Should I merge asp.net membership db with site db or keep them separate?

Question

which is better and why?

Answer 1

If your site database contains it's own structure for membership, then I'd be inclined to write a custom Membership Provider to pull the data from that.

If you're using the default ASP.NET Membership database, you might want to keep it separate as it can be used by more than one application.

Whilst there's nothing stopping you from combining it with your site database and also using it with another application, it might start to get a little confusing, particularly if that other application has it's own database for application-centric data, but then is getting membership data from a now combined database of the original site plus the ASP.NET Membership database.

In summary, I'd keep it separate. No real good reason springs to mind as to why one would need to combine them, or it being better to do so.

Answer 2

It's perfectly acceptable to keep them in the same database. It's easy to work with and do joins as needed, and the database backs up and moves together. If you plan to share the membership with other applications, then you should consider separating them and making them more modular.