Managed IT Support Microsoft Teams vs Google Meet vs Zoom: The Conclusive Videoconferencing Fight
The COVID-19 pandemic forced employees to work from home, but the program needed to go on somehow. Overnight, videoconferencing platforms became the lifeline that held companies together. Even as operations go back to regular, videoconferencing service providers are pouring resources into their products.
The two primary partnership suites, Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace deal videoconferencing capabilities, but we would be remiss not to include among the most popular videoconferencing apps in the market today-- Zoom.
At this moment, your company is nearly guaranteed to have a videoconferencing platform already. If not, or if you are seeking to alter platforms, continue reading listed below for a breakdown of features and options that will assist you make your choice.
Are your conferences long or short? Are you mainly fulfilling internally or with leads and customers? Will you be hosting webinars?
It goes without stating, if your company is already registered for Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, and you enjoy with the platform, you need to use Teams or Meet respectively. If you are not registered for either and simply require a standalone videoconferencing app, Zoom has a complimentary variation that ought to fix most of your requirements.
In the sections listed below, we will compare all 3 major videoconferencing platforms based on various metrics you must think about before choosing the right one for your business.
Teams vs Meet vs Zoom: Integration with your other apps/services
Prior to diving into the complete list of functions for each platform, it is necessary to understand how much you receive from the whole 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 functions you might require. While Teams and Meet can be procured separately, they are best bundled with their larger suites, Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace.
Case in point, a Zoom Pro subscription only provides you videoconferencing abilities. For less than Zoom Pro, the M365 Business Standard and Workspace Business memberships include a full suite of company applications.
With Microsoft 365, you get a totally incorporated experience with desktop variations 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 distinction between Teams and its competitors is how centralized the suite is.
Groups jumps flawlessly from instant messaging to video calls, with the capability to change back and forth between them.
On The Other Hand, Google Meet is independent of Workspace's chat app, Google Chat. While users can use both Workspace apps all at once, the separation of the 2 is a bit counterproductive.
With M365 and Teams, all chats, tape-recorded conferences, and files are all housed in the same main place, making searchability far simpler.
With Meet and Zoom, you will have to seek out conserved chats from old conferences, or when it comes to 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, implying you don't have to lose time chasing them down when you require them.
Microsoft provides even more applications in their strategies than Google, however lots of go undetected.
Microsoft Sway enables you to rapidly grab and cut a taped Teams meeting that you can then house in your area within Teams itself.
In the event that someone gets here late to a meeting, or a staff member records the very same meeting 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 consumed by an hours-long video clip, as well as the time it would require to publish, cut, and export said video from a video modifying platform.
Additionally, all 3 platforms do have combinations with various other company applications, so make sure to check on 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 all adapted well to the need for certain features on their platforms, hence the majority of the same functions overlap across plans for all 3 suites. This consists of screen sharing, video recording, live captions, and everyone's favorite: custom-made backgrounds. When it comes to some other functions, they vary throughout each company'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 vary across strategies. Meet provides dial-in free of charge with any of their paid plans, one of the greatest advantages that the platform has more than its rivals.Teams offers 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 solutions that can change your internal phones, while Zoom's toll-based setup is not practical.
Video Quality-- Who Supports the Best?
As of 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, however it is limited to the platform's organization or business strategies. 1080p can also be allowed by Zoom assistance in certain cases. Zoom's 1080p functionality requires 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 approximately 720p video.
Audio quality throughout platforms depends on microphone and speaker quality, along with the quality of your internet connection.
Spaces and Workspaces-- Breaking Things Down
Breakout rooms are basically meetings that run all at once to the initial videoconference. These were specifically essential for virtual education, so teachers could break students out into different groups to learn.
There is a clear energy for breakout spaces in expert spaces, too. If a bigger team is meeting about a job, breaking down tasks into smaller groups, breakout rooms could be a great option.
Both Teams and Zoom have breakout rooms belonging to their base platforms, across all strategies. These spaces are basically conferences that are running at the same time to the initial videoconference.
Meet allows breakout rooms through their standard and plus strategies, but not in the free or standard strategies. Like a lot of Google functions on less expensive plans, you can add Google Chrome extensions, but this could be more of a headache than it is worth in the end.
Just recently, Microsoft likewise presented Together Mode, which utilizes AI to place video participants in numerous digital settings, together. While the utility is light, Together Mode might be a strong morale booster.
Teams vs Meet vs Zoom: Privacy and Safety
To its credit, Zoom reacted quickly to the "Zoom battle" of the early days of the pandemic, including end-to-end encryption and boosting their privacy policy. Over 500,000 Zoom accounts were stolen and published for sale online soon afterwards.
While Meet has not had any popular events of personal privacy breaches, Google has actually had lots of personal privacy issues and a track record of gathering data for usage in advertising.
Microsoft has the best track record of security and they likewise have managed it service 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 must if you want a legitimate defense versus cybercriminals.
As a part of the larger M365 suite, all chats, notes, and files are encrypted and kept within OneNote and SharePoint, respectively.
In Addition, Microsoft Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) is readily available on its Business Premium and E5 strategies, obstructing potentially harmful content from being accessed by those in your business.
Microsoft likewise uses Data Loss Protection (DLP) to capture delicate data being shared (like social security numbers), and automatically block it from being sent out.
Together with eDiscovery and legal holds within channels, talks, and files, Teams ensures you remain certified with all information storage guidelines.
A graphic showing the path of info 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 just, however these are just limited to Drive and Gmail. From what we can see Meet has no particularly listed DLP capabilities.Zoom does not offer any of these features on its main platform.
Overall, Zoom has actually responded well to its personal privacy obstacles, however the modifications are mainly 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 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 useful in 1-on-1 conversations where sensitive information might be shared, and it will be available on Teams quickly according to Microsoft.
The videoconferencing business has less to fret about because 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 track record alone, Microsoft stands well above the others in terms of security.
Since your information is all saved in a single space, Teams and its security features take your performance hub and turns it into your company's own data fortress. This second level of defense and privacy makes it the best, in our experience.
Teams vs Meet vs Zoom: The Verdict
Though many videoconferencing platforms have similar functions, your service's specific requirements should figure out whether you select 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 whole company together in one space, with the best possible features and security available.
If you are searching for an all-in-one collaboration hub that keeps all your interaction in one space, we highly advise 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 continued our collaboration up until today day.