Managed IT Support Microsoft Teams vs Google Meet vs Zoom: The Definitive Videoconferencing Fight
The COVID-19 pandemic forced employees to work from home, however the show needed to go on in some way. Overnight, videoconferencing platforms developed into the lifeline that held companies together. Even as operations return to normal, videoconferencing companies are pouring resources into their items.
At this point, your business is nearly ensured to have a videoconferencing platform currently. If not, or if you are looking to change platforms, continue checking out listed below for a breakdown of features and options that will assist you make your decision.
Are your meetings long or short? Are you mainly fulfilling internally or with leads and clients? Will you be hosting webinars?
It goes without saying, if your company is already signed up for Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, and you more than happy with the platform, you must utilize Teams or Meet respectively. If you are not registered for either and simply need a standalone videoconferencing app, Zoom has a complimentary version that should fix the majority of your requirements.
In the areas listed below, we will compare all three major videoconferencing platforms based on different metrics you ought to think about before picking the ideal one for your organization.
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 essential to understand just how much you get from the totality of what you are paying for.
Teams and Meet are part of larger productivity suites, whereas Zoom is a standalone item with all the videoconferencing-specific functions you may require. While Teams and Meet can be acquired individually, they are best bundled with their bigger suites, Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace.
Case in point, a Zoom Pro membership only gives you videoconferencing capabilities. For less than Zoom Pro, the M365 Business Standard and Workspace Business memberships consist of a full suite of service applications.
With Microsoft 365, you get a fully incorporated experience with desktop versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and more. The greatest selling point of Microsoft is how easily the apps work with each other, and the biggest difference between Teams and its competitors is how centralized the suite is.
Teams jumps effortlessly from immediate messaging to video calls, with the ability to change back and forth in between them.
On The Other Hand, Google Meet is independent of Workspace's chat app, Google Chat. While users can use both Workspace apps concurrently, the separation of the two is a bit counterproductive.
With M365 and Teams, all chats, tape-recorded conferences, and files are all housed in the same central place, making searchability far simpler.
With Meet and Zoom, you will have to seek out conserved chats from old meetings, or when it comes to Meet, head over to Google Chat.
This is likewise the case when dealing with collaborative files. Any files connected in a Teams chat will appear under its files tab at the top of the window, implying you don't have to lose time chasing them down when you require them.
Microsoft provides a lot more applications in their plans than Google, though lots of go unnoticed.
Microsoft Sway enables you to quickly grab and cut a tape-recorded Teams fulfilling that you can then house locally within Teams itself.
In the case that somebody arrives late to a conference, or an employee records the same conference and lets it run for hours after its conclusion, you can rapidly get the part of the conference you need and wait.
This bypasses the storage that would be consumed by an hours-long video, in addition to the time it would take to publish, trim, and export said video from a video modifying platform.
Furthermore, all 3 platforms do have integrations with different other business applications, so make certain 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 adapted well to the demand for certain functions on their platforms, hence the majority of the same features overlap throughout plans for all three suites. This consists of screen sharing, video recording, live captions, and everybody's favorite: custom-made backgrounds. As for some other functions, they vary throughout each company's offerings.
A table portraying the different strategies and functions of Microsoft Teams vs. Google Meet vs. Zoom Audio Conferencing On-the-Go
While present throughout the board, dial-in abilities differ throughout plans. Meet provides dial-in free of charge with any of their paid strategies, one of the most significant advantages that the platform has more than its rivals.Teams provides 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 change your internal phones, while Zoom's toll-based setup is not useful.
Microsoft 365 Business Voice incorporates flawlessly with Teams, enabling staff members to take organization on the go, all with complete connection.
Video Quality-- Who Supports the Best?
Since the time of this post, each platform shows video in HD, but 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 business strategies. 1080p can likewise be made it possible for by Zoom support in specific 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, but it can send and get as much as 720p video.
Audio quality across platforms depends on microphone and speaker quality, in addition to the quality of your web connection.
Spaces and Workspaces-- Breaking Things Down
Breakout rooms are basically conferences that run concurrently to the initial videoconference. These were particularly needed for virtual education, so teachers might break trainees out into different groups to learn.
There is a clear utility for breakout rooms in expert spaces, too. If a larger group is meeting about a project, breaking down jobs into smaller groups, breakout rooms might be a fantastic option.
Both Teams and Zoom have breakout spaces belonging to their base platforms, across all plans. These rooms are essentially meetings that are running all at once to the initial videoconference.
Meet permits breakout rooms through their standard and plus strategies, however not in the free or fundamental plans. Nevertheless, like many Google functions on less expensive plans, you can include Google Chrome extensions, but this could be more of a headache than it deserves in the end.
Recently, Microsoft also presented Together Mode, which utilizes AI to put video participants 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 swiftly to the "Zoom bombing" of the early days of the pandemic, adding end-to-end encryption and intensifying their personal privacy policy. Over 500,000 Zoom accounts were stolen and published for sale online quickly thereafter.
While Meet has actually not had any well-known events of personal privacy breaches, Google has actually had plenty of personal privacy issues and a performance history of gathering data for use in advertising.
Microsoft has the best performance history of security and they likewise have the most transparent personal privacy policy.
All three platforms support two-factor authentication. Thinking about that 99% of cybersecurity attacks involve a password element, two-factor authentication is a should if you desire a legitimate defense versus cybercriminals.
As a part of the wider M365 suite, all chats, notes, and files are secured and stored within OneNote and SharePoint, respectively.
Furthermore, Microsoft Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) is readily available on its Business Premium and E5 plans, blocking possibly destructive content from being accessed by those in your company.
Microsoft likewise uses Data Loss Protection (DLP) to catch sensitive information being shared (like social security numbers), and immediately block it from being sent.
In addition to eDiscovery and legal holds within channels, chats, and files, Teams ensures you remain compliant with all information storage regulations.
A graphic revealing the path of details as it is secured 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 just limited to Drive and Gmail. From what we can see Meet has actually no specifically listed DLP abilities.Zoom does not provide any of these features on its primary platform.
Overall, Zoom has reacted well to its personal privacy challenges, but the modifications are mainly cosmetic.
End-to-end file encryption (E2EE) is fantastic to have, however its addition was more of a response to an issue than a total service. It is unlikely that E2EE protects 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 information may be shared, and it will be offered on Teams soon according to Microsoft.
The videoconferencing company has less to worry about since 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 on reputation alone, Microsoft stands well above the others in regards to security.
Since your information is all kept in a single space, Teams and its security functions take your productivity hub and turns it into your company's own data fortress. This 2nd level of defense and personal privacy makes it the safest, in our experience.
Groups vs Meet vs Zoom: The Verdict
Though a lot of videoconferencing platforms have comparable functions, your service's specific needs need to identify whether you pick Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, or Zoom.
For base-level features at a budget-friendly rate, it is difficult to beat Zoom, who is focused exclusively on videoconferencing. For the most value, Teams ties your whole company together in one area, with the very best possible functions and security available.
If you are trying to find an all-in-one collaboration hub that keeps all your interaction in one area, we highly recommend 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 actually continued our collaboration up until the present day.