Managed IT Support Microsoft Teams vs Google Meet vs Zoom: The Definitive Videoconferencing Battle
The COVID-19 pandemic forced staff members to work from house, but the show needed to go on somehow. Overnight, videoconferencing platforms developed into the lifeline that held organizations together. Even as operations go back to regular, videoconferencing suppliers are putting resources into their products.
The two main collaboration suites, Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace offer 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 moment, your organization is practically guaranteed to have a videoconferencing platform currently. If not, or if you are aiming to change platforms, continue reading below for a breakdown of features and alternatives that will assist you make your decision.
Are your meetings long or short? Are you mostly satisfying internally or with leads and customers? Will you be hosting webinars?
It goes without stating, if your company is already signed up for Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, and you more than happy with the platform, you need to use Teams or Meet respectively. If you are not subscribed to either and simply require a standalone videoconferencing app, Zoom has a totally free variation that needs to resolve most of your requirements.
In the sections listed below, we will compare all three major videoconferencing platforms based upon different metrics you need to think about before picking the best one for your organization.
Teams vs Meet vs Zoom: Integration with your other apps/services
Prior to diving into the complete list of functions for each platform, it is essential to understand how much you get from the totality of what you are paying for.
Teams and Meet are part of larger performance suites, whereas Zoom is a standalone product with all the videoconferencing-specific features you might need. While Teams and Meet can be procured independently, they are best bundled with their larger suites, Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace.
Case in point, a Zoom Pro membership only offers you videoconferencing abilities. For less than Zoom Pro, the M365 Business Standard and Workspace Business subscriptions include a full suite of organization applications.
With Microsoft 365, you get a totally integrated experience with desktop variations of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and more. The biggest selling point of Microsoft is how easily the apps deal with each other, and the biggest distinction between Teams and its rivals is how centralized the suite is.
Groups jumps seamlessly from immediate messaging to video calls, with the capability to switch back and forth in between them.
On The Other Hand, 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 2 is a bit counterintuitive.
With M365 and Teams, all chats, recorded conferences, and files are all housed in the exact same central location, making searchability far simpler.
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 likewise the case when dealing with collaborative files. Any files attached in a Teams chat will appear under its files tab at the top of the window, suggesting you don't need to waste time chasing them down when you require them.
Microsoft uses much more applications in their plans than Google, though lots of go unnoticed.
Microsoft Sway enables you to rapidly get and trim a tape-recorded Teams satisfying that you can then house locally within Teams itself.
In the case that someone arrives late to a meeting, or a staff member records the exact same conference and lets it run for hours after its conclusion, you can quickly get the part of the conference you require and save it.
This bypasses the storage that would be eaten up by an hours-long video clip, along with the time it would take to publish, trim, and export said video from a video editing platform.
In addition, all three platforms do have integrations with different other organization applications, so be sure to check on 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 all adapted well to the demand for particular features on their platforms, thus most of the same features overlap throughout plans for all three suites. This includes screen sharing, video recording, live captions, and everybody's favorite: customized backgrounds. As for some other features, they differ across each business's offerings.

A table illustrating the different strategies and features of Microsoft Teams vs. Google Meet vs. Zoom Audio Conferencing On-the-Go
While present throughout the board, dial-in capabilities vary across strategies. Meet uses dial-in free of charge with any of their paid strategies, one of the biggest advantages that the platform has more than its competitors.
Groups provides 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 useful.
Microsoft 365 Business Voice incorporates flawlessly with Teams, allowing employees to take organization on the go, all with complete continuity.
Video Quality-- Who Supports the very best?
As of the time of this post, each platform shows 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, however it is limited to the platform's service or enterprise strategies. 1080p can also be enabled by Zoom support in particular cases. Zoom's 1080p performance 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 approximately 720p video.
Audio quality across platforms depends on microphone and speaker quality, as well as the quality of your web connection.
Rooms and Workspaces-- Breaking Things Down
Breakout spaces are essentially conferences that run concurrently to the original videoconference. These were particularly essential for virtual education, so teachers could break students out into separate groups to find out.
There is a clear utility for breakout rooms in professional areas, too. If a bigger group is meeting about a job, breaking down jobs into smaller sized groups, breakout rooms could be an excellent service.
Both Teams and Zoom have actually breakout spaces native to their base platforms, throughout all strategies. These rooms are essentially meetings that are running at the same time to the initial videoconference.
Meet allows breakout rooms through their standard and plus plans, but not in the totally free or basic strategies. Nevertheless, like the majority of Google functions on cheaper plans, you can include Google Chrome extensions, but this could be more of a headache than it is worth in the end.
Recently, Microsoft also rolled out Together Mode, which utilizes AI to position video individuals in numerous digital settings, together. While the utility is light, Together Mode might be a strong morale booster.
Teams vs Meet vs Zoom: Privacy and Safety
To its credit, Zoom responded promptly to the "Zoom battle" of the early days of the pandemic, including end-to-end encryption and intensifying their personal privacy policy. Over 500,000 Zoom accounts were taken and published for sale online soon afterwards.
While Meet has actually not had any well-known occurrences of personal privacy breaches, Google has had lots of personal privacy concerns and a track record of collecting data for usage in advertising.
Microsoft has the best performance history 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 involve a password component, two-factor authentication is a should if you want a genuine defense against cybercriminals.
As a part of the wider 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 company.
Microsoft also uses Data Loss Protection (DLP) to catch sensitive data being shared (like social security numbers), and automatically block it from being sent out.
Together with eDiscovery and legal holds within channels, talks, and files, Teams guarantees you remain compliant with all information storage guidelines.
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 strategies and DLP in their Enterprise plan just, however these are just restricted to Drive and Gmail. From what we can see Meet has actually no specifically listed DLP capabilities.

Zoom does not offer any of these functions on its primary platform.
Overall, Zoom has responded well to its personal privacy challenges, however the changes are largely cosmetic.
End-to-end file encryption (E2EE) is excellent to have, but its addition was more of an action to a problem than a total option. It is not likely that E2EE secures most users from more than encryption in transit and at rest, like with Teams and Meet.
E2EE is most helpful in 1-on-1 conversations where sensitive information may be shared, and it will be available on Teams soon according to Microsoft.
The videoconferencing company has less to stress over because 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 on reputation alone, Microsoft stands well business it services above the others in regards to security.
Because your information is all kept in a single space, Teams and its security features take your performance hub and turns it into your company's own information fortress. This second level of protection and personal privacy makes it the most safe, in our experience.
Groups vs Meet vs Zoom: The Verdict
Though many videoconferencing platforms have comparable functions, your organization's precise needs must determine whether you select Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, or Zoom.
For base-level functions at an inexpensive price, it is hard to beat Zoom, who is focused exclusively on videoconferencing. For the most value, Teams ties your entire business together in one area, with the best possible features and security offered.
If you are searching for an all-in-one partnership center that keeps all your communication in one space, we extremely advise Microsoft Teams.
IT Support Guys has actually leveraged the power of Microsoft 365 because 2008 when it was still called Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS), and we have continued our partnership till today day.