Managed IT Support Microsoft Teams vs Google Meet vs Zoom: The Definitive Videoconferencing Battle

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

The COVID-19 pandemic forced employees to work from house, however the show had to go on in some way. Overnight, videoconferencing platforms developed into the lifeline that held businesses together. Even as operations go back to regular, videoconferencing providers 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 nearly guaranteed to have a videoconferencing platform already. If not, or if you are seeking to alter platforms, continue reading below for a breakdown of features and options that will assist you make your decision.

Are your conferences cloud backup solutions long or short? Are you mostly fulfilling internally or with leads and customers? 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 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 totally free version that ought to resolve the majority of your requirements.

In the sections listed below, we will compare all 3 significant videoconferencing platforms based upon different metrics you ought to consider before choosing the best one for your organization.

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

Prior to diving into the complete list of features for each platform, it is necessary to understand just how much you receive from the whole of what you are spending for.

Teams and Meet are part of larger efficiency suites, whereas Zoom is a standalone product with all the videoconferencing-specific features you may require. 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 only provides you videoconferencing capabilities. For less than Zoom Pro, the M365 Business Standard and Workspace Business subscriptions consist of a full suite of business applications.

With Microsoft 365, you get a completely incorporated experience with desktop versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and more. The biggest selling point of Microsoft is how easily the apps deal with each other, and the most significant distinction in between Teams and its rivals is how centralized the suite is.

Teams leaps perfectly from instant messaging to video calls, with the capability to switch back and forth 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 simultaneously, the separation of the 2 is a bit counterintuitive.

With M365 and Teams, all chats, taped meetings, and files are all housed in the exact same central area, making searchability far much easier.

With Meet and Zoom, you will have to look for saved chats from old conferences, or when it comes to Meet, head over to Google Chat.

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This is likewise the case when working on collaborative 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 lose time chasing them down when you require them.

Microsoft provides much more applications in their plans than Google, however many go undetected.

For instance, Microsoft Sway enables you to quickly grab and trim a recorded Teams satisfying that you can then house locally within Teams itself.

In the event that someone shows up late to a meeting, or an employee records the very same conference and lets it run for hours after its conclusion, you can rapidly get the part of the meeting you need and wait.

This bypasses the storage that would be eaten up by an hours-long video clip, in addition to the time it would require to upload, cut, and export said video from a video editing platform.

In addition, all three platforms do have combinations with various other company 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 all adjusted well to the need for specific features on their platforms, hence the majority of the exact same features overlap throughout prepare for all three suites. This includes screen sharing, video recording, live captions, and everyone's favorite: custom-made backgrounds. As for some other functions, they differ throughout each business's offerings.

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

While present across the board, dial-in abilities vary across strategies. Meet uses dial-in free of charge with any of their paid plans, among the most significant advantages that the platform has more than its rivals.

Teams provides its dial-in ability for $4 additional per user, each month; 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 useful.

Microsoft 365 Business Voice integrates effortlessly with Teams, permitting staff members to take service on the go, all with complete continuity.

Video Quality-- Who Supports the very best?

Since the time of this post, each platform displays video in HD, however the quality differs. Groups is capable of 1080p video at 30 frames per 2nd if you have 1.5 Mbps of bandwidth.

Zoom also has 1080p video, but it is restricted to the platform's service or enterprise plans. 1080p can also be allowed 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, but it can send out and receive as much as 720p video.

Audio quality across platforms depends on microphone and speaker quality, along with the quality of your web connection.

Rooms and Workspaces-- Breaking Things Down

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Breakout rooms are essentially meetings that run at the same time to the initial videoconference. These were specifically essential for virtual education, so teachers might break students out into different groups to discover.

There is a clear energy for breakout rooms in professional areas, too. If a larger team is meeting about a task, breaking down jobs into smaller sized groups, breakout rooms might be a fantastic option.

Both Teams and Zoom have actually breakout rooms belonging to their base platforms, across all plans. These rooms are essentially conferences that are running concurrently to the initial videoconference.

Meet enables breakout rooms through their standard and plus strategies, however not in the totally free or basic 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.

Just recently, Microsoft likewise presented Together Mode, which uses AI to place video participants in different digital settings, together. While the energy is light, Together Mode could be a strong spirits booster.

Groups vs Meet vs Zoom: Privacy and Safety

To its credit, Zoom reacted quickly to the "Zoom bombing" of the early days of the pandemic, adding 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 occurrences of personal privacy breaches, Google has had lots of personal privacy concerns and a performance history of collecting information for use in marketing.

Microsoft has the very 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 component, two-factor authentication is a need to if you want a genuine defense versus cybercriminals.

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

In Addition, Microsoft Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) is available on its Business Premium and E5 plans, blocking potentially destructive material from being accessed by those in your company.

Microsoft likewise uses Data Loss Protection (DLP) to capture delicate data being shared (like social security numbers), and instantly obstruct it from being sent out.

Together with eDiscovery and legal holds within channels, talks, and files, Teams guarantees you remain certified with all information storage guidelines.

A graphic revealing the path of information as it is secured from Microsoft Teams through Microsoft 365.

Google does offer eDiscovery in their Business and Enterprise strategies and DLP in their Enterprise strategy just, but these are just restricted to Drive and Gmail. From what we can see Meet has actually no particularly noted DLP capabilities.

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

In general, Zoom has actually reacted well to its privacy obstacles, but the changes are largely cosmetic.

End-to-end file encryption (E2EE) is fantastic to have, but its addition was more of a response to an issue than a complete option. 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 useful in 1-on-1 discussions where sensitive information might be shared, and it will be readily available on Teams quickly according to Microsoft.

The videoconferencing company has less to stress over 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 reputation alone, Microsoft stands well above the others in regards to security.

Due to the fact that your data is all kept in a single area, Teams and its security functions take your productivity center and turns it into your business's own data fortress. This second level of defense and personal privacy makes it the best, in our experience.

Groups vs Meet vs Zoom: The Verdict

Most videoconferencing platforms have comparable functions, your company's specific requirements need to figure out whether you select Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, or Zoom.

For base-level functions at an affordable cost, it is tough to beat Zoom, who is focused entirely on videoconferencing. For the most value, Teams ties your whole business together in one area, with the best possible features and security available.

If you are searching for an all-in-one cooperation center that keeps all your interaction in one space, we extremely advise 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 actually continued our partnership until the present day.