IMAP vs. POP

When e-mail gets sent to your everyhost.com account, it gets stored on our servers. When it comes time to read your mail, you need a method to fetch your mail into your mail reader. IMAP and POP are two of those methods, and nearly every mail reader will support fetching mail through at least one of these methods. Most will support both methods. Which one should you choose?

POP

POP (Post Office Protocol, also known as POP3) is the oldest method, and, as a result, is supported by nearly every mail client. It works by downloading each message to your personal computer, and if the transfer was successful, optionally deleting it from our servers. This will store all mail on your personal computer, and keep disk usage on our servers to a minimum.

IMAP

IMAP () is a newer protocol, and offers more features than POP. In it's default configuration, it allows you to read mail while keeping it stored on our servers instead of on your computer. We call this online mode. This is of particular interest to people who access their mailbox from more than one machine, e.g. both at home and work.

It is also possible to use IMAP to download mail to your personal computer and remove it from the everyhost.com servers just as POP does. We call this offline mode. IMAP has the features of POP and more.

Which should I use?

In short, it's better to use IMAP if your mail program supports it.

The only foreseeable advantage to using POP over IMAP is simply that more mail programs support POP. Mail programs which do not support IMAP include GNUS versions < 5.8, .... If you are using one of these programs, you must use POP.

If your mail program supports IMAP, it is suggested you use IMAP instead. You then have to make the choice of deciding between using it in online or offline mode. Some of the advantages and disadvantages to each are listed below. If you're unsure of which you should pick, choose online mode.

Advantages of online mode

Messages stay on our server, so you can read them from any computer.
Message subjects download quickly, and you can delete messages without having to download them; minimizes connection bandwidth.

Disadvantages of online mode

Must be connected to the Internet to read mail.
Slight delay between selecting message to read and the message actually appearing on screen.

Advantages of offline mode

Mail gets downloaded to your machine; you can disconnect from the Internet after downloading and read while keeping your line open.

Disadvantages of offline mode

Any mail downloaded on your machine and deleted from our servers cannot be read from another location.
If your hard drive fails, and you don't make regular backups, you could permanently lose all of your mail.