Managed IT Support Microsoft Teams vs Google Meet vs Zoom: The Definitive Videoconferencing Fight
The COVID-19 pandemic forced workers to work from home, however the show needed to go on in some way. Overnight, videoconferencing platforms turned into the lifeline that held businesses together. Even as operations return to regular, videoconferencing providers are pouring resources into their products.
The 2 primary cooperation suites, Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace deal videoconferencing abilities, however we would be remiss not to include 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 alter platforms, continue checking out below for a breakdown of functions and options that will assist you make your choice.
Are your meetings long or short? Are you primarily 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 enjoy with the platform, you ought to utilize Teams or Meet respectively. If you are not signed up for either and merely require a standalone videoconferencing app, Zoom has a free version that ought to fix most of your requirements.
In the sections below, we will compare all three significant videoconferencing platforms based upon various metrics you must think about prior to picking the best one for your company.
Groups vs Meet vs Zoom: Integration with your other apps/services
Before diving into the complete 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.
Teams and Meet belong to larger performance suites, whereas Zoom is a standalone product with all the videoconferencing-specific functions you may need. 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 membership just provides 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 variations of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and more. The greatest selling point of Microsoft is how quickly the apps deal with each other, and the most significant difference in between Teams and its rivals is how centralized the suite is.
Groups leaps perfectly from instant 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 at the same time, the separation of the 2 is a bit counterintuitive.
With M365 and Teams, all chats, recorded conferences, and files are all housed in the very same central place, making searchability far simpler.
With Meet and Zoom, you will have to seek out saved 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 connected in a Teams chat will appear under its files tab at the top of the window, suggesting you do not have to waste time chasing them down when you require them.
Microsoft offers even more applications in their plans than Google, though numerous go unnoticed.
For instance, Microsoft Sway enables you to quickly grab and trim a taped Teams meeting that you can then house locally within Teams itself.
In the event that someone shows up late to a conference, or a staff member records the exact 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, in addition to the time it would take to upload, cut, and export stated video from a video modifying platform.
Additionally, all three platforms do have integrations with numerous other service applications, so be sure to check on compatibility with any apps you currently use, and these platforms.
Groups 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, therefore the majority of the very same functions overlap across prepare for all 3 suites. This includes screen sharing, video recording, live captions, and everybody's favorite: custom backgrounds. As for some other features, they vary across each company's offerings.
A 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 vary throughout strategies. Meet provides dial-in totally free with any of their paid strategies, among the biggest benefits that the platform has more than its competitors.Teams offers its dial-in ability for $4 additional per user, per month; while Zoom's dial-in is toll-based.
Both Teams and Meet offer internet-based PBX services that can change your internal phones, while Zoom's toll-based setup is not practical.
Microsoft 365 Business Voice incorporates seamlessly with Teams, permitting employees to take business on the go, all with complete connection.
Video Quality-- Who Supports the Best?
As of the time of this post, each platform shows video in HD, but the quality varies. Groups is capable of 1080p video at 30 frames per second if you have 1.5 Mbps of bandwidth.
Zoom likewise has 1080p video, however it is restricted to the platform's service or business plans. 1080p can also be allowed by Zoom support in certain 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, but it can send and get up to 720p video.
Audio quality across platforms depends upon microphone and speaker quality, along with the quality of your internet connection.
Rooms and Workspaces-- Breaking Things Down
Breakout rooms are basically meetings that run concurrently to the original videoconference. These were specifically essential for virtual education, so teachers might break trainees out into different groups to find out.
There is a clear energy for breakout spaces in professional spaces, too. If a bigger team is fulfilling about a job, breaking down jobs into smaller groups, breakout rooms might be a fantastic service.
Both Teams and Zoom have actually breakout spaces belonging to their base platforms, across all plans. These rooms are essentially conferences that are running at the same time to the initial videoconference.
Meet enables breakout spaces through their basic and plus plans, but not in the free or fundamental plans. Like most Google functions on cheaper plans, 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 rolled out Together Mode, which utilizes AI to place video individuals in various digital settings, together. While the utility is light, Together Mode could be a strong morale booster.
Teams vs Meet vs Zoom: Privacy and Safety
To its credit, Zoom responded swiftly to the "Zoom bombing" 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 actually had plenty of personal privacy issues and a track record of collecting information for usage in advertising.
Microsoft has the very best track record of security and they likewise have the most transparent privacy policy.
All three platforms support two-factor authentication. Thinking about that 99% of cybersecurity attacks include a password aspect, two-factor authentication is a should if you want a legitimate defense against cybercriminals.
As a part of the broader M365 suite, all chats, notes, and files are encrypted and kept within OneNote and SharePoint, respectively.
Furthermore, Microsoft Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) is offered on its Business Premium and E5 plans, obstructing possibly malicious material from being accessed by those in your business.
Microsoft also utilizes Data Loss Protection (DLP) to catch delicate information being shared (like social security numbers), and instantly block it from being sent.
Along with eDiscovery and legal holds within channels, chats, and files, Teams guarantees you remain compliant with all data storage regulations.
A graphic revealing the path of info as it is encrypted from Microsoft Teams through Microsoft 365.
Google does use eDiscovery in their Business and Enterprise plans and DLP in their Enterprise plan only, however these are only restricted to Drive and Gmail. From what we can see Meet has no particularly listed DLP capabilities.Zoom does not provide any of these functions on its main platform.
Overall, Zoom has responded well to its personal privacy obstacles, however the changes are largely cosmetic.
End-to-end file encryption (E2EE) is terrific to have, but its addition was more of a reaction https://app.gumroad.com/scottmanda565/p/is-your-it-support-provider-as-much-as-scratch-1acd6cfb-8389-4434-b8dc-6bec7ee5fca7 to an issue than a total solution. It is unlikely that E2EE secures most users from more than encryption in transit and at rest, like with Teams and Meet.
E2EE is most beneficial in 1-on-1 discussions where sensitive info might be shared, and it will be offered on Teams soon according to Microsoft.
The videoconferencing business has less to fret about since they are a single-purpose app, dealing entirely with videoconferencing, and not the storage of files, talks, and other information like Microsoft or Google.
Based upon track record alone, Microsoft stands well above the others in regards to security.
Since your data is all kept in a single space, Teams and its security features take your productivity hub and turns it into your company's own information stronghold. This second level of protection and privacy makes it the most safe, in our experience.
Teams vs Meet vs Zoom: The Verdict
Though a lot of videoconferencing platforms have comparable functions, your organization's precise needs need to identify whether you select Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, or Zoom.
For base-level functions at an economical rate, it is hard to beat Zoom, who is focused exclusively on videoconferencing. For the most value, Teams ties your entire business together in one space, with the best possible functions and security readily available.
If you are trying to find an all-in-one collaboration center that keeps all your interaction in one area, we extremely suggest Microsoft Teams.
IT Support Guys has 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 the present day.