What are the advantages and disadvantages of using third-party controls in your applications?

Advantages:


- They may save you time and money over developing your own.


- Other developers working on your application may already be familier with them which would avoid the time it takes to learn a custom component.





Disadantages:


- It takes time to learn a new component.


- You don't have total control over how the component works.


- Lock-in. Once you start using a component it can be hard to switch to something else. For example if a web control doesn't support a new browser version you may have to buy an upgrade from the vendor.