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

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

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

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The two primary cooperation suites, Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace offer videoconferencing capabilities, but we would be remiss not to include one of the most popular videoconferencing apps in the market today-- Zoom.

At this point, your organization is almost guaranteed to have a videoconferencing platform already. If not, or if you are looking to change platforms, continue checking out below for a breakdown of features and alternatives that will help you make your choice.

Are your meetings long or short? Are you mainly satisfying internally or with leads and customers? Will you be hosting webinars?

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It goes without saying, if your business is already signed up for Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, and you more than happy with the platform, you should use Teams or Meet respectively. If you are not signed up for either and merely need a standalone videoconferencing app, Zoom has a totally free variation that must solve most of your requirements.

In the areas listed below, we will compare all 3 major videoconferencing platforms based upon different metrics you must think about prior to selecting the best one for your company.

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 spending for.

Teams and Meet are part of bigger productivity suites, whereas Zoom is a standalone product with all the videoconferencing-specific functions 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 gives you videoconferencing abilities. For less than Zoom Pro, the M365 Business Standard and Workspace Business subscriptions include a full suite of company applications.

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

Teams jumps perfectly from instantaneous messaging to video calls, with the capability to switch back and forth in between them.

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

With M365 and Teams, all chats, tape-recorded meetings, and files are all housed in the very 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 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, meaning you do not need to lose time chasing them down when you require them.

Microsoft provides a lot more applications in their strategies than Google, however numerous go undetected.

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

In the case that someone arrives late to a meeting, or a worker records the very same meeting and lets it run for hours after its conclusion, you can rapidly get the part of the meeting you need 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 upload, trim, and export said video from a video editing platform.

Additionally, all 3 platforms do have combinations with numerous other business applications, so make sure to check on compatibility with any apps you currently utilize, and these platforms.

Teams vs Meet vs Zoom: Features

Comparing Free Versions vs. Paid

Microsoft, Google, and Zoom have actually all adapted well to the demand for particular functions on their platforms, therefore the majority of the exact same features overlap throughout prepare for all three suites. This includes screen sharing, video recording, live captions, and everyone's favorite: customized backgrounds. When it comes to some other functions, they differ across each business's offerings.

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

While present across the board, dial-in capabilities vary across strategies. Meet offers dial-in totally free with any of their paid plans, one of the greatest advantages that the platform has more than its rivals.

Groups provides its dial-in capability for $4 extra per user, each month; while Zoom's dial-in is toll-based.

Both Teams and Meet deal internet-based PBX options that can change your internal phones, while Zoom's toll-based setup is not practical.

Microsoft 365 Business Voice incorporates flawlessly with Teams, allowing workers to take company 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, but the quality varies. Teams can 1080p video at 30 frames per 2nd if you have 1.5 Mbps of bandwidth.

Zoom also has 1080p video, but it is limited to the platform's organization or business plans. 1080p can also be enabled by Zoom support in particular 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 receive as much as 720p video.

Audio quality across platforms depends on microphone and speaker quality, in addition to the quality of your web connection.

Spaces and Workspaces-- Breaking Things Down

Breakout rooms are essentially conferences that run at the same time to the original videoconference. These were particularly required for virtual education, so teachers might break students out into separate groups to find out.

There is a clear utility for breakout spaces in professional spaces, too. If a bigger group is satisfying about a job, breaking down tasks into smaller groups, breakout rooms might be a great service.

Both Teams and Zoom have breakout rooms belonging to their base platforms, across all strategies. These spaces are basically meetings that are running simultaneously to the original videoconference.

Meet allows breakout rooms through their standard and plus plans, however not in the free or standard strategies. Like most Google functions on more affordable strategies, you can add Google Chrome extensions, but this could be more of a headache than it is worth in the end.

Recently, Microsoft likewise presented Together Mode, which utilizes AI to put video individuals in different digital settings, together. While the utility is light, Together Mode could be a strong spirits 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. Over 500,000 Zoom accounts were stolen and published for sale online soon thereafter.

While Meet has actually not had any famous occurrences of privacy breaches, Google has actually had lots of privacy concerns and a performance history of collecting data for use in marketing.

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 component, two-factor authentication is a need to if you want a legitimate defense versus cybercriminals.

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

In Addition, Microsoft Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) is offered on its Business Premium and E5 strategies, obstructing possibly malicious material from being accessed by those in your company.

Microsoft also utilizes Data Loss Protection (DLP) to catch sensitive information being shared (like social security numbers), and immediately block it from being sent out.

In addition to eDiscovery and legal holds within channels, chats, and files, Teams guarantees you stay compliant with all information storage regulations.

A graphic showing the path of information as it is secured from Microsoft Teams through Microsoft 365.

Google does provide eDiscovery in their Business and Enterprise strategies and DLP in their Enterprise plan only, however these are only restricted to Drive and Gmail. From what we can see Meet has actually no specifically noted DLP abilities.

Zoom does not offer any of these features on its primary platform.

In general, Zoom has actually reacted well to its privacy challenges, however the modifications are mostly cosmetic.

End-to-end file encryption (E2EE) is excellent to have, but its addition was more of a response to an issue than a complete option. It is unlikely 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 conversations where sensitive info might be shared, and it will be available on Teams quickly according to Microsoft.

The videoconferencing company has less to worry about because they are a single-purpose app, dealing exclusively with videoconferencing, and not the storage of files, talks, and other information like Microsoft or Google.

Based upon track record alone, Microsoft stands well above the others in regards to security.

Because your information is all stored in a single area, Teams and its security functions take your performance center and turns it into your business's own data fortress. This second level of protection and personal privacy makes it the most safe, in our experience.

Teams vs Meet vs Zoom: The Verdict

Though most videoconferencing platforms have comparable functions, your service's specific requirements must determine whether you choose Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, or Zoom.

For base-level features at a cost effective rate, it is hard to beat Zoom, who is focused solely on videoconferencing. For the most bang for your buck, Teams ties your whole business together in one space, with the best possible features and security available.

If you are looking for an all-in-one partnership hub that keeps all your interaction in one area, we highly recommend 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 actually managed it service gold coast continued our partnership up until today day.