Ive noticed that there seems to be no real difference between a view and a partial view. For instance, one can create a view but can render it as a
There is difference between views and partial views, and the difference is more about their usage, rather than technical.
View is meant to be used as full page of your application, it needs layout, and . Partial views are more like reusable parts of other views. Partials do not represent full pages, they are inserted into other views.
From technical point of view, return View("SameView"); renders view including layout page, and returning that same view by return PartialView("SameView"); renders contents, but omits contents of layout page.