Which Mail Connection Method Should You Use?
You may have heard of POP and IMAP before but not known what they mean or the difference between them. In this article we will look at the difference between the two connection methods and tell you which method is best for you. We also take a brief look at web-mail and how this fits in.
What is POP?
POP (Post Office Protocol) is popular method of transferring emails from your online account to your own computer. When you connect to your mail server using POP you generally transfer your email from the server to your local computer, the copy on the server is then deleted. POP connections are the most widely supported with desktop mail applications such as Outlook and Apple Mail.
Advantages of POP:
- More mail applications support POP than IMAP.
- Amount of email storage is only limited by your computer hard drive.
Disadvantages of POP:
- Not possible to access your email from more than one computer.
- If your hard drive crashed you loose all your emails unless you made a backup.
What is IMAP?
IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) is slightly less popular than POP but also has some major advantages. The main difference IMAP offers is that it keeps messages on the server. This can be a big advantage if you want to access your email from many locations.
Advantages if IMAP:
- Access all of your emails from any location including web-mail.
- Access your emails from multiple computers, or have more than one user on the same mail box.
- Emails are stored on the server, if your computer crashes you don’t loose your emails.
Disadvantages of IMAP:
- Amount of email storage is limited to your account size.
- If you haven’t setup your mail application to download all messages offline reading is not always available.
Which method should I use?
That’s up to you, there is nothing wrong with either method. If you want to store large amounts of email but only have a small amount of storage space, or your mail application doesn’t support IMAP, POP would be the best method for you. If accessing you mail from any location is important to you or you want to use web-mail along with a desktop mail application IMAP would be the option to go for.
