Why is IMAP4 protocol preferred over POP3 protocol?

Why is IMAP4 protocol preferred over POP3 protocol?

Rating:

IMAP4 has the following advantages over POP3 protocol:

• IMAP4 can be used to download only specific mails from the mail server, while POP3 downloads all the mails from the mail server at a time.
• IMAP4 can download only a part of the message (e.g. the header) initially. Then depending upon the user, the entire message can be downloaded afterwards. However, POP3 downloads the entire message at a time.
• IMAP4 only marks a message as deleted as soon as it is being read. The message will then be deleted as soon as the user logs off, or sends the expunge command to the mail server.
• IMAP4 supports server side storage. Hence, the location of the user is insignificant. However, POP3 uses a local client application to read the mails.
• Since IMAP4 stores messages on the server side, the user does not have to bother about fault tolerance and system crashes, as in the case of POP3 protocol where the messages once downloaded from the server are stored locally.
• IMAP4 allows a user to create multiple mailboxes on multiple servers under the same user name. The user can personalize these mailboxes for receiving specific kinds of mails in each. However, POP3 allows only a single user account to be configured.
• Changes made to a mail is propagated to the IMAP4 server. This feature is not available under POP3 protocol.

• If the connection with the mail server drops during reading a mail, it has to be re-established. On the other hand, POP3 downloads the entire mail at a time. Hence, if the connection with the mail server is dropped at the time of reading a mail, it does not affect the reading.
• POP3 protocol is mostly supported by the commercially available mail servers.
• Since the mails in IMAP4 are stored on the server, the space storage management is a primary concern on such mail servers.

Rating: