PHP to store images in MySQL or not?

Question

I have built a small web application in PHP where users must first log in. Once they have logged in, I intend on showing a small thumbnail as part of their \"profile\".

Answer 1

I have implemented both solutions (file system and database-persisted images) in previous projects. In my opinion, you should store images in your database. Here's why:

1. File system storage is more complicated when your app servers are clustered. You have to have shared storage. Even if your current environment is not clustered, this makes it more difficult to scale up when you need to.
2. You should be using a CDN for your static content anyways, and set your app up as the origin. This means that your app will only be hit once for a given image, then it will be cached on the CDN. CloudFront is dirt cheap and simple to set up...there's no reason not to use it. Save your bandwidth for your dynamic content.
3. It's much quicker (and thus cheaper) to develop database persisted images
4. You get referential integrity with database persisted images. If you're storing images on the file system, you will inevitably have orphan files with no matching database records, or you'll have database records with broken file links. This WILL happen...it's just a matter of time. You'll have to write something to clean these up.

Anyways, my two cents.