IMAP vs SMTP - Email protocols explained in simple terms

Noel Bouwmeester
LAST UPDATED
August 14, 2024
READING TIME
7 min.

SMTP, IMAP, POP3…

Does your head spin already?

Let’s stop that today by explaining in layman’s terms what IMAP and SMTP are and how they work together.

And who knows, if space allows, we might also unravel the mysteries of POP3.

Keep reading to find out. ;-)

What is IMAP?

IMAP stands for Internet Access Message Protocol.

IMAP retrieves the messages so you can receive them in your email account. Its job is to retrieve email messages from the receiving server and bring them to your inbox.

Without IMAP, they would never  reach your email account.

So, IMAP copies the emails from the receiving server to your email account.

➡️ It’s important to note that IMAP keeps your email account on the server and the one you use in your email client or service synchronized. This means that any changes you make on one device, such as reading or deleting emails, will be reflected across all devices connected to that email account.

Simple, right?

Talking about simple:

What is SMTP?

SMTP stands for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol.

While IMAP is concerned with receiving emails, SMTP is all about sending them.

SMTP takes an outgoing email from your account to the sending server and then to the receiving server.

As you can see, SMTP has more work to do than IMAP.

Dream team? 😴

You can probably guess by now how SMTP and IMAP work together.

SMTP is like a postman sending a message and bringing it to your postbox.

The good news is that you don’t have to walk to your postbox to retrieve the mail because IMAP does it for you!

You just open your inbox, and there is the email. You never knew how emails got to you, but now you do.

POP3: The 3rd protocol 🥉

POP3 stands for Post Office Protocol.

We don't know what's up with all the fancy names, but POP3 is another simple concept.

POP3 retrieves the message from the server to a single account or device and then deletes the message from the server.

➡️POP3 was commonly used for offline email clients (like desktop email apps), but its use has declined in recent years.

To summarize:

POP3 is retrieve and delete, while IMAP is retrieve and synchronize.

Not that complicated, after all 😌

Technical concepts like IMAP and SMTP can sometimes be overwhelming because of the technical terms involved.

However, after doing a little research, we often find that it wasn’t hard to understand at all.

Hopefully, you’re now feeling the same way about IMAP and SMTP.

Noel Bouwmeester
SEO Content Writer @ lempire
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Price
Best for
Standout feature
Con
4.9
star
star
star
star
star
$30/mo
$75/mo
$2,999/mo
Large, distributed sales teams
AI evaluation precision, gamified KPIs
Lack of tracking system
4.6
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star
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Sales operations and finance teams
Powerful configurability
Limited training resources and complex to navigate
4.4
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Not publicly available
Mid-market and enterprise businesses
Comprehensive incentive management
Potentially high cost and steep learning curve
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$15/user/mo
$40/user/mo
Enterprise: custom price
Complex sales structures and businesses of all sizes
Complex sales structures and businesses of all sizes
Steep learning curve
4.6
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Not publicly available
Collaborative teams
Connected planning
Complexity and steep learning curve
4.6
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Companies with complex sales structures
Complex incentive compensation management (ICM) with high efficiency and accuracy
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Not publicly available
Companies who want to automate commission calculations and payouts
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Custom: upon request
Businesses that need a comprehensive and user-friendly sales compensation management software
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4.8
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Not publicly available
Companies with modern sales culture and businesses who want real-time insights
A built-in dispute management and real-time visibility
Users say it works slowly, customer support is slow
4.9
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star
star
star
star
$30/user/mo
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Smaller sales teams
Powerful automation
Lesser user base and average user interface
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Not publicly available
Companies with scalable needs
Automated Commission Calculations
Lack of filtering by date, no mobile app
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CRM
Summary
Backbone of a business's internal operations.
Backbone of customer-centric interactions and operations.
Goal
To centralize and streamline core business processes in a company.
To increase customer experience, satisfaction and loyalty, and boost sales.
Focus
Internal operations and processes across departments (finance, accounting, inventory, supply chain, HR, and sales).
All interactions with leads and customers.
Manages
Internal business data like financial data, inventory levels, production details, supply chain, HR info.
All customer data like contact info, purchase history, communication history, customer preferences and more.
Users
Finance, accounting, operations, supply chain, and HR departments.
Customer-facing teams like sales, marketing, and customer service.
Benefits
Streamlines operations, improves data accuracy, enhances decision-making, boosts collaboration, increases productivity.
Improves customer relationships, increases sales, strengthens customer service, personalizes marketing campaigns, provides insights.
Price
$150 per user per year on average.
$10 to $30 per user per month on average.
PRM Tool
Rating
Feature
Pro
Con
Mobile App
Integrations
Free Plan
Pricing
4.65
star
star
star
star
star-half
Org-wide alignment
User-friendly layout and database
Suboptimal as a personal CRM
square-check
Lack of tracking system
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Team: $20/month
Business: $45/month
4.7
star
star
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star-half
Social Media Integration
Easy contact data collection
No marketing/sales features
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Lack of tracking system
square-xmark
7-day trial
$12/month
4.75
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Block Functions
High customization capability
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Limited
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Plus: €7.50/month
Business: €14/month
N/A
Open-source
Open-source flexibility
Requires extensive manual input
square-xmark
Limited
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Self-hosted
$9/month or
$90/year
3.1
star
star
star
Simple iOS app
Ideal for non-tech-savvy users
iPhone only
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iOS only
Limited
square-xmark
1-month trial
$1.49/month or
$14.99/month
3.6
star
star
star
star-half
Smart Contact Management
Feature-rich and flexible
Reported bugs
square-check
Rich
square-xmark
7-day trial
Premium: $13.99/month
Teams: $17.99/month
4.4
star
star
star
star
star-half
Customizable Interface
Customizable for teamwork
Pricey for personal use
square-check
Rich
square-xmark
Standard: $24/member
Premium: $39/member
4.7
star
star
star
star
star-half
Integrated Calling
Integrated Calling
Too sales-oriented & pricey
square-check
Rich
square-xmark
14-day trial
Startup: $59/user/month
Professional: $329/user/month
4.8
star
star
star
star
star
Business Card Scanning
Business Card Scanning
Mobile only
square-check
Limited
square-check
$9.99/month
4.45
star
star
star
star
star-half
160+ app integrations
Comprehensive integrations
No free app version
square-check
Rich
square-xmark
14-day trial
$29.90/month or
$24.90/month (billed annually)
Capterra Rating
Free Trial
Free Plan
Starting Price (excluding the free plan)
Maximum Price (for the most expensive plan)
Best for
4.5
star
star
star
star
star-half
square-check
14-day
square-check
€15/month/seat billed annually
€792/month/3 seats billed annually + €45/month for each extra seat
Versatility and free plan
4.2
star
star
star
star
square-check
30-day
square-xmark
But it offers reduced price to authorised nonprofit organisations
€25/user/month
€500/user/month billed annually (includes Einstein AI)
Best overall operational CRM
4.3
star
star
star
star
star-half
square-xmark
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Limited to 3 users
Comprehensive incentive management
€52/user/month billed annually
Small-medium businesses and automation
4.5
star
star
star
star
star-half
square-check
14-day
square-xmark
€14/seat/month billed annually
€99/seat/month billed annually
Sales teams and ease of use
4.1
star
star
star
star
square-xmark
square-check
Limited 10 users
$9.99/user/month billed annually
$64.99/user/month billed annually
Free plan for very small teams up to 10
CRM goal
Increase the sales conversion rate for qualified leads from marketing automation campaigns by 10% in the next 6 months.
SMART Breakdown
1. Specific: It targets a specific area (conversion rate) for a defined segment (qualified leads from marketing automation).
2. Measurable: The desired increase (10%) is a clear metric, and the timeframe (6 months) allows for progress tracking.
3. Achievable: A 10% increase is possible based on historical data and potential improvements.
4. Relevant: Boosting sales from marketing efforts aligns with overall business objectives.
5. Time-bound: The 6-month timeframe creates urgency and a clear target date.
Actions
Step 1: Refine lead qualification criteria to ensure high-quality leads are nurtured through marketing automation.
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Outcomes
Increased sales and revenue
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Marketing and sales alignment
Data-driven marketing optimization
Table
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CRM Software
Approach
Data-centric
Customer-centric
Focus
Interactions across various channels and touchpoints, both online and offline.
Sales, marketing, and customer service interactions.
Functionality
Automatically collects, organizes, tags, and makes data available in real-time.
Helps businesses track customer interactions, sales pipelines, prospects, and service requests.
Goals
Personalized customer experiences across all channels.
Better customer relationships, streamlined processes, and improved profitability.
Benefits
Data integration, management, and accessibility, allowing for detailed analysis and segmentation.
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Personalized marketing campaigns, targeted advertising, content customization across multiple channels.
Managing campaigns and leads, enhancing customer service, providing better customer support, increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Examples
Insider, Bloomreach, Salesforce Marketing Cloud CDP
HubSpot, Salesforce Sales Cloud Lightning Professional, and Zoho CRM
CRM
Free plan
Best feature
Best for
Con
1. HubSpot CRM
square-check
Sales automation
Sales teams
Up to 1,000 contacts
2. Insightly
square-check
Custom fields
Basic needs
Not enough info about the free plan
3. Agile CRM
square-check
Deal and sales pipeline tracking
Small teams
Up to 10 users
4. Zoho CRM
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Lead and contact management
Businesses of all sizes
Limited to 3 users
5. ClickUp
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Unlimited tasks and unlimited members
Personal use
Up to 100MB storage
6. EngageBay
square-check
Live chat
Small and midsize enterprises
Up to 1,000 branded emails per month
7. Bitrix24
square-check
Unlimited users and 5 scrum teams
Big teams
Up to 5GB of cloud storage
8. FreshSales
square-check
Easy to use and simple setup
Beginners
Up to 3 users
9. Mailchimp
square-check
Very beginner friendly
Marketing teams
Send up to 500 branded emails per month
Type of Affiliate Marketing
Unattached
Related
Involved
Format
Paid advertising
Social media or YouTube channels
Dedicated website or blog
Focus
Quick income
Your niche
Your audience
Engagement with your audience
square-xmark
square-check
square-check
square-check
square-check
Very close connection with your audience
Pro
Little effort
Higher credibility thanks to your niche
Long-lasting and scalable
Con
Paid ads cost a lot
Potential for bias since you don’t use the thing you promote
Require time, effort, and dedication

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