Chapter 6. Custom Controls vs. User Controls

Chapter 6. Custom Controls vs. User Controls

In Chapter 4, "User Controls: From Page to Control," and Chapter 5, "Developing a Simple Custom Control," we introduced the two models that ASP.NET provides for creating your own controls ”the user control model and the custom control model. These two models are geared for different scenarios. In general, the user control model is well suited for authoring in-house, application-specific controls, while the custom (or compiled) control model is better suited for authoring generic and redistributable controls. In this brief chapter, we will compare the two models and provide some basic guidelines to help you decide which alternative is more suited to your particular needs.