The Basics of email accounts
Email accounts are a typical feature of hosting, particularly if you are hosting a domain. There are 3 primary kinds of email accounts: POP3, forwarding, and aliases.
POP3 accounts are the conventional inboxes. You have space on the server to store your emails, and simultaneously, you can use an email software to download your mailbox. Each login and password combination usually equates to a single account.
Forwarding mail accounts work if you are utilizing the service of another service provider to filter your emails for you. Instead of storing your email messages on your mail server, emails are rerouted to another email address.
Aliases accounts are very similar to forwarding mail accounts. Some hosts allow you to create a catch-all false names, which is often used to accumulate emails sent to addresses not recognized by your mail server.
POP vs IMAP email accounts?
Both POP (Post Office Protocol) and IMAP (Internet Message access protocol) allow you to get access to your email from a remote server; however, that is where most similarities end.
POP3 just downloads email to your computer, and usually (but not always) deletes the email from the remote server. The problems arise if you have more than one device where you read your mail (desktop, laptop, tablet or phone). Here’s why it’s bad: You have to delete or file the same email on every device
Logging into each device, you will see lots of unread emails with no indication of which you deleted, read, flagged or filed Any folders you created and organize on one device won’t be replicated on the other devices
IMAP allows you to store their email on remote servers. This two-way protocol also allows you to synchronize your email among multiple devices, which is extremely important today, when most people have at least two devices – their laptop and smartphone.