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 show had to go on somehow. Overnight, videoconferencing platforms turned into the lifeline that held services together. Even as operations return to regular, videoconferencing service providers are pouring resources into their products.
The 2 main collaboration suites, Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace offer videoconferencing capabilities, however 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 practically guaranteed to have a videoconferencing platform currently. If not, or if you are wanting to alter platforms, continue reading below for a breakdown of functions and alternatives that will help you make your decision.
Are your conferences long or short? Are you mainly meeting internally or with leads and clients? Will you be hosting webinars?
It goes without saying, if your business is currently signed up for Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, and you enjoy with the platform, you should utilize Teams or Meet respectively. If you are not signed up for either and just require a standalone videoconferencing app, Zoom has a complimentary variation that ought to fix most of your needs.
In the areas listed below, we will compare all three major videoconferencing platforms based on various metrics you ought to consider before picking the best one for your company.
Groups vs Meet vs Zoom: Integration with your other apps/services
Before diving into the full list of features for each platform, it is necessary to comprehend just how much you obtain from the whole of what you are paying for.
Teams and Meet belong to bigger performance suites, whereas Zoom is a standalone product with all the videoconferencing-specific functions you may need. While Teams and Meet can be obtained independently, they are best bundled with their bigger suites, Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace.
Case in point, a Zoom Pro subscription 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 totally integrated experience with desktop versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and more. The biggest selling point of Microsoft is how quickly the apps deal with each other, and the most significant difference in between Teams and its rivals is how centralized the suite is.
Groups jumps seamlessly from immediate messaging to video calls, with the capability to switch backward and forward in between them.
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 two is a bit counterproductive.
With M365 and Teams, all chats, recorded meetings, and files are all housed in the same central place, 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 likewise 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 do not need to waste time chasing them down when you require them.
Microsoft uses a lot more applications in their plans than Google, however numerous go undetected.
Microsoft Sway permits you to rapidly get and cut a tape-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 grab the part of the conference you require and save it.
This bypasses the storage that would be consumed by an hours-long video, along with the time it would require to submit, trim, and export said video from a video editing platform.
Furthermore, all three platforms do have combinations with various other business applications, so make sure to examine 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 adjusted well to the demand for specific functions on their platforms, thus the majority of the exact same features overlap across prepare for all 3 suites. This consists of screen sharing, video recording, live captions, and everybody's favorite: custom-made backgrounds. As for some other functions, they vary throughout each company's offerings.
A table illustrating the various strategies and functions of Microsoft Teams vs. Google Meet vs. Zoom Audio Conferencing On-the-Go
While present across the board, dial-in capabilities differ across strategies. Meet uses dial-in free of charge with any of their paid strategies, one of the greatest advantages that the platform has more than its competitors.
Both Teams and Meet deal internet-based PBX options that can replace your in-house phones, while Zoom's toll-based setup is not useful.
Microsoft 365 Business Voice incorporates flawlessly with Teams, permitting staff members to take company on the go, all with full connection.
Video Quality-- Who Supports the Best?
As of the time of this post, each platform displays video in HD, but the quality differs. Groups can 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 company or enterprise strategies. 1080p can likewise be made it possible for 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 out and receive up to 720p video.
Audio quality across platforms depends on microphone and speaker quality, along with the quality of your web connection.
Spaces and Workspaces-- Breaking Things Down
Breakout rooms are essentially conferences that run concurrently to the initial videoconference. These were particularly needed for virtual education, so instructors might break students out into different groups to learn.
There is a clear energy for breakout spaces in expert spaces, too. If a larger team is satisfying about a job, breaking down jobs into smaller groups, breakout spaces could be a fantastic solution.
Both Teams and Zoom have actually breakout spaces native to their base platforms, across all strategies. These spaces are essentially meetings that are running all at once to the original videoconference.
Meet permits breakout spaces through their basic and plus strategies, but not in the totally free or standard strategies. Nevertheless, like the majority 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.
Recently, Microsoft likewise presented Together Mode, which uses AI to position video participants in different digital settings, together. While the utility is light, Together Mode could be a solid spirits booster.
Teams vs Meet vs Zoom: Privacy and Safety
To its credit, Zoom reacted swiftly to the "Zoom bombing" of the early days of the pandemic, adding end-to-end encryption and intensifying their personal privacy policy. Regrettably, over 500,000 Zoom accounts were stolen and posted for sale online quickly afterwards.
While Meet has not had any famous events of privacy breaches, Google has actually had a lot of personal privacy concerns and a track record of gathering information for usage in marketing.
Microsoft has the best performance history of security and they also have the most transparent privacy policy.
All 3 platforms support two-factor authentication. Considering that 99% of cybersecurity attacks involve a password component, two-factor authentication is a should if you desire a genuine defense against 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 plans, blocking potentially harmful material from being accessed by those in your business.
Microsoft also utilizes Data Loss Protection (DLP) to capture sensitive data being shared (like social security numbers), and immediately obstruct it from being sent out.
Together with eDiscovery and legal holds within channels, chats, and files, Teams guarantees you remain compliant with all information storage guidelines.
A graphic showing the course of details as it is secured from Microsoft Teams through Microsoft 365.
Google does offer eDiscovery in their Business and Enterprise plans and DLP in their Enterprise plan only, however these are only limited to Drive and Gmail. From what we can see Meet has actually no particularly listed DLP abilities.Zoom does not use any of these features on its main platform.
In general, Zoom has reacted well to its personal privacy obstacles, but the changes are mostly cosmetic.
End-to-end encryption (E2EE) is great to have, but its addition was more of a reaction to a problem than a total service. 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 beneficial in 1-on-1 conversations where delicate info may be shared, and it will be readily available on Teams quickly according to Microsoft.
The videoconferencing company it service gold coast has less to worry about due to the fact that they are a single-purpose app, dealing solely with videoconferencing, and not the storage of files, talks, and other information like Microsoft or Google.
Based upon track record alone, Microsoft stands well above the others in regards to security.
Because your data is all kept in a single area, Teams and its security functions take your efficiency hub and turns it into your business's own information stronghold. This 2nd level of security and personal privacy makes it the safest, in our experience.
Groups vs Meet vs Zoom: The Verdict
Though most videoconferencing platforms have similar functions, your company's exact requirements ought to figure out whether you select Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, or Zoom.
For base-level features at an affordable price, it is difficult to beat Zoom, who is focused entirely on videoconferencing. For the most bang for your buck, Teams ties your entire business together in one space, with the very best possible features and security readily available.
If you are trying to find an all-in-one collaboration hub that keeps all your communication in one space, we extremely recommend Microsoft Teams.
IT Support Guys has leveraged the power of Microsoft 365 because 2008 when it was still called Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS), and we have continued our collaboration until today day.