What’s the difference between IMAP and POP?

Published: July 31, 2023

IMAP (Internet Messaging Access Protocol) and POP3 (Post Office Protocol) are email protocols that let you access/read your email addresses from third-party email clients and applications, but what’s the difference between them, and which one is best for you?

The main difference between these two protocols is that while POP3 downloads the emails from the server for permanent local storage, IMAP leaves them on the server and simply “caches” emails locally.

In other words, IMAP is better to configure and sync your emails across many devices. For this reason, we highly recommend the use of IMAP.