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If you have multiple web servers, no CDN, and no other form of centralized storage, putting files in a database is how you can distribute the files across all the servers. Another is replication - databases exchanging data with other databases. If you have multiple database servers running with replication already, putting files in there means those files are replicated as well. I disagree. I'm rather surprised to even hear that statement being made. But why? Why store them in multiple places? There's no need. A file is more than just binary data. Smart browsers can recognize the data from a PNG image and not confuse it with a JPEG image. But not all browsers are good at that, and sometimes file data looks similar across different types. Which means you need to know the MIME type for a file and send it to the browser. Which means identifying what it is, storing it in your database, and sending it through your PHP script. Additionally, a request for a file doesn't have to be for the entire file. If you had a large file, a browser could try to download it, and if that process fails (eg, internet disconnected) recover from where it left off. When it tries to continue it tells the server that it doesn't have to send the whole thing - only parts of it, or starting from a certain offset. Managing that on your own in PHP is annoying. Web servers can do all that for you.