Difference Between SMTP and POP3 (with Comparison Chart)
To send and receive a mail two agents, message transfer agent and a message access agent are required. The message transfer agent transfers the message from client computer to the recipient’s mail server. Now, it’s the work of message access agent to pull the message from the mailbox present on the mail server at recipient’s side to the recipient’s computer.
We have one message transfer agent i.e. SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Agent), and we have two message access agents POP (Post Office Protocol) and IMAP (Internet Mail Access Protocol).