Zend_View_Helper vs Zend View Partial Script
zend-framework, zend-view
Solution
Use $this->render() instead of $this->partial().
Only use partials when you need more control over the scope. Like you said, it has a lot of overhead since it has to create a new Zend_View instance. Using render doesn't.
To touch upon your actual question, I recommend using render (or partial) over a view helper because it's much simpler for designs to work with, and there is less overhead. View helpers are for custom functionality.
A good rule of thumb is: do you want to include content/html, or do you want to generate content / apply transformations. Helpers are for the latter.
Problem
This is my fork in the road. I want to display some sort of button on my webpage and I want to do it in many places. This 'button' is really just gonna act like a link to some other page and all the button instances are gonna go to one page. I want all the buttons to be the same except for maybe the size that they are. Now, should I use a partial script with the html for the button and call the partial view helper to render or should I create a Zend_View_Helper that will return the html for the button when I call it? I know that I could swing either way but which do you think is better? Some things I see : The helper might be better because it wouldn't have to create a BIG object like a clone of a Zend_View to do the partial. The partial script would be easier for an html person to work with.