Session is used mainly for storing user specific data [ session specific data ]. In the case of session you can use the value for the whole session until the session expires or the user abandons the session. Viewstate is the type of data that has scope only in the page in which it is used. You canot have viewstate values accesible to other pages unless you transfer those values to the desired page. Also in the case of viewstate all the server side control datas are transferred to the server as key value pair in __Viewstate and transferred back and rendered to the appropriate control in client when postback occurs.