Managed IT Support Microsoft Teams vs Google Meet vs Zoom: The Conclusive Videoconferencing Fight

The COVID-19 pandemic required workers to work from house, however the show had to go on in some way. Overnight, videoconferencing platforms became the lifeline that held companies together. Even as operations go back to typical, videoconferencing providers are putting resources into their products.

The two primary collaboration suites, Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace offer videoconferencing abilities, however we would be remiss not to include among the most popular videoconferencing apps in the market today-- Zoom.

At this moment, your business is practically ensured to have a videoconferencing platform currently. If not, or if you are wanting to alter platforms, continue reading below for a breakdown of functions and alternatives that will help you make your choice.

Are your conferences long or short? Are you primarily fulfilling internally or with leads and customers? Will you be hosting webinars?

It goes without stating, if your company is currently signed up for Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, and you are happy with the platform, you need to utilize Teams or Meet respectively. If you are not registered for either and just require a standalone videoconferencing app, Zoom has a totally free version that should solve most of your requirements.

In the areas listed below, we will compare all 3 major videoconferencing platforms based on numerous metrics you ought to think about prior to selecting the ideal one for your company.

Groups vs Meet vs Zoom: Integration with your other apps/services

Prior to diving into the full list of functions for each platform, it is very important to understand just how much you receive from the whole of it services gold coast what you are paying for.

Teams and Meet are part of bigger productivity suites, whereas Zoom is a standalone product with all the videoconferencing-specific functions you may need. While Teams and Meet can be acquired separately, 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 include a full suite of service applications.

With Microsoft 365, you get a fully incorporated experience with desktop variations of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and more. The greatest selling point of Microsoft is how easily the apps work with each other, and the greatest difference in between Teams and its rivals is how centralized the suite is.

Groups jumps effortlessly from immediate messaging to video calls, with the ability to switch back and forth between them.

Meanwhile, Google Meet is independent of Workspace's chat app, Google Chat. While users can use both Workspace apps at the same time, the separation of the 2 is a bit counterproductive.

With M365 and Teams, all chats, recorded conferences, and files are all housed in the same main place, making searchability far easier.

With Meet and Zoom, you will have to seek out conserved chats from old conferences, or in the case of Meet, head over to Google Chat.

This is likewise 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, suggesting you do not have to lose time chasing them down when you require them.

Microsoft offers much more applications in their plans than Google, though lots of go undetected.

Microsoft Sway enables you to rapidly grab and trim a taped Teams satisfying that you can then house locally within Teams itself.

In the case that somebody arrives 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 get the part of the meeting you require 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 publish, cut, and export said video from a video editing platform.

Additionally, all 3 platforms do have combinations with different other business applications, so make sure to examine 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 actually all adapted well to the demand for specific features on their platforms, therefore the majority of the very same functions overlap across 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 differ across each company's offerings.

A table depicting the various plans and features of Microsoft Teams vs. Google Meet vs. Zoom Audio Conferencing On-the-Go

While present throughout the board, dial-in capabilities differ across plans. Meet offers dial-in for free with any of their paid strategies, among the most significant advantages that the platform has over its rivals.

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 offer internet-based PBX solutions that can replace your internal phones, while Zoom's toll-based setup is not practical.

Microsoft 365 Business Voice incorporates effortlessly with Teams, allowing workers to take organization on the go, all with complete connection.

Video Quality-- Who Supports the Best?

As of the time of this post, each platform displays video in HD, but the quality differs. 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 restricted to the platform's business or business strategies. 1080p can also 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, but it can send and get approximately 720p video.

Audio quality throughout platforms depends on microphone and speaker quality, as well as the quality of your web connection.

Spaces and Workspaces-- Breaking Things Down

Breakout spaces are basically meetings that run simultaneously to the original videoconference. These were especially required for virtual education, so teachers could break trainees out into separate groups to discover.

There is a clear utility for breakout rooms in professional spaces, too. If a larger group is satisfying about a job, breaking down jobs into smaller sized groups, breakout rooms could be a great service.

Both Teams and Zoom have breakout rooms native to their base platforms, throughout all strategies. These spaces are basically conferences that are running all at once to the original videoconference.

Meet enables breakout rooms through their basic and plus plans, but not in the complimentary or standard plans. Like a lot of Google functions on less expensive plans, you can include Google Chrome extensions, but this could be more of a headache than it is worth in the end.

Just recently, Microsoft likewise presented Together Mode, which utilizes AI to position video individuals 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 bombing" of the early days of the pandemic, adding end-to-end file encryption and beefing up their privacy policy. Regrettably, over 500,000 Zoom accounts were taken and published for sale online soon thereafter.

While Meet has not had any popular incidents of privacy breaches, Google has had plenty of personal privacy concerns and a track record of collecting 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 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 genuine defense against cybercriminals.

As a part of the wider M365 suite, all chats, notes, and files are secured and kept within OneNote and SharePoint, respectively.

Furthermore, Microsoft Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) is available on its Business Premium and E5 plans, blocking potentially harmful content from being accessed by those in your company.

Microsoft also utilizes Data Loss Protection (DLP) to catch delicate data being shared (like social security numbers), and instantly obstruct it from being sent out.

In addition to eDiscovery and legal holds within channels, talks, and files, Teams guarantees you stay certified with all data storage guidelines.

A graphic showing the path of details as it is encrypted from Microsoft Teams through Microsoft 365.

Google does offer eDiscovery in their Business and Enterprise plans and DLP in their Enterprise plan just, but these are just limited to Drive and Gmail. From what we can see Meet has actually no particularly noted DLP abilities.

Zoom does not use any of these functions on its primary platform.

Overall, Zoom has actually responded well to its privacy challenges, but the changes are mostly cosmetic.

End-to-end encryption (E2EE) is great to have, but its addition was more of a reaction to a problem than a total service. It is unlikely that E2EE protects most users from more than encryption in transit and at rest, like with Teams and Meet.

E2EE is most helpful in