What are HTML helpers in MVC?

With MVC, HTML helpers are much like traditional ASP.NET Web Form controls. Just like web form controls in ASP.NET, HTML helpers are used for creating HTML Elements. But In comparison of traditional ASP.NET Web Form controls HTML helpers are more lightweight.

Unlike Web Form controls, an HTML helper does not have an event model and a view state. HTML Helpers are mostly methods that return string values. It is not mandatory to use HTML Helper classes for building an ASP.NET MVC application as users can build an ASP.NET MVC application without using them. But HTML Helpers do help in the rapid development of a view.