Communication is the base of an efficient, productive team. Zoom and Google Meet both offer plenty of features to connect your team.
Each one has an easy-to-use platform that integrates with your daily workflow apps for better organization. As two of the most popular meeting apps available, they both give you all the right tools for collaboration.
Zoom Compared to Google Meet
Zoom is the best platform for hosting video conferences. It allows up to 1,000 participants and 10,000 viewers with no installation necessary. Used by many popular brands, its user-friendly service allows you to conduct webinars, collaborate with your team, and record and transcribe your meetings without any extra effort. Try Zoom free to see if it’s right for your business.
As part of the Google Workspace, Google Meet conveniently works with other Google tools. Its affordability and integration capabilities make it a widely used service, and features like built-in closed captioning add the advantage of accessibility. It needs some extensions for features that other platforms include automatically, but that doesn’t detract from its ability you run a cohesive team. Try the Google Meet Workspace Individual plan for free.
More Top Conference Call Services
Zoom and Google Meet aren’t the only conference call services that can serve your business well. We researched and tested several different ones to make it easier for you to choose the right one for your team. See all of our top picks.
Where Zoom Shines
As one of the most popular conference services, it’s no surprise that Zoom ranks among our top picks. Here’s where it sets itself apart.
Video Conferencing: Zoom makes hosting video conferences simple. You don’t need to download it to run or join a meeting, and you can join on any device, including mobile. Its HD video and audio make for crystal clear meetings, and you can add up to 1,000 participants on some plans.
Video Webinars: With HD video, Zoom lets you stream on other services, like YouTube and Facebook, to up to 50,000 people. It centers your presenters with background noise suppression, effects, backgrounds, and other features to prevent interruptions and keep your webinar running smoothly. You can interact with your audience seamlessly and customize your registration page and post-meeting landing pages to your brand.
User-Friendly: Zoom is one of the most intuitive and easy-to-use conference call services. It only takes a few seconds to schedule a meeting, organize a webinar, and send meeting invites to your team members. It also integrates with other apps and tools for cohesive workflow.
Collaborative Features: With features like calendar sync, file sharing up to 512MB, and chat and phone systems, Zoom allows you to connect with your team in multiple ways. It also comes with screen sharing and co-annotating so everyone on your team can participate in your meeting. Plus, its unlimited cloud storage option makes it easy to store your files and recordings so you always have them on hand.
Large Meetings: Zoom’s free plan allows up to 100 participants, and its Enterprise plan lets you include up to 500 people. If that’s not enough, you can purchase its Large Meetings add-on that doubles your participants to 1,000 people, starting at $600 per year. You can conduct meetings up to 30 hours long with Zoom’s paid plans.
Recording and Transcription: With built-in meeting recording and transcription, Zoom makes hosting meetings even more efficient. It saves recordings and transcripts to its cloud storage. When you need to reference your meetings, you can use Zoom’s searchable transcripts feature to find exactly what you need in seconds.
Where Zoom Falls Short
Despite its reputation, Zoom has room for improvement with some of its features. Consider these shortcomings before you commit to using Zoom for your business.
Meeting Limit: Zoom recently shortened its meeting limit with its free plan from one hour to 40 minutes. That may not be a problem if you plan to conduct shorter meetings, but it can make things difficult if you have a longer agenda.
Expensive: Compared to other video conferencing platforms, Zoom can get pricey. It jumps from its free plan to $149.99 per year. After that, you can’t get it for less than $1,999 per year due to its licensing minimum. Thousands of dollars can put it out of reach for some small businesses, which that plan is supposedly intended for.
Third-Party Closed Captioning: Since Zoom doesn’t have built-in closed captioning, this presents an accessibility problem for many people. You have to use a third-party app to caption your videos in real time, which makes it less convenient for people who may need them.
Where Google Meet Shines
Google Meet makes video conferencing convenient and has many control features that allow for easy communication. Consider these features to find out if it’s right for your business.
User-Friendly: Like Zoom, Google Meet doesn’t require you to download any software to use its video conferencing service. Its integration capabilities make for greater convenience, too. All you need is a Google account to start scheduling your meetings with just one click.
Integrates with Other Tools: Google Meet comes as part of the Google Workspace. It integrates seamlessly with other Google features, including Gmail, Docs, Drive, Calendar, and more. It also integrates with other workflow tools, such as Slack, Trello, PayPal, Zapier, WordPress, HubSpot, and more.
Affordable Pricing: Google Meet only offers two paid plans, but they’re more affordable than other conference call services. Its cheapest plan, other than its free one, comes in at $7.99 per month and offers enough features for many businesses to conduct successful meetings. However, Enterprise offers custom pricing for your unique business needs if you’re looking for something tailored to you.
Longer Meeting Limit: Google Meet allows for 60 minutes for each meeting with its free plan. Compared to Zoom’s 40-minute limit, Google Meet gives you enough time for more detailed meetings when you need them, which can make a difference to your team’s productivity and topic coverage.
Built-In Closed Captioning: Google Meet has built-in closed captioning, making the service more accessible and convenient. Without having to find and install third-party software, you know that you’ll always have this service and not have to wonder whether it will accommodate those who need it.
Storage Space: With Google Meet, you automatically get 15GB of free storage with the platform’s free plan. When you purchase the Enterprise package, you get unlimited storage. Zoom doesn’t have this option at all, and while it offers a sizeable 3TB storage, it doesn’t compare to Google Meet.
No License Requirement Minimum: There’s no minimum license requirement for Google’s paid plan. That means if you need more features, you don’t need to pay thousands of dollars for 10 members when you have half as many.
Where Google Meet Falls Short
Though Google Meet has plenty to offer, not all its features and limitations work for everyone. Think about these issues to see if it’s right for you.
Smaller Meeting Sizes: With Google Meet, you can host 100 participants with its free and Pro plans. Its Enterprise version allows up to 500 people, but there aren’t any options to add more. Its maximum meeting time is 24 hours, as opposed to Zoom’s 30-hour limit.
No Recording with Free Plan: While Zoom lets you record with its free plan, Google Meet doesn’t. That can become inconvenient if you need to look back on a meeting, and it can mean team members have to split their attention to jot things down when they could otherwise refer to the recording. However, recording is available with both paid plans.
Need Extensions for Basic Features: While many extra features are available built-in on other platforms, Google Meet requires extensions for features like whiteboards and break rooms. That can make it less convenient for participants to share, collaborate, and join meetings.
The Final Verdict on Zoom Compared to Google Meet
Zoom has plenty of options with each of its packages to make it easy for you to run your meeting the way you want. It offers extras, too, if what you get with the basic plans isn’t enough. As a result, it’s a well-rounded solution for hosting your meetings and webinars, as well as staying organized.
Zoom offers four packages for video conferencing:
- Free
- Pro: $149.90 per year per license
- Business: $199.90 per year per license
- Enterprise: $240 per year per license
Zoom’s Free plan allows up to 100 participants and unlimited 40-minute meetings. You can use private or group chat during your video conference. Plus, the Zoom Whiteboard allows you to use up to three boards, and you can save your recordings and transcripts with up to 25MG cloud storage.
The Pro package is made for small teams, and it includes all Zoom’s free features. With Pro, you upgrade to a maximum meeting length of 30 hours, and the plan adds social media streaming, so you can go live. You also get 1GB cloud recording per license.
The Business plan includes all Pro features, but with it you can host up to 300 people. It includes single sign-on and up to 99 licenses with a minimum of 10 required to purchase. With recording transcripts, managed domains, and company branding features, it includes significantly more tools to make your meetings more efficient and secure. It also includes unlimited editable Zoom Whiteboards.
Zoom’s Enterprise plan includes all Business features and up to 500 meeting participants. You need a minimum of 50 licenses to purchase it, and it comes with unlimited cloud storage. With it, you can conduct executive business reviews, bundle discounts, and use Webinar 500 to upgrade your webinars.
If you need more features, like more participants, storage, or support, you can buy Zoom’s optional add-ons, including:
- Audio Conferencing
- Large Meetings
- Premier Support
- Cloud Storage
- Premier Developer Support
Google Meet comes with many of the same features as Zoom. However, it doesn’t include many of Zoom’s add-ons, and you can’t purchase as many separate features. It stands out when it comes to workflow integration, thanks to its seamless setup with other Google features.
Google Meet offers three plans:
- Google Meet: Free
- Google Workspace Individual: $7.99 per month
- Google Workspace Enterprise: Custom pricing
Google Meet allows for up to 100 participants with a one-hour limit on group meetings. However, one-on-one meetings let you continue for up to 24 hours.
You can join your meeting from your browser, and Google Meet has native mobile and tablet apps. With live closed captioning in multiple languages, it creates an inclusive and accessible platform for all members of your team.
Screen sharing and presentation options, along with its adjustable layout, make it easy to collaborate with other participants. Plus, with strong security that includes, anti-abuse features, encryption, two-step verification, and advanced protection program enrollment, you don’t have to worry about interruptions or confidentiality.
Google Meet’s free version automatically gives you up to 15GB of storage in Google Drive. If you need help with your service, Google has self-help resources and community forums, so unfortunately you can’t get advice from a person over chat or phone.
Google Workspace Individual gives you all the same features as the free plan, but now you can conduct group meetings of up to 24 hours. This plan gives you recorded meetings, intelligent noise cancellation, dial-in phone numbers, hand raises, breakout rooms, and polls to improve collaboration on your team.
It adds 24/7 online support, though that support is only available in English.
The Enterprise package gives you all Workspace Individual features but with a maximum of 500 participants. To engage participants, you also get a Q&A feature and attendance reports. You can also stream up to 100,000 viewers using in-domain livestreaming.
This plan comes with more security and privacy features, including an alert center, Google Vault, security dashboards and health, investigation tools, and data loss prevention. If you need support with your plan, Enterprise gives you 24/7 priority support available in multiple languages. You also get a designated Google advisor and shared drives for better collaboration.
When it comes down to it, Zoom and Google Meet both provide high-quality conference call services. If you conduct larger meetups and webinars, Zoom will serve you better. However, Google Meet is more affordable, has more accessibility features, and offers a more comprehensive free plan.
These aren’t your only options for conference call solutions. If you want to explore other services to see which one works best for you, see our Top List.
The 8 Best Conference Call Service Options to Consider
- Nextiva—Best conference call service for most
- RingCentral—Best standalone conferencing solution
- GoToMeeting—Best for keeping your remote team cohesive
- Grasshopper—Best mobile virtual phone system
- ClickMeeting—Best for webinars and conference calls
- Vast Conference—Best for instant conference calls
- Zoom—Best for hosting video conference calls
- FreeConferenceCall.com—Best free conference call service
