IMAP connects to the server of your email provider and is used to receive emails, while SMTP is used to send emails to other servers.IMAP is a protocol that tells your email provider to save all of your messages and folders on its servers. So, whether you use an email client or webmail, you can always connect to your email account and see everything you've received because it's always stored on their server.STMP, or the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, is the way that emails leave your account and go to other places. It lets your email client connect to your provider's server so that it can send mail, especially to other servers.