If you’re working with Visual Studio to create a web part you will notice that there is a couple of templates you can choose from. First off, just like in SharePoint 2007, you have the standard web parts but, in addition to that, you now have the option to create a visual webpart.
The two templates are essentially the same but they do have some differences. The main ones are listed below:
1. A standard web part is an item-level template in Visual Studio. That means that you can only add it as an item to your project (an empty SharePoint project for example). A visual web part can be created as both item-level and project-level.
2. In the case of the visual web part, you can use a designer experience to drag and drop items on your canvas. In the case of the standard web part, you will have to manually type everything (using IntelliSense) .
3. A standard web part can be deployed as a Farm or Sandboxed solution. A visual web part will have to be deployed as a Farm solution.
note: You would be aware that there is a way to convert a visual web part into a standard web part. The process doesn’t look all that hard and it is explained in detailed in the CRM Voyager.
and A visual web part can be deployed as a Sandboxed solution provided you have the Power Tools for Visual Studio 2010
It was not the case when the article was written. Or, so I believe. Thank you for pointing that out Azeem!
A visual web part can be deployed as a Farm solution provided you have the Power Tools for VS 2010.