Managed IT Support Microsoft Teams vs Google Meet vs Zoom: The Conclusive Videoconferencing Fight
The COVID-19 pandemic required employees to work from home, but the show had to go on in some way. Overnight, videoconferencing platforms turned into the lifeline that held businesses together. Even as operations return to normal, videoconferencing companies 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 consist of one of the most popular videoconferencing apps in the market today-- Zoom.
At this point, your service is practically guaranteed to have a videoconferencing platform currently. If not, or if you are looking to change platforms, continue checking out listed below for a breakdown of features and alternatives that will help you make your choice.
It goes without stating, if your company is currently 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 subscribed to either and merely require a standalone videoconferencing app, Zoom has a free variation that needs to fix the majority of your needs.
In the areas listed below, we will compare all 3 significant videoconferencing platforms based on various metrics you must consider prior to choosing the right one for your business.
Groups vs Meet vs Zoom: Integration with your other apps/services
Before diving into the full list of functions for each platform, it is important to comprehend how much you obtain from the totality of what you are paying for.
Groups and Meet belong to bigger performance suites, whereas Zoom is a standalone product with all the videoconferencing-specific functions you might need. While Teams and Meet can be procured individually, they are best bundled with their larger 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 full suite of service applications.
With Microsoft 365, you get a fully incorporated experience with desktop versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and more. The biggest selling point of Microsoft is how easily the apps work with each other, and the biggest distinction in between Teams and its rivals is how centralized the suite is.
Teams leaps perfectly from instant messaging to video calls, with the capability to switch backward and forward in between them.
Meanwhile, Google Meet is independent of Workspace's chat app, Google Chat. While users can make use of both Workspace apps all at once, the separation of the two is a bit counterproductive.
With M365 and Teams, all chats, recorded conferences, and files are all housed in the exact same main place, making searchability far much easier.
With Meet and Zoom, you will need to look for conserved chats from old meetings, or in the case of Meet, head over to Google Chat.
This is also the case when dealing with collective files. Any files connected in a Teams chat will appear under its files tab at the top of the window, indicating you don't need to lose time chasing them down when you need them.
Microsoft uses a lot more applications in their strategies than Google, though lots of go unnoticed.
Microsoft Sway permits you to rapidly grab and cut a taped Teams meeting that you can then house locally within Teams itself.
In the event that somebody shows up late to a conference, or a worker records the 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 consumed by an hours-long video clip, in addition to the time it would take to upload, cut, and export stated video from a video modifying platform.
In addition, all 3 platforms do have combinations with various other organization applications, so be sure to check on compatibility with any apps you already utilize, and these platforms.
Teams vs Meet vs Zoom: Features
Comparing Free Versions vs. Paid
Microsoft, Google, and Zoom have all adjusted well to the need for specific features on their platforms, thus the majority of the very same features overlap across plans for all 3 suites. This consists of screen sharing, video recording, live captions, and everyone's favorite: customized backgrounds. As for some other features, they differ throughout each company's offerings.
A table depicting the various strategies and functions of Microsoft Teams vs. Google Meet vs. Zoom Audio Conferencing On-the-Go
While present throughout the board, dial-in abilities differ across strategies. Meet provides dial-in for free with any of their paid strategies, among the most significant advantages that the platform has over its competitors.Groups offers its dial-in ability for $4 extra per user, each month; while Zoom's dial-in is toll-based.
Both Teams and Meet offer internet-based PBX solutions that can change your internal phones, while Zoom's toll-based setup is not practical.
Microsoft 365 Business Voice integrates effortlessly with Teams, permitting staff members to take organization on the go, all with full 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 2nd if you have 1.5 Mbps of bandwidth.
Zoom likewise has 1080p video, however it is restricted to the platform's organization or business strategies. 1080p can likewise be enabled 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 upon microphone and speaker quality, along with the quality of your web connection.
Spaces and Workspaces-- Breaking Things Down
Breakout spaces are essentially conferences that run at the same time to the original videoconference. These were particularly essential for virtual education, so teachers might break trainees out into different groups to discover.
There is a clear utility for breakout spaces in expert areas, too. If a larger group is satisfying about a job, breaking down jobs into smaller groups, breakout spaces could be a great option.
Both Teams and Zoom have actually breakout spaces native to their base platforms, across all strategies. These spaces are basically conferences that are running concurrently to the initial videoconference.
Meet allows breakout spaces through their basic and plus plans, however not in the free or fundamental plans. Nevertheless, like a lot of Google functions on cheaper strategies, you can include Google Chrome extensions, but this could be more of a headache than it deserves in the end.
Just recently, Microsoft likewise rolled out Together Mode, which utilizes AI to put video individuals 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 promptly 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 not had any famous occurrences of privacy breaches, Google has actually had lots of personal privacy concerns and a performance history of gathering information for usage in marketing.
Microsoft has the very best track record of security and they also have the most transparent personal privacy policy.
All three platforms support two-factor authentication. Considering that 99% of cybersecurity attacks involve a password aspect, two-factor authentication is a need to if you desire a legitimate defense versus cybercriminals.
As a part of the broader M365 suite, all chats, notes, and files are secured and saved within OneNote and SharePoint, respectively.
Furthermore, Microsoft Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) is offered on its Business Premium and E5 strategies, blocking potentially malicious material from being accessed by those in your business.
Microsoft likewise utilizes Data Loss Protection (DLP) to capture delicate information being shared (like social security numbers), and instantly block it from being sent.
In addition to eDiscovery and legal holds within channels, talks, and files, Teams ensures you remain certified with all data storage policies.
A graphic revealing the path of details as it is secured from Microsoft Teams through Microsoft 365.
Google does use eDiscovery in their Business and Enterprise strategies and DLP in their Enterprise plan just, but these are just restricted to Drive and Gmail. From what we can see Meet has no particularly listed DLP capabilities.Zoom does not offer any of these functions on its main platform.
Overall, Zoom has actually reacted well to its privacy obstacles, however the modifications are mainly cosmetic.
End-to-end file encryption (E2EE) is great to have, but its addition was more of a reaction to an issue than a total solution. It is not likely on site support that E2EE safeguards 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 delicate information may be shared, and it will be offered on Teams soon according to Microsoft.
The videoconferencing business has less to worry about due to the fact that they are a single-purpose app, dealing solely with videoconferencing, and not the storage of files, chats, and other details like Microsoft or Google.
Based upon track record alone, Microsoft stands well above the others in terms of security.
Because your data is all stored in a single area, Teams and its security features take your performance hub and turns it into your business's own data stronghold. This second level of defense and personal privacy makes it the most safe, in our experience.
Groups vs Meet vs Zoom: The Verdict
A lot of videoconferencing platforms have comparable features, your company's precise needs must determine whether you select Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, or Zoom.
For base-level features at an inexpensive price, it is tough to beat Zoom, who is focused entirely on videoconferencing. For the most value, Teams ties your whole company together in one space, with the best possible functions 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 actually leveraged the power of Microsoft 365 considering that 2008 when it was still called Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS), and we have continued our partnership until the present day.