MAY 5,2017 / BEN APPLEGATE
To analyse the differences between POP/IMAP and SMTP, it is must to understand what they are, how they perform, their functions and their advantages and drawbacks.
The prime difference between the two is that POP/IMAP works to receives messages in your email while SMTP is used to transmit emails through network.
SMTP- It stands for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. It is an integral part of TCP (transmission Control Protocol). SMTP has port numbers like TCP and these numbers are changing according to different settings. SMTP holds two internet security layers – SSL (Transport Layer Security) and TLS (Transport Layer Security).
How does it work?
It works according some specific commands to send messages. There are 3 prime commands that SMTP follows.
MAIL– In case an email gets bounced the command is used to set up return address path
RCTP- The command is to establish the mail recipients
Data- The command helps sending text messages containing header and the body
SMTP is used to send emails from one server to another. The message can be retrieved with an email client using IMAP or POP. The role of SMTP is specified here. It is primarily used to send messages from a mail client to a mail server. While you configure the email client, it is must to specify both the POP or IMAP server and the SMTP server.
POP-
POP is also known as POP3 which is its latest version. Previous versions are POP1 and POP2. It is also a part of TCP suite. The role of POP is to retrieve messages from server to save in an email client. It has been designed mainly to download messages only one time from the server. As the downloading is over, POP deletes the mails from the server. It also has devoted port numbers.
IMAP-
Internet Message Access Protocol belongs to TCP. Its current version 4 has been released. The key function of IMAP is similar to POP, it is used to receive messages from the server. Though, it has many other characteristics than POP3. It allows users to access emails from the server continuously. It is therefore, IMAP needs more space on the server and resource in CPU than POP3.
