Managed IT Support Microsoft Teams vs Google Meet vs Zoom: The Definitive Videoconferencing Fight
The COVID-19 pandemic forced workers to work from home, but the show had to go on in some way. Overnight, videoconferencing platforms became the lifeline that held organizations together. Even as operations return to normal, videoconferencing companies are pouring resources into their products.
The two primary collaboration suites, Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace offer videoconferencing abilities, but we would be remiss not to include one of the most popular videoconferencing apps in the market today-- Zoom.
At this moment, your business is almost guaranteed to have a videoconferencing platform currently. If not, or if you are looking to alter platforms, continue reading listed below for a breakdown of functions and choices that will assist you make your decision.
Are your meetings long or short? Are you mainly meeting internally or with leads and clients? Will you be hosting webinars?
It goes without saying, if your company is already signed up for Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, and you enjoy with the platform, you ought to utilize Teams or Meet respectively. If you are not signed up for either and simply need a standalone videoconferencing app, Zoom has a totally free version that must fix the majority of your needs.
In the sections below, we will compare all 3 significant videoconferencing platforms based on various metrics you ought to think about prior to choosing the best one for your service.
Teams vs Meet vs Zoom: Integration with your other apps/services
Prior to diving into the full list of features for each platform, it is very important to understand how much you receive from the totality of what you are paying for.
Groups and Meet become part of bigger performance suites, whereas Zoom is a standalone item with all the videoconferencing-specific functions you may require. While Teams and Meet can be acquired separately, they are best bundled with their bigger suites, Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace.
Case in point, a Zoom Pro membership just gives you videoconferencing abilities. For less than Zoom Pro, the M365 Business Standard and Workspace Business memberships include a complete suite of organization applications.
With Microsoft 365, you get a completely integrated experience with desktop variations of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and more. The most significant selling point of Microsoft is how quickly the apps work with each other, and the most significant difference between Teams and its rivals is how centralized the suite is.
Teams jumps effortlessly from instant messaging to video calls, with the capability to switch back and forth in between them.
Google Meet is independent of Workspace's chat app, Google Chat. While users can make use of both Workspace apps all at once, the separation of the 2 is a bit counterintuitive.
With M365 and Teams, all chats, taped conferences, and files are all housed in the same main area, making searchability far easier.
With Meet and Zoom, you will have to look for saved chats from old meetings, or when it comes to Meet, head over to Google Chat.
This is likewise the case when dealing with collaborative files. Any files attached in a Teams chat will appear under its files tab at the top of the window, suggesting you do not need to lose time chasing them down when you need them.
Microsoft offers much more applications in their plans than Google, though lots of go undetected.
For example, Microsoft Sway allows you to rapidly get and cut a taped Teams meeting that you can then house in your area within Teams itself.
In the case that someone shows up late to a meeting, or a worker records the exact same meeting and lets it run for hours after its conclusion, you can rapidly get the part of the conference you require and save it.
This bypasses the storage that would be eaten up by an hours-long video, along with the time it would require to publish, trim, and export stated video from a video editing platform.
Furthermore, all three platforms do have integrations with different other service applications, so be sure to look at compatibility with any apps you currently utilize, and these platforms.
Teams vs Meet vs Zoom: Features
Comparing Free Versions vs. Paid
Microsoft, Google, and Zoom have all adjusted well to the demand for certain features on their platforms, hence the majority of the exact same functions overlap throughout prepare for all 3 suites. This includes screen sharing, video recording, live captions, and everybody's favorite: custom backgrounds. As for some other features, they differ across each company's offerings.
A table portraying the different strategies and functions of Microsoft Teams vs. Google Meet vs. Zoom Audio Conferencing On-the-Go
While present throughout the board, dial-in capabilities vary across strategies. Meet uses dial-in totally free with any of their paid strategies, among the most significant advantages that the platform has more than its rivals.Teams uses its dial-in capability for $4 additional per user, monthly; while Zoom's dial-in is toll-based.
Both Teams and Meet offer internet-based PBX services that can replace your internal phones, while Zoom's toll-based setup is not useful.
Microsoft 365 Business Voice incorporates flawlessly with Teams, enabling staff members to take organization on the go, all with complete connection.
Video Quality-- Who Supports the very best?
Since the time of this post, each platform displays video in HD, however the quality differs. Groups can 1080p video at 30 frames per 2nd if you have 1.5 Mbps of bandwidth.
Zoom likewise has 1080p video, but it is restricted to the platform's service or enterprise plans. 1080p can also be enabled by Zoom assistance in certain cases. Zoom's 1080p functionality requires 1.8 Mbps of bandwidth for 1-on-1 calls and 2.5 Mbps on group calls.
Meet will default to 360p video, however it can send out and get approximately 720p video.
Audio quality throughout platforms depends upon microphone and speaker quality, as well as the quality of your internet connection.
Rooms and Workspaces-- Breaking Things Down
Breakout spaces are basically conferences that run concurrently to the initial videoconference. These were particularly required for virtual education, so teachers could break students out into separate groups to find out.
There is a clear utility for breakout rooms in professional spaces, too. If a larger team is meeting about a project, breaking down tasks into smaller sized groups, breakout spaces could be an excellent solution.
Both Teams and Zoom have breakout spaces native to their base platforms, across all plans. These rooms are essentially meetings that are running simultaneously to the original videoconference.
Meet permits breakout spaces through their basic and plus strategies, but not in the free or basic strategies. However, like many Google functions on less expensive strategies, you can add Google Chrome extensions, however this could be more of a headache than it is worth in the end.
Just recently, Microsoft also rolled out Together Mode, which uses AI to place video participants in various digital settings, together. While the energy is light, Together Mode could be a strong spirits booster.
Groups vs Meet vs Zoom: Privacy and Safety
To its credit, Zoom responded quickly to the "Zoom bombing" of the early days of the pandemic, including end-to-end encryption and intensifying their personal privacy policy. Sadly, over 500,000 Zoom accounts were taken and published for sale online soon afterwards.
While Meet has not had any popular occurrences of privacy breaches, Google has actually had plenty of privacy concerns and a performance history of gathering data for use in marketing.
Microsoft has the very best track record of security and they likewise have the most transparent privacy policy.
All 3 platforms support two-factor authentication. Considering that 99% of cybersecurity attacks include a password element, two-factor authentication is a should if you want a legitimate defense against cybercriminals.
As a part of the wider M365 suite, all chats, notes, and files are secured and saved within OneNote and SharePoint, respectively.
In Addition, Microsoft Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) is offered on its Business Premium and E5 plans, obstructing potentially destructive material from being accessed by those in your business.
Microsoft likewise uses Data Loss Protection (DLP) to catch delicate information being shared (like social security numbers), and instantly block it from being sent.
Along with eDiscovery and legal holds within channels, chats, and files, Teams guarantees you remain compliant with all information storage regulations.
A graphic showing the path of details as it is encrypted from Microsoft Teams through Microsoft 365.
Google does offer eDiscovery in their Business and Enterprise plans and DLP in their Enterprise plan only, but these are only restricted to Drive and Gmail. From what we can see Meet has actually no particularly noted DLP abilities.Zoom does not offer any of these features on its primary platform.
Overall, Zoom has responded well to its privacy obstacles, however the changes are mostly cosmetic.
End-to-end file encryption (E2EE) is great to have, but its addition was more of a response to an issue than a complete solution. It is not likely that E2EE secures most users from more than file encryption in transit and at rest, like with Teams and Meet.
E2EE is most useful in 1-on-1 discussions where delicate information might be shared, and it will be available on Teams soon according to Microsoft.
The videoconferencing company has less to worry about because they are a single-purpose app, dealing entirely with videoconferencing, and not the storage of files, talks, and other details like Microsoft or Google.
Based upon reputation alone, Microsoft stands well above the others in regards to security.
Because your data is all kept in a single space, Teams and its security functions take your productivity hub and turns it into your company's own information fortress. This 2nd level of defense and personal privacy small business it support makes it the most safe, in our experience.
Teams vs Meet vs Zoom: The Verdict
Most videoconferencing platforms have similar features, your company's precise needs must determine whether you choose Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, or Zoom.
For base-level functions at a budget-friendly price, it is difficult to beat Zoom, who is focused solely on videoconferencing. For the most bang for your buck, Teams ties your whole business together in one space, with the best possible features and security offered.
If you are looking for an all-in-one collaboration hub that keeps all your interaction in one space, we extremely advise Microsoft Teams.
IT Support Guys has actually leveraged the power of Microsoft 365 because 2008 when it was still called Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS), and we have actually continued our partnership up until the present day.