There are several Web sites out there that provide entire libraries of Web controls for you to browse. Many of the controls are free, and most of them at least provide free demos. When you’ve got some time on your hands, I suggest you dig into these fine Web sites and mine the gold that is contained within.
The open source ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit is stuffed with dozens of useful and attractive controls that integrate quite well with ASP.NET AJAX. Of course its all free, so download it and see what all the commotion is about or simply try their demos online without having to install a thing.
http://Ajax.asp.net/AjaxToolkit/
In case you missed it, Microsoft released several free Web controls shortly after the release of ASP.NET. The download is quick and easy, and provides several controls that make fine additions to any Web developer’s toolbox. Their TreeView control is one of my favorites, although there are also nice implementations of a Toolbar, Tabstrip, and Multipage control. As you’d expect from Microsoft, the documentation is thorough, and there are plenty of examples.
You might say this web site is a mini-mega site. In case you haven't ran across them yet, there are a variety of free controls available here, such as a MessageBox control, a Confirmation Button, and Window Opener control, a Bar Graph control, a Numeric TextBox, a Rollover Button, a ComboBox, an Export Panel control, a Streaming Media control, and more! Find them all here:
CodeProject.com provides dozens of open source Web controls, such as Schedule Controls, Master Page solutions, Cookie Encryption, and more.
http://www.codeproject.com/index.asp?cat=4
SourceForge.net is the world’s largest open source development Web site. It provides thousands of projects, although most of them aren’t .NET, so you’ll have to sift through to find the ones that suit you. Luckily, you can do searches and filters based on language. This site contains .NET projects for RSS news aggregators, SMTP, Bar Graphs, Wiki, etc.
If you don’t know about http://www.asp.net by now, it’s time you learn. The Control Gallery lists hundreds of Web controls, including Charting Controls, Navigation Controls, Image Libraries, and much more. Even though not all the controls are free, this Web site definitely deserves to be saved in your IE Favorites because of the sheer volume of useful information contained within.
http://www.asp.net/ControlGallery
MetaBuilders, headed by cohort Andy Smith, provides more than two dozen completely free high-quality Web controls. There are controls for practically every need you’ll ever come across, such as a Slide Menu, a deluxe ComboBox, a Scrolling Panel (which retains its scroll position between postbacks), and an intriguing Master Pages system, just to name a few. The C# source code is freely available, as well, so you can learn from the master and build on his creations.
Carlos Aguilar Mares provides several nice free controls on his Web site, such as a client-side DataGrid (mentioned earlier), a WebChart control for creating charts and graphs, and an ExcelWriter component for exporting content to Excel. There are several other controls you may find useful, too; I recommend you take a look.
Excentrics World provides a dozen free Web controls that will likely come in handy at various points in your development, including (but not limited to) a Masked Textbox, Numeric Textbox, and Calendar Popup. Although the controls are free, the source code can be purchased for US$75.
http://www.eworldui.net/CustomControls/default.aspx
411ASP.net provides links to hundreds of ASP.NET controls for Charts, File Management, Content Management, Site Statistics, and oh so much more. They aren’t all free, but the variety is quite pleasing.
http://www.411asp.net/home/assembly
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