Managed IT Support Microsoft Teams vs Google Meet vs Zoom: The Conclusive Videoconferencing Fight
The COVID-19 pandemic required employees to work from home, however the program needed to go on somehow. Overnight, videoconferencing platforms developed into the lifeline that held services together. Even as operations return to regular, videoconferencing companies are pouring resources into their products.
The two main collaboration 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 point, your service is almost ensured to have a videoconferencing platform currently. If not, or if you are wanting to change platforms, continue checking out listed below for a breakdown of functions and choices that will help you make your choice.
Are your meetings long or short? Are you mainly fulfilling internally or with leads and clients? Will you be hosting webinars?
It goes without saying, if your company is already subscribed to Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, and you are happy with the platform, you must use Teams or Meet respectively. If you are not registered for either and merely need a standalone videoconferencing app, Zoom has a free version that should solve most of your needs.
In the areas listed below, we will compare all 3 major videoconferencing platforms based upon different metrics you need to think about prior to choosing the best one for your organization.
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 comprehend how much you get from the entirety of what you are paying for.
Teams and Meet become part of bigger productivity suites, whereas Zoom is a standalone item with all the videoconferencing-specific functions 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 gives you videoconferencing abilities. For less than Zoom Pro, the M365 Business Standard and Workspace Business subscriptions include a full suite of business applications.
With Microsoft 365, you get a totally incorporated experience with desktop variations of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and more. The biggest selling point of Microsoft is how easily the apps deal with each other, and the most significant difference between Teams and its rivals is how centralized the suite is.
Groups jumps effortlessly from instantaneous messaging to video calls, with the capability to switch backward and forward in between them.
Meanwhile, Google Meet is independent of Workspace's chat app, Google Chat. While users can make use of both Workspace apps concurrently, the separation of the 2 is a bit counterintuitive.
With M365 and Teams, all chats, recorded meetings, and files are all housed in the same main location, making searchability far easier.
With Meet and Zoom, you will need to look for saved chats from old meetings, or in the case of Meet, head over to Google Chat.
This is also 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, indicating you do not have to lose time chasing them down when you require them.
Microsoft provides even more applications in their strategies than Google, however lots of go undetected.
For example, Microsoft Sway allows you to rapidly get and cut a recorded Teams fulfilling that you can then house in your area within Teams itself.
In the case that someone shows up late to a meeting, or an employee records the very same conference and lets it run for hours after its conclusion, you can rapidly grab the part of the meeting you need and wait.
This bypasses the storage that would be eaten up by an hours-long video clip, in addition to the time it would require to upload, cut, and export said video from a video editing platform.
In addition, all 3 platforms do have integrations with numerous other organization applications, so make sure to check on compatibility with any apps you currently 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 functions on their platforms, hence the majority of the very same functions overlap throughout prepare 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 across each business's offerings.
A table portraying the various strategies and functions of Microsoft Teams vs. Google Meet vs. Zoom Audio Conferencing On-the-Go
While present throughout the board, dial-in capabilities vary throughout strategies. Meet provides dial-in free of charge with any of their paid strategies, one of the most significant benefits that the platform has more than its rivals.Teams uses its dial-in ability for $4 extra per user, per month; 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 organization on the go, all with complete continuity.
Video Quality-- Who Supports the very best?
Since the time of this post, each platform displays video in HD, but the quality differs. Groups 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 plans. 1080p can likewise be made it possible for 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 receive as much as 720p video.
Audio quality throughout platforms depends upon microphone and speaker quality, in addition to the quality of your internet connection.
Spaces and Workspaces-- Breaking Things Down
Breakout rooms are basically conferences that run at the same time to the original videoconference. These were especially necessary for virtual education, so teachers could break trainees out into different groups to discover.
There is a clear utility for breakout rooms in expert areas, too. If a larger team is meeting about a task, breaking down jobs into smaller groups, breakout spaces might be a fantastic solution.
Both Teams and Zoom have actually breakout spaces native to their base platforms, throughout all strategies. These spaces are basically meetings that are running simultaneously to the original videoconference.
Meet permits breakout rooms through their basic and plus plans, however not in the free or fundamental strategies. Nevertheless, like a lot of Google functions on less expensive plans, 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 position video participants in different digital settings, together. While the energy is light, Together Mode might be a solid morale booster.
Groups vs Meet vs Zoom: Privacy and Safety
To its credit, Zoom responded swiftly to the "Zoom battle" of the early days of the pandemic, including end-to-end encryption and boosting their personal privacy policy. Regrettably, over 500,000 Zoom accounts were stolen and posted for sale online soon thereafter.
While Meet has actually not had any popular occurrences of privacy breaches, Google has actually had plenty of privacy concerns and a performance history of gathering data for use in marketing.
Microsoft has the very best performance history of security and they also have the it services gold coast most transparent privacy policy.
All three platforms support two-factor authentication. Considering that 99% of cybersecurity attacks include a password element, 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 encrypted and kept within OneNote and SharePoint, respectively.
In Addition, Microsoft Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) is available on its Business Premium and E5 strategies, blocking possibly destructive material 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 immediately block it from being sent out.
Together with eDiscovery and legal holds within channels, talks, and files, Teams ensures you remain certified with all data storage policies.
A graphic revealing the path of info 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 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 offer any of these features on its primary platform.
Overall, Zoom has responded well to its privacy challenges, but the modifications are mostly cosmetic.
End-to-end file encryption (E2EE) is great to have, however its addition was more of an action to an issue than a total service. It is unlikely that E2EE secures most users from more than file encryption in transit and at rest, like with Teams and Meet.
E2EE is most beneficial in 1-on-1 conversations where delicate details might be shared, and it will be available on Teams soon according to Microsoft.
The videoconferencing company has less to stress over due to the fact that they are a single-purpose app, dealing entirely with videoconferencing, and not the storage of files, chats, and other details like Microsoft or Google.
Based on reputation alone, Microsoft stands well above the others in terms of security.
Since your information is all kept in a single space, Teams and its security functions take your productivity center and turns it into your business's own data fortress. This second level of defense and personal privacy makes it the safest, in our experience.
Groups vs Meet vs Zoom: The Verdict
Many videoconferencing platforms have comparable features, your service's specific needs must figure out whether you pick Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, or Zoom.
For base-level features at a budget-friendly rate, it is tough to beat Zoom, who is focused solely on videoconferencing. For the most value, Teams ties your entire business together in one area, with the very best possible functions and security readily available.
If you are looking for an all-in-one collaboration center that keeps all your communication in one space, we extremely recommend Microsoft Teams.
IT Support Guys has actually leveraged the power of Microsoft 365 considering that 2008 when it was still called Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS), and we have continued our partnership up until today day.