Managed IT Support Microsoft Teams vs Google Meet vs Zoom: The Conclusive Videoconferencing Fight
The COVID-19 pandemic forced employees to work from home, however the show had to go on in some way. Overnight, videoconferencing platforms became the lifeline that held services together. Even as operations return to typical, videoconferencing suppliers are putting resources into their products.
The two primary partnership 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 service is practically ensured to have a videoconferencing platform already. If not, or if you are wanting to alter platforms, continue checking out listed below for a breakdown of functions and choices that will help you make your choice.
Are your conferences long or short? Are you mostly meeting 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 are happy with the platform, you need to use Teams or Meet respectively. If you are not signed up for either and simply need a standalone videoconferencing app, Zoom has a free variation that ought to fix the majority of your needs.
In the sections listed below, we will compare all 3 significant videoconferencing platforms based on various metrics you must consider prior to selecting the right one for your organization.
Groups vs Meet vs Zoom: Integration with your other apps/services
Prior to diving into the full list of functions for each platform, it is essential to comprehend how much you obtain from the entirety 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 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 membership just gives you videoconferencing capabilities. For less than Zoom Pro, the M365 Business Standard and Workspace Business memberships consist of a complete suite of business applications.
With Microsoft 365, you get a completely integrated 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 greatest distinction in between Teams and its rivals is how centralized the suite is.
Groups jumps flawlessly from instantaneous messaging to video calls, with the ability to switch backward and forward between them.
Meanwhile, Google Meet is independent of Workspace's chat app, Google Chat. While users can make use of both Workspace apps at the same time, the separation of the two is a bit counterproductive.
With M365 and Teams, all chats, taped conferences, and files are all housed in the very same main place, making searchability far easier.
With Meet and Zoom, you will need to look for saved chats from old meetings, or when it comes to 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, suggesting you don't need to lose time chasing them down when you require them.
Microsoft provides a lot more applications in their plans than Google, however numerous go unnoticed.
For instance, Microsoft Sway enables you to rapidly get and cut a taped Teams meeting that you can then house in your area within Teams itself.
In the case that somebody shows up late to a meeting, or a worker records the same meeting 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, along with the time it would require to submit, trim, and export said video from a video modifying platform.
Additionally, all three platforms do have integrations with numerous other business applications, so make certain to look at compatibility with any apps you already utilize, 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 features on their platforms, hence the majority of the same functions overlap across prepare for all three suites. This includes screen sharing, video recording, live captions, and everybody's favorite: custom backgrounds. When it comes to some other functions, they differ throughout each company's offerings.
A table illustrating the various plans and functions of Microsoft Teams vs. Google Meet vs. Zoom Audio Conferencing On-the-Go
While present throughout the board, dial-in capabilities differ across plans. Meet uses dial-in free of charge with any of their paid strategies, among the biggest advantages that the platform has over its rivals.Groups offers 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 solutions that can replace your internal phones, while Zoom's toll-based setup is not practical.
Microsoft 365 Business Voice integrates effortlessly with Teams, enabling workers to take company on managed it services the go, all with full connection.
Video Quality-- Who Supports the Best?
Since the time of this post, each platform displays video in HD, however the quality varies. Teams is capable of 1080p video at 30 frames per second if you have 1.5 Mbps of bandwidth.
Zoom likewise has 1080p video, however it is restricted to the platform's business or enterprise plans. 1080p can also be enabled by Zoom assistance in specific cases. Zoom's 1080p performance 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 and get approximately 720p video.
Audio quality throughout platforms depends upon microphone and speaker quality, as well as the quality of your web connection.
Rooms and Workspaces-- Breaking Things Down
Breakout spaces are essentially conferences that run simultaneously to the original videoconference. These were especially necessary for virtual education, so instructors might break trainees out into different groups to find out.
There is a clear energy for breakout spaces in professional spaces, too. If a larger team is meeting about a project, breaking down tasks into smaller groups, breakout spaces might be an excellent solution.
Both Teams and Zoom have breakout rooms native to their base platforms, throughout all strategies. These spaces are basically meetings that are running concurrently to the initial videoconference.
Meet enables breakout rooms through their standard and plus plans, but not in the complimentary or basic plans. Like a lot of Google functions on more affordable strategies, you can include Google Chrome extensions, but this might be more of a headache than it is worth in the end.
Recently, Microsoft also rolled out Together Mode, which uses AI to put video individuals in different digital settings, together. While the utility is light, Together Mode could be a solid spirits booster.
Groups vs Meet vs Zoom: Privacy and Safety
To its credit, Zoom responded swiftly to the "Zoom battle" of the early days of the pandemic, including end-to-end encryption and intensifying their privacy policy. Unfortunately, over 500,000 Zoom accounts were stolen and published for sale online soon afterwards.
While Meet has actually not had any well-known occurrences of privacy breaches, Google has had plenty of personal privacy issues and a performance history of collecting data for usage in marketing.
Microsoft has the best track record of security and they likewise have the most transparent privacy policy.
All 3 platforms support two-factor authentication. Considering that 99% of cybersecurity attacks include a password component, two-factor authentication is a should if you want a legitimate defense versus cybercriminals.
As a part of the broader M365 suite, all chats, notes, and files are secured and saved within OneNote and SharePoint, respectively.
Additionally, Microsoft Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) is available on its Business Premium and E5 strategies, blocking potentially destructive material from being accessed by those in your business.
Microsoft also utilizes Data Loss Protection (DLP) to capture sensitive information being shared (like social security numbers), and automatically 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 guidelines.
A graphic showing the course of information as it is encrypted from Microsoft Teams through Microsoft 365.
Google does provide eDiscovery in their Business and Enterprise strategies and DLP in their Enterprise plan just, however these are only limited to Drive and Gmail. From what we can see Meet has no particularly noted DLP abilities.Zoom does not use any of these features on its primary platform.
Overall, Zoom has responded well to its privacy obstacles, however the modifications are mainly cosmetic.
End-to-end file encryption (E2EE) is terrific to have, however its addition was more of an action to an issue than a complete option. It is unlikely that E2EE safeguards most users from more than encryption in transit and at rest, like with Teams and Meet.
The videoconferencing business has less to stress over since they are a single-purpose app, dealing solely with videoconferencing, and not the storage of files, talks, and other info like Microsoft or Google.
Based upon track record alone, Microsoft stands well above the others in terms of security.
Due to the fact that your information is all stored in a single space, Teams and its security functions take your efficiency center and turns it into your company's own data stronghold. This second level of protection and privacy makes it the safest, in our experience.
Groups vs Meet vs Zoom: The Verdict
Many videoconferencing platforms have comparable features, your business's specific requirements must figure out whether you choose Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, or Zoom.
For base-level features at an affordable rate, it is hard 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 features and security readily available.
If you are trying to find an all-in-one collaboration center that keeps all your communication in one area, we highly advise 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 continued our collaboration until today day.