How does webmail and email client differ in the way they function? What is the difference between the Post Office Protocol (POP3) and the Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) Mail Server? What is the difference in the way, each of these works? What are the benefits of IMAP? What are its drawbacks?
Personally, I don’t see any difference in the function between an email client like the Microsoft Office Outlook and a webmail. The only difference is in the way you access them. With a webmail, you need to use a web browser and then visit the website to access your email account and open your email messages.
With an email client, you access your email messages directly using a program from your computer such as Microsoft Office Outlook. You don’t need to sign in to your account manually every time you want to check for new mails because your email account is already setup with the program and it is the job of the email client to automatically log you in and check mail.
IMAP stands for Internet Message Access Protocol while POP3 stands for Post Office Protocol version 3. Both protocols are used to retrieve email messages. They only differ in the way they handle messages. IMAP was developed in 1986 at the Stanford University by Mark Crispin. It is meant as an alternative to POP.
With POP3, the email is forwarded to your device for example your Smartphone or PC and then deletes the original message from the server. With IMAP, the original email message is not deleted when you open it in your device. It remains in the server until you decide to delete it.
These are internet protocols which receive and send emails from the client end softwares. The only difference we can look out in IMAP & POP3 is the way they process or take the emails. The in detail functioning of IMAP & POP3 can be known by seeing the below image.
