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

The COVID-19 pandemic forced staff members to work from home, but the show needed to go on in some way. Overnight, videoconferencing platforms developed into the lifeline that held organizations together. Even as operations go back to normal, videoconferencing service providers are pouring resources into their products.

The 2 main cooperation suites, Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace offer videoconferencing abilities, but we would be remiss not to consist of one of the most popular videoconferencing apps in the market today-- Zoom.

At this point, your organization is practically guaranteed to have a videoconferencing platform already. If not, or if you are wanting to change platforms, continue reading below for a breakdown of functions and alternatives that will assist you make your choice.

Are your meetings long or short? Are you mostly satisfying internally or with leads and customers? Will you be hosting webinars?

It goes without stating, if your company is already registered for Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, and you are happy with the platform, you need to utilize Teams or Meet respectively. If you are not registered for either and merely need a standalone videoconferencing app, Zoom has a totally free version that must solve the majority of your requirements.

In the sections listed below, we will compare all three significant videoconferencing platforms based upon numerous metrics you must think about prior to selecting the best one for your company.

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 important to understand just how much you obtain from the whole of what you are paying for.

Groups and Meet are part of larger efficiency suites, whereas Zoom is a standalone product with all the videoconferencing-specific features you might need. 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 just provides you videoconferencing capabilities. For less than Zoom Pro, the M365 Business Standard and Workspace Business memberships consist of a complete suite of organization applications.

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

Teams jumps effortlessly from instant messaging to video calls, with the capability to change backward and forward in between them.

Google Meet is independent of Workspace's chat app, Google Chat. While users can use both Workspace apps simultaneously, the separation of the two is a bit counterproductive.

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

With Meet and Zoom, you will need to seek out conserved chats from old meetings, or in the case of Meet, head over to Google Chat.

This is likewise 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, implying you do not have to waste time chasing them down when you need them.

Microsoft provides even more applications in their strategies than Google, however lots of go unnoticed.

Microsoft Sway permits you to quickly grab and trim a recorded Teams fulfilling that you can then house locally within Teams itself.

In the case that somebody gets here late to a conference, or a staff member records the exact 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, as well as the time it would require to upload, trim, and export stated video from a video modifying platform.

In addition, all 3 platforms do have combinations with various other organization applications, so be sure to examine compatibility with any apps you currently utilize, and these platforms.

Groups vs Meet vs Zoom: Features

Comparing Free Versions vs. Paid

Microsoft, Google, and Zoom have all adapted well to the demand for particular functions on their platforms, thus most of the very same functions overlap throughout prepare for all three suites. This includes screen sharing, video recording, live captions, and everyone's favorite: custom backgrounds. As for some other features, they vary across each business's offerings.

A reference table depicting 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 abilities differ throughout plans. Meet provides dial-in free of charge with any of their paid strategies, one of the biggest advantages that the platform has more than its rivals.

Teams uses its dial-in capability for $4 additional per user, per month; while Zoom's dial-in is toll-based.

Both Teams and Meet deal internet-based PBX services that can replace your in-house phones, while Zoom's toll-based setup is not practical.

Microsoft 365 Business Voice incorporates flawlessly with Teams, enabling employees to take service on the go, all with full continuity.

Video Quality-- Who Supports the Best?

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

Zoom likewise has 1080p video, but it is limited to the platform's service or enterprise plans. 1080p can likewise 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, however it can send and get 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 essentially conferences that run concurrently to the initial videoconference. These were specifically essential for virtual education, so teachers might break students out into different groups to find out.

There is a clear energy for breakout rooms in professional spaces, too. If a bigger team is fulfilling about a project, breaking down tasks into smaller sized groups, breakout rooms could be a fantastic option.

Both Teams and Zoom have breakout spaces belonging to their base platforms, across all plans. These spaces are basically meetings that are running simultaneously to the original videoconference.

Meet permits breakout rooms through their standard and plus strategies, however not in the free or standard plans. Nevertheless, like most Google functions on cheaper 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 utilizes AI to put video participants in various digital settings, together. While the energy is light, Together Mode could be a solid morale booster.

Teams vs Meet vs Zoom: Privacy and Safety

To its credit, Zoom reacted promptly to the "Zoom bombing" of the early days of the pandemic, adding end-to-end encryption and beefing up their privacy policy. Over 500,000 Zoom accounts were stolen and posted for sale online quickly thereafter.

While Meet has actually not had any well-known incidents of privacy breaches, Google has actually had plenty of privacy concerns and a performance history of collecting data for use in advertising.

Microsoft has the best track record of security and they also 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 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 kept within OneNote and SharePoint, respectively.

Furthermore, Microsoft Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) is available on its Business Premium and E5 plans, blocking potentially harmful content from being accessed by those in your business.

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

In addition to eDiscovery and legal holds within channels, chats, and files, Teams ensures you stay compliant with all information storage policies.

A graphic showing the path of details as it is secured from Microsoft Teams through Microsoft 365.

Google does provide eDiscovery in their Business and Enterprise plans and DLP in their Enterprise plan only, but these are just restricted to Drive and Gmail. From what we can see Meet has actually no specifically noted DLP abilities.

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

In general, Zoom has actually responded well to its personal privacy obstacles, however the changes are mainly cosmetic.

End-to-end file encryption (E2EE) is excellent to have, but its addition was more of a reaction to a problem than a complete service. It is not likely that E2EE protects most users from more than encryption in transit and