If your business email is hosted with ZIPROF, you are not locked into one way of checking it. You can read and send mail through webmail in any browser, set it up in a desktop client like Outlook or Mac Mail, or add it to your phone's mail app. Each option connects to the same inbox, so the question isn't which one is "correct", it's which one fits how you actually work.
What Is Webmail?
Webmail is the browser-based inbox you reach by logging in through your hosting provider's webmail page with your email address and password. Nothing is installed: you open a browser, log in, and your messages are there. Log out, and the inbox is gone from that device until you log back in.
What Is a Desktop or Mobile Email Client?
A client is an application, Outlook, Apple Mail, Thunderbird, or the built-in mail app on an iPhone or Android phone, that you set up once with your email account's incoming and outgoing mail server details. After that, your messages are downloaded into the app itself, so they're available even without opening a browser each time.
Key Differences
- Setup: webmail needs no setup at all, you just log in. A client needs a one-time setup with your mail server settings.
- Access from any device: webmail works on any computer with a browser, which is handy on a shared or borrowed machine. A client is tied to the device you installed it on (though you can install it on several).
- Offline access: most clients let you read previously downloaded mail without an internet connection. Webmail generally requires a live connection.
- Staying in sync: if your client is set up with IMAP (the recommended setting), it stays in sync with webmail, read a message in one and it shows as read in the other. If it's set up with POP3, the client downloads mail to that one device and the two can fall out of sync.
- Attachments and storage: webmail is often quicker for a one-off look at a large attachment, since nothing needs to download to the device first.
Which Should You Choose?
- If you check email occasionally from different computers or don't want anything installed, webmail is simpler.
- If you handle email daily and want it organized alongside your calendar and contacts, or want it available offline, a desktop or mobile client is worth the one-time setup.
- If several staff members need to access the same inbox (for example a general info@ or sales@ address), webmail avoids each person needing the account configured on their own device.
You don't have to pick just one. Webmail and an IMAP-based client both show the same mailbox at the same time, so many people use webmail for a quick check and a desktop client for daily work.
For help setting up a client or mobile app, see IMAP vs POP3: Which Should You Use for Email on Your Phone? for the setting that keeps everything in sync.