Managed IT Support Microsoft Teams vs Google Meet vs Zoom: The Conclusive Videoconferencing Battle
The COVID-19 pandemic required staff members to work from home, but the program had to go on in some way. Overnight, videoconferencing platforms developed into the lifeline that held businesses together. Even as operations go back to regular, videoconferencing providers are pouring resources into their items.
The 2 main collaboration suites, Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace offer videoconferencing abilities, but we would be remiss not to include among the most popular videoconferencing apps in the market today-- Zoom.
At this point, your service is practically ensured to have a videoconferencing platform already. If not, or if you are looking to change platforms, continue checking out listed below for a breakdown of features and options that will help you make your decision.
Are your meetings long or short? Are you mostly fulfilling internally or with leads and clients? Will you be hosting webinars?
It goes without stating, if your business is currently signed up for Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, and you enjoy with the platform, you must utilize Teams or Meet respectively. If you are not subscribed to either and simply need a standalone videoconferencing app, Zoom has a complimentary variation that must resolve most of your needs.
In the sections below, we will compare all three major videoconferencing platforms based on numerous metrics you must think about prior to picking the best one for your business.
Groups vs Meet vs Zoom: Integration with your other apps/services
Prior to diving into the full list of features for each platform, it is necessary to comprehend just how much you obtain 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 may require. While Teams and Meet can be procured separately, they are best bundled with their larger suites, Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace.
Case in point, a Zoom Pro subscription only provides you videoconferencing abilities. For less than Zoom Pro, the M365 Business Standard and Workspace Business memberships include a complete suite of service applications.
With Microsoft 365, you get a completely integrated experience with desktop versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and more. The biggest selling point of Microsoft is how quickly the apps deal with each other, and the biggest difference in between Teams and its rivals is how centralized the suite is.
Groups jumps flawlessly from instant messaging to video calls, with the ability to switch back and forth between them.
Google Meet is independent of Workspace's chat app, Google Chat. While users can make use of both Workspace apps simultaneously, the separation of the two is a bit counterintuitive.
With M365 and Teams, all chats, taped meetings, and files are all housed in the same central place, making searchability far simpler.
With Meet and Zoom, you will have to seek out saved chats from old conferences, 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, implying you don't have to waste time chasing them down when you require them.
Microsoft offers a lot more applications in their plans than Google, however many go undetected.
For example, Microsoft Sway permits you to rapidly get and cut a tape-recorded Teams satisfying that you can then house locally within Teams itself.
In the case that someone arrives late to a conference, or an employee records the exact same meeting 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 submit, trim, and export said video from a video modifying platform.
Additionally, all three platforms do have integrations with different other business applications, so make certain 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 all adapted well to the need for certain functions on their platforms, therefore the majority of the very same features overlap throughout plans for all three suites. This includes screen sharing, video recording, live captions, and everybody's favorite: custom backgrounds. As for some other features, they differ throughout each business's offerings.
A table illustrating the different strategies and functions of Microsoft Teams vs. Google Meet vs. Zoom Audio Conferencing On-the-Go
While present across the board, dial-in capabilities vary across plans. Meet uses dial-in for free with any of their paid plans, one of the greatest advantages that the platform has more than its competitors.Groups uses its dial-in capability for $4 additional per user, each month; while Zoom's dial-in is toll-based.
Both Teams and Meet deal internet-based PBX services that can replace your internal phones, while Zoom's toll-based setup is not practical.
Microsoft 365 Business Voice integrates effortlessly with Teams, enabling workers to take service on the go, all with full continuity.
Video Quality-- Who Supports the Best?
As of the time of this post, each platform displays video in HD, however 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, but it is restricted to the platform's service or enterprise strategies. 1080p can also be made it possible for by Zoom assistance in particular 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 out and receive 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 rooms are essentially conferences that run all at once to the initial videoconference. These were especially required for virtual education, so teachers could break students out into different groups to learn.
There is a clear energy for breakout spaces in professional spaces, too. If a larger team is meeting about a project, breaking down tasks into smaller groups, breakout spaces might be an excellent option.
Both Teams and Zoom have breakout spaces native to their base platforms, across all strategies. These rooms are basically meetings that are running simultaneously to the initial videoconference.
Meet allows breakout rooms through their standard and plus plans, however not in the totally free or standard strategies. However, like most Google functions on more affordable strategies, you can add Google Chrome extensions, but 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 might be a solid spirits booster.
Teams 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 intensifying their privacy policy. Over 500,000 Zoom accounts were taken and posted for sale online quickly afterwards.
While Meet has actually not had any famous events of personal privacy breaches, Google has actually had plenty of privacy concerns and a track record of gathering data for use in marketing.
Microsoft has the very best track record of security and they also have the most transparent privacy policy.
All three platforms support two-factor authentication. Thinking about that 99% of cybersecurity attacks involve a password component, two-factor authentication is a must if you want a legitimate defense versus cybercriminals.
As a part of the wider M365 suite, all chats, notes, and files are encrypted and kept within OneNote and SharePoint, respectively.
Additionally, Microsoft Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) is offered on its Business Premium and E5 plans, blocking potentially harmful material from being accessed by those in your company.
Microsoft likewise uses Data Loss Protection (DLP) to catch delicate data being shared (like social security numbers), and immediately obstruct it from being sent.
Along with eDiscovery and legal holds within channels, talks, and files, Teams guarantees you stay compliant with all information storage policies.
A graphic showing the path of info as it is encrypted from Microsoft Teams through Microsoft 365.
Google does provide eDiscovery in their Business and Enterprise plans and DLP in their Enterprise plan just, but these are just restricted to Drive and Gmail. From what we can see Meet has no it services brisbane particularly noted DLP abilities.Zoom does not use any of these features on its main platform.
Overall, Zoom has actually reacted well to its personal privacy difficulties, but the changes are largely cosmetic.
End-to-end file encryption (E2EE) is excellent to have, however its addition was more of a response to a problem than a total solution. It is not likely that E2EE secures most users from more than encryption in transit and at rest, like with Teams and Meet.
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 info like Microsoft or Google.
Based upon track record alone, Microsoft stands well above the others in regards to security.
Because your information is all kept in a single space, Teams and its security features take your productivity hub and turns it into your company's own data fortress. This 2nd level of protection and personal privacy makes it the most safe, in our experience.
Teams vs Meet vs Zoom: The Verdict
Though a lot of videoconferencing platforms have similar functions, your company's precise needs need to determine whether you pick Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, or Zoom.
For base-level features at an affordable cost, it is difficult to beat Zoom, who is focused solely on videoconferencing. For the most bang for your buck, Teams ties your entire company together in one space, with the best possible features and security readily available.
If you are looking for an all-in-one collaboration hub that keeps all your communication in one space, we extremely recommend 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 up until the present day.