title: User images - database vs. filesystem storage
body: <p>I’m writing an upload function in .NET for presentation images on user profiles. I’m choosing between two different ways of doing it, and would like to ask on advice and opinions as to the pros and cons.</p>
  
  <ol>
  <li><p>Store the images directly on the file system</p></li>
  <li><p>Store the images in the database</p></li>
  </ol>
  
  <p>So far I’ve been mostly pro the first option – naming the images after the usernames, as each user can only have one presentation image. Then I do a check in the designated path if the user has an image, if not display a default “no image”-image.</p>
  
  <p>Another thing I like about this is that it saves space in the DB – the DB will be pretty heavy without the extra binary load.</p>
  
  <p>I’m sure there are other aspects that I’ve not thought about, so I’d like to hear your opinions on this. If anyone’s got a radically different solution to the problem, please share that as well!</p>