Managed IT Support Microsoft Teams vs Google Meet vs Zoom: The Definitive Videoconferencing Fight
The COVID-19 pandemic forced staff members to work from house, however the show needed to go on somehow. Overnight, videoconferencing platforms turned into the lifeline that held companies together. Even as operations go back to typical, videoconferencing providers are putting resources into their items.
The two primary partnership 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 business is almost ensured to have a videoconferencing platform already. If not, or if you are seeking to change platforms, continue reading below for a breakdown of functions and choices that will assist you make your decision.
Are your meetings long or short? Are you primarily meeting internally or with leads and clients? Will you be hosting webinars?
It goes without saying, if your business is already signed up for Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, and you more than happy with the platform, you must utilize Teams or Meet respectively. If you are not signed up for either and merely require a standalone videoconferencing app, Zoom has a totally free version that should fix the majority of your needs.
Groups vs Meet vs Zoom: Integration with your other apps/services
Before diving into the complete list of features for each platform, it is essential to understand just how much you obtain from the whole of what you are spending for.
Teams and Meet belong to bigger productivity suites, whereas Zoom is a standalone product with all the videoconferencing-specific functions you may require. 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 membership only gives you videoconferencing abilities. For less than Zoom Pro, the M365 Business Standard and Workspace Business subscriptions consist of a complete suite of business applications.
With Microsoft 365, you get a completely incorporated 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 difference between Teams and its rivals is how centralized the suite is.
Teams jumps seamlessly from instantaneous messaging to video calls, with the capability to change backward and forward between them.
Meanwhile, Google Meet is independent of Workspace's chat app, Google Chat. While users can utilize both Workspace apps simultaneously, the separation of the two is a bit counterintuitive.
With M365 and Teams, all chats, tape-recorded conferences, and files are all housed in the exact same main area, making searchability far simpler.
With Meet and Zoom, you will have to seek out conserved chats from old conferences, or when it comes to Meet, head over to Google Chat.
This is likewise the case when working on collaborative 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 numerous go undetected.
For example, Microsoft Sway allows you to rapidly grab and trim a tape-recorded Teams fulfilling that you can then house locally within Teams itself.
In the event that someone shows up late to a meeting, or a staff member 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 eaten up by an hours-long video clip, as well as the time it would require to submit, trim, and export said video from a video modifying platform.
Furthermore, all 3 platforms do have integrations with numerous other service 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 actually all adapted well to the need for specific functions on their platforms, hence the majority of the very same functions overlap throughout prepare for all 3 suites. This consists of screen sharing, video recording, live captions, and everybody's favorite: custom backgrounds. When it comes to some other functions, they vary throughout each company's offerings.
A table portraying the different plans and functions of Microsoft Teams vs. Google Meet vs. Zoom Audio Conferencing On-the-Go
While present across the board, dial-in abilities vary across strategies. Meet provides dial-in for free with any of their paid strategies, one of the biggest benefits that the platform has over its competitors.Groups provides its dial-in capability for $4 extra per user, per month; while Zoom's dial-in is toll-based.
Both Teams and Meet deal internet-based PBX solutions that can replace your internal phones, while Zoom's toll-based setup is not useful.
Microsoft 365 Business Voice integrates seamlessly with Teams, allowing staff members to take business on the go, all with full continuity.
Video Quality-- Who Supports the Best?
As of the time of this post, each platform shows video in HD, but the quality differs. Teams can 1080p video at 30 frames per second if you have 1.5 Mbps of bandwidth.
Zoom likewise has 1080p video, but it is restricted to the platform's organization or business strategies. 1080p can likewise be enabled by Zoom assistance in particular 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 out and get approximately 720p video.
Audio quality across platforms depends on microphone and speaker quality, in addition to the quality of your web connection.
Rooms and Workspaces-- Breaking Things Down
Breakout rooms are essentially conferences that run simultaneously to the original videoconference. These were particularly necessary for virtual education, so teachers might break trainees out into separate groups to discover.
There is a clear energy for breakout spaces in expert spaces, too. If a larger team is satisfying about a task, breaking down jobs into smaller sized groups, breakout rooms might be a fantastic solution.
Both Teams and Zoom have actually breakout spaces native to their base platforms, across all strategies. These rooms are basically meetings that are running at the same time to the original videoconference.
Meet allows breakout spaces through their basic and plus plans, but not in the free or fundamental strategies. Nevertheless, like many Google functions on less expensive strategies, you can include Google Chrome extensions, however this could be more of a headache than it deserves in the end.
Just recently, Microsoft likewise presented Together Mode, which utilizes AI to place video participants in different digital settings, together. While the energy is light, Together Mode could be a strong spirits booster.
Groups vs Meet vs Zoom: Privacy and Safety
To its credit, Zoom responded quickly to the "Zoom battle" of the early days of the pandemic, adding end-to-end file encryption and beefing up their personal privacy policy. Unfortunately, over 500,000 Zoom accounts were taken and published for sale online quickly afterwards.
While Meet has not had any famous occurrences of personal privacy breaches, Google has had plenty of privacy issues and a track record of gathering data for usage in advertising.
Microsoft has the very 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 include a password component, two-factor authentication is a should if you desire a legitimate defense versus cybercriminals.
As a part of the broader M365 suite, all chats, notes, and files are secured and kept within OneNote and SharePoint, respectively.
Furthermore, https://raymondbvox.bloggersdelight.dk/2023/12/19/what-is-outsourcing-it-managed-services-as-well-as-why-you-required-them/ Microsoft Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) is offered 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 catch sensitive information being shared (like social security numbers), and automatically block it from being sent out.
Together with eDiscovery and legal holds within channels, chats, and files, Teams guarantees you stay certified with all information storage regulations.
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 strategies and DLP in their Enterprise plan just, however these are just limited to Drive and Gmail. From what we can see Meet has actually no specifically noted DLP capabilities.Zoom does not offer any of these functions on its main platform.
Overall, Zoom has actually responded well to its privacy obstacles, however the changes are mainly cosmetic.
End-to-end file encryption (E2EE) is terrific to have, but its addition was more of a reaction to an issue than a total service. It is unlikely that E2EE safeguards most users from more than file encryption in transit and at rest, like with Teams and Meet.
E2EE is most useful in 1-on-1 discussions where delicate information might be shared, and it will be available on Teams quickly according to Microsoft.
The videoconferencing business has less to worry about because they are a single-purpose app, dealing solely with videoconferencing, and not the storage of files, talks, and other details like Microsoft or Google.
Based on track record alone, Microsoft stands well above the others in regards to security.
Because your information is all kept in a single area, Teams and its security functions take your efficiency hub and turns it into your company's own information stronghold. This second level of protection and privacy makes it the best, in our experience.
Groups vs Meet vs Zoom: The Verdict
The majority of videoconferencing platforms have comparable features, your business's exact requirements should identify whether you choose Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, or Zoom.
For base-level features at a budget friendly cost, it is tough to beat Zoom, who is focused solely on videoconferencing. For the most bang for your buck, Teams ties your entire company together in one area, with the best possible functions and security readily available.
If you are trying to find an all-in-one cooperation hub that keeps all your communication in one space, we highly recommend Microsoft Teams.
IT Support Guys has actually leveraged the power of Microsoft 365 since 2008 when it was still called Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS), and we have continued our collaboration up until today day.
