Gridview-GridView allows us to present the data in the tabular format as when the data in GridView renders, it by default renders in table, tr and td. Limited in design, works like an html table. More in built functionality like edit/update, page, sort. Lots of overhead. The Grid View control provides the capability to sort columns, page through data, and edit or delete a single record. the Grid View control offers improvements such as the ability to define multiple primary key fields, improved user interface customization using bound fields and templates, and a new model for handling or canceling events.
GridView:It contains Header Template, Item template , alternate Item template , Edit itmtemplate and footer template . it can support selection, editing , sorting and paging . Mostly every developer caught used this control .
Datalist-Data list also displays data in a table but gives some flexibility in terms of displaying data row wise and column wise using the repeat direction property customisable version of the Gridview. Also has some overhead. More manual work as you have to design it yourself. You can configure the DataList control to enable users to edit or delete a record in the table. The DataList control differs from the Repeater control in that the DataList control explicitly places items in an HTML table.
Datalist:It contains Header Template, Item template , alternate Item template , Edit itmtemplate and footer template . It can’t support sorting and paging but support selection and editing