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What is the difference between a strongly typed view and a dynamic view?

ASP.NET MVC Views & Razor Basic Fresher1–2 Yrs Conceptual 1 min read

Quick Answer

A strongly typed view declares @model SomeType, so Model is that type with IntelliSense and compile-time checking. A dynamic view has no @model and uses ViewBag/ViewData — everything is dynamic or an object cast, so typos become runtime errors.

A strongly typed view names its model with @model, so inside the view Model is a real type — I get autocomplete, and a typo in a property name is a compile error. A dynamic view skips that and pulls everything out of ViewBag, which is dynamic, so a misspelled key just returns null and fails when the page renders. I always use a strongly typed view with a purpose-built view model.

  • Views compile in ASP.NET Core (Razor runtime compilation or build-time), so a bad Model.PropertyName in a strongly typed view is a build error.
  • ViewBag.Foo is dynamic — a mistyped name silently returns null and blows up at render time.
  • Best practice: a dedicated view model per view, strongly typed, containing exactly what the view renders.
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