ASP.NET User controls are encapsulations of sections of pages which are registered and used as controls in ASP.NET. ASP.NET User controls are created as ASCX markup files. These files usually contain static (X)HTML markup, as well as markup defining server-side web controls. These are the locations where the developer can place the required static and dynamic content.

A user control is compiled when its containing page is requested and is stored in memory for subsequent requests. User controls have their own events which are handled during the life of ASP.NET requests. An event bubbling mechanism provides the ability to pass an event fired by a user control up to its containing page. Unlike an ASP.NET page, a user control cannot be requested independently; one of its containing pages is requested instead.