I also found a good guide on syncing with Google which is a win for freenas
That guide's using the built-in cloud sync feature, which uses rclone to do the heavy lifting. It works well, AFAIK, but it doesn't do true two-way sync. If that's a requirement, you'd want to investigate another solution.
@garm mentioned Nextcloud with its external storage system; Syncthing may be another way to make it work.
The actually hardware requirements don't seem to be that crazy for freenas.
Well, there's "required", and there's "recommended." What's
required is a 64-bit Intel-compatible CPU, 8GB of RAM, some disks, and a wired NIC (FreeNAS doesn't support Wi-Fi adapters). What's
recommended is proper server-grade kit with ECC RAM and an Intel NIC--which is really a good idea for any server, and there's nothing about FreeNAS that makes it any more essential than for any other, but you're not likely to hear this pushed as much on (say) the OMV or XigmaNAS forums. This comes down to the question of "how important is your data." We tend to assume here that at least some of the data you're storing on your FreeNAS box is important. It's a solid OS with a near-bulletproof filesystem, but none of that helps if your hardware is flaky.
A few years ago, at least in .us, there were some really good deals to be had on small servers--at one point, the HPE Proliant ML10 could be had (with a Xeon, IIRC) for under US$200. Add some RAM (it only came with 4GB at that price), a boot device, and storage disks, and you're set. I haven't been keeping up with the market lately, but I don't recall seeing similar deals recently--though if they are, this really is probably the best way to go. Other models I remember seeing were the Lenovo TS140 and the Dell PowerEdge T20.
Another option is used server hardware. Again, in .us, there's lots available on eBay, and performance vs. cost or watts hasn't improved greatly for several years.