Managed IT Support Microsoft Teams vs Google Meet vs Zoom: The Definitive Videoconferencing Battle
Managed IT Support Microsoft Teams vs Google Meet vs Zoom: The Definitive Videoconferencing Battle
The COVID-19 pandemic required staff members to work from house, however the program had to go on in some way. Overnight, videoconferencing platforms became the lifeline that held businesses together. Even as operations return to normal, videoconferencing suppliers are pouring resources into their products.
The two main partnership 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 moment, your organization is nearly guaranteed to have a videoconferencing platform currently. If not, or if you are seeking to change platforms, continue checking out below for a breakdown of features and alternatives 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 saying, if your company is currently subscribed to Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, and you are happy with the platform, you must utilize Teams or Meet respectively. If you are not signed up for either and simply require a standalone videoconferencing app, Zoom has a complimentary version that needs to solve the majority of your needs.
In the sections listed below, we will compare all 3 significant videoconferencing platforms based upon different metrics you need to think about before picking the best one for your company.
Groups vs Meet vs Zoom: Integration with your other apps/services
Before diving into the full list of features for each platform, it is important to understand just how much you receive from the entirety of what you are paying for.
Teams and Meet become part of bigger productivity suites, whereas Zoom is a standalone product with all the videoconferencing-specific features you might need. While Teams and Meet can be acquired independently, they are best bundled with their larger suites, Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace.
Case in point, a Zoom Pro membership only provides you videoconferencing abilities. For less than Zoom Pro, the M365 Business Standard and Workspace Business memberships consist of a complete suite of organization 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 easily the apps deal with each other, and the most significant difference in between Teams and its competitors is how centralized the suite is.
Groups jumps seamlessly from instant messaging to video calls, with the capability to change backward and forward in 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 2 is a bit counterproductive.
With M365 and Teams, all chats, tape-recorded conferences, and files are all housed in the very same main place, making searchability far simpler.
With Meet and Zoom, you will need 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 working on collective files. Any files attached in a Teams chat will appear under its files tab at the top of the window, meaning you don't need to lose time chasing them down when you require them.
Microsoft uses even more applications in their strategies than Google, though numerous go undetected.
For instance, Microsoft Sway permits you to rapidly grab and trim a recorded Teams meeting that you can then house in your area within Teams itself.
In the case that somebody shows up late to a conference, or an employee records the very same meeting and lets it run for hours after its conclusion, you can rapidly get the part of the conference you need and wait.
This bypasses the storage that would be eaten up by an hours-long video clip, as well as the time it would require to publish, trim, and export said video from a video editing platform.
Furthermore, all three platforms do have integrations with different other organization applications, so make certain to check on compatibility with any apps you already 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 need for certain functions on their platforms, thus the majority of the very same functions overlap across plans for all three suites. This includes screen sharing, video recording, live captions, and everybody's favorite: customized backgrounds. When it comes to some other functions, they vary throughout each business's offerings.
A table depicting the various strategies and features of Microsoft Teams vs. Google Meet vs. Zoom Audio Conferencing On-the-Go
While present throughout the board, dial-in capabilities differ throughout plans. Meet offers dial-in for free with any of their paid plans, one of the greatest benefits that the platform has more than its competitors.Groups offers its dial-in ability for $4 extra per user, per month; while Zoom's dial-in is toll-based.
Both Teams and Meet offer internet-based PBX options that can change your in-house phones, while Zoom's toll-based setup is not useful.
Microsoft 365 Business Voice integrates seamlessly with Teams, allowing employees to take service on the go, all with full continuity.
Video Quality-- Who Supports the very best?
Since the time of this post, each platform displays video in HD, however the quality differs. Groups can 1080p video at 30 frames per 2nd if you have 1.5 Mbps of bandwidth.
Zoom also has 1080p video, but it is restricted to the platform's organization or enterprise plans. 1080p can likewise be allowed by Zoom assistance in certain cases. Zoom's 1080p functionality 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 receive as much as 720p video.
Audio quality throughout 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 basically meetings that run at the same time to the original videoconference. These were specifically required for virtual education, so teachers could break students out into different groups to discover.
There is a clear utility for breakout spaces in professional areas, too. If a larger group is meeting about a job, breaking down tasks into smaller groups, breakout rooms could be a terrific service.
Both Teams and Zoom have actually breakout rooms belonging to their base platforms, throughout all strategies. These rooms are basically meetings that are running all at once to the initial videoconference.
Meet permits breakout spaces through their standard and plus plans, but not in the complimentary or standard strategies. Like most Google functions on cheaper plans, you can include Google Chrome extensions, however this might be more of a headache than it is worth in the end.
Recently, Microsoft likewise presented Together Mode, which uses AI to put video individuals in numerous digital settings, together. While the utility is light, Together Mode might be a strong spirits booster.
Groups vs Meet vs Zoom: Privacy and Safety
To its credit, Zoom reacted quickly to the "Zoom bombing" of the early days of the pandemic, adding end-to-end encryption and beefing up their privacy policy. Over 500,000 Zoom accounts were taken and published for sale online quickly afterwards.
While Meet has actually not had any well-known occurrences of personal privacy breaches, Google has actually had a lot of personal privacy concerns and a performance history of gathering data for usage in advertising.
Microsoft has the very best performance history of security and they also have the most transparent privacy policy.
All 3 platforms support two-factor authentication. Thinking about 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 wider M365 suite, all chats, notes, and files are encrypted and stored within OneNote and SharePoint, respectively.
In Addition, Microsoft Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) is offered on its Business Premium and E5 plans, obstructing potentially destructive material from being accessed by those in your company.
Microsoft also uses Data Loss Protection (DLP) to capture sensitive information being shared (like social security numbers), and instantly obstruct it from being sent.
In addition to eDiscovery and legal holds within channels, talks, and files, Teams ensures you stay certified with all information storage guidelines.
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 limited to Drive and Gmail. From what we can see Meet has no particularly listed DLP capabilities.Zoom does not offer any of these features on its main platform.
Overall, Zoom has responded well to managed it support its privacy obstacles, however the modifications are mainly cosmetic.
End-to-end encryption (E2EE) is great to have, however its addition was more of a reaction to an issue than a total option. It is not likely that E2EE secures 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 discussions where sensitive information might be shared, and it will be readily available on Teams quickly according to Microsoft.
The videoconferencing company has less to worry about since they are a single-purpose app, dealing solely with videoconferencing, and not the storage of files, talks, and other details like Microsoft or Google.
Based upon credibility alone, Microsoft stands well above the others in terms of security.
Due to the fact that your data is all saved in a single space, Teams and its security functions take your productivity hub and turns it into your business's own information fortress. This 2nd level of protection and personal privacy makes it the safest, in our experience.
Teams vs Meet vs Zoom: The Verdict
Many videoconferencing platforms have comparable features, your business's exact needs must determine whether you choose Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, or Zoom.
For base-level features at an affordable cost, it is hard 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 interaction in one area, we highly suggest Microsoft Teams.
IT Support Guys has actually leveraged the power of Microsoft 365 since 2008 when it was still called Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS), and we have actually continued our partnership up until the present day.