Should i be using Web Part Pages or Wiki Pages in Sharepoint 2010

Question

I am creating a web template in visual studio. I have about 10 pages, all pages are quite simple and contain between 1 and 3 web parts.

Should i be using Web Part Pages, Wiki Pages or Publishing Pages to create these?

What are the benefits of each and when would you use one over the other?

Answer 1

I find it depends on your content. If your pages are going to be really text heavy, and you don't need much flexibility in terms of placement of your web parts, go with the Wiki Page. Wiki Pages allow direct text editing without the need to keep dropping Content Editor Web Parts.

Web Part Pages have more options in terms of web part layouts (in the form of templates) and give you more 'places' to drop your webparts. However, you can't enter text directly on a Web Part Page, you'll need to drop a content editor web part for every section of text that you want. If you used SharePoint 2007, this was the standard page on most team sites.

Personally, unless I'm running a full publishing site with content management, I'd stay away from the Publishing Page. Either the wiki or web part pages will allow you to build simple pages quite quickly.