What is the difference between the Recording and Simple controllers in JMeter?

What is the difference between the Recording and Simple controllers in JMeter?

I read this article. It says the following.

Recording Controller: JMeter can record your Testing steps; a recording controller is a placeholder to store these recording steps.

Simple Controller: Simple Controller is just a container for user request.

But I was able to use the HTTP(S) Test Script Recorder to record user actions into the Simple Controller. So, does it mean that the Recording Controller is the same as the Simple Controller + the HTTP(S) Test Script Recorder?

Both are just "containers" for the recorded Samplers, from test execution perspective there is no difference at all

You're free to use any Logic Controller as the recording target

• Recording Controller and Simple Controller - will act just as "containers"
• Loop Controller - the recorded sampler(s) will be repeated as many times as the number of loops you set
• While Controller - the recorded sampler(s) will be repeated until the condition resolves to true
• Transaction Controller - will generate a synthetic Sample Result with cumulative response time of all child(ren) sampler(s)
• etc.

Personally I would recommend using Recording Template, apart of using Recording Controller it comes with pre-defined "good" configuration when it comes to excluding requests to embedded resources, pre-defined HTTPS domain and so on.