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A good IMAP host offers generous storage, a user-friendly interface, robust security features, and regular maintenance and upkeep of the platform. This guide will give you our top three picks for IMAP hosting.
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The Best IMAP Hosting of 2023
The Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) is an email-receiving protocol that allows you to use the same address on different devices and applications. It is widely available, but not all hosts support it equally. We discuss the best IMAP hosts in detail below, but if you just want to know what hosts to use, here are the three best:
Our Top Picks
Best Hosting For IMAP
Best Uptime For IMAP Hosting
Best 24/7 Support For IMAP Hosting
Digital.com dives deep into every topic it covers to offer trusted and reliable recommendations for the best business tools. See how we review IMAP hosting providers.
The Best IMAP Hosting of 2023
Features
- Integrated Cloudflare support
- Full suite of productivity tools, from Docs to Drive
- Advanced security options
#1 Top Pick for 2023
Why it’s best: Bluehost’s plans include all industry-standard features along with free domain name registration. However, there is no monthly billing option.
Price
$2.75 per month
Money Back Guarantee
30 Days
24-7 Support
Yes
Special Offers
Up to 55% Off
Read More
Reasons to choose Bluehost
- One free domain name registration for the first year
- Spam protection
Reasons to avoid
- No monthly billing option (minimum one year)
When you host with Bluehost, you’ll be paying similar prices for its shared plans as with SiteGround. But, you also get a free domain name for the first year.
Its plans will give you varying email storage capacities, with higher-priced plans offering unlimited accounts and storage. Bluehost’s email hosting is compatible with third-party clients and includes spam protection.
Your email users can have different account controls to customize their email account however they like.
Bluehost is a reputable provider offering shared and VPS hosting. The company is easy to use, affordable, and has great uptime. It is geared toward entrepreneurs and small online startups. Billing might be confusing, but they have solid customer service for any issues.
Features
- Free email, SSL, CDN, and Backups
- Friendly webmail interface
- 30-day money-back guarantee
Price
$2.99 per month
Money Back Guarantee
30 Days
24-7 Support
Yes
Special Offers
Up to 83% Off
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Reasons to choose SiteGround
- 99.9% uptime guarantee.
- Free website migration.
Reasons to avoid
- Low introductory rate increases after the first year.
- No free domain name.
SiteGround always has many great things to offer with its web hosting plans. It gives you unlimited email accounts and email databases.
Your use of its email servers is limited to the disk space allocated for the specific plan you choose. As with all its plans, SiteGround includes free website migration, a website builder, and the industry-standard 99.9% uptime guarantee.
SiteGround is a reliable web hosting company with fast speeds, a user-friendly interface, and solid customer service. Some customers are not thrilled with the price increase and back-end support.
Features
- 99.99% uptime
- Free SSL, premium malware, and hack protection
- Unlimited bandwidth
Price
$2.99 per month
Money-Back Guarantee
90 Days
24-7 Support
Yes
Special Offers
Up to 75% Off
Read More
Reasons to choose InMotion
- 24/7 customer support.
- Real-time spam filtering.
Reasons to avoid
- All data centers are located in America.
- Does not support Nginx.
InMotion Hosting also has secure IMAP email offered with its plans. Its email hosting includes real-time spam filtering. InMotion uses super-fast SSD servers, so even its shared hosting plans pack a huge punch.
All of its plans come with free marketing and security tools. One of our favorite things about InMotion is that it lets you pick the data center where your website is hosted. This is a rare thing to find from shared hosting packages.
InMotion Hosting’s high-performance hosting, support team, features, and customer service are well-liked. Prices are fair, but can fluctuate.
Compare IMAP Hosting Providers
Bluehost is our top pick because all of its plans come with industry-standard hosting features and a free domain registration for the first year.
IMAP Host
Best Features
Pricing
Best Hosting For IMAP
- Integrated Cloudflare support
- Advanced security options
- Full suite of productivity tools, from Docs to Drive
$2.75 per month
Best Uptime For IMAP Hosting
- Free email, SSL, CDN, and Backups
- Friendly webmail interface
- 30-day money-back guarantee
$2.99 per month
Best 24/7 Support For IMAP Hosting
- 99.99% uptime
- Unlimited bandwidth
- Free SSL, premium malware, and hack protection
$2.99 per month
What You Need to Know
What is IMAP?
Internet Message Access Protocol, or IMAP, refers to how email is handled online. If you have a central mailbox that many people need to access, or you need to be free to check email from multiple locations, choose IMAP hosting.
There are two ways to receive emails: POP and IMAP. While POP is widespread, we’re increasingly switching to IMAP as the most efficient way to use email. Hosts have now recognized that IMAP is a more sensible way to use email, even if it requires more resources on their side.
Is IMAP used to send email as well as retrieve it?
You can use IMAP to send an email; however, it isn’t typically used for this purpose. It’s more common that you’d use IMAP for storage and retrieval while using an SMTP server to send.
What’s the difference between IMAP and POP?
The easiest way to understand the difference is to think about one mailbox you use on several devices: a computer, a phone, and a tablet. Once you delete an email on your computer with IMAP, the change is replicated on the email server and then on your phone and tablet. In contrast, if you download email with POP on all devices and then read, archive, or delete messages, the devices will constantly be out of sync.
Do all web hosting plans support IMAP?
Most web hosting companies include IMAP support with their plans.
Which email software supports IMAP?
All major email applications support IMAP. If you are looking for a free client, we recommend Thunderbird.
How We Review IMAP Hosting
We put together a list of the hosts that offer IMAP and other email-related features to help you use it to its maximum potential. Then we sorted it using our thousands of expert and user reviews to find the best.
Most hosting providers allow you to create email accounts and access them using IMAP. Some impose limitations that you should be aware of. Consider these factors when choosing the best provider for IMAP hosting:
Learn more about our review methodology.