Managed IT Support Microsoft Teams vs Google Meet vs Zoom: The Definitive Videoconferencing Fight
The COVID-19 pandemic forced staff members to work from house, however the show needed to go on in some way. Overnight, videoconferencing platforms developed into the lifeline that held companies together. Even as operations go back to regular, videoconferencing companies are pouring resources into their products.
The two main cooperation suites, Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace offer videoconferencing abilities, however we would be remiss not to include one of the most popular videoconferencing apps in the market today-- Zoom.
At this point, your company is nearly guaranteed to have a videoconferencing platform already. If not, or if you are aiming to alter platforms, continue reading listed below for a breakdown of functions and choices that will help you make your decision.
Are your meetings long or short? Are you mostly meeting internally or with leads and customers? Will you be hosting webinars?
It goes without saying, if your company is already registered for Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, and you more than happy with the platform, you ought to use Teams or Meet respectively. If you are not signed up for either and merely need a standalone videoconferencing app, Zoom has a complimentary version that should solve the majority of your needs.
In the areas below, we will compare all 3 significant videoconferencing platforms based on various metrics you need to consider before selecting the ideal one for your company.
Groups vs Meet vs Zoom: Integration with your other apps/services
Before diving into the complete list of functions for each platform, it is important to understand just how much you get from the entirety of what you are spending for.
Groups and Meet are part of bigger performance suites, whereas Zoom is a standalone product with all the videoconferencing-specific features you may require. While Teams and Meet can be procured independently, they are best bundled with their larger suites, Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace.
Case in point, a Zoom Pro subscription only offers you videoconferencing abilities. For less than Zoom Pro, the M365 Business Standard and Workspace Business memberships consist of a complete suite of company applications.
With Microsoft 365, you get a fully integrated experience with desktop versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and more. The biggest selling point of Microsoft is how easily the apps deal with each other, and the greatest distinction in between Teams and its competitors is how centralized the suite is.
Groups jumps perfectly from instantaneous messaging to video calls, with the ability to change backward and forward in between them.
Meanwhile, Google Meet is independent of Workspace's chat app, Google Chat. While users can use both Workspace apps concurrently, the separation of the 2 is a bit counterproductive.
With M365 and Teams, all chats, recorded meetings, and files are all housed in the exact same main area, making searchability far simpler.
With Meet and Zoom, you will need to look for saved chats from old meetings, or in the case of Meet, head over to Google Chat.
This is likewise the case when working on collective files. Any files connected 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 provides much more applications in their plans than Google, though lots of go unnoticed.
For instance, Microsoft Sway enables you to rapidly get and cut a taped Teams fulfilling that you can then house locally within Teams itself.
In the event that someone arrives late to a meeting, or an employee records the same meeting and lets it run for hours after its conclusion, you can quickly grab the part of the meeting you need and wait.
This bypasses the storage that would be eaten up by an hours-long video, as well as the time it would require to submit, trim, and export said video from a video editing platform.
Additionally, all three platforms do have combinations with numerous other business applications, so be sure to examine compatibility with any apps you currently use, and these platforms.
Teams 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, thus the majority of the very same functions overlap throughout plans for all 3 suites. This consists of screen sharing, video recording, live captions, and everybody's favorite: custom-made backgrounds. When it comes to some other functions, they vary across each business's offerings.
A table portraying the various plans and functions of Microsoft Teams vs. Google Meet vs. Zoom Audio Conferencing On-the-Go
While present throughout the board, dial-in abilities vary throughout plans. Meet offers dial-in totally free with any of their paid plans, one of the biggest advantages that the platform has more than its rivals.Teams offers its dial-in capability for $4 extra per user, per month; 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 seamlessly with Teams, permitting workers to take organization on the go, all with complete continuity.
Video Quality-- Who Supports the very best?
As of the time of this post, each platform displays video in HD, however the quality differs. Teams 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 business or enterprise plans. 1080p can also be enabled by Zoom support in certain cases. Zoom's 1080p functionality needs 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 across platforms depends upon microphone and speaker quality, as well as the quality of your web connection.
Rooms and Workspaces-- Breaking Things Down
Breakout spaces are basically meetings that run simultaneously to the original videoconference. These were especially necessary for virtual education, so teachers could break students out into separate groups to discover.
There is a clear utility for breakout rooms in expert areas, too. If a bigger group is satisfying about a task, breaking down jobs into smaller groups, breakout spaces could be a fantastic service.
Both Teams and Zoom have breakout spaces native to their base platforms, throughout all strategies. These rooms are basically conferences that are running simultaneously to the original videoconference.
Meet allows breakout rooms through their standard and plus plans, however not in the free or basic plans. However, like the majority of Google functions on cheaper strategies, you can add Google Chrome extensions, but this might be more of a headache than it is worth in the end.
Recently, Microsoft likewise rolled out Together Mode, which utilizes AI to place video participants in different digital settings, together. While the energy is light, Together Mode could be a solid 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 beefing up their privacy policy. Over 500,000 Zoom accounts were taken and published for sale online soon thereafter.
While Meet has not had any well-known events of personal privacy breaches, Google has actually had plenty of gold coast it personal privacy issues and a track record of collecting data for use in marketing.
Microsoft has the best performance history of security and they likewise have the most transparent personal privacy policy.
All 3 platforms support two-factor authentication. Considering that 99% of cybersecurity attacks include a password component, two-factor authentication is a need to if you desire a genuine defense against cybercriminals.
As a part of the broader M365 suite, all chats, notes, and files are secured and kept within OneNote and SharePoint, respectively.
Furthermore, Microsoft Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) is available on its Business Premium and E5 plans, obstructing possibly malicious content from being accessed by those in your business.
Microsoft also uses Data Loss Protection (DLP) to catch delicate information being shared (like social security numbers), and instantly block it from being sent.
In addition to eDiscovery and legal holds within channels, chats, and files, Teams ensures you stay compliant with all information storage policies.
A graphic showing the path of information 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 plan only, however these are only restricted to Drive and Gmail. From what we can see Meet has no specifically noted DLP capabilities.Zoom does not provide any of these functions on its main platform.
Overall, Zoom has reacted well to its privacy challenges, however the modifications are largely cosmetic.
End-to-end file encryption (E2EE) is excellent to have, but its addition was more of a response to an issue than a total solution. It is unlikely that E2EE safeguards most users from more than encryption in transit and at rest, like with Teams and Meet.
E2EE is most beneficial in 1-on-1 discussions where sensitive details might be shared, and it will be readily available on Teams soon according to Microsoft.
The videoconferencing company has less to fret about because they are a single-purpose app, dealing solely 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.
Since your data is all saved in a single area, Teams and its security functions take your productivity hub and turns it into your company's own information fortress. This 2nd level of security and personal privacy makes it the most safe, in our experience.
Groups vs Meet vs Zoom: The Verdict
Though many videoconferencing platforms have similar features, your business's specific requirements ought to identify whether you pick 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 value, Teams ties your whole company together in one space, with the best possible features and security readily available.
If you are searching for an all-in-one collaboration center that keeps all your interaction in one space, we extremely advise Microsoft Teams.
IT Support Guys has actually leveraged the power of Microsoft 365 given that 2008 when it was still called Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS), and we have continued our collaboration up until the present day.