POP stands for "Post Office Protocol"
POP3 allows you to download copies of your email messages to your personal computer. Any changes you make will NOT be visible to other users or computers accessing the email account since you are only making changes to local copies. Messages sent, moved or deleted from a computer using POP can only be viewed on that individual computer's folders.
The copies of the email messages on the server are normally unchanged, but it is very easy to unintentionally configure your POP3 program to delete those server copies whenever you download the emails or at a future time.
POP is recommended for:
- Users who prefer to keep a backup of all their messages
- Users who have very limited time to be online but need to read emails
IMAP stands for "Internet Message Access Protocol"
IMAP4 allows you to read emails as they appear on the hosting server. All messages and any changes you make (delete, reply, forward, move) are seen by anyone else who logs into webmail or IMAP. Depending on program configuration, messages may be temporarily saved for offline viewing.
IMAP is recommended for:
- Users who connect to email accounts from many computers
- Users with mobile devices with internet access, such as smart phones or tablets
- Users who wish to always have their messages, including sent messages and message folders, saved on the server
