difference between Html.TextBox and Html.TextBoxFor

Html.TextBox

is not strongly typed and it doesn't require a strongly typed view meaning that you can hardcode whatever name you want as first argument and provide it a value:

<%= Html.TextBox("foo", "some value") %>

You can set some value in the

ViewData

dictionary inside the controller action and the helper will use this value when rendering the textbox (

ViewData["foo"] = "bar"

).

Html.TextBoxFor

is requires a strongly typed view and uses the view model:

<%= Html.TextBoxFor(x => x.Foo) %>

The helper will use the lambda expression to infer the name and the value of the view model passed to the view.

And because it is a good practice to use strongly typed views and view models you should always use the

Html.TextBoxFor

helper.