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

The COVID-19 pandemic required employees to work from house, however the program needed to go on in some way. Overnight, videoconferencing platforms developed into the lifeline that held organizations together. Even as operations return to typical, videoconferencing companies are pouring resources into their items.

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

At this moment, your organization is practically guaranteed to have a videoconferencing platform already. If not, or if you are aiming to change platforms, continue reading below for a breakdown of features and options that will help you make your decision.

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

It goes without stating, if your business is currently subscribed to Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, and you more than happy with the platform, you must utilize Teams or Meet respectively. If you are not subscribed to either and merely need a standalone videoconferencing app, Zoom has a complimentary version that must fix the majority of your needs.

In the sections below, we will compare all 3 major videoconferencing platforms based upon different metrics you should think about prior to choosing the best one for your company.

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

Before diving into the complete list of functions for each platform, it is necessary to comprehend how much you obtain from the totality of what you are paying for.

Teams and Meet belong to bigger productivity suites, whereas Zoom is a standalone item with all the videoconferencing-specific functions you may require. While Teams and Meet can be obtained separately, they are best bundled with their bigger suites, Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace.

Case in point, a Zoom Pro subscription just provides you videoconferencing capabilities. For less than Zoom Pro, the M365 Business Standard and Workspace Business memberships include a full suite of service 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 easily the apps work with each other, and the most significant distinction between Teams and its competitors is how centralized the suite is.

Teams leaps flawlessly from immediate messaging to video calls, with the ability to change back and forth in between them.

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

With M365 and Teams, all chats, recorded conferences, and files are all housed in the very same central area, making searchability far easier.

With Meet and Zoom, you will have to seek out conserved chats from old meetings, or when it comes to Meet, head over to Google Chat.

This is likewise the case when dealing with collaborative files. Any files connected in a Teams chat will appear under its files tab at the top of the window, meaning you don't have to lose time chasing them down when you need them.

Microsoft provides a lot more applications in their strategies than Google, however numerous go undetected.

Microsoft Sway allows you to quickly grab and cut a taped Teams meeting that you can then house locally within Teams itself.

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

This bypasses the storage that would be eaten up by an hours-long video clip, as well as the time it would take to publish, trim, and export said video from a video modifying platform.

Additionally, all 3 platforms do have integrations with different other service applications, so be sure to check on 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 particular features on Click Here their platforms, thus most of the same functions overlap throughout plans for all 3 suites. This consists of screen sharing, video recording, live captions, and everybody's favorite: customized backgrounds. When it comes to some other functions, they differ across 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 throughout the board, dial-in capabilities differ throughout strategies. Meet offers dial-in for free with any of their paid strategies, among the most significant advantages that the platform has over its competitors.

Teams offers 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 solutions that can change your in-house phones, while Zoom's toll-based setup is not useful.

Microsoft 365 Business Voice integrates seamlessly with Teams, allowing workers to take company on the go, all with full continuity.

Video Quality-- Who Supports the Best?

Since the time of this post, each platform shows video in HD, but the quality varies. Teams can 1080p video at 30 frames per second if you have 1.5 Mbps of bandwidth.

Zoom also has 1080p video, however it is restricted to the platform's service or enterprise plans. 1080p can likewise be allowed 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, however it can send out and get approximately 720p video.

Audio quality across platforms depends upon microphone and speaker quality, as well as the quality of your internet connection.

Spaces and Workspaces-- Breaking Things Down

Breakout spaces are basically conferences that run at the same time to the original videoconference. These were particularly necessary for virtual education, so teachers could break students out into different groups to find out.

There is a clear energy for breakout rooms in professional spaces, too. If a larger group is satisfying about a job, breaking down jobs into smaller sized groups, breakout rooms could be a fantastic service.

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

Meet allows breakout rooms through their basic and plus strategies, however not in the free or standard strategies. Like a lot of Google functions on more affordable strategies, you can include Google Chrome extensions, however this could be more of a headache than it is worth in the end.

Just recently, Microsoft also presented Together Mode, which uses AI to position video individuals in numerous digital settings, together. While the utility is light, Together Mode could be a strong morale booster.

Groups 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 file encryption and boosting their privacy policy. Sadly, over 500,000 Zoom accounts were stolen and published for sale online quickly afterwards.

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

Microsoft has the very best performance history of security and they also have the most transparent personal privacy policy.

All 3 platforms support two-factor authentication. Considering that 99% of cybersecurity attacks include a password component, two-factor authentication is a must if you want a legitimate defense versus cybercriminals.

As a part of the broader M365 suite, all chats, notes, and files are secured and stored within OneNote and SharePoint, respectively.

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

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

Along with eDiscovery and legal holds within channels, chats, and files, Teams guarantees you stay compliant with all data storage policies.

A graphic revealing the course of info as it is secured from Microsoft Teams through Microsoft 365.

Google does use eDiscovery in their Business and Enterprise strategies and DLP in their Enterprise strategy just, however these are only restricted to Drive and Gmail. From what we can see Meet has no particularly noted DLP abilities.

Zoom does not provide any of these functions on its main platform.

In general, Zoom has reacted well to its privacy difficulties, however the changes are mostly cosmetic.

End-to-end encryption (E2EE) is fantastic to have, however its addition was more of a response to an issue than a complete service. It is not likely that E2EE secures most users from more than file encryption in transit and at rest, like with Teams