IMAP stores all the email data on the server, which can potentially use a lot of disk space. Since both options have a sort of storage system, we recommend IMAP. IMAP has two different types of folders: private and public ones. Private folders only exist on the client side your device , while public folders are available to any device that connects to the email account.
POP keeps all folders on the client side. This means that folders are only available from the device they were created on. Any other devices that access the email account will not have access to the folders. IMAP filters the mail on the server side so that it is already sorted when a device accesses it. POP server-side sorting works, but it will not download email that has been sorted outside of the Inbox folder.
You use multiple devices to access your mail You only use one device to access your email You are trying to conserve space on your server You use custom folders IMAP POP You want to set up server-side delivery rules. You may still be considering what email protocol to use.
IMAP allows you to access your email wherever you are, from any device. When you read an email message using IMAP, you aren't actually downloading or storing it on your computer; instead, you're reading it from the email service.
As a result, you can check your email from different devices, anywhere in the world: your phone, a computer, a friend's computer. IMAP only downloads a message when you click on it, and attachments aren't automatically downloaded. This way you're able to check your messages a lot more quickly than POP. POP works by contacting your email service and downloading all of your new messages from it.
Once they are downloaded onto your PC or Mac, they are deleted from the email service. This means that after the email is downloaded, it can only be accessed using the same computer. If you try to access your email from a different device, the messages that have been previously downloaded won't be available to you. If you've used Gmail, Outlook.
Once you make changes to your email, such as deleting messages or sending a new email, the server processes and saves these changes, then disconnects. You aren't downloading local copies of all your messages; you're using the email client to manage the email stored on the server. The only information stored on your device unless you explicitly download something are cached copies for efficiency. POP was designed for a simpler time when you only needed to access your email from one device.
In those days, constant internet access also wasn't common, so POP made sense for dial-up connections where you got online, did what you needed, and then disconnected.
It thus has the following pros:. POP has some advantages in specific situations, but it's largely outdated today. It's not designed for checking email from multiple devices, so you can experience problems even if you leave a copy of email on the server.
For instance, if you delete an email on one device, that deletion doesn't sync to the server, so other devices will still have that message.
And since each device downloads every message from the server, it's easy to end up with a bunch of duplicates and not know what you've already dealt with. Downloading every message from your POP account can use up a lot of space on your device, depending on how much mail you have.
A lot of POP use today is to access mailboxes provided by your ISP, web hosting company, or similar, which tend to suffer from extremely limited storage. As mentioned earlier, IMAP was created to allow remote access to emails stored on a remote server. The idea is to allow multiple clients to manage the same inbox, which is in line with how most people use email today.
So whether you log in from your home or work computer, you will always see the same emails and folder structure, since they are stored on the server. IMAP: Which is better? Can't find what you're looking for? Contact our support team now. Open a Support Ticket. Live Chat. Request a callback from our Support Team Please select a 2 hour preferred callback timeframe from the drop-down and we will do our best to get back to you then. Last Name.
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