It&#x27;s not the same. I can open, process, or skim a directory containing a thousand files without much trouble or CPU activity. Having a thousand files worth of information in one file means I have to run through all that data at once. This has implications in data integrity as well if I&#x27;m making changes or worried about bitrot.<p>So, no, there&#x27;s a difference. I&#x27;ll also note that Daniel Bernstein of qmail &amp; NaCl often used a filesystem how some use databases under the philosophy of &quot;Why create new, complex functionality when you have well-tested code that gets the job done?&quot;