[Dovecot] IMAP vs. POP3
On Thursday 28 April 2011 19:31:49 Matt wrote:
Does IMAP create much additional system load vs. POP3?
in fact imap move the load :
in pop, all classment of mail, spam filtering... is done by your computer (the mail client)
in imap, this filtering is done by the server
The question is : where do you want the work to be done ? In the server, just as the mail arrive, hop, in the correct folder... or on your computer ?
in imap you, of course, have the load of mail files inside the server, whereas this load is on the client for pop.
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On Thu, 2011-04-28 at 19:54 +0200, Stéphane Guedon wrote:
On Thursday 28 April 2011 19:31:49 Matt wrote:
Does IMAP create much additional system load vs. POP3?
If you do use IMAP, server disk space capacity can become an important number to watch as most POP3 clients by default will delete the mail from the server once downloaded.
Additionally there are end user support "load" as well. Do you have a lot of users with a variety of skill levels and mail clients? Supporting a large variety of user configurations can cause support problems. Example, a user is using IMAP then switches to POP3 (either by accident or otherwise) and suddenly you will get a call about how someone hacked into their mail account and deleted all of their mail.
On 2011-04-28 10:31 AM, Matt wrote:
Does IMAP create much additional system load vs. POP3?
I would say it adds considerable load to the server. The beauty is that multiple computers can synchronize all mail folders INCLUDING the Outbox/Sent folder to the common archive, which becomes the mail server itself.
Is see little advantage if a single computer is involved other than using the mail server as a backup.
Even with a single computer however, if one uses (also) a webmail client such as roundcube etc, then IMAP once again permits synchronizing between the webmail and the single computer.
In an environment such as mine, 2 laptops, a desktop, and at times, webmail, it is a necessity. These days (also) mobile mail such as on an iPhone is handier with IMAP.
Weigh all this against more drive space required, and more resources such as extra processes running on the server.
Quoting Jim Pazarena <dovecot@paz.bz>:
On 2011-04-28 10:31 AM, Matt wrote:
Does IMAP create much additional system load vs. POP3?
I would say it adds considerable load to the server.
I would argue the opposite. POP3 creates more load, especially on the
network side of things, since it requires the client to download the
full headers vs. individual fields.
And viewing messages is a much greater load on POP3, especially when
viewing MIME messages with attachments since you necessarily need to
download the entire message to view vs. downloading only the structure
(and generally small text parts) when using IMAP.
michael
On 04/28/2011 10:31 AM, Matt wrote:
Does IMAP create much additional system load vs. POP3?
How much is much?
They do have different usage patterns. The server load also depends on how each client program is configured. Some client configurations create more of a load than others (eg how messages are cached on the client). My impression is that the client configuration can affect system load more so than the difference between IMAP and POP3.
Generally speaking, IMAP is preferable to POP3 due to the accessibility it provides from multiple clients/devices. POP3 is the past, IMAP is the future.
-- -Eric 'shubes'
participants (6)
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Eric Shubert
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Jim Pazarena
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Justin Krejci
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Matt
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Michael M Slusarz
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Stéphane Guedon