Comparing Google Meet vs Zoom Meeting for their key features, security, integrations, and pricing. Including the pros and cons according to the users.
Video conference software has become an essential tool for remote working and education since the pandemic outbreak. Hence, choosing the right tool is important as it can improve your productivity.
It’s said that Zoom is the most used video conference tool compare to Google Meet. But many are still comparing those two apps in order to find which video conference tool is the best. The battle still goes on up to now.
And it’s time to find out the winner between them through this Google Meet vs Zoom Meetings comparison. Let’s get started!
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Best Conference Tool: Zoom vs Google Meet
In this post, we will try to compare the quality, accessibility, features, pricing, and more of Google Meet vs Zoom. So, you can choose which conference tool suits you best.
Audio and Video Quality
What are the first things you consider when choosing a video conference tool? Most people will say the audio and video quality.
Having a good audio and video quality during a conference is essential. It creates a clear and straightforward communication. And you can avoid misunderstandings that might happen due to bad audio and video quality.
Knowing what their users need, Zoom offers an HD (720p) video quality. It is great for meetings, e-learning, and social connections. It allows you to share screen with great quality which is very helpful if you happen to share presentations or materials to your students or teams. It also lets the students or colleagues to see what you are seeing.
Similarly, Google Meet provides a High Definition (720p) video quality, both for send and receive resolutions. However, this feature requires a computer with quad-core CPU or higher specs. And it uses more internet data. Or, you can use the standard resolution (360p) to save more data.
However, no matter how great the video quality that Google Meet and Zoom offer, it’s your webcam that makes a difference. Your webcam should support HD quality in order to get the best result.
Light is also important when doing a video conference. It improves your video result and get rid of noise that occurs due to low light. But if you happen to be in a low light place, Zoom will adjust the video automatically. Unfortunately, this feature is not available in Google Meet.
In terms of audio, Zoom will adjust the microphone volume automatically. It will lower the volume automatically when you speak too loud and vice versa. So, you can just speak without worrying if your voice is too loud for your listeners. But in Google Meet, you need to control the volume manually. Hence, you need to make sure that your listeners can hear you in the beginning.
Both Google Meet and Zoom Meeting has a noise cancellation feature by default. It lets you block the background noise like dog barking and computer fan that are quite disturbing for your listeners. Unlike Google Meet, Zooms provides four options on how to suppress the background noise: Auto, Low, Medium, and High.
Zoom wins in the video and audio comparison between Google Meet vs Zoom Meeting. It provides better video even in low-light conditions. It also has a better audio cancellation feature with four options that you can choose based on your need.
In the first Zoom vs Google Meet comparison, Zoom is leading the battle. Now, let’s move on to another aspect.
User Interface
Who doesn’t love a simple design? Everyone loves an app that has a simple user interface that makes it easy to operate.
Both Google Meet and Zoom have a user interface that are quite different from one to another. But who has better UI? Let’s check them out.
Let’s start from Google Meet. It has a simple and clear user interface. On the home screen, you will find two options: Start a new meeting and Enter a code link to join a meeting. Having only two buttons with different shapes in the home screen is a great advantage because any users will not confuse them.
Moving to the dashboard, it’s pretty clean and clear. You will see several buttons at the bottom, such as Meeting details, Mic, Leave Call, Camera, Caption, Present Now, and Settings. And some additional features like layout and whiteboard are hidden in the Settings.
Google Meet is also equipped with a chatting feature. It enables you to communicate with your audiences via texts. You can send it to all audiences or a specific audience privately.
Likewise, Zoom has an elegant user interface. There are four big buttons with clear labels each. And one of them is in a different color so you know which button to press when you want to start a meeting.
Still in the home screen, there is a panel to remind you any upcoming meeting on the right. So that you know the meetings that you will have on the day. However, Google Meet doesn’t have this kind of reminder. You must check the Calendar to see if you have any upcoming meetings. And it’s inefficient.
The dashboard looks pretty old school compared to Google Meet. At the bottom of the screen, there are more buttons than Google Meet. They are Mute, Stop Video, Security, Participants, Chat, Share Screen, Record, Reactions, and End button. From the buttons, it is clear that Zoom has more features and functions than Google Meet.
It appears that Zoom has more options to control the participants than Google Meet. As a host, you can allow the participants to share screen, chat, rename, unmute themselves, and start video. You can even suspend participant activities. In Google Meet, you won’t be able to do such things.
As a result, the winner of the user interface goes to Google Meet. The users can easily use the basic functions by selecting the buttons at the bottom of the screen.
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Features and options
Generally, people are more excited to applications that have more features and options. Having more features and options is similar to a Swiss Army Knife that works as a multi-tool. With just one tool, you can do many things like slicing, cutting, opening a bottle, and many more.
There are many interesting features in Zoom that you need for conducting an online meeting. Sharing screen with other people is very helpful for meeting and teaching. It helps users to do a presentation from home with good quality.
Google Meet does have a sharing screen feature. Unlike Zoom, when sharing a screen in Google Meet you cannot see your participants’ reactions. It’s pretty awkward because it feels like you are talking to your screen alone.
Besides, Google Meet doesn’t have annotate feature. So, you won’t be able to highlight some words or add notes to your slides while presenting. However, if you want to do a collaborative work, you need to open the whiteboard. But it’s pretty sluggish.
On the other hand, Zoom has an annotate feature that allows you and your participants to write notes, highlight words, or draw lines or shapes when you are presenting a slide. It’s quite useful for doing collaborative work with your team.
Zoom’s ability to record a video conference and directly convert it into audio and video separately is impressive. And the files will be stored in your local drive. Interestingly, it is also available for free accounts. It is pretty functional if you want to record an important meeting.
Unfortunately, Google Meet doesn’t allow you to record if you are using a free account. You must be a premium member to be able to record a video conference. And the file will be stored in your Google Drive account automatically. It is pretty handy if you want to share the files with your colleagues.
Another interesting thing you can find in Zoom is that you can attach small files like documents or images via chat. It is something that you cannot do in Google Meet. In Google Meet, the chatting box is limited to communicate using texts only. You need an extra effort if you want to share files with your audiences.
As a result, in features and options, Zoom is the winner. It provides more features that are useful even for free users. Recording, screen sharing, and file attachment are the aspects that make Zoom lead in the Zoom vs Google Meet battle.
Pricing
When it comes to pricing, it’s actually not fair to see solely on the price. We need to see from the complete aspects like the features and functions of the item. Then, we can say if the price is cheap or expensive. The same thing goes for Google Meet and Zoom.
Zoom is available for free for personal use with basic features. But it is limited to 40 minutes per meeting. If you need to extend the duration, you need to upgrade your account. There are three types of paid-subscription that you can choose depending on your need: Pro ($14.99/month/host), Business ($19.99/month/host (min 10 hosts)), and Enterprise ($19.99/month/host (min 100 hosts)).
Google Meet also provides free account for personal use. The duration is longer than Zoom, that is 60 minutes per meeting. And you can have up to 100 participants per call. To hold a longer meeting, you need to purchase starting from $6/month. It costs less than a half of Zoom.
You can also choose the Business Essentials for $10/active user/month for up to 150 participants per call. Once you purchase, you can go live streaming for up to 100,000 viewers within a domain. Besides, you can record and save the recording file in your Google Drive. Those were the benefits that Google Meet offers.
To conclude, Google Meet is the best option if you need a video conference tool with basic features. It is cheaper than Zoom and has a great video and audio quality.
However, if you need more advanced features and stability, Zoom is your best choice. It has recording, chat and all the regular features you would expect to have. Also, the screen share quality is very good. And you can connect Zoom to Facebook for live videos.
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Final Thoughts: Google Meet vs Zoom
From the Google Meet vs Zoom comparison battle above, Zoom comes out as the winner. It’s great at what it does. It also helps a lot in a virtual meeting to gather the ideas of the participants and facilitates the resolution of problems.
However, it is quite important to understand what you need before choosing the video conference tool. You need to ask yourself for the features that you will probably need. Also, are you willing to pay for the amount of money if you need to subscribe monthly?
Once you have come up with your answers, you can decide which video conference tool that you should install. After all, it depends on a personal preference.
- Use Google Meet if you want a video conference tool for online work meetings that needs a closed caption.
- Use Zoom Meeting if you need a video conference tool for online teaching and learning lessons with more advanced features.
Which is your favorite video conference tool? Why you prefer to choose that software?
If you have any thoughts of Google Meet vs Zoom Meetings: Which Video Conference Tool is Better in 2021?, don’t hesitate to drop your comments in the box below. Thank you for reading!
I’ve been writing about tech since 2014. I found it fascinating to see the development of technology. My focus mostly is on app reviews, tips & tricks, and troubleshooting.
