photo library. The mobile app backs up photos and videos automatically when you are on your home network or via VPN. Many homelab users pair Immich with other apps like Nextcloud for a complete media ecosystem.
To get started, search for Immich in the TrueNAS Apps catalog and configure your storage datasets for library files and database persistence.
Home Assistant is the leading open-source home automation platform, and it is available in the TrueNAS Apps catalog with thousands of active deployments. It puts local control and privacy first, supporting thousands of integrations for lights, switches, sensors, locks, and more.
The Home Assistant TrueNAS app requires minimum TrueNAS Scale version 24.10.2.2. It runs as a container with necessary Linux capabilities including CHOWN, DAC_OVERRIDE, FOWNER, NET_BIND_SERVICE, and NET_RAW. The version available in the catalog is updated regularly — check the TrueNAS Apps page or the official Home Assistant release notes for the current version.
Home Assistant supports Zigbee products, MQTT devices, and microcontrollers when paired with appropriate USB or network hardware. This makes TrueNAS an ideal hub for your entire smart home setup.
Frigate is a powerful NVR (Network Video Recorder) application with real-time AI object detection. Among the options like MotionEye and ZoneMinder, Frigate remains the top choice for TrueNAS Scale camera management. It detects people, animals, vehicles, and packages using local AI inference.
For AI acceleration, Frigate supports Google Coral TPUs, Intel Quick Sync (QSV) via iGPU, and NVIDIA GPUs. Note that Coral hardware can be difficult to source — if you cannot find one, an Intel iGPU is a practical and widely available alternative. Frigate integrates well with Home Assistant for automations based on camera events.
Nextcloud is a staple in the TrueNAS ecosystem and one of the most installed apps. It provides a self-hosted cloud platform for file sync and sharing, calendar, contacts, and collaboration tools. Community polls consistently show Nextcloud as one of the top TrueNAS Scale apps.
Nextcloud on TrueNAS can be paired with OnlyOffice or Collabora for document editing, Redis for file locking and caching, and Postgres for database performance. You can sync files from desktops and mobile devices just like Dropbox or Google Drive, with the advantage that your data never leaves your hardware.
WireGuard provides a fast, modern VPN tunnel directly from your TrueNAS server. Install the WireGuard app and configure client connections to securely access your homelab from anywhere. It is lightweight and integrates with the TrueNAS networking stack.
Tailscale is a mesh VPN client based on WireGuard that connects your devices through Tailscale's hosted control plane — no firewall ports required. The Tailscale client is available as a TrueNAS app and makes remote access trivial to configure.
If you prefer a fully self-hosted alternative with no dependency on Tailscale's servers, look for Headscale in the catalog — it is an open-source, self-hosted implementation of the Tailscale control server that you run entirely on your own infrastructure.
For users running media servers, the \arr* stack is essential:
These apps are available in the TrueNAS Apps catalog and integrate with your download clients, making media library management nearly automatic.
If the app stays in Deploying for too long, check the logs from the Installed Applications screen. Common issues include missing datasets, incorrect permissions, or port conflicts.
Ensure the user and group IDs set in the app configuration match the permissions on your host-path datasets. You can adjust dataset permissions via the TrueNAS web interface under Datasets.
If you are using an Intel iGPU or dedicated NVIDIA GPU, make sure GPU passthrough is enabled in the app configuration. For Frigate with a Coral TPU, verify the device is recognized by the host before configuring it in the app.
If you cannot find certain apps, ensure your TrueNAS Scale system is updated to the latest version and refresh the Apps catalog from the Apps settings.
TrueNAS Scale in 2025 is far more than a storage appliance. With its ever-growing Apps catalog, it serves as a complete homelab operating system. From media streaming with Plex and Jellyfin to photo management with Immich, home automation with Home Assistant, and security cameras with Frigate, the possibilities are vast.
Start with one or two apps that address your immediate needs, then expand as you become comfortable with the container ecosystem. The TrueNAS community is active and helpful, and the official TrueNAS Apps Market provides up-to-date versions of all major self-hosted applications.
Your homelab is only as good as the software running on it. With these best apps for TrueNAS, you are well on your way to building a powerful, private, and self-sufficient infrastructure.