Difference between Web Server and Mail Server
Last Updated :
03 Apr, 2023
Web Server : Web Server, as the name suggests, is a server software where web content is stored and uses HTTP protocol and other protocols to respond to user requests that is being made over WWW. Its main function is to display the content of the website through storing, processing, and delivering webpages within the website to users.
Example: Apache, NGINX, Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS), etc.
Web Server Features:
- HTTP protocol: Web servers use the HTTP protocol to serve web pages over the internet.
Domain Name System (DNS): A web server can host multiple websites, each with its own domain name and IP address. - Server-side scripting languages: Web servers support server-side scripting languages like PHP, Python, and Ruby, which allow developers to build dynamic web applications.
- Web application servers: Web servers can run web application servers like Apache Tomcat, JBoss, and Node.js, which allow developers to build complex web applications.
- Content management systems: Web servers can support content management systems (CMS) like WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla, which make it easy to create and manage web content.
Mail Server : Mail Server, similar to the post office, is a computer system program responsible for receiving, routing, delivering e-mail. It is also known as MTA (Mail Transfer Agent) and store incoming mail for distribution to users and deliver e-mail to client computers.
Example: Yahoo!, Gmail incoming mail server, Gmail outgoing mail server, etc.
Mail Server Features:
- SMTP protocol: Mail servers use the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) to send and receive emails.
- Mail transfer agents: Mail servers use mail transfer agents (MTAs) like Sendmail, Postfix, and Exim to route and deliver email messages.
- Mail delivery agents: Mail servers use mail delivery agents (MDAs) like Dovecot, Courier, and Cyrus to store incoming mail messages for retrieval by email clients.
- POP3 and IMAP protocols: Mail servers support protocols like POP3 and IMAP, which allow email clients to retrieve messages from the server.
- Spam filtering: Mail servers often have built-in spam filters to block unwanted email messages.
- User authentication: Mail servers require user authentication to send and receive emails, typically through a username and password.
Similarities between web servers and mail servers:
- Both run on server hardware: Both web servers and mail servers run on dedicated server hardware. These servers can be either physical or virtual and are typically designed to handle high traffic loads.
- Both use an operating system: Both types of servers use an operating system such as Linux, Windows, or macOS to manage system resources and run server software.
- Both use network protocols: Both web servers and mail servers use network protocols to communicate with client devices. For example, web servers use HTTP or HTTPS, while mail servers use SMTP, POP3, or IMAP.
- Both require security measures: Both web servers and mail servers need to be secured against cyber threats such as hacking and malware. This requires implementing security measures such as SSL/TLS encryption, firewalls, and antivirus software.
- Both can be managed remotely: Both types of servers can be managed remotely using various tools such as SSH, RDP, or web-based control panels.
- Both can be hosted in the cloud: Both web servers and mail servers can be hosted in the cloud, allowing users to access them from anywhere with an internet connection.
Web Server vs Mail Server
Web Server
| Mail Server
|
|---|
| Web servers basically handle, manage, and run one or more websites. | Mail Servers basically handle, manage, and delivers e-mail over the internet. |
| It delivers content for website to user or visitor that wants it same as a web browser. | It delivers and receive email messages same as post office. |
| Its main objective is to display website content through storing, processing and delivering web pages to users or visitors. | Its main objective is to act as virtual post office and make communication possible between various employees of organization or business or company. |
| It is important for users to view website because without web server, users won't be able to have access to content of websites at all. | It is important for users to store their documents, files and videos in cloud storage. |
| Types of web servers include Apache HTTP server, Jigsaw server, LiteSpeed Web server, etc. | Types of mail server include POP3 mail server, IMAP mail server, SMTP mail server, etc. |
| Its main function is to host website and distribute web pages as they are requisitioned. | Its supports e-communication, content and file sharing, etc. |
| It follows a network protocol known as HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol). | It follows SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol). |
Conclusion :
Web server and a mail server serve different purposes and use different protocols to fulfill their respective functions. While they may share similarities in terms of server hardware, operating system, and network architecture, the differences between the two are important to understand when setting up and maintaining these types of servers.
Similar Reads
Difference between Web Server and Web Host A web server is a computer that stores your website and sends it to people when they visit. A web host is a company that provides the space and support needed to keep your website online. Simply put, the web server is the machine that delivers your website, and the web host is the service that makes
3 min read
Difference between Web Services and Mashup Web Services: Web services describe the open standard-based web applications that interact with other web applications over the network for the purpose of sharing data with each other. The services provided are through the web and in a standardized format like HTTP, XML, REST, or SOAP which makes th
4 min read
Difference between WCF and Web Service WCF (Windows Communication Foundation): WCF, as the name suggests, is a unified .NET framework that is used to develop service-oriented applications. It allows you to develop applications that can communicate using different communication mechanisms. It is founded for other Microsoft Distributed Tec
3 min read
Difference between Web Browser and Web Server The Web Browser and Web Server are two essential components of the World Wide Web that work together to deliver web pages to users. Although they interact with each other, they serve different purposes and are designed to perform distinct tasks. Understanding the differences between them is key to u
4 min read
Differences between Web Services and Web API Web Services: A Web services are any bit of services that makes it accessible over the Internet and normalizes its correspondence through XML encoding. A customer conjures web services by sending a solicitation (for the most part as an XML message), and the services send back an XML response. Web se
3 min read
What’s difference between The Internet and The Web ? The Internet is a global network of networks while the Web, also referred to formally as World Wide Web (www) is a collection of information that is accessed via the Internet. Another way to look at this difference is that the Internet is infrastructure while the Web is served on top of that infrast
4 min read
Difference between Website and Domain Name Website: A Website is a collection of web pages that is used to convey specific and helpful information to specific users. Websites are also used to increase business, reach more customers, generate more qualified leads, etc. Advantages of Websites: Accessibility: A website can be accessed from anyw
6 min read
Difference between JSP and HTML 1. Java Server Pages (JSP) : JSP stands for Java Server Pages. These files have the extension. jsp. The main advantage of JSP is that the programmer can insert Java code inside HTML. There are JSP tags to insert Java code. The programmer can write the tag at the end of the Java code. There are diffe
3 min read
Difference between Search Engine and Web Browser Search Engine: A search engine is a kind of website through which users can search the content available on the Internet. For this purpose, users enter the desired keywords into the search field. Then the search engine looks through its index for relevant web pages and displays them in the form of a
4 min read
Difference between HTML and WML 1. Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) : Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) refers to the standard markup language to create web pages. It consists of series of elements/tags which are used to define structure of your content means design the structure of a web page. It was created to serve content to
2 min read