POP versus IMAP

Regarding receiving email Greenhost supports two different methods: IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) and POP (Post Office Protocol).

If you choose POP, all incoming email is taken off the mail server and transferred to your computer. If you choose IMAP, then all your email stays on the server. So if you want to read a message with IMAP, you read this directly from the Greenhost-server.

Greenhost advises to use IMAP, because you can then optimally make use of our webmail and anti-spam facilities. With almost every mail program you can configure by yourself how the email should be handled. Open the support page for each program to see specific instructions how you can configure your email.

POP features:

• Fetched e-mail can be read offline too
• The mail is only stored on the computer with which you fetch the e-mail
• Suitable to read your email with a single device (computer);

IMAP features:

• All email is stored on the mail server
• Your email is backed up automatically
• A connection is continuously needed to read the email (unless you configure your mail program otherwise)
• The size of your mailbox on the mail server can become very large
• Suitable for fetching email with multiple devices

Read the "Mail server settings" of the pages for each mail program for precise configurations.