Know Differences POP vs IMAP Exchange Protocols | eMail Clients Explained | Pros and Cons

The mail clients POP or IMAP - Which one should you use for your email address? You have more than one email address and want to use both on same mobile, even so if you ever want to setting up email address with domain name you need to configure email client app on your device. Before setting up, you need to know what is POP and IMAP.
POP3 Vs IMAP Exchange —
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These are the most preferable email protocols (methods) allows you to read emails on the devices you set up as pr they appear on the hosting server. Both IMAP (Internet Message access protocol) and POP (Post Office Protocol) allows the users to download & read their emails locally online as well as offline from a remote server. These email clients can use either POP3 or IMAP protocol connections to download all your mail using a third-party application like Microsoft Outlook, Mac Mail, Thunderbird, etc. This is one of the Beginner's guides to IMAP vs POP and helps you to choose setup options for your email. Keep reading to know more about the differences between the mail clients IMPS Vs POP & their methods you can use to receive an email.

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Learn how to choose the best protocol for accessing the email messages on your device remotely and know the full detailed difference between POP3 vs IMAP for email.

Last time we have seen How to create free EMAIL ID with your own domain with Zoho mail server which works as a pop email hosting for FREE, and today we are going to see the meanings of POP & IMAP email accounts details.

Some of you have the question that; Does Gmail support IMAP? How to set up Gmail account in outlook? and the answer is yes Gmail support IMAP and you can easily setup Gmail into Outlook with the help of POP and IMAP Mail Server. These both POP/POP3 & IMAP are email protocols i.e. exchange server account that they allow you to read emails on your devices by using third-party apps. Examples of such applications are FastMail, Outlook, YahooMail Clients or Thunderbird. To set up an Internet email account in Outlook, you need to configure Outlook email servers settings like Incoming mail server/Outgoing mail server or SMTP email servers.

You may also like to read; Top 12 Best Ways To Identify & Protect Against Phishing Scams | Email Phishing Prevention

POP - Post Office Protocol

POP is only mean to download the messages from your mail server to your home computer. Once it’s downloaded it is removed from your mail server, so thereafter you can read the message only from your home computer.

This method is usually suggested for the people who want to keep a backup of all their email messages for offline reading. You can take the backup before closing the email ID account from the server.

It is less secure; as because it downloads the copies of all your email messages on your device and you don't need to log in again and again to read it.

The POP3 is a fast, effective protocol especially helpful if you only read the emails from one device.

You may also like to know quick Gmail Tricks; [Gmail] Delete Large Email Attachments to Clear Gmail Space | Increase Google Drive Storage

IMAP - Internet Message Access Protocol

This protocol is used to download/read all your emails messages from your mail server to your home computer synchronously. It is created particularly to reduce the restrictions of POP.

IMAP is much faster, advanced and secured than POP that allows the users to check all the folders via your client apps. You can instantly check the subjects & message bodies of any mail.

Like POP, in IMAP you can view & download the messages from your mail server, but the difference is you can delay the downloading as required whenever the larger emails with attachments arrived; even after downloading to your home computer they are also saved on your mail server, so whenever you want to see the same folders you have to just access your email by any means & from anywhere not necessarily from your home computer.

This method is mostly recommended to the users who connect to email accounts from multiple computers.

IMAP provides the extended security email encryption in case you want to set up business email on your app.

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Difference Between POP and IMAP Email Protocol Accounts

Functions	IMAP	POP
Workflow	Connect to server >> download user demanded content and store it locally >> Process user edits like rating, deleting or marking email as read etc. >> Disconnect.	Connect to mail server >> fetch download all mail >> Store locally as new mail >> Remove mail from server >> Disconnect.
Flexibility	You can read the message header and then decide which message to save. You can delete or move message without saving it. You are able to download the matter of message.	You should have to download all the messages and you can do it for one time only. It’s necessary to save all the messages. Download the whole messages including the attached document.
Synchronization	You can access messages from anywhere. Messages show in all folders. Whatever changes we made through web or any email software remain in sync.	Message can access only by single device. You can see the messages which are in inbox only. Changes in the downloaded message can be done by the email software only.
Safety	On your mail server every message kept with multiple copies.	Downloaded message for single time does exist only on personal computer.
Pros	Mail stored on remote server, i.e. accessible from multiple different locations Internet connection needed to access mail Faster overview as only headers are downloaded until content is explicitly requested Mail is automatically backed up if server is managed properly Saves local storage space Option to store mail locally	Mail stored locally, i.e. always accessible, even without internet connection Internet connection needed only for sending and receiving mail Saves server storage space Option to leave copy of mail on server Consolidate multiple email accounts and servers into one inbox
Cons	Sent Items available locally ONLY (no copy exists at all times on the mail server).	The main disadvantage of POP3 accounts is the difficulty to save and view your messages on multiple computers. Speed of mail download dependent on bandwidth (large attachments may take some time).

Bottom Line

POP3 Vs IMAP? - Obviously, it depends on user requirements and his activity, but in my point of view, IMAP is better than POP. Because IMAP is more advanced and allows you to see all your folders on your mail server. You can quickly view subjects and message bodies of emails. It can delay downloading larger email, such as those with attachments.

IMP also allows you to synchronize mail folders between your home machine and mail server on the web. So that you see the same folders and messages wherever and however you access your email. For safety in POP, you once downloaded the message only exists on your local computer. If crashes, the messages are lost, comparatively in IMAP all messages kept with multiple redundant copies on your mail servers.

Let us know which protocol you would like to use? You can share your thoughts via the comment section shown below.