What are the possible considerations and drawbacks of storing binary image data directly in a table?

Although related to this question, I have a slightly different angle to approach this issue from. Here is my situation:

I am writing a web application (either in PHP or Python) that manages addons for a desktop application. Users can browse addons, install them, upload them, etc.

I am planning the schema for the database and found myself with a decision to make:


Is it better to store icons (for the addons) in the table itself or instead store them in the filesystem and simply store a filename in the table?

The icons are small (48x48 or close to that) and likely won't take up more than 5 or 6 KB at the most. Are there any serious drawbacks to storing the image data in the table? Are there other implications that I should be aware of? Will performance be a concern? Will storage be an issue?

Edit: I am currently looking at MyISAM tables in a MySQL database.

You haven't specified the database platform your considering but at this size/scale, it's unlikely to matter.

5kb per record is trivial. 1 million 5kb records is

• Reduced backup overhead. 1 million records in a 5GB file vs 1 million 5kb files.

• The natural companion to 2), faster restore.

Edit: The negatives (as suggested by Aaron)

• Requires programatic access.

• Cost of storage. More of an issue if you have to deal with platform restrictions on size e.g. 50GB on Azure.

StackExchange Database Administrators Q#4892, answer score: 4