What's Better to Host on - MySQL or Flatfile?

Hi, I've been running a server for about 4 months now and have been running on primarily flatfile and various encrypted databases (SQLite, etc.). I'm curious as to what the main benefit of converting to MySQL is. I host privately so MySQL is plausible, but what are the major pros and cons of it? I've only explored it a little bit.
Thanks, Fuzzwolf

 

Performance, mostly, especially for plugins that store huge amounts of data. Using something like BigBrother with a flatfile, is generally a bad idea, especially if you keep records for a long time like I do (A year) and end up with millions of records, in a 500mb+ database.

Cons would be that moving between hosts can be a bit more work, you have to export the databases and re-import them on the new host set the database permissions up again, and so on, instead of just moving the files over with everything else.