Managed IT Support Microsoft Teams vs Google Meet vs Zoom: The Conclusive Videoconferencing Battle
The COVID-19 pandemic required staff members to work from house, however the program needed to go on somehow. Overnight, videoconferencing platforms turned into the lifeline that held organizations together. Even as operations return to normal, videoconferencing providers are putting resources into their products.
The 2 primary partnership suites, Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace deal videoconferencing abilities, but we would be remiss not to include one of the most popular videoconferencing apps in the market today-- Zoom.
At this moment, your service is almost guaranteed to have a videoconferencing platform currently. If not, or if you are wanting to alter platforms, continue reading below for a breakdown of features and alternatives that will help you make your decision.
Are your meetings long or short? Are you mainly fulfilling internally or with leads and clients? Will you be hosting webinars?
It goes without stating, if your company 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 subscribed to either and simply require a standalone videoconferencing app, Zoom has a free version that must resolve most of your requirements.
In the sections listed below, we will compare all three major videoconferencing platforms based upon different metrics you ought to consider before choosing the ideal one for your service.
Teams vs Meet vs Zoom: Integration with your other apps/services
Prior to diving into the full list of functions for each platform, it is essential to comprehend just how much you obtain from the whole of what you are spending for.
Groups and Meet belong to 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 individually, they are best bundled with their bigger suites, Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace.
Case in point, a Zoom Pro subscription just offers you videoconferencing capabilities. For less than Zoom Pro, the M365 Business Standard and Workspace Business subscriptions consist of a complete 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 quickly the apps work with each other, and the most significant distinction in between Teams and its rivals is how centralized the suite is.
Groups 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 use both Workspace apps all at once, the separation of the two is a bit counterintuitive.
With M365 and Teams, all chats, recorded meetings, and files are all housed in the exact same central place, making searchability far much easier.
With Meet and Zoom, you will need to look for conserved chats from old conferences, or when it comes to 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, suggesting you do not need to lose time chasing them down when you need them.
Microsoft offers a lot more applications in their strategies than Google, however lots of go unnoticed.
Microsoft Sway enables you to quickly grab and cut a recorded Teams satisfying 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 meeting and lets it run for hours after its conclusion, you can rapidly 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 take to submit, cut, and export stated video from a video modifying platform.
Additionally, all three platforms do have integrations with various other organization applications, so make sure to check on 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 certain features on their platforms, thus the majority of the same functions overlap across plans for all three suites. This includes screen sharing, video recording, live captions, and everybody's favorite: custom backgrounds. When it comes to some other functions, they differ throughout each company's offerings.
A table illustrating 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 abilities vary throughout plans. Meet uses dial-in totally free with any of their paid strategies, among the most significant benefits that the platform has over its rivals.Groups provides its dial-in capability for $4 extra per user, monthly; while Zoom's dial-in is toll-based.
Both Teams and Meet offer 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 effortlessly with Teams, permitting staff members to take business on the go, all with complete continuity.
Video Quality-- Who Supports the very best?
As of the time of this post, each platform displays video in HD, but the quality varies. Teams can 1080p video at 30 frames per 2nd if you have 1.5 Mbps of bandwidth.
Zoom likewise has 1080p video, however it is limited to the platform's organization or business plans. 1080p can likewise be made it possible for 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 and receive up to 720p video.
Audio quality across platforms depends on microphone and speaker quality, along with the quality of your internet connection.
Rooms and Workspaces-- Breaking Things Down
Breakout spaces are essentially meetings that run at the same time to the initial videoconference. These were specifically required for virtual education, so instructors could break trainees out into different groups to discover.
There is a clear utility for breakout rooms in expert spaces, too. If a bigger group is satisfying about a job, breaking down jobs into smaller sized groups, breakout rooms might be a terrific option.
Both Teams and Zoom have breakout spaces belonging to their base platforms, across all plans. These spaces are essentially conferences that are running simultaneously to the original videoconference.
Meet allows breakout spaces through their basic and managed services brisbane plus plans, however not in the totally free or fundamental plans. Nevertheless, like the majority of 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.
Recently, Microsoft likewise rolled out Together Mode, which uses 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, including end-to-end encryption and beefing up their personal privacy policy. Unfortunately, over 500,000 Zoom accounts were stolen and published for sale online quickly thereafter.
While Meet has not had any well-known events of privacy breaches, Google has had lots of personal privacy issues and a track record of gathering data for use in marketing.
Microsoft has the best performance history of security and they likewise have the most transparent personal privacy policy.
All 3 platforms support two-factor authentication. Considering that 99% of cybersecurity attacks involve a password element, two-factor authentication is a need to if you desire a genuine defense against cybercriminals.
As a part of the broader M365 suite, all chats, notes, and files are encrypted and saved within OneNote and SharePoint, respectively.
Additionally, Microsoft Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) is available on its Business Premium and E5 strategies, obstructing possibly malicious material from being accessed by those in your business.
Microsoft also uses Data Loss Protection (DLP) to capture sensitive information being shared (like social security numbers), and instantly block it from being sent.
Together with eDiscovery and legal holds within channels, chats, and files, Teams ensures you stay certified with all data storage policies.
A graphic showing the path of info as it is encrypted from Microsoft Teams through Microsoft 365.
Zoom does not use any of these functions on its primary platform.
In general, Zoom has actually responded well to its personal privacy challenges, but the changes are mostly cosmetic.
End-to-end file encryption (E2EE) is excellent to have, however its addition was more of a response to a problem than a complete service. It is not likely 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 conversations where delicate information might be shared, and it will be readily available on Teams quickly according to Microsoft.
The videoconferencing business has less to worry about 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 upon credibility alone, Microsoft stands well above the others in terms of security.
Because your information is all stored in a single area, Teams and its security functions take your productivity hub and turns it into your company's own information fortress. This second level of defense and privacy makes it the most safe, in our experience.
Teams vs Meet vs Zoom: The Verdict
Most videoconferencing platforms have comparable functions, your business's exact needs need to identify whether you select Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, or Zoom.
For base-level functions at a cost effective price, it is difficult to beat Zoom, who is focused solely on videoconferencing. For the most bang for your buck, Teams ties your whole business together in one area, with the very best possible features and security available.
If you are trying to find an all-in-one cooperation hub that keeps all your communication in one space, we highly advise Microsoft Teams.
IT Support Guys has leveraged the power of Microsoft 365 considering that 2008 when it was still called Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS), and we have continued our collaboration until the present day.