Managed IT Support Microsoft Teams vs Google Meet vs Zoom: The Conclusive Videoconferencing Fight
The COVID-19 pandemic required staff members to work from home, however the program needed to go on in some way. Overnight, videoconferencing platforms became the lifeline that held companies together. Even as operations return to regular, videoconferencing companies are pouring resources into their items.
The two primary cooperation suites, Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace offer 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 company is almost guaranteed to have a videoconferencing platform currently. If not, or if you are aiming to alter platforms, continue reading listed below for a breakdown of functions and options that will assist you make your decision.
Are your conferences long or short? Are you primarily meeting internally or with leads and clients? Will you be hosting webinars?
In the sections listed below, we will compare all three significant videoconferencing platforms based upon different metrics you ought to think about prior to selecting the best one for your organization.
Groups vs Meet vs Zoom: Integration with your other apps/services
Prior to diving into the full list of features for each platform, it is essential to understand just how much you get from the whole of what you are spending for.
Groups and Meet become part of 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 independently, they are best bundled with their larger 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 business 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 it services is how quickly the apps work with each other, and the most significant distinction in between Teams and its competitors is how centralized the suite is.
Teams leaps effortlessly from instant messaging to video calls, with the ability to change backward and forward in between them.
Google Meet is independent of Workspace's chat app, Google Chat. While users can utilize both Workspace apps concurrently, the separation of the 2 is a bit counterproductive.
With M365 and Teams, all chats, tape-recorded meetings, and files are all housed in the same central area, making searchability far easier.
With Meet and Zoom, you will have to look for conserved chats from old meetings, or in the case of Meet, head over to Google Chat.
This is also the case when dealing with collective files. Any files connected in a Teams chat will appear under its files tab at the top of the window, suggesting you don't need to waste time chasing them down when you require them.
Microsoft provides much more applications in their plans than Google, however numerous go unnoticed.
Microsoft Sway allows you to quickly get and trim a recorded Teams fulfilling 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 quickly get the part of the meeting you need and wait.
This bypasses the storage that would be eaten up by an hours-long video, along with the time it would require to publish, cut, and export said video from a video modifying platform.
Furthermore, all three platforms do have combinations with various other service applications, so make certain 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 all adapted well to the demand for specific functions on their platforms, therefore the majority of the exact same functions overlap across plans for all three suites. This consists of screen sharing, video recording, live captions, and everyone's favorite: custom backgrounds. When it comes to some other functions, they differ throughout each business's offerings.
A table illustrating the different strategies and features of Microsoft Teams vs. Google Meet vs. Zoom Audio Conferencing On-the-Go
While present across the board, dial-in abilities differ throughout plans. Meet offers dial-in for free with any of their paid plans, among the biggest advantages that the platform has over its competitors.Groups offers its dial-in ability for $4 additional 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 practical.
Microsoft 365 Business Voice integrates flawlessly with Teams, permitting workers to take company on the go, all with complete connection.
Video Quality-- Who Supports the Best?
Since the time of this post, each platform displays video in HD, but the quality differs. Teams can 1080p video at 30 frames per 2nd if you have 1.5 Mbps of bandwidth.
Zoom likewise has 1080p video, however it is limited to the platform's business or business plans. 1080p can likewise be enabled by Zoom assistance in particular 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 get up to 720p video.
Audio quality across platforms depends upon microphone and speaker quality, in addition to the quality of your web connection.
Spaces and Workspaces-- Breaking Things Down
Breakout spaces are basically conferences that run all at once to the original videoconference. These were specifically required for virtual education, so teachers could break trainees out into separate groups to discover.
There is a clear utility for breakout spaces in expert spaces, too. If a bigger group is satisfying about a task, breaking down jobs into smaller groups, breakout spaces could be an excellent option.
Both Teams and Zoom have actually breakout rooms belonging to their base platforms, throughout all plans. These rooms are essentially conferences that are running at the same time to the original videoconference.
Meet allows breakout rooms through their basic and plus strategies, but not in the free or standard strategies. However, like a lot of Google functions on more affordable plans, you can add Google Chrome extensions, however this might be more of a headache than it is worth in the end.
Just recently, Microsoft also rolled out Together Mode, which utilizes AI to place video individuals in various digital settings, together. While the energy is light, Together Mode could be a strong morale booster.
Groups vs Meet vs Zoom: Privacy and Safety
To its credit, Zoom responded quickly to the "Zoom bombing" of the early days of the pandemic, adding end-to-end encryption and boosting their privacy policy. Sadly, over 500,000 Zoom accounts were stolen and posted for sale online soon thereafter.
While Meet has actually not had any well-known occurrences of privacy breaches, Google has actually had plenty of personal privacy concerns and a performance history of gathering data for use in advertising.
Microsoft has the very best performance history of security and they also have the most transparent privacy policy.
All 3 platforms support two-factor authentication. Thinking about that 99% of cybersecurity attacks involve a password aspect, 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 kept within OneNote and SharePoint, respectively.
Furthermore, Microsoft Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) is readily available on its Business Premium and E5 strategies, blocking potentially destructive content from being accessed by those in your business.
Microsoft also utilizes Data Loss Protection (DLP) to catch delicate information being shared (like social security numbers), and immediately obstruct it from being sent.
In addition to eDiscovery and legal holds within channels, talks, and files, Teams guarantees you remain certified with all information storage regulations.
A graphic revealing the path of information as it is encrypted from Microsoft Teams through Microsoft 365.
Google does use eDiscovery in their Business and Enterprise plans and DLP in their Enterprise strategy only, but these are just 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 main platform.
Overall, Zoom has actually responded well to its personal privacy difficulties, but the changes are largely cosmetic.
End-to-end file encryption (E2EE) is excellent to have, however its addition was more of a response to a problem 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 may be shared, and it will be offered on Teams quickly according to Microsoft.
The videoconferencing company has less to fret about due to the fact that they are a single-purpose app, dealing solely with videoconferencing, and not the storage of files, chats, and other information like Microsoft or Google.
Based on track record alone, Microsoft stands well above the others in terms of security.
Since your data is all stored in a single space, Teams and its security features take your efficiency center and turns it into your business's own data stronghold. This 2nd level of security and privacy makes it the safest, in our experience.
Teams vs Meet vs Zoom: The Verdict
Many videoconferencing platforms have comparable functions, your company's exact needs ought to identify whether you choose Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, or Zoom.
For base-level features at an affordable rate, it is difficult to beat Zoom, who is focused exclusively on videoconferencing. For the most bang for your buck, Teams ties your entire company together in one area, with the very best possible functions and security offered.
If you are looking for an all-in-one collaboration hub that keeps all your interaction in one area, we extremely recommend Microsoft Teams.
IT Support Guys has leveraged the power of Microsoft 365 considering that 2008 when it was still called Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS), and we have continued our partnership till today day.