Email can sometimes be an afterthought. You got free email service with a domain purchase/website hosting package? Cool! You’ve always wanted your own bigboss@bossenterprises.com email address. But have you ever thought of what kind of email service you’ll be receiving? And if you had the choice of choosing between POP3 email service or IMAP, which would you go with?

It’s important to know the differences between the two, because they really dictate how you will be checking and working with your email.

Post Office Protocol (POP3)

POP3 is versatile in the fact that you can log into your POP3 email, download each of the messages, and go offline and still be able to read each individual message. Think of it like a post office box – when you run Outlook (or any other email client like Mozilla’s Thunderbird) it “grabs” the email and pulls it from the server. This can be a drag because if you wanted to check it on your phone or from another computer, there would be nothing to “grab.” It’s an older protocol, and as more and more information is emailed between people, POP3 can sometimes have real issues downloading emails with larger files.

Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP)

When you check your email using IMAP, you don’t have to download the entire email. You can just take a look at the header and decide whether or not you want to download the message. This can significantly cut down on the time it takes to check your email (especially for those on slower Internet connections). Synchronization is much easier in the sense that you can check your email from a mobile device and make changes, and when on your computer those changes will have taken effect. This takes some finagling (and quite a bit of extra time!) if using POP3 where you need to leave a copy of the message on the server. IMAP does require you to be on the Internet to check your email, so you can’t log in, download the messages, and log out.

Two Protocols Enter, One Remains?

So which is better? You’ll find fans of both POP3 and IMAP, and as such, it really depends on your style. If you’re always connected to the Internet from multiple devices, IMAP may be the way to go for easier organization. More casual fans of email service may like how straightforward POP3 can be. It really comes down to your preference and understanding of how each works.