Translations:Complete Virtual Mail Server/Courier-IMAP to Database/3/en

The major difference between POP3 and IMAP would be that IMAP keeps messages on the server whereas with POP3, the client retrieves the messages and are then gone from the server. Having the messages kept on server allows for several clients to actively work with the same mailbox from different locations. The most basic example would be webmail and a desktop client, both accessing the same mailbox at the same time. Also in general, webmail clients strongly favor IMAP. The price this comes with of course, is primarily disk space and processing power on the mail server. With disk space being as cheap as it is these days, 32Gb set aside pure for e-mail offers a lot of space for mails, at hardly any cost. And if processing power is an issue, server-side based searches can be disabled to reduce the stress on the machine.