Working with a local mail program versus webmail

This is a consideration not only for many of our customers, but also for users of Gmail and many other providers such as a KPN mail address. All free and paid email addresses can be accessed and used both via a webmail environment in the browser and via a local email program. Let's look at the advantages and disadvantages of the two methods. And which one best suits your needs.

Email remains an important means of communication, whether it's for making appointments, submitting your resume, or day-to-day business and personal communication. Email is considered a more professional way to record certain things and contracts, and can even be used legally. So it is an indispensable tool in both personal and business life.

How you use your email is entirely up to you, and you can set it up according to your own preferences. As hosts, we deal with the question of how best to use it on a daily basis. In this blog post, we're going to take a closer look at working through a webmail environment versus a local email program.

What is webmail?

Webmail is a website that allows you to log directly into your email address and, in our case, use it fully. Our webmail address is:

https://webmail.mijnhostingpartner.nl/

And can be accessed and used with any (modern) internet browser, so in webmail you can receive email messages from others in your inbox. Send messages to existing or new contacts and use the other tools we offer in it. For example, you can save files, communicate with other team members and use a calendar and tasks.

The most popular webmail environments

Besides using your email address in our webmail, it is also possible to set up your email address in other webmail environments. However, this is often not the fastest way to receive email. And we generally advise against using it, as the mails in it are often updated every half hour, or are still connected to a POP connection. They no longer meet the most modern and secure standards. You also lose some of the security and privacy for your mail. After all, a third party can see it.

Some popular providers of a webmail environment are Gmail, Outlook.com with its free addresses, and others like Proton.

Webmail is available with almost all email address providers. At MijnHostingPartner.nl, we use SmarterMail for this purpose, which offers many advantages and is considered very good, stable and fast by both end users and us.

What is a local mail program?

Local mail programs are the old-fashioned software programs that often date back to the early days. Programs specifically designed to manage email have been around since the beginning of the 21st century or even earlier. They have become stable and reliable programs due to their many years of development. Many users have a favorite and find it difficult to switch to another email program or webmail environment. A local email program is used to connect to the mail server, basically just the webmail environment, and then continue working with it through your local email program.

This is done with a normal email address in one of two ways: IMAP or a POP connection for incoming mail. These connection methods set a number of options for the email address. Nowadays, it is almost always advisable to work with the IMAP protocol, as it synchronizes faster and works better with other devices and environments. The reason for this is that the typical way of working is no longer from one device. But working on your email with multiple and different devices. For example, on your laptop, desktop and smartphone.

The most popular local mail programs

There are a few titans among local email programs: Microsoft Outlook, Apple Mail, and Thunderbird are household names used for both personal and business purposes. Thanks to years of improvements and modern upgrades, these are solid solutions for handling your mail and, as mentioned before, hard to replace once you get used to them.

At MijnHostingPartner.com, we do our best to make sure that these mail programs are supported and explained by our own knowledge base articles. This way, we make it easy for you to set up your email address in your preferred program.

There are many other email programs that can be used locally, it is important to choose one that suits your needs. And one that can be used reliably. A free email program that works on all operating systems is Thunderbird. Apple Mail is only available on Macbooks, and Microsoft Outlook is only available for a fee.

Advantages and disadvantages of the two methods

Both ways of working with your mail have their advantages. With a local mail program, you're often already working in a familiar environment that you know inside and out. A new webmail environment may take some getting used to, but may offer more features. It often comes down to what you prefer: do you want to make things as easy as possible without having to set anything up? Then use the webmail. Do you have your own preferred program? Then set up your email address there as well. As long as you use an IMAP connection, your email and folders will sync with webmail. It's that simple!

How do you prefer to handle your emails? Let us know!