Email Hosting Guide: POP3 or IMAP

Both IMAP and POP3 are protocols that allow you to receive e-mails from a remote server. Your e-mail client uses these protocols to connect to your mailbox server. You may have your e-mail client on your smartphone, laptop and desktop, and this is where IMAP and POP3 have different uses. 

What is POP3 email hosting?

Post Office Protocol version 3 (POP3) downloads mail from the server and often deletes it from the server after it has done so. This means that depending on when your mail client checks for mail, you'll only receive the e-mail on one device or mail client. This also means that when you delete an e-mail from one device, it will not be deleted from another. For example, if you receive e-mails on your smartphone, deleting them won’t also delete them on your desktop mail client, so you will have an e-mail that you have viewed appear as unread. 

Since POP3 downloads e-mails from the server and saves them in a local storage area, losing or damaging your local storage may cause you to lose all of your e-mails. 

What is IMAP email hosting?

Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) on the other hand, is suited for people who want to receive e-mail on more than one device, which nowadays is most people who carry a smartphone. IMAP stores emails on remote servers rather than downloading them to local storage, which is how the e-mails can be viewed on different devices. When you read, download or make any changes to e-mails on one device, it will synchronise across any other device using the same account. IMAP can only download the header of an e-mail so it can be much quicker. 

Why do we recommend using IMAP?

POP3 offers very few, if any benefits. When you are setting up your mail client, you will have the option to choose from IMAP or POP3. To set up either, access your e-mail account information through Manage Hosting > Email Accounts.