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POP3 vs IMAP

POP3 and IMAP are application-layer Internet standard protocols used by local e-mail clients to retrieve e-mails from a remote server over a TCP/IP connection. Virtually all modern e-mail clients and mail servers support both protocols as a means of transferring e-mail messages from a server.

They are both text-based. Both transmit more or less same amount of data.

Here is the brief comparison of both:

POP3 IMAP
Intended message store Client Server
Download message YES YES
Download message headers YES YES
Download detailed email information NO YES
Download specific message part (single attachment) NO YES
Delete message YES YES
Send message NO (use SMTP) NO (use SMTP)
Get only unseen messages NO YES
Mark message Seen/Unseen NO YES
Server side search NO YES
Folders NO YES
Sent items NO YES
SSL YES YES
Push email NO YES

Mail.dll supports both POP3 and IMAP (and SMTP), give it a try at:
http://www.limilabs.com/mail

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This entry was posted on Thursday, August 5th, 2010 at 18:15 and is filed under . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “POP3 vs IMAP”

  1. Default ports for email protocols Says:
    September 15th, 2010 at 20:33

    [...] * Check the differences between POP3 and IMAP [...]

  2. Download emails from Gmail via POP3 Says:
    December 23rd, 2011 at 17:21

    [...] POP3 vs IMAP for [...]

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