Built-in base class for controllers in ASP.NET MVC: Controller or ControllerBase?

Question

What is the built-in base class for controllers in ASP.NET MVC:

System.Web.Mvc.Controller or System.Web.Mvc.ControllerBase?

It is unclear to me after searching on Google:

1. On www.ASP.NET: " A controller is a class that derives from the base System.Web.Mvc.Controller class."

2. On codeproject: "The abstract ControllerBase class represents the base class for all MVC controllers."

3. On MSDN: "The base class for all controllers is the ControllerBase class, which provides general MVC handling. The Controller class inherits from ControllerBase and is the default implement of a controller."

4. In the book "Pro ASP.NET MVC 5 Framework" from Adam Freeman: "In ASP.NET MVC, controllers are just C# classes (usually inheriting from System.Web.Mvc.Controller, the framework's built-in controller base class)."

Who is right? What does "Built-in base class" mean exactly in this context? Is "Controller" the built-in base class and "ControllerBase" the ???? (what would be the right wording?) base class?

Answer 1

By Defination

ControllerBase : A base class for an MVC controller without view support.

Controller : A base class for an MVC controller with view support.

Thus if we are not creating views i.e. creating Web API use ControllerBase else use Controller.