Post Office Protocol, or POP, refers to a way email is handled online. If you have a old email client which doesn’t support IMAP, or you wish to store all your email locally on a single computer and remove it from the server, then POP is your best choice. POP3 is the latest version of POP, so it comes with more features and improvements from its previous versions.

The Imageway core email server software provides the highest level of POP compliance on the market. Having this level of POP compliance assures that your POP based email client works without any issues. We have tested our POP hosting with many leading email clients such as Outlook, Mac Mail, Em Client, and Windows Mail.

In addition to the highest level of POP compliance, we offer special features integrated into our POP service that is not available at most other email hosting services. First, two factor authentication (2FA) is available with our POP service. Second, we protect against accidental email deletion, including hacked account email deletion, by storing copies of deleted emails for 30 days in a read only server folder structure which can be accessed from our WebMail. Lastly, we support the use of email encryption using any POP email client without the use of any plug-in.

So you might ask, what is the difference between POP and IMAP. The major differences are:

1) POP is a simpler protocol, making implementation easier.

2) POP moves the message from the email server to the local computer, although there is usually an option to leave the messages on the email server as well.

3) IMAP defaults to leaving the message on the email server, simply downloading a local copy.

4) POP treats the mailbox as a single store, and has no concept of folders.

5) An IMAP client performs complex queries, asking the server for headers, or the bodies of specified messages, or to search for messages meeting certain criteria. Messages in the mail repository can be marked with various status flags (e.g. “deleted” or “answered”) and they stay in the repository until explicitly removed by the user—which may not be until a later session. In short: IMAP is designed to permit manipulation of remote mailboxes as if they were local. Depending on the IMAP client implementation and the mail architecture desired by the system manager, the user may save messages directly on the client machine, or save them on the server, or be given the choice of doing either.

6) The POP protocol requires the currently connected client to be the only client connected to the mailbox. In contrast, the IMAP protocol specifically allows simultaneous access by multiple clients and provides mechanisms for clients to detect changes made to the mailbox by other, concurrently connected, clients. See for example RFC3501 section 5.2 which specifically cites “simultaneous access to the same mailbox by multiple agents” as an example.

7) When POP retrieves a message, it receives all parts of it, whereas the IMAP4 protocol allows clients to retrieve any of the individual MIME parts separately – for example, retrieving the plain text without retrieving attached files.

8) IMAP supports flags on the server to keep track of message state: for example, whether or not the message has been read, replied to, forwarded, or deleted.

So in the end, the choice is yours when it comes to using a IMAP or POP based email connection. Imageway supports both in the most reliable way possible.