POP vs. IMAP. What type of email do you need?

Having at least one email account and sending and receiving emails has become a major part in most people’s personal and professional life. From department store coupons to arranging important business meetings, having access to your email and being able to retrieve it when you need to is critical. Knowing what kind of email account type to use is the best way to help ensure consistent email delivery.

The best way to determine what account type to use is to know what device you will be checking your email on. The quick answer is if you are using a mobile device, you will want to use IMAP. For those on a laptop or desktop, POP is the way to go. So, what’s the difference?

If your account is set up with IMAP, your inbox will mirror what is contained on your email provider’s server. Each time a new message is sent or received, a copy of it is temporarily stored on your device. IMAP is ideal for mobile devices because it will not take up too much internal space and you can access your email anywhere you have an internet connection. Keep in mind that your account may have a limit on its storage space, so you may need to remove old messages periodically or save them to a local folder.

If your account is set up to use POP (or POP3), you do not have to worry about how much storage space is being used because copies of messages are downloaded and saved locally to your machine. It is usually recommended to use POP if you have a laptop or desktop that has larger storage capacity. Once the messages have been downloaded locally you can read, archive, and search emails both on and offline.

Now that you know the main differences between POP and IMAP, you are ready to manage your email with confidence. We recommend double checking your email settings to see if your account type suits your needs. If you have further questions, please feel free to reach out to our dedicated support team.