There is one main difference in POP & IMAP, where the emails are stored. Below are two examples of when you would use IMAP & when you might want to use POP.

When to use IMAP

IMAP is the preffered choice for email storage & connecting to your inbox. This is because emails are stored on the server, and not just on your local computer, phone or tablet.

Example: You work for yourself - You have your emails setup on your home computer. You also have your iPhone setup to use your emails for when you are out with a client, and your emails are also set up on your laptop for use away from your desk. If you read an email on your phone, it will also be marked as read on your computer & laptop. Same applies for deleting emails, replying & forwarding. They will be marked as such on the other devices.

IMAP is the most future proof solution for emails & is also extremely flexible. PANTHUR reccomends that you use IMAP to access your emails instead of POP.

When to use POP

POP is used when you only have one email device. For example, you only have a computer & don't access your mail anywhere else & have no plans to do so in the future. It can be useful if you are storing a large quantity of emails, as storing them on your local machine may be more appropriate then storing them on the server like IMAP.

Example: You use your emails only one one computer. You will be storing them locally, and POP will remove them from the server so you can't fill up your account, only your computer if you do not delete any emails over time. Emails are stored on the server until you download them with POP. You cannot have more than one device running with POP, else one device will download the emails & the other one will never know about the email, throwing them out of sync & causing lost emails.

If you ever plan on using your emails on another device, or changing computers/devices, do not choose POP.