Managed IT Support Microsoft Teams vs Google Meet vs Zoom: The Definitive Videoconferencing Battle
The COVID-19 pandemic forced employees to work from house, but the program had to go on in some way. Overnight, videoconferencing platforms developed into the lifeline that held services together. Even as operations go back to typical, videoconferencing suppliers are putting resources into their items.
The two primary collaboration suites, Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace deal videoconferencing capabilities, but we would be remiss not to consist of among the most popular videoconferencing apps in the market today-- Zoom.
At this point, your company is practically guaranteed to have a videoconferencing platform already. If not, or if you are aiming to alter platforms, continue reading below for a breakdown of functions and options that will assist you make your decision.
Are your conferences long or short? Are you mainly fulfilling internally or with leads and clients? Will you be hosting webinars?
It goes without stating, if your company is currently subscribed to Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, and you more than happy with the platform, you should use Teams or Meet respectively. If you are not signed up for either and merely need a standalone videoconferencing app, Zoom has a totally free version that must fix the majority of your requirements.
In the areas listed below, we will compare all 3 significant videoconferencing platforms based on numerous metrics you should consider before choosing the right one for your company.
Teams vs Meet vs Zoom: Integration with your other apps/services
Prior to diving into the full list of functions for each platform, it is essential to understand how much you obtain from the entirety of what you are paying for.
Groups and Meet belong to bigger performance suites, whereas Zoom is a standalone item with all the videoconferencing-specific features you may need. While Teams and Meet can be acquired separately, they are best bundled with their larger 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 subscriptions consist of a full suite of organization applications.
With Microsoft 365, you get a completely incorporated experience with desktop variations of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and more. The biggest selling point of Microsoft is how easily the apps work with each other, and the most significant difference between Teams and its rivals is how centralized the suite is.
Groups jumps seamlessly from instantaneous messaging to video calls, with the capability to change backward and forward between them.
On The Other Hand, Google Meet is independent of Workspace's chat app, Google Chat. While users can utilize both Workspace apps simultaneously, the separation of the two is a bit counterproductive.
With M365 and Teams, all chats, recorded conferences, and files are all housed in the exact same central place, making searchability far simpler.
With Meet and Zoom, you will need to look for conserved chats from old conferences, or when it comes to Meet, head over to Google Chat.
This is also 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, implying you do not need to lose time chasing them down when you require them.
Microsoft provides much more applications in their plans than Google, however many go undetected.
For example, Microsoft Sway enables you to quickly grab and trim a taped Teams fulfilling that you can then house in your area within Teams itself.
In the case that somebody gets here late to a conference, or an employee records the same conference and lets it run for hours after its conclusion, you can quickly get the part of the meeting you require and wait.
This bypasses the storage that would be eaten up by an hours-long on premise voip systems video clip, as well as the time it would take to submit, cut, and export said video from a video modifying platform.
Additionally, all three platforms do have combinations with numerous other service applications, so be sure to look at compatibility with any apps you already utilize, and these platforms.
Groups vs Meet vs Zoom: Features
Comparing Free Versions vs. Paid
Microsoft, Google, and Zoom have all adjusted well to the demand for specific features on their platforms, therefore most of the exact same features overlap across plans for all 3 suites. This includes screen sharing, video recording, live captions, and everyone's favorite: custom-made backgrounds. When it comes to some other features, they differ throughout each business's offerings.
A table depicting the various strategies and features of Microsoft Teams vs. Google Meet vs. Zoom Audio Conferencing On-the-Go
While present throughout the board, dial-in capabilities differ across plans. Meet uses dial-in free of charge with any of their paid plans, one of the biggest benefits that the platform has more than its competitors.
Teams uses its dial-in capability for $4 extra per user, each month; while Zoom's dial-in is toll-based.
Both Teams and Meet offer internet-based PBX solutions that can replace your internal phones, while Zoom's toll-based setup is not useful.
Microsoft 365 Business Voice integrates flawlessly with Teams, allowing employees to take service 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 is capable of 1080p video at 30 frames per 2nd if you have 1.5 Mbps of bandwidth.
Zoom also has 1080p video, however it is restricted to the platform's company or enterprise plans. 1080p can likewise be allowed by Zoom assistance in certain cases. Zoom's 1080p performance 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 and receive up to 720p video.
Audio quality throughout platforms depends upon microphone and speaker quality, in addition to the quality of your internet connection.
Rooms and Workspaces-- Breaking Things Down
Breakout spaces are essentially meetings that run all at once to the initial videoconference. These were specifically necessary for virtual education, so instructors could break trainees out into different groups to find out.
There is a clear utility 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 might be a terrific solution.
Both Teams and Zoom have actually breakout rooms native to their base platforms, across all plans. These rooms are essentially conferences that are running at the same time to the initial videoconference.
Meet permits breakout spaces through their basic and plus strategies, but not in the complimentary or fundamental strategies. Like a lot 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.
Just recently, Microsoft also rolled out Together Mode, which uses AI to put video participants in various 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 swiftly to the "Zoom battle" of the early days of the pandemic, adding end-to-end file encryption and beefing up their personal privacy policy. Regrettably, over 500,000 Zoom accounts were stolen and published for sale online quickly afterwards.
While Meet has actually not had any well-known occurrences of privacy breaches, Google has had lots of personal privacy issues and a track record of collecting data for usage in marketing.
Microsoft has the very best track record of security and they also have the most transparent personal privacy policy.
All three platforms support two-factor authentication. Thinking about that 99% of cybersecurity attacks include a password aspect, two-factor authentication is a must if you desire a genuine defense against cybercriminals.
As a part of the broader M365 suite, all chats, notes, and files are encrypted and saved within OneNote and SharePoint, respectively.
In Addition, Microsoft Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) is readily available on its Business Premium and E5 plans, blocking possibly malicious material from being accessed by those in your company.
Microsoft also utilizes Data Loss Protection (DLP) to capture sensitive information being shared (like social security numbers), and automatically obstruct it from being sent out.
Together with eDiscovery and legal holds within channels, chats, and files, Teams guarantees you remain compliant with all data storage guidelines.
A graphic showing the course of information as it is secured from Microsoft Teams through Microsoft 365.
Google does use eDiscovery in their Business and Enterprise plans and DLP in their Enterprise strategy only, however these are only limited to Drive and Gmail. From what we can see Meet has actually no particularly listed DLP capabilities.Zoom does not offer any of these functions on its primary platform.
Overall, Zoom has responded well to its privacy challenges, but the modifications are mainly cosmetic.
End-to-end file encryption (E2EE) is great to have, but its addition was more of a reaction to an issue than a complete solution. It is not likely 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 delicate info may be shared, and it will be available on Teams soon according to Microsoft.
The videoconferencing company has less to stress over because they are a single-purpose app, dealing exclusively with videoconferencing, and not the storage of files, chats, and other information like Microsoft or Google.
Based on reputation alone, Microsoft stands well above the others in terms of security.
Due to the fact that your information is all kept in a single space, Teams and its security functions take your performance hub and turns it into your business's own information stronghold. This 2nd level of protection and privacy makes it the most safe, in our experience.
Teams vs Meet vs Zoom: The Verdict
Most videoconferencing platforms have comparable functions, your company's specific needs must figure out whether you select Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, or Zoom.
For base-level functions at an affordable rate, it is difficult to beat Zoom, who is focused solely on videoconferencing. For the most bang for your buck, Teams ties your entire business together in one area, with the very best possible functions and security available.
If you are trying to find an all-in-one collaboration center that keeps all your interaction in one area, we extremely advise Microsoft Teams.
IT Support Guys has leveraged the power of Microsoft 365 since 2008 when it was still called Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS), and we have continued our collaboration till the present day.