Managed IT Support Microsoft Teams vs Google Meet vs Zoom: The Definitive Videoconferencing Fight
The COVID-19 pandemic required employees to work from house, however the show needed to go on somehow. Overnight, videoconferencing platforms developed into the lifeline that held companies together. Even as operations return to regular, videoconferencing service providers are putting resources into their items.
The two main collaboration suites, Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace deal videoconferencing capabilities, but we would be remiss not to include one of the most popular videoconferencing apps in the market today-- Zoom.
At this point, your organization is practically guaranteed to have a videoconferencing platform currently. If not, or if you are seeking to alter platforms, continue checking out listed below for a breakdown of functions and alternatives that will assist you make your choice.
Are your conferences long or short? Are you primarily satisfying internally or with leads and customers? Will you be hosting webinars?
In the sections below, we will compare all 3 major videoconferencing platforms based on numerous metrics you ought to think about prior to selecting the right one for your business.
Teams vs Meet vs Zoom: Integration with your other apps/services
Before diving into the complete list of functions for each platform, it is essential to comprehend how much you obtain from the totality of what you are spending for.
Teams and Meet belong to bigger productivity suites, whereas Zoom is a standalone product with all the videoconferencing-specific features you might require. While Teams and Meet can be obtained independently, they are best bundled with their larger suites, Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace.
Case in point, a Zoom Pro membership only offers you videoconferencing abilities. For less than Zoom Pro, the M365 Business Standard and Workspace Business memberships consist of a complete suite of business applications.
With Microsoft 365, you get a fully integrated experience with desktop versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and more. The greatest 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 instantaneous messaging to video calls, with the capability to change back and forth between them.
Google Meet is independent of Workspace's chat app, Google Chat. While users can make use of both Workspace apps concurrently, the separation of the 2 is a bit counterproductive.
With M365 and Teams, all chats, tape-recorded meetings, and files are all housed in the very same central area, making searchability far easier.
With Meet and Zoom, you will have to look for conserved chats from old meetings, or in the case of Meet, head over to Google Chat.
This is also the case when working on collaborative files. Any files connected in a Teams chat will appear under its files tab at the top of the window, meaning you don't need to waste time chasing them down when you need them.
Microsoft uses even more applications in their strategies than Google, though numerous go unnoticed.
Microsoft Sway enables you to quickly get and cut a tape-recorded Teams fulfilling that you can then house locally within Teams itself.
In the event that somebody arrives late to a conference, or an employee records the exact same meeting and lets it run for hours after its conclusion, you can rapidly grab the part of the meeting you require and wait.
This bypasses the storage that would be eaten up by an hours-long video clip, along with the time it would take to upload, cut, and export stated video from a video editing platform.
In addition, all 3 platforms do have combinations with various 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 features on their platforms, hence most of the exact same features overlap across plans for all three suites. This consists of screen sharing, video recording, live captions, and everybody's favorite: customized backgrounds. When it comes to some other features, they vary throughout each business's offerings.
A table depicting the different plans and features 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 free of charge with any of their paid plans, among the greatest benefits that the platform has over its rivals.Groups uses its dial-in ability for $4 extra per user, each month; while Zoom's dial-in is toll-based.
Both Teams and Meet offer internet-based PBX options that can change your internal phones, while Zoom's toll-based setup is not practical.
Microsoft 365 Business Voice integrates perfectly with Teams, permitting employees to take organization on the go, all with complete continuity.
Video Quality-- Who Supports the Best?
Since the time of this post, each platform shows video in HD, but the quality varies. Groups can 1080p video office 365 solutions 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 organization or business strategies. 1080p can likewise be enabled by Zoom support in certain cases. Zoom's 1080p performance 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 and receive as much as 720p video.
Audio quality throughout platforms depends on microphone and speaker quality, as well as the quality of your internet connection.
Spaces and Workspaces-- Breaking Things Down
Breakout spaces are essentially conferences that run at the same time to the original videoconference. These were specifically needed for virtual education, so teachers could break trainees out into different groups to learn.
There is a clear utility for breakout rooms in professional spaces, too. If a larger team is satisfying about a task, breaking down tasks into smaller sized groups, breakout spaces might be a great option.
Both Teams and Zoom have actually breakout rooms native to their base platforms, throughout all strategies. These rooms are essentially conferences that are running concurrently to the original videoconference.
Recently, Microsoft likewise rolled out Together Mode, which utilizes AI to put video participants in different digital settings, together. While the utility is light, Together Mode could be a strong morale booster.
Groups vs Meet vs Zoom: Privacy and Safety
To its credit, Zoom responded promptly to the "Zoom battle" of the early days of the pandemic, adding end-to-end file encryption and intensifying their personal privacy policy. Over 500,000 Zoom accounts were stolen and posted for sale online soon afterwards.
While Meet has not had any famous occurrences of personal privacy breaches, Google has actually had lots of personal privacy concerns and a track record of collecting information for usage in marketing.
Microsoft has the very best track record of security and they likewise have the most transparent privacy policy.
All three platforms support two-factor authentication. Thinking about that 99% of cybersecurity attacks include a password component, two-factor authentication is a need to if you desire a genuine defense versus cybercriminals.
As a part of the larger M365 suite, all chats, notes, and files are encrypted and saved within OneNote and SharePoint, respectively.
Additionally, Microsoft Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) is readily available on its Business Premium and E5 strategies, obstructing potentially destructive material from being accessed by those in your business.
Microsoft also utilizes Data Loss Protection (DLP) to capture sensitive data being shared (like social security numbers), and automatically obstruct it from being sent out.
Together with eDiscovery and legal holds within channels, talks, and files, Teams ensures you remain compliant with all data storage guidelines.
A graphic showing the course of details as it is encrypted from Microsoft Teams through Microsoft 365.
Google does offer eDiscovery in their Business and Enterprise strategies and DLP in their Enterprise strategy only, however these are just restricted to Drive and Gmail. From what we can see Meet has no specifically noted DLP abilities.Zoom does not offer any of these features on its main platform.
In general, Zoom has actually reacted well to its personal privacy challenges, but the modifications are mainly cosmetic.
End-to-end file encryption (E2EE) is great to have, however its addition was more of an action to an issue than a complete option. 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 information might be shared, and it will be offered on Teams soon according to Microsoft.
The videoconferencing business has less to stress over since they are a single-purpose app, dealing exclusively with videoconferencing, and not the storage of files, chats, and other details like Microsoft or Google.
Based on reputation alone, Microsoft stands well above the others in terms of security.
Due to the fact that your data is all stored in a single space, Teams and its security features take your efficiency hub and turns it into your company's own information stronghold. This second level of defense and personal privacy makes it the safest, in our experience.
Teams vs Meet vs Zoom: The Verdict
Most videoconferencing platforms have similar functions, your business's exact needs need to identify whether you select Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, or Zoom.
For base-level features at a budget friendly rate, it is hard to beat Zoom, who is focused solely on videoconferencing. For the most value, Teams ties your entire company together in one area, with the very best possible features and security offered.
If you are searching for an all-in-one cooperation hub that keeps all your interaction in one area, we extremely suggest Microsoft Teams.
IT Support Guys has actually leveraged the power of Microsoft 365 since 2008 when it was still called Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS), and we have actually continued our partnership up until the present day.