POP3 and IMAP are the standard email protocols that email users use to access their mailboxes on servers. Both are reliable and have been in use for years; the difference is in how they work and how they handle information about messages you’ve read.
Frequently asked questions
IMAP PROTOCOL
IMAP syncs your local mail client with the email on the server. Synced means the state is the same on every device you use to access your email. So on every device you see all received and sent messages, and other activity.
IMAP is therefore recommended when one or more users use the same email account from several devices. Because IMAP syncs email across all devices, it keeps messages on the server, so the available mailbox space shrinks fairly quickly.
POP3 PROTOCOL
With POP3, all emails are downloaded to the first device that connects to the server with a POP3 mail client, and the message is then deleted from the server. If you use POP3, we recommend setting the option to keep the original message on the server for a few days and delete it automatically after a set time.