We compared Google Meet and Zoom to see which is better for
remote working and learning — and Zoom is the more comprehensive
video conferencing tool 
Christian de Looper,Steven Cohen
Alyssa Powell/Business Insider
More and more people are learning and working from home,
especially in response to continued measures being taken to help
combat the spread of coronavirus. As a result, you
might need access to a good video conferencing platform and two of
the best are Google Meet and Zoom. Though both
platforms have their advantages, Zoom is ultimately the more
comprehensive video conferencing solution. If
you’re studying or working remotely and need recommendations for
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our roundup of .
With more and more people attending virtual classrooms and
working from home, you might be wondering what the best way is to
communicate with your colleagues, teachers, and classmates. Thanks
to web-based tools, there are plenty of options for communicating
online, ensuring that you can learn and work from home with
ease.
Two of the most popular online communication tools are Google
Meet and Zoom , which are used by workplaces and classrooms around
the world. Both services provide the ability to interact with other
participants through video conferencing, enabling businesses and
schools to conduct video meetings and lessons through a variety of
apps and devices.
But which of these tools is ultimately better? And which
might work best for your needs? We put Google Meet and Zoom head to
head to find out.
Updated on 7/30/2020 by Steven Cohen: This article has
been revised to include details about new features for each
service. We’ve also addressed virtual classroom applications for
both platforms in addition to work-from-home needs.
Google Meet vs Zoom: which is better?
Google Meet and Zoom are both video conferencing services, and
at their core, they offer similar features. Each platform has its
own strengths and weaknesses, however, and one service may be a
better fit for your needs depending on the size of your team and
what other applications you plan to use.
When it comes purely to video conferencing features, Zoom has
the edge over Google Meet, offering a comprehensive assortment of
options at various price points. Zoom’s most expensive plan
provides support for the largest number of participants, and the
company also offers a free plan that could be useful for smaller
teams.
With that said, if you’re looking for a larger collection of
applications to use in tandem with your video conferencing service,
then Google Meet might be a better fit. The platform, formally
known as Google Hangouts Meet, comes bundled with other helpful
Google services as part of the company’s G Suite subscription. A
new free option is also available to all Google users. Feature
comparison
Google Meet is available as part of Google’s G Suite
subscription. Google
Google Meet and Zoom are both available in a variety of plans
for different monthly costs, with certain features only available
via certain packages.
The most basic version of Zoom is available for free,
but there are some limitations to this option. Notably, you can
only host meetings of up to 100 people, and group meetings can only
be up to 40 minutes. That said, those limitations may not be a
problem for many smaller teams.
Pricing for Zoom can get a little complicated if you need more
than what the free version has to offer. The step up from the Basic
plan is the Pro plan, which costs $14.99 a month per host and
allows meetings of up to 24 hours, personal meeting IDs, and
more.
Next up is the Business plan, which comes in at $19.99 a month
per host with a minimum of 10 hosts. This option allows up to 300
participants, and adds some advanced administrative features that
only some will need.
Last but not least is the Enterprise plan. This option is also
$19.99 a month per host, but it requires a minimum of 100 hosts.
The Enterprise plan offers support for up to 500 participants and
includes even more advanced features, like dedicated customer
service and unlimited cloud storage. An Enterprise Plus upgrade is
also available with support for up to 1,000 participants.
Outside of its workplace plans, Zoom also has specific solutions
geared toward education. Education plans are available for a
minimum of 20 hosts and a max of 149 hosts. Each host can have
unlimited meetings with support for up to 300 participants. You can
find more information on pricing and features for Zoom’s Education
plan here .
When it comes to Google Meet, you also have a few different
options to choose from. Though a free version of Meet wasn’t
originally available, Google now offers free access to a limited
version of the service to all of its members. The free version of
Google Meet supports up to 100 participants and a meeting duration
of 60 minutes. With that said, the 60 minute time limit will not be
imposed until after September 30.
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To unlock more features, you’ll need to pay for Google Meet as
part of a subscription to Google’s G Suite catalog of services. G
Suite is available for as little as $6 a month per user, and as
much as $25 per user a month as part of the Enterprise plan.
The Basic version of G Suite, which comes in at $6 per
month, allows video calls of up to 100 participants, while the $12
per month Business plan allows up to 150 participants, and the
Enterprise plan offers up to 250 participants. Enterprise also
offers support for other advanced features, like recording meetings
and livestreaming.
With that said, Google is now offering a special promotion in
response to the current health crisis related to the spread of
coronavirus. To help businesses and schools communicate during the
emergency, Google is now offering all G Suite subscribers access to
the Enterprise edition of Meet at no extra cost. The additional
features will be available until September 30, 2020.
Like Zoom, Google also offers education specific Google Meet and
G Suite solutions. You can find more information about G Suite for
education here . Extra features
Zoom offers an advanced assortment of video conferencing
features. Zoom
Zoom is a dedicated video conferencing service built by
a company that is mainly focused on building the Zoom service. As
such, the platform is a little more comprehensive than Google Meet.
Sure, Meet scores some points because of its seamless integration
with other Google apps, and the fact that it comes bundled with a
host of other services, but if you’re really only looking for a
video conferencing platform, those other services won’t matter all
that much.
Notable added features include things that may help make video
calls a little more productive. For example, you’ll get the ability
to conduct polls, the ability to share a whiteboard that
participants can collaborate on, the option to add support for up
to 1,000 participants for an extra fee, and more. Not everyone will
need these features but for some teams, these abilities could be
the deciding factor between signing up for Zoom and signing up for
Google’s G Suite.
Both Meet and Zoom also offer some features that you would
expect, like call encryption, support for up to 720p HD video, and
presentation modes that allow for screensharing to other
participants. Google Meet has also made some improvements over the
last few months by adding additional options that are found on
Zoom, like a tiled layout for larger calls which resembles Zoom’s
Gallery View.
That said, Google’s tiled layout maxes out at 16 people, while
Zoom’s Gallery View supports up to 49 people (depending on your
CPU). In general, apart from the other Google services you get with
G Suite, Meet itself doesn’t offer many features that Zoom doesn’t
also provide. Integrations
Google Meet can integrate with other services.
Google
Perhaps one of the most important things to consider is how each
platform integrates with other services. Notably, Google Meet
allows users to integrate meetings with other teams using Skype for
Business, and other video meeting systems based on the SIP and
H.323 standards. Meet also integrates with additional apps,
including other Google services. For example, the service
integrates well with Google Calendar
Zoom offers some great integrations too including some
Google apps and services. For example, Zoom integrates with
Facebook Workplace, Skype for Business, Salesforce, Microsoft
Outlook, Google Drive, Google Calendar, and more. Safe to say,
while Meet may make integration with Google services a little
easier, Zoom still allows many of those same integrations as
well. The bottom line
Zoom is the more comprehensive service for dedicated video
conferencing needs. Zoom
Ultimately, Zoom is the more comprehensive platform, but that
doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s the right option for everyone.
If you simply want the best video conferencing platform, then Zoom
is the way to go.
That said, if you don’t need all the features offered by Zoom,
and instead want the other G Suite services included with a G Suite
subscription, then Meet will be more than good enough for your
remote work or learning needs.
You can get Google Meet from the G Suite website , or sign up
for Zoom at the Zoom website .