POP service:
- POP was designed for, and works best in, the situation where you use only a single desktop computer.
- Normally, messages are downloaded to your desktop computer and then deleted from the mail server.
- If you choose to work with your POP mail on more than one machine, you may have trouble with email messages getting downloaded on one machine that you need to work with on another machine; for example, you may need a message at work that was downloaded to your machine at home.
- If you choose the POP option "keep mail on server", your POP "inbox" can grow large and unwieldy, and email operations can become inefficient and time-consuming.
- Your archive of mail, if you have one, is kept on your desktop computer - you generally need little storage space on the mail server.
IMAP service:
- IMAP is designed for the situation where you need to work with your email from multiple computers, such as your workstation at work, your desktop computer at home, or a laptop computer while traveling.
- Messages are displayed on your local computer but are kept and stored on the mail server - you can work with all your mail, old and new, from any computer connected to the internet.
- You can create subfolders on the mail server to organize the mail you want to keep. However, these subfolders, as well as its contents work against your total email quota of 1GB.
How do I know if I should use IMAP or POP?
Below may help you decide which email protocol is better for you to choose.
Choose IMAP if:
- you need access to your email, new and old, at multiple locations, e.g., office, lab, home.
- you use POP, and specify to leave your mail on the server.
- you use the option to synchronize the emails on your email client and the server.
Choose POP if:
- you work with your email in a single location or on a single computer.
- Webmail works fine for you when you need to check new email remotely.
- you regularly backup your email messages and archive it.