Which is the best type of e-mail to use?

I have read that POP e-mail is on its way out and that IMAP offers much more control over e-mail. And I have also read that many people think POP is just fine and IMAP is overated. So I'm confused :confused:

Any thoughts?

I'm trying to get a handle on this for use of e-mail for now and in the future.

Thanks

POP3 won't die for a while....or at least not until a new IMAP protocol version is out...

IMAP is great for people that receive A LOT of emails a day, saves a lot of time cause you dont have to read and download the 8 pieces of SPAM the average user gets each day.

IMHO email using IMAP is only really usefull for companies that share emails in public folders between groups/departments.

I can't see any reason why I would want a user to permanently store their email on my server and use my space. (If a company is using my systems for a mail share I think they might be betteradvised to get an email system in house for that. At least that way they can get at the older mail in case their T1 goes down or something like that.)

I personally will only ever offer POP3 and Webmail access for MY users. (I dont need to be storing their mails)

As for downloading mail? Well unless its a user with a 14.4 modem with a bunch of attachments, I cant see email taking more than a second per message to download, IF that long.

And if someone can't afford a minute for their email to download, then they have serious scheduling issues with their time.

IMAP is good for the consumer to use as well. If they read mail at home and work the messages read,deleted, filed are available in any location. As for not wanting to store their mail on your server aren't you in business to make money maybe you should included their mail in you storage counts and offer upgrade for those that need more storage. I have found IMAP to be the best thing when reading from more than one machine. POP does not make this kind of set up very friendly.

8 pieces of spam only? Heh, here at HostRocket I get close to a hundred spam messages each day on my catchall account.

sanjiv are you serious!? is this hostrocket's doing or your own.. meaning.. did you give out your email, or do you think HR or bots obtained your email?

Originally posted by studiok
Which is the best type of e-mail to use?

It really doesn't matter if you're a casual email user. IMAP does all the storage server-side. You can move messages into seperate folders and manipulate them on server. With POP3, you have to download all the messages before you can mess with them.

IMAP seems to have the upper hand when you have to deal with large attachments and a mobile environment (laptop/PDA). Much less of a pain than POP3. :D

Originally posted by djk
IMAP is good for the consumer to use as well. If they read mail at home and work the messages read,deleted, filed are available in any location. As for not wanting to store their mail on your server aren't you in business to make money maybe you should included their mail in you storage counts and offer upgrade for those that need more storage. I have found IMAP to be the best thing when reading from more than one machine. POP does not make this kind of set up very friendly.

noob question: whats the difference between IMAP and just checking the "leave a copy of email on the server" option in outlook? sounds very similar from what has been said...

Originally posted by Annoyance


noob question: whats the difference between IMAP and just checking the "leave a copy of email on the server" option in outlook? sounds very similar from what has been said...

Concept is similiar...but nothing else...to view those same messages on POP you'd have to download the messages again...with imap you always see them...

let's just put it this way...IMAP works just like yahoo mail and hotmail.

As a host, why wouldn't you love IMAP?

More Storage Space = More $$$ For Hosting.

I like IMAP.

Originally posted by studiok
Which is the best type of e-mail to use?

I have read that POP e-mail is on its way out and that IMAP offers much more control over e-mail. And I have also read that many people think POP is just fine and IMAP is overated. So I'm confused :confused:

Any thoughts?

I'm trying to get a handle on this for use of e-mail for now and in the future.

Thanks

I prefer IMAP because the same folders and email that I see when I'm using web based email, are the same that I see in my Outlook Express when I'm at my own computer. You can kind of do the same thing with pop3 and your inbox, but you don't get all of the folder storage, and it can get awkward (try it).

One problem with IMAP is it uses so much disk space (~40 gigs in the past few weeks from our users) because mail that is no longer needed is just sitting on the server taking up space.

-Brendan

Originally posted by rbuecker


I prefer IMAP because the same folders and email that I see when I'm using web based email, are the same that I see in my Outlook Express when I'm at my own computer. You can kind of do the same thing with pop3 and your inbox, but you don't get all of the folder storage, and it can get awkward (try it).

Agreed.