Managed IT Support Microsoft Teams vs Google Meet vs Zoom: The Conclusive Videoconferencing Fight

Managed IT Support Microsoft Teams vs Google Meet vs Zoom: The Conclusive Videoconferencing Fight

The COVID-19 pandemic forced staff members to work from house, but the show had to go on somehow. Overnight, videoconferencing platforms turned into the lifeline that held companies together. Even as operations return to regular, videoconferencing providers are pouring resources into their items.

The 2 primary partnership suites, Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace deal videoconferencing abilities, however we would be remiss not to include among the most popular videoconferencing apps in the market today-- Zoom.

At this moment, your service is nearly ensured 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 alternatives that will assist you make your decision.

Are your conferences long or short? Are you mostly meeting internally or with leads and clients? Will you be hosting webinars?

It goes without saying, if your company is currently subscribed to Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, and you are happy with the platform, you need to utilize Teams or Meet respectively. If you are not signed up for either and merely require a standalone videoconferencing app, Zoom has a free version that must fix most of your needs.

In the areas listed below, we will compare all 3 significant videoconferencing platforms based upon various metrics you ought to consider before selecting the ideal one for your business.

Groups vs Meet vs Zoom: Integration with your other apps/services

Prior to 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.

Groups and Meet are part of bigger productivity suites, whereas Zoom is a standalone item with all the videoconferencing-specific features you may require. While Teams and Meet can be procured independently, they are best bundled with their bigger suites, Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace.

Case in point, a Zoom Pro membership just provides you videoconferencing capabilities. 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 fully integrated experience with desktop versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and more. The biggest selling point of Microsoft is how quickly the apps work with each other, and the biggest distinction between Teams and its competitors is how centralized the suite is.

Teams jumps perfectly from instantaneous messaging to video calls, with the capability to change backward and forward in 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 all at once, the separation of the two is a bit counterintuitive.

With M365 and Teams, all chats, tape-recorded conferences, and files are all housed in the exact same central location, making searchability far much easier.

With Meet and Zoom, you will have to seek out conserved chats from old meetings, or in the case of 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, meaning you do not have to waste time chasing them down when you need them.

Microsoft provides much more applications in their plans than Google, however lots of go unnoticed.

Microsoft Sway enables you to rapidly grab and trim a taped Teams meeting that you can then house locally within Teams itself.

In the event that someone arrives late to a meeting, or a worker records the very same conference and lets it run for hours after its conclusion, you can rapidly get the part of the meeting you require and save it.

This bypasses the storage that would be consumed by an hours-long video, in addition to the time it would require to submit, trim, and export said video from a video modifying platform.

Furthermore, all 3 platforms do have integrations with numerous other business applications, so be sure to examine compatibility with any apps you currently use, and these platforms.

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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, therefore most of the exact same features overlap throughout plans for all three suites. This includes screen sharing, video recording, live captions, and everybody's favorite: custom-made backgrounds. When it comes to some other features, they differ throughout each business's offerings.

A table depicting the various plans and features of Microsoft Teams vs. Google Meet vs. Zoom Audio Conferencing On-the-Go

While present throughout the board, dial-in abilities vary across strategies. Meet offers dial-in for free with any of their paid plans, one of the greatest benefits that the platform has more than its competitors.

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 options that can replace your in-house phones, while Zoom's toll-based setup is not practical.

Microsoft 365 Business Voice integrates perfectly with Teams, enabling workers to take service on the go, all with complete continuity.

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Video Quality-- Who Supports the very best?

As of the time of this post, each platform shows 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, however it is restricted to the platform's business or business strategies. 1080p can also be enabled by Zoom assistance in specific 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 internet connection.

Rooms and Workspaces-- Breaking Things Down

Breakout rooms are essentially meetings that run all at once to the original videoconference. These were particularly needed for virtual education, so instructors could break trainees out into separate groups to learn.

There is a clear energy for breakout rooms in expert spaces, too. If a larger group is satisfying about a project, breaking down jobs into smaller sized groups, breakout spaces could be a fantastic service.

Both Teams and Zoom have actually breakout spaces native to their base platforms, throughout all strategies. These spaces are basically meetings that are running at the same time it service gold coast to the initial videoconference.

Meet allows breakout rooms through their basic and plus plans, however not in the free or standard strategies. Like a lot of Google functions on less expensive strategies, you can include Google Chrome extensions, but this could be more of a headache than it is worth in the end.

Recently, Microsoft also rolled out Together Mode, which uses AI to position video individuals in various digital settings, together. While the utility is light, Together Mode might be a strong morale booster.

Groups vs Meet vs Zoom: Privacy and Safety

To its credit, Zoom responded quickly to the "Zoom battle" of the early days of the pandemic, including end-to-end file encryption and boosting their personal privacy policy. Over 500,000 Zoom accounts were stolen and published for sale online soon afterwards.

While Meet has not had any famous occurrences of personal privacy breaches, Google has actually had plenty of personal privacy concerns and a performance history of collecting data for usage in marketing.

Microsoft has the best performance history of security and they also have the most transparent personal privacy policy.

All three platforms support two-factor authentication. Considering that 99% of cybersecurity attacks involve a password aspect, two-factor authentication is a must if you desire a genuine defense against cybercriminals.

As a part of the wider M365 suite, all chats, notes, and files are secured and kept within OneNote and SharePoint, respectively.

Additionally, Microsoft Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) is available on its Business Premium and E5 plans, obstructing potentially malicious content from being accessed by those in your company.

Microsoft likewise uses Data Loss Protection (DLP) to catch 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 remain compliant with all data storage guidelines.

A graphic revealing the path of information 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 strategy just, however these are only limited to Drive and Gmail. From what we can see Meet has no particularly noted DLP capabilities.

Zoom does not provide any of these functions on its primary platform.

Overall, Zoom has actually reacted well to its privacy obstacles, but the changes are mainly cosmetic.

End-to-end file encryption (E2EE) is fantastic to have, but its addition was more of a response to a problem than a total option. It is not likely that E2EE secures most users from more than encryption in transit and at rest, like with Teams and Meet.

E2EE is most beneficial in 1-on-1 conversations where delicate details may be shared, and it will be offered on Teams soon according to Microsoft.

The videoconferencing company has less to fret about due to the fact that they are a single-purpose app, dealing entirely with videoconferencing, and not the storage of files, chats, and other details like Microsoft or Google.

Based on credibility alone, Microsoft stands well above the others in terms of security.

Because your data is all saved in a single area, Teams and its security functions take your efficiency center and turns it into your business's own data stronghold. This 2nd level of defense and privacy makes it the most safe, in our experience.

Teams vs Meet vs Zoom: The Verdict

The majority of videoconferencing platforms have similar functions, your service's precise requirements must determine 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 bang for your buck, Teams ties your entire company together in one area, with the best possible functions and security offered.

If you are trying to find an all-in-one collaboration hub that keeps all your interaction in one area, we highly suggest 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 the present day.