ASP.NET MVC: Difference between HTML.ActionLink vs Url.Action

There is a difference. Html.ActionLink generates an <a href=".."></a> tag whereas Url.Action returns only an url.

For example:

@Html.ActionLink("link text", "someaction", "somecontroller", new { id = "123" }, null)

generates:

<a href="/somecontroller/someaction/123">link text</a>

and

Url.Action("someaction", "somecontroller", new { id = "123" })

generates:

/somecontroller/someaction/123