Managed IT Support Microsoft Teams vs Google Meet vs Zoom: The Conclusive Videoconferencing Battle
The COVID-19 pandemic forced workers to work from home, but the program needed to go on in some way. Overnight, videoconferencing platforms turned into the lifeline that held services together. Even as operations go back to normal, videoconferencing providers are pouring resources into their products.
The 2 main partnership suites, Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace offer videoconferencing abilities, but we would be remiss not to include one of the most popular videoconferencing apps in the market today-- Zoom.
At this moment, your organization 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 choice.
Are your conferences long or short? Are you primarily fulfilling internally or with leads and customers? Will you be hosting webinars?
In the sections below, we will compare all three significant videoconferencing platforms based on different metrics you need to consider prior to picking the ideal one for your company.
Teams vs Meet vs Zoom: Integration with your other apps/services
Before diving into the full list of functions for each platform, it is necessary to understand just how much you obtain from the totality of what you are spending for.
Groups and Meet belong to larger performance suites, whereas Zoom is a standalone item with all the videoconferencing-specific functions you may need. While Teams and Meet can be obtained independently, they are best bundled with their larger suites, Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace.
Case in point, a Zoom Pro membership only offers 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 completely integrated experience with desktop variations of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and more. The biggest selling point of Microsoft is how quickly the apps deal with each other, and the greatest difference between Teams and its rivals is how centralized the suite is.
Teams jumps perfectly from instantaneous messaging to video calls, with the ability to switch backward and forward in between them.
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 counterintuitive.
With M365 and Teams, all chats, recorded meetings, and files are all housed in the same central area, making searchability far much easier.
With Meet and Zoom, you will have to seek out saved chats from old conferences, or in the case of Meet, head over to Google Chat.
This is also the case when working on collective files. Any files attached in a Teams chat will appear under its files tab at the top of the window, indicating you do not need to lose time chasing them down when you require them.
Microsoft uses a lot more applications in their plans than Google, though lots of go undetected.
Microsoft Sway allows you to rapidly get and cut a tape-recorded Teams meeting that you can then house locally within Teams itself.
In the event that someone arrives late to a meeting, or a worker records the exact same conference and lets it run for hours after its conclusion, you can quickly grab the part of the conference you need and save it.
This bypasses the storage that would be consumed by an hours-long video, along with the time it would take to submit, cut, and export stated video from a video editing platform.
In addition, all three platforms do have combinations with numerous other company applications, so make sure to examine compatibility with any apps you already 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 need for particular features on their platforms, hence most of the same functions overlap across plans for all three suites. This consists of screen sharing, video recording, live captions, and everybody's favorite: custom backgrounds. As for some other functions, they vary 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 capabilities differ throughout plans. Meet offers dial-in free of charge with any of their paid strategies, one of the most significant benefits that the platform has over its rivals.Groups provides its dial-in capability for $4 extra per user, monthly; while Zoom's dial-in is toll-based.
Both Teams and Meet deal internet-based PBX options that can replace your internal phones, while Zoom's toll-based setup is not useful.
Microsoft 365 Business Voice integrates flawlessly with Teams, enabling workers to take business on the go, all with complete continuity.
Video Quality-- Who Supports the very best?
As of 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 also has 1080p video, however it is limited to the platform's business or business plans. 1080p can likewise be enabled by Zoom support in certain 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 out and receive as much as 720p video.
Audio quality across platforms depends upon microphone and speaker quality, in addition to the quality of your internet connection.
Spaces and Workspaces-- Breaking Things Down
Breakout spaces are basically meetings that run concurrently to the original videoconference. These were particularly required for virtual education, so instructors could break trainees out into different groups to discover.
There is a clear energy for breakout spaces in professional spaces, too. If a larger team is satisfying about a task, breaking down tasks into smaller sized groups, breakout spaces might be a great solution.
Both Teams and Zoom have breakout spaces belonging to their base platforms, throughout all plans. These spaces are basically conferences that are running simultaneously to the initial videoconference.
Meet permits breakout rooms through their basic and plus plans, but not in the free or fundamental plans. However, 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.
Teams vs Meet vs Zoom: Privacy and Safety
To its credit, Zoom reacted promptly to the "Zoom battle" of the early days of the pandemic, including end-to-end encryption and beefing up their personal privacy policy. Regrettably, over 500,000 Zoom accounts were stolen and published for sale online soon afterwards.
While Meet has actually not had any popular incidents of personal privacy breaches, Google has actually had lots of privacy concerns and a performance history of gathering information for use in marketing.
Microsoft has the best track record of security and they likewise have the most transparent personal 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 must if you desire a genuine defense against cybercriminals.
As a part of the wider M365 suite, all chats, notes, and files are encrypted and saved within OneNote and SharePoint, respectively.
Furthermore, Microsoft Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) is available on its Business Premium and E5 plans, blocking potentially destructive content from being accessed by those in your company.
Microsoft likewise utilizes Data Loss Protection (DLP) to catch delicate data being shared (like social security numbers), and automatically block it from being sent.
Together with eDiscovery and legal holds within channels, talks, and files, Teams guarantees you remain certified with all information storage guidelines.
A graphic showing the path of details 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 plan just, but these are just limited to Drive and Gmail. From what we can see Meet has actually no specifically noted DLP capabilities.Zoom does not provide any of these functions on its main platform.
In general, Zoom has reacted well to its privacy obstacles, however the modifications are mostly cosmetic.
End-to-end encryption (E2EE) is terrific to have, however its addition was more of a response to a problem than a total option. It is not likely that E2EE protects most users from more than file encryption in transit and at rest, it support like with Teams and Meet.
E2EE is most beneficial in 1-on-1 conversations where sensitive information might be shared, and it will be available on Teams soon according to Microsoft.
The videoconferencing business has less to stress over due to the fact that they are a single-purpose app, dealing exclusively 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 regards to security.
Since your data is all saved in a single area, Teams and its security features take your efficiency center and turns it into your business's own information fortress. This 2nd level of security and personal privacy makes it the best, in our experience.
Teams vs Meet vs Zoom: The Verdict
Many videoconferencing platforms have similar features, your organization's specific needs ought to determine whether you pick Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, or Zoom.
For base-level functions at a cost effective price, it is hard to beat Zoom, who is focused entirely 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 available.
If you are searching for an all-in-one partnership hub that keeps all your interaction in one space, we extremely suggest Microsoft Teams.
IT Support Guys has leveraged the power of Microsoft 365 since 2008 when it was still called Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS), and we have continued our partnership up until today day.