Managed IT Support Microsoft Teams vs Google Meet vs Zoom: The Definitive Videoconferencing Battle
The COVID-19 pandemic required staff members to work from home, but the program had to go on somehow. Overnight, videoconferencing platforms became the lifeline that held services together. Even as operations return to regular, videoconferencing providers are pouring resources into their products.
At this point, your company is almost ensured to have a videoconferencing platform already. If not, or if you are wanting to alter platforms, continue checking out below for a breakdown of functions and choices that will assist you make your choice.
Are your meetings long or short? Are you mostly fulfilling internally or with leads and customers? 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 must use Teams or Meet respectively. If you are not registered for either and just require a standalone videoconferencing app, Zoom has a free variation that ought to fix the majority of your needs.
In the sections below, we will compare all three significant videoconferencing platforms based on different metrics you should think about before choosing the ideal one for your service.
Groups vs Meet vs Zoom: Integration with your other apps/services
Prior to diving into the complete list of features for each platform, it is important to understand how much you obtain from the whole of what you are spending for.
Groups and Meet belong to bigger efficiency suites, whereas Zoom is a standalone product with all the videoconferencing-specific features you might require. While Teams and Meet can be obtained separately, they are best bundled with their bigger suites, Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace.
Case in point, a Zoom Pro membership only provides you videoconferencing abilities. For less than Zoom Pro, the M365 Business Standard and Workspace Business subscriptions include a full suite of company applications.
With Microsoft 365, you get a totally incorporated experience with desktop versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and more. The greatest selling point of Microsoft is how quickly the apps deal with each other, and the biggest difference in between Teams and its rivals is how centralized the suite is.
Teams jumps seamlessly from instantaneous messaging to video calls, with the ability to switch back and forth between them.
On The Other Hand, Google Meet is independent of Workspace's chat app, Google Chat. While users can make use of both Workspace apps at the same time, the separation of the two is a bit counterproductive.
With M365 and Teams, all chats, recorded meetings, and files are all housed in the very same main place, making searchability far easier.
With Meet and Zoom, you will need to look for saved chats from old conferences, or in the case of Meet, head over to Google Chat.
This is also the case when working on collective files. Any files attached in a Teams chat will appear under its files tab at the top of the window, meaning you don't have to waste time chasing them down when you need them.
Microsoft provides much more applications in their plans than Google, however numerous go unnoticed.
Microsoft Sway allows you to quickly grab and trim a tape-recorded Teams fulfilling that you can then house in your area within Teams itself.
In the case that somebody arrives late to a meeting, or a staff member records the same conference and lets it run for hours after its conclusion, you can quickly get the part of the conference you require and save it.
This bypasses the storage that would be consumed by an hours-long video, as well as the time it would take to publish, cut, and export said video from a video editing platform.
Additionally, all 3 platforms do have integrations with different other service applications, so be sure to examine compatibility with any apps you currently use, and these platforms.
Groups vs Meet vs Zoom: Features
Comparing Free Versions vs. Paid
Microsoft, Google, and Zoom have actually all adjusted well to the demand for certain functions on their platforms, thus the majority of the same functions overlap throughout plans for all 3 suites. This consists of screen sharing, video recording, live captions, and everyone's favorite: custom backgrounds. When it comes to some other functions, they vary throughout each business's offerings.
A table portraying the different plans and functions of Microsoft Teams vs. Google Meet vs. Zoom Audio Conferencing On-the-Go
While present across the board, dial-in capabilities differ throughout plans. Meet provides dial-in totally free with any of their paid strategies, among the most significant advantages that the platform has more than its competitors.Teams uses its dial-in ability for $4 additional per user, per month; while Zoom's dial-in is toll-based.
Both Teams and Meet deal internet-based PBX options that can replace your in-house phones, while Zoom's toll-based setup is not useful.
Microsoft 365 Business Voice integrates effortlessly with Teams, allowing workers to take service on the go, all with full continuity.
Video Quality-- Who Supports the very best?
Since the time of this post, each platform shows video in HD, however the quality differs. Groups can 1080p video at 30 frames per second if you have 1.5 Mbps of bandwidth.
Zoom likewise has 1080p video, but it is limited to the platform's company or enterprise plans. 1080p can likewise be allowed by Zoom support 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, but it can send out and get up to 720p video.
Audio quality across platforms depends on microphone and speaker quality, along with the quality of your internet connection.
Spaces and Workspaces-- Breaking Things Down
Breakout spaces are basically conferences that run concurrently to the original videoconference. These were specifically required for virtual education, so instructors might break trainees out into separate groups to discover.
There is a clear energy for breakout rooms in expert spaces, too. If a bigger team is fulfilling about a job, breaking down tasks into smaller sized groups, breakout spaces could be a great option.
Both Teams and Zoom have actually breakout spaces belonging to their base platforms, across all plans. These spaces are basically meetings that are running at the same time to the original videoconference.
Meet enables breakout spaces through their basic and plus plans, however not in the free or standard strategies. Nevertheless, like a lot of Google functions on cheaper 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 presented Together Mode, which utilizes AI to put video participants in different digital settings, together. While the utility is light, Together Mode might be a solid spirits booster.
Groups vs Meet vs Zoom: Privacy and Safety
To its credit, Zoom responded swiftly to the "Zoom bombing" of the early days of the pandemic, including end-to-end encryption and boosting their privacy policy. Sadly, over 500,000 Zoom accounts were taken and published for sale online soon afterwards.
While Meet has not had any famous occurrences of privacy breaches, Google has had lots of personal privacy issues and a performance history of collecting data for use in marketing.
Microsoft has the very best track record of security and they also have the most transparent privacy policy.
All 3 platforms support two-factor authentication. Considering that 99% of cybersecurity attacks involve a password component, two-factor authentication is a need to if you desire a genuine defense versus cybercriminals.
As a part of the broader M365 suite, all chats, notes, and files are secured and saved within OneNote and SharePoint, respectively.
Additionally, Microsoft Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) is readily available on its Business Premium and E5 plans, blocking potentially malicious material from being accessed by those in your business.
Microsoft also uses Data Loss Protection (DLP) to capture sensitive data being shared (like social security numbers), and immediately block it from being sent out.
Along with eDiscovery and legal holds within channels, talks, and files, Teams guarantees you stay certified with all information storage regulations.
A graphic revealing the course of details as it is encrypted from Microsoft Teams through Microsoft 365.
Google does use eDiscovery in their Business and Enterprise strategies and DLP in their Enterprise strategy only, however these are only restricted to Drive and Gmail. From what we can see Meet has no particularly noted DLP abilities.Zoom does not use any of these functions on its primary platform.
In general, Zoom has responded well to its privacy difficulties, however the changes are largely cosmetic.
End-to-end file encryption (E2EE) is great to have, however its addition was more of a reaction to an issue than a total 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 conversations where sensitive details might be shared, and it will be available on Teams quickly according to Microsoft.
The videoconferencing business has less to worry about since they are a single-purpose app, dealing exclusively with videoconferencing, and not the storage of files, talks, and other details like Microsoft or private cloud azure Google.
Based upon credibility alone, Microsoft stands well above the others in regards to security.
Since your data is all stored in a single area, Teams and its security functions take your productivity hub and turns it into your company's own data fortress. This 2nd level of security and privacy makes it the safest, in our experience.
Groups vs Meet vs Zoom: The Verdict
Most videoconferencing platforms have similar functions, your service's precise requirements ought to figure out whether you select Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, or Zoom.
For base-level functions at a cost effective cost, it is hard to beat Zoom, who is focused entirely on videoconferencing. For the most bang for your buck, Teams ties your whole company together in one area, with the best possible features and security readily available.
If you are searching for an all-in-one partnership center that keeps all your interaction in one area, we highly recommend Microsoft Teams.
IT Support Guys has leveraged the power of Microsoft 365 because 2008 when it was still called Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS), and we have continued our collaboration till today day.