Difference Between POP3 and IMAP Email Accounts

You can access Google’s Gmail email server in your browser, mobile phone or on your desktop using Microsoft Outlook or any other email client. The service support both POP3 and IMAP so what’s the difference?

POP3  - With a POP3 e-mail account, your e-mail messages are downloaded to your computer and then usually deleted from the mail server. The main disadvantage of POP3 accounts is the difficulty to save and view your messages on multiple computers. Also, messages that you send from one computer are not copied to the Sent Items folder on the other computers.

IMAP  - With IMAP, you have access to mail folders on the mail server, and you can store and process mail without downloading it to the computer that you are working on. Thus, you can use a different computer to read your messages wherever you are. IMAP can save you time because you can view the headers of your e-mail messages — who the message is from and the subject — and then choose to download only those messages that you are interested in reading. Your mail is saved on the mail server, which is usually safer, and is backed up by your mail administrator or ISP.

Read more on office.com.

Amit Agarwal is a web geek, solo entrepreneur and loves making things on the Internet. Google recently awarded him the Google Developer Expert and Google Cloud Champion title for his work on Google Workspace and Google Apps Script.

Awards & Recognition

Google Developer Expert

Google Developer Expert

Google awarded us the Developer Expert title recogizing our work in Workspace

ProductHunt Golden Kitty

ProductHunt Golden Kitty

Our Gmail tool won the Lifehack of the Year award at ProductHunt Golden Kitty Awards

Microsoft MVP Alumni

Microsoft MVP Alumni

Microsoft awarded us the Most Valuable Professional title for 5 years in a row

Google Cloud Champion

Google Cloud Champion

Google awarded us the Champion Innovator award for technical expertise

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