Written by Giorgos
Edited on
23 June 2025
·
13:51
Compare the WD Red Plus to the WD Red Pro
The WD Red Plus and WD Red Pro are Western Digital internal hard drives, suitable for use in a NAS. Both hard drives are suitable for demanding use in a NAS, but there are some clear differences. A WD Red Plus is more suitable for use at home and the Red Pro is more suitable for large companies. In this advice article, we'll compare both internal hard drives with each other.
WD Red Plus vs WD Red Pro
From
€ 197,90
From
€ 231,90
Comparison WD Red Plus & WD Red Pro
| WD Red Plus | WD Red Pro | |
|---|---|---|
| Usage situation | At home, SME | Large companies |
| Made for | 1 to 8-bay NAS | 1 to 24-bay NAS |
| Suitable for RAID | Yes | Yes |
| Rotation speed | 5400RPM | 7200RPM |
| Protection | Impact protection |
Usage situation
WD Red Plus: home use and small businesses
The WD Red Plus hard drives are most suitable for personal use or for small businesses. Because the old WD Red hard drives aren't available anymore, the WD Red Plus drives took their place. You can use a WD Red Plus drive 24 hours a day without it overheating. In addition, you can create RAID setups to make backups, for example. With storage capacities between 1 and 14TB, you can always find the WD Red Plus drive that suits your needs.
WD Red Pro: large business use and data servers
Do you have a large company and do you use a business NAS server? Choose WD Red Pro. Just like the WD Red Plus, the WD Red Pro works 24 hours a day in a NAS. The difference is that a WD Red Pro hard drive works with 24 drives at the same time. This way, you can create an enormous storage space for large data analyses, company videos, and more. The WD Red Pro hard drives are available with 2 to 22TB, so you can create a maximum storage space of 528TB.
Rotation speed
WD Red Plus: 5400RPM
With a 5400RPM speed, the WD Red Plus is an average hard drive. Thanks to the lower speed, a WD Red Plus hard drive consumes less energy. As a result, the hard drive lasts longer than a model with more rotations per minute. Do you mostly want to store files? A lower rotation speed won't be a problem.
WD Red Pro: 7200RPM
Thanks to the higher 7200RPM speed, the WD Red Pro hard drives are more suitable if you write a lot of data. These hard drives are 20% faster than a WD Red Plus hard drive. So they process data faster for a business server that over 20 colleagues use at the same time, for example. The disadvantage is that these hard drives consume more energy and wear faster. That's why Western Digital provides a 5-year warranty on the Pro hard drives. And you get a 3-year warranty on the Plus hard drives.
Why are there no more WD Red hard drives?
The WD Red collection used to consist of WD Red, WD Red Plus, and WD Red Pro. In 2019, Western Digital experimented with a new technology called SMR in the regular WD Red drives. With this technology, the storage particles overlap partly. This creates a larger storage capacity, but it also causes writing errors. That's why Western Digital created the Red Plus series that uses the old CMR technology. The WD Red Pro series also uses CMR, which is more reliable in a NAS.
Conclusion
Are you looking for an internal hard drive for your personal NAS system? Or do you work at a small office? Choose a WD Red Plus. Thanks to the lower rotation speed, these hard drives last longer. They provide enough storage capacity for a local server. If you write a lot of data or work at a large office, choose the WD Red Pro series. These drives work slightly faster and with up to 24 drives at the same time.
Article by Giorgos
Storage Expert.
