POP and IMAP Email

In a previous post we talked about POP versus IMAP email accounts. Many people are unsure of the difference, so let’s have a closer look at the advantages and disadvantages of both.

What is POP?

POP (Post Office Protocol) is the system that most people use in business. POP works similar to the standard postal system; when a letter is sent, it is transferred from the mail depot to your letterbox. Similarly with POP, when you click ‘send and receive' on your email client such as Outlook or Thunderbird, your email is transferred from the server to your computer.

What is IMAP?

IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) is a growing alternative to POP email for business owners. While POP emails are downloaded onto your computer, IMAP emails are stored on an email server and accessed via the Internet. With IMAP, you can access your email from anywhere that has an Internet connection.

Which one is best for me?

An advantage of IMAP email is that you have no issues with storage space, because your emails are not stored on your computer. And because messages are stored on the server, they won’t be affected if your hard drive crashes.

Yet another advantage of IMAP email is that changes are synced when using multiple computers. This is not the case with POP; for example, if you access your email from a different computer or mobile device, any changes you make – deleting, reading, or sorting emails – will not be synced with your email account. So when you log back into your email from a different location, you will need to re-read, delete and sort those messages, which can be very frustrating. With IMAP, any changes you make will sync back to the server, and will remain the same no matter where or how you access your email account.

A disadvantage of IMAP is that you need to be connected to the Internet to access your emails. But with POP, you can read your email even when you are not connected to the Internet, because the email files have already been downloaded to your computer when you hit send and receive earlier.

Although most people will be using POP email already, IMAP is best for people who have multiple computers and need to check messages on the go, or those who have wireless cards or broadband.

If you'd like to know more about POP or IMAP and which one would work best for you, please don't hesitate to get in touch.