Comparing Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet

Estimated reading time: 25 minutes

Has your organisation embraced remote or hybrid work since the COVID-19 pandemic? Then you know video conferencing is here to stay. And while subscriptions have doubled post-2020, that was just the beginning. Get ready for the next step in online collaboration, powered by AI. What’s in it for you and your teams? Better video quality and, of course, smarter and more efficient meetings. Say yes to automatic note-taking & live translations!

In this Microsoft Teams vs Zoom vs Google Meet comparison, we’ve tested the heavyweights of cloud video conferencing. We will explore their features and limitations, AI-powered additions, security measures, and pricing models. Find out which of these titans is the perfect fit for your organisation’s remote work needs.

Google Meet, Zoom and Microsoft Teams at a glance

The usage of online video conferencing tools has skyrocketed since the COVID-19 outbreak. Let’s take a first introductory look at the 3 most popular Cloud-based, online video conferencing tools. Afterwards, I’ll dive deeper into the specific functionalities of each of them.

Microsoft Teams vs Zoom vs Google Meet: Core Functionalities

It’s time to discuss the different functionalities in which the 3 video conferencing tools overlap and compete. We will cover functions, AI features, security, pricing, integrations, and more!

1. Security

Let’s begin by taking a look at one of the most important aspects of a video conferencing tool: security! Do you want to be sure all your calls remain private, safe and free from harmful or abusive content? Take a look at how each tool tackles this. 

Google Meet

Google Meet encrypts data in transit and recordings saved to Google Drive. Audio from a telephone may not be encrypted as it relies on the phone network. For enhanced security, Google Workspace offers client-side encryption (CSE). CSE uses your organisation’s keys to encrypt audio and video on your device before it is sent. This requires linking Google Workspace to an external identity provider and encryption key service.

Meet adheres to Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) security standards like Datagram Transport Layer Security (DTLS) and Secure Real-time Protocol (SRTP). 

Google Meet uses long, hard-to-guess meeting codes and gives hosts management controls to prevent misuse.
To join, external participants typically require an invitation or approval from an internal organiser. Access for external and dial-in users is generally restricted to the scheduled meeting time.
Meetings with client-side encryption (CSE) are more secure: external users must be explicitly invited to request entry, and phone dial-ins are disabled.

Meet supports 2-Step Verification and Google’s Advanced Protection Program to secure accounts. For Google Workspace, single sign-on (SSO) is also available. Administrators can access audit logs of Meet events. Access Transparency logs any admin access to recordings and the stated reason. Finally, Meet recordings can be stored in specific geographic regions (e.g., U.S. or Europe) using the data regions feature, giving you control over data residency.

Read more about Google Meet’s security.

If you are considering Google Meet, it’s worth exploring the broader context of 10 benefits of Google Workspace that will elevate your business as a unified solution.

Zoom

Zoom faced significant scrutiny over a range of security and privacy issues that tarnished its reputation. The most notorious of these was “Zoombombing,” where uninvited individuals would hijack meetings to share disruptive and often offensive content. This was largely possible due to lax default settings, such as publicly guessable meeting IDs and a lack of password protection. These problems, coupled with other vulnerabilities that could have allowed attackers to steal credentials or control users’ webcams, led to widespread criticism and investigations by authorities.

Zoom claims to implement end-to-end encryption (the most private form of Internet communication), but it is not enabled by default. Moreover, there have been other security concerns in the past, including hackers using fake Zoom apps or a data breach. The company is taking steps to improve security, but it might not be enough, especially for business users.

Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams is built upon the Microsoft 365 and Office 365 hyper-scale, enterprise-grade cloud infrastructure, which inherently provides a foundation of advanced security and compliance capabilities. The platform employs a multi-layered approach to protect data and ensure regulatory adherence.  

A. Standard Security Features (Authentication, Encryption, Basic Compliance)

A set of standard security measures is in place across Microsoft Teams to safeguard communications and data:

• Authentication: Microsoft Teams supports two-factor authentication (2FA) and single sign-on (SSO) using Microsoft Entra ID. The desktop clients for Windows and Mac use modern authentication via the Microsoft Authentication Library (MSAL) for more secure sign-ins.
• Data Encryption: All data within Teams, whether in transit over networks or at rest on servers, is encrypted. Files are stored and encrypted via SharePoint, while notes are secured using OneNote’s encryption.  
• Threat Protection: Microsoft Defender for Office 365 offers extended protection features that apply to Microsoft Teams, helping to safeguard against malware and phishing attempts within the platform.  
• Security Posture Management: The Microsoft Secure Score, available in the Microsoft 365 security centre, measures an organisation’s security posture. It provides recommendations to improve protection for Microsoft 365 identities, applications, and devices.
• Application Control: The Microsoft Teams desktop application supports AppLocker, allowing administrators to define rules that specify which applications are allowed to run, thereby preventing unauthorised software execution.  
• Compliance Adherence and Auditing: Teams adhere to a wide range of global and industry-specific compliance standards, including ISO 27001, ISO 27018, SSAE18 SOC 1 and SOC 2, HIPAA, and the EU Model Clauses (EUMC). Basic compliance functionalities include audit log search, enabling administrators to track user and admin activities within Teams.  

B. Advanced Security with Teams Premium (End-to-End Encryption, Watermarks, etc.)

For organisations with more stringent security requirements, Microsoft offers Teams Premium, an add-on license that unlocks a suite of advanced protection features:  

• End-to-End Encryption (E2EE): Teams Premium enables end-to-end encryption for meetings with up to 200 participants. With E2EE, only the meeting participants can decrypt the content; Microsoft itself does not have access to the decryption keys.  
• Watermarking: Teams Premium allows the application of watermarks to video feeds and shared content during meetings to deter unauthorised sharing and leaks of sensitive information.  
• Control over Recording: Organisers with a Teams Premium license can have more granular control, such as limiting who specifically is permitted to record a meeting.  
• Sensitivity Labels for Meetings: Integration with Microsoft Purview Information Protection sensitivity labels allows organisations to apply labels to meetings. These labels can enforce specific security policies, such as restricting copy and paste functionality from the meeting chat, thereby preventing data exfiltration.  
• Controlled-Content Meeting Templates: Administrators can create meeting templates with pre-defined security settings for specific types of sensitive meetings.

2. The Number of Participants

Do you want to have a one-to-one or a team meeting with multiple people? Need to host an online training session or webinar with more than 200 participants? Keep on reading, you will find the best solutions below:

Google Meet

You can use Google Meet to talk with more than one person at the same time. Meetings can include up to 100 people with Business Starter. You can invite 200 persons with Business Standard and up to 500 with the Business Plus plan. Enterprise Plus subscription allows you to conference with up to 1000 people! See details.

Zoom

Zoom’s meeting participant limits vary by account type. The default capacity is 100 participants for Basic (free) and Pro plans, 300 for Business plans, and 500 for Enterprise plans. Even a basic user on a Business account will inherit the plan’s higher 300-participant limit. To host more people, users can upgrade their plan or purchase a Large Meeting add-on to increase capacity to either 500 or 1,000 participants. It is important to note that these add-ons cannot be combined. If a meeting reaches its maximum capacity, new attendees will be blocked from joining until another participant leaves.

Microsoft Teams

The number of participants a Teams meeting can support is a key differentiator between its various plans:

• Microsoft Teams Free (Home Use): Supports up to 100 participants in a group call/meeting.  
• Microsoft 365 Personal and Family (Home Use): Both plans allow for up to 300 participants.  
• Microsoft Teams Essentials (Business): Designed for small businesses, this plan accommodates up to 300 participants.  
• Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Business Standard, and Business Premium (Business): These widely used business plans all support meetings with up to 300 participants.  
• Microsoft Teams Enterprise: This tier generally supports up to 1,000 interactive participants in a standard meeting.  
• Webinars: The webinar feature within Teams can host up to 1,000 attendees with interactive capabilities.  

3. Time limit

Nobody wants to have the feeling that you haven’t had the chance or time to discuss what’s important to you. Which tool lets you hang out via video for as long as you like with no time limit? What’s the best option for long training sessions of virtual office hours? Check it out below:

Google Meet

Meet doesn’t have any limits on the length of the one-on-one calls. Group calls on all plans Bussiness and Enterprise can last up to 24 hours.

Zoom

Zoom has a limit for those using its Free plan. Although you can make an unlimited number of calls, each call can only last 40 minutes. So, if your meeting lasts less than 40 minutes and you’re with fewer than 100 people, the free version will suffice. If you’re using a pro account or anything more expensive than that, the limit is 24 hours.

Microsoft Teams

Meeting duration limits also vary by plan:

• Microsoft Teams Free (Home Use): Group calls are limited to a maximum of 60 minutes per session.  
• Microsoft 365 Personal and Family (Home Use): These plans offer a significantly longer group calling duration of up to 30 hours per meeting.  
• Microsoft Teams Essentials (Business): Provides a meeting duration of up to 30 hours.  
• Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Business Standard, and Business Premium (Business): All these plans also support meetings for up to 30 hours.  
• Microsoft Teams Enterprise: While one source indicates a 30-hour limit for a standalone “Microsoft Teams Enterprise” SKU , other contexts suggest that enterprise-grade meetings with up to 1,000 participants generally align with this 30-hour duration, effectively making it unlimited for most practical business purposes.

4. Meeting recording

The footage you record can be used in a variety of ways: marketing videos, internal presentations,  training purposes, etc. Let’s take a look at this feature and how the different tools handle it below:

Google Meet

Capture audio, video, chat and screen sharing activity. After your video meeting ends, the recording is automatically saved to your Google Drive. If you created the video meeting via Google Calendar, the recording will also be accessible through the Calendar entry. You can also generate text transcripts of the call and get all your meeting notes taken for you using Gemini for Google Workspace.

Zoom

Zoom allows you to record your meetings. A recording captures the meeting’s video, audio, and any shared content. You can also include text files of the public chat and closed captions. The recordings are saved to your local computer only. 

Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams offers capabilities for recording meetings and generating transcripts, features that are vital for attendees who miss a session, for record-keeping, and for later review. Meeting recaps, which often include recordings, transcripts, and shared files, are automatically generated after a meeting concludes.

5. Screen sharing

Sharing your screen, so others can see what you are seeing and doing on your screen, is an important feature for business meetings. This is handy when you have to present some facts & figures or want to give real-time demonstrations and demos. 

Google Meet

You can safely share your screen during a video call, deciding if you want to show a tab, a specific window, or the entire screen. With the integration with the whole Google Workspace suite,  you can also easily send documents, images, and files through the chat feature of the meeting room. While presenting from Google Slides, you can give multiple participants control of the presentation. This avoids the interruption of switching between different screen shares.

Zoom

In Zoom, you can share various types of content during a meeting, such as your entire desktop, a specific application, a digital whiteboard, or locally stored video and audio. The host can enable or disable screen sharing for participants.

Microsoft Teams

Users can share their entire desktop, specific application windows, or individual files, including native support for sharing PowerPoint presentations through PowerPoint Live. This feature allows presenters to see their notes, upcoming slides, and audience reactions while sharing a polished presentation view with attendees.

6. Collaboration tools

Are you looking for tools that will help you and your teams to brainstorm ideas, make decisions, and drive projects forward, regardless of where you are? Pay attention to features like breakout rooms, polls, and digital whiteboards that we explore below.

Google Meet

Meet scores some points because of its seamless integration with other Google apps and the fact that it comes bundled with many other services, including Gemini. Google Meet works well with all the other tools of Google Workspace, like Google Calendar, Google Drive, Gmail, and Google Chat. Specific collaboration tools in Meet include breakout rooms, polls and Q&A, emoji reactions, annotations, digital whiteboard with Miro & Figma and more! Read more about the benefits of Google Workspace.

Zoom

Zoom has integrated tools for collaboration, including persistent Team Chat, interactive Whiteboard for brainstorming, and Zoom Docs for document creation. In-meeting features like breakout rooms, polling, and co-annotation facilitate live engagement, while the AI Companion automates tasks such as generating meeting summaries.

Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams extends beyond basic video conferencing by offering a rich suite of integrated collaboration tools designed to support various aspects of teamwork before, during, and after meetings:

• Chat and Threaded Conversations
• File Sharing and Co-authoring (incl. ‘Shared’ Tab)
• Microsoft Whiteboard
• Microsoft Loop Integration
• Channels for Focused Collaboration

7. Dial-ins

Explore what each tool offers for participants on the move, facing poor internet connectivity or having computer audio issues!

Google Meet

For meetings organised through a Google Workspace account, you can use your phone for audio instead of your computer. This is useful when you have a poor network connection or your computer’s microphone and speakers are not working well. You can either have Google Meet call your phone directly, or you can manually dial in using a provided number and PIN.

Zoom

Calling into Zoom via a phone can be expensive. You will receive the local Zoom phone number and the Meeting ID. For a person joining a Zoom meeting by phone, the cost depends entirely on the type of dial-in number provided by the meeting host. Unless the meeting invitation specifies a “toll-free” number, you should assume that calling into a Zoom meeting will incur the same charges as a regular phone call on your mobile or landline plan.

Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams ensures meeting accessibility through its audio conferencing capabilities and offers telephony integration via Teams Phone. Meeting organisers can also use a “dial-out” feature to add participants to the audio portion of a meeting directly from the Teams app.

8. Video layout

Different video views personalise users’ experience, can reduce distractions, create a more natural atmosphere or improve collaboration. Let’s see what Google Meet, Zoom and Microsoft Teams offer for different types of meetings.

Google Meet

In Google Meet, you can change the layout to customise how participants are displayed on your screen, with your choice being saved for future meetings. The default Auto layout dynamically adjusts to show the most active content and speakers, maximising screen space. Alternatively, you can select Tiled to see up to 49 people in a fixed grid, Spotlight to focus on a single speaker or presentation, or Sidebar to view a main speaker with smaller thumbnails of others. You can also adjust the number of tiles shown in the Tiled view and choose to hide participants who have their video turned off.

Zoom

Zoom offers several video layout options. You can switch between Speaker View, which highlights the person currently talking; Gallery View, which displays up to 49 participants in a grid; and Immersive View, where the host places participants together in a shared virtual background like a classroom. During a presentation, Side-by-Side Mode allows you to see both the shared content and video participants simultaneously. For a less intrusive option, you can also minimise the meeting to a Floating Thumbnail Window that stays on top of your other applications.

Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams offers a range of video layouts, from the standard Gallery view that can display up to 49 participants, to the immersive Together Mode which places attendees in a shared virtual space. Additionally, Speaker View automatically highlights the current speaker, while features like pinning and spotlighting allow users and presenters to customise the focus of the meeting for everyone. You can switch your views during a video call. Gallery view is the default view when joining a meeting on desktop or mobile.

9. Captions

If you want to create inclusive and productive virtual environments, the caption function will be your best friend. It enhances accessibility for participants with hearing impairments and breaks down language barriers with real-time translation.

Google Meet

Google Meet enhances meeting accessibility by providing live captions, which can be translated into various languages. To activate this feature during a meeting, simply click the “More” options icon and select “Turn on captions”. For a more comprehensive record, you can also enable transcripts, which create a written document of the conversation. Additionally, when recording a meeting, you have the option to include the captions directly within the video file.

Zoom

In Zoom, the host can enable automated captions (live transcription), have them typed manually, or use a third-party service.  For most paid licences, translated captions are a paid add-on. While included in some higher-tier plans, an administrator must still enable the feature.

Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams provides live captioning and translation features during meetings. Live captions display spoken words as text in real-time. For users on the free Teams plan or lower-tier business plans like Teams Essentials, live captions are typically available in English. Higher-tier business plans, such as Microsoft 365 Business Basic and above, offer live captions in over 30 languages.  Beyond standard captions, Teams leverages AI to offer real-time translation for both captions and subtitles.

10. AI features

From automatically generating meeting summaries and action items to real-time translation and audio/video enhancement, AI features allow you to collaborate more efficiently and focus on what truly matters: human interactions.

Google Meet

Google Meet has integrated a suite of powerful AI features powered by Gemini AI. Meet can automatically take meeting notes, identify action items, and provide concise summaries. To break down language barriers, the platform offers real-time speech translation, preserving the speaker’s tone and expression. Furthermore, AI-powered “studio” features enhance video and audio quality through improved lighting, sharper visuals, and clearer sound by reducing noise and echoes. Adaptive audio technology also minimises disruptions in rooms with multiple participants using their laptops. For a more personalised experience, users can utilise AI to generate custom backgrounds, ensuring a professional and focused environment for all attendees.

Zoom

Zoom’s AI Companion provides comprehensive meeting summaries, creates smart recordings with chapters and highlights, and allows users to ask questions to catch up on missed discussions. Beyond meetings, Zoom’s AI also assists with content creation in its chat and whiteboard services.

Microsoft Teams

The platform’s AI foundation centres on Microsoft Copilot, an intelligent assistant that captures meeting notes, generates action items, provides real-time summaries, and enables natural language queries about meeting content across calls, chats, and physical meeting rooms. Enhanced by Intelligent Recap and speaker recognition technology, Teams delivers meeting insights while using AI-powered audio-visual optimisation, including noise suppression, voice isolation, auto-brightness adjustments, and intelligent camera control for professional-quality communications. The platform also offers real-time transcriptions and translations.

11. Devices

Google Meet

You can access Meet on any desktop or laptop computer using Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge, or Safari, without needing to install any software. For mobile use, dedicated Google Meet applications are available to download from the Google Play Store for Android smartphones and tablets, and from the Apple App Store for iPhones and iPads. Furthermore, for a more integrated conference room experience, Google Meet can be utilised on dedicated hardware systems, including Google’s own Series One kits, Chromeboxes for Meetings, and a range of certified third-party products.

Zoom

Zoom is accessible on desktop and laptop computers running Windows, macOS, or various Linux distributions, either through the full-featured desktop application or directly within browsers like Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Safari. You can use Zoom mobile app on any modern smartphone or tablet running iOS, iPadOS, or Android. For a more professional setup, Zoom integrates with dedicated conference room hardware, known as Zoom Rooms, which can be powered by a Mac, Windows PC, or a certified appliance.

Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams ensures device accessibility through native client applications for Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android, plus web browser support for universal access. The platform features Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) systems designed for physical meeting spaces of all sizes, offering one-touch join, multi-camera views, AI-powered features like Cloud IntelliFrame, and inclusive layouts such as Front Row. Teams maintains an extensive certification program for peripherals, including headsets, webcams, desk phones, Teams displays, room panels, and interactive displays from vendors like Logitech, Yealink, Cisco, and Crestron.

12. Integrations

Integrations have rapidly become a crucial concern for all online video conferencing tools and collaboration platforms. The good news is that Google Meet, Zoom and Microsoft Teams have a lot of integrations. Let’s dig into what they offer:

Google Meet

Google Meet enhances productivity through two main types of integrations. Firstly, it offers in-app add-ons for live collaboration, allowing teams to use tools like Miro for whiteboarding or Asana for project management directly within the meeting window. Secondly, Meet connects with hundreds of external applications via automation platforms like Zapier to streamline workflows, such as automatically creating a meeting link when an event is booked in Calendly. The platform is also natively integrated with Google Workspace, letting you start calls seamlessly from Calendar, Gmail, and Docs. Ultimately, these connections reduce the need to switch between apps, making meetings more efficient and interactive.

Zoom

You can link Zoom with popular applications like Google Calendar, Slack, Asana, and Salesforce to automate tasks. Furthermore, you can enhance live meetings with collaborative apps like the Miro whiteboard or using AI notetakers like Fathom to automatically record, transcribe, and summarise your discussions.

Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams functions as an extensible platform with deep integration across the Microsoft 365 ecosystem, seamlessly connecting with Outlook for unified scheduling, OneDrive and SharePoint for file management and document collaboration, and other Microsoft services like Lists, OneNote, Planner, and Forms. Beyond its native ecosystem, Teams supports over 1,900 third-party applications through its App Store and automation services like Zapier and Power Automate. These integrations span diverse categories, including project management tools (Trello, Asana, Jira), CRM systems (Salesforce, HubSpot), cloud storage services (Dropbox, Google Drive), customer support platforms (Zendesk), and development tools (GitHub, Azure DevOps).

Pricing & Plans

Google Meet Pricing

Google Meet is free to anyone with a Google account. It offers unlimited one-on-one meetings and group calls for up to 100 participants with a 60-minute time limit. 

For businesses and users needing more advanced capabilities, Google Meet’s pricing is integrated into the tiered Google Workspace subscription plans:

• Business Starter plan is priced at $8.40 per user per month. This entry-level tier includes essential tools like Gmail with a custom domain, Google Meet for video conferencing, Drive for cloud storage, and the full suite of Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides.  
• Business Standard plan, aimed at growing teams, is available for $16.80 per user per month on the flexible plan. This tier offers all the features of Business Starter, plus larger storage capacity, enhanced meeting capabilities including recordings, and the addition of shared drives for team collaboration.  
• Business Plus plan is priced at $26.40 per user per month with a flexible payment schedule. This premium tier builds upon the Standard plan with enhanced security and management controls, including Vault for data retention and eDiscovery, and advanced endpoint management.  
• Enterprise plans provide the most comprehensive set of features, including advanced security, compliance, and administrative controls. Pricing for the Enterprise Plus starts at around $42 per user per month, but to get the exact pricing, you have to contact sales.

Zoom Pricing Packages

Zoom offers 4 different pricing packages: 

• The Basic Plan for free, which enables 100 people to video conference together. It limits the calls to 40 minutes and limits most of the additional features.. 
• The Pro plan for Small Teams, including all the Basic features of the free plan. You can invite 100 participants and have a maximum of 30 hours of video conferencing. This plan costs $13.33 per month if billed annually.
• The Business plan costs $18.33 per month if billed annually. It includes all the Basic and Business features. You can invite 300 participants to a meeting and have a maximum 30-hour-long conference.
• Enterprise plan allows 500-1000 participants. To learn more about the pricing, you need to contact the sales team.

Microsoft Teams Video Conferencing Pricing

Microsoft Teams offers several distinct licensing pathways:

There is a free version of Teams for personal use, as well as plans bundled with Microsoft 365 Personal and Microsoft 365 Family subscriptions. It is important to note that as of 2025, there is no completely free plan specifically designed for business use that offers the full suite of business-grade features and compliance. Here are the plans for businesses:

• Microsoft Teams Essentials: Approximate Cost: $4.00. This is a standalone Teams offering focused on core meeting features. It supports up to 300 participants, a 30-hour meeting duration, provides 10 GB of cloud storage per user, and includes live captions in English. It does not bundle other Microsoft 365 applications like Word or Excel.  
• Microsoft 365 Business Basic: Approximate Cost: $6.00. This plan includes all Teams Essentials features and adds 1 TB of cloud storage per user (often pooled at the organization level plus a per-user allotment), web and mobile versions of Microsoft 365 apps, Exchange email hosting (50GB mailbox), breakout rooms in Teams meetings, and live captions in over 30 languages.  
• Microsoft 365 Business Standard: Approximate Cost: $12.50. Builds on Business Basic by adding desktop versions of Microsoft 365 applications, webinar hosting capabilities with attendee registration and reporting, collaborative workspaces with Microsoft Loop, and video editing tools with Microsoft Clipchamp.  
• Microsoft 365 Business Premium: Approximate Cost: $22.00. Includes all Business Standard features and adds advanced security capabilities, such as cyber threat protection with Microsoft Defender for Business, and device management with Microsoft Intune.  
• Microsoft Teams Enterprise (standalone): Approximate Cost: $5.25. This plan is listed with features similar to Teams Essentials (300 participants, 30-hour meetings, 10GB storage, English captions). However, other sources suggest that “Teams Enterprise” as a concept offers more advanced features and higher capacity (e.g., up to 1,000 participants) than Essentials, particularly when integrated within broader M365 Enterprise suites. This standalone SKU might represent a base enterprise offering, with the full spectrum of enterprise-grade Teams features typically realised through M365 E3 or E5 plans that include Teams.  
• Microsoft 365 E3 (potentially with Teams bundled or as an add-on): Approximate Cost for M365 E3 (no Teams SKU where unbundled): $33.75. E3 plans offer a comprehensive suite of Office apps, enterprise-grade security and compliance features, and typically include robust Teams capabilities (1,000 participants, advanced admin controls) when Teams is part of the bundle.  
• Microsoft 365 E5 (potentially with Teams bundled or as an add-on): Approximate Cost for M365 E5 (no Teams SKU where unbundled): $54.75. E5 is the premium enterprise offering, including all E3 features plus advanced security (e.g., Microsoft Defender for Endpoint P2), advanced compliance (e.g., eDiscovery Premium), voice capabilities (Teams Phone often included or discounted), and Power BI Pro.  

Microsoft Teams vs Zoom vs Google Meet: Detailed Comparison:

Feature	Google Meet	Zoom	Microsoft Teams
AI Assistant	Gemini	AI Companion	Microsoft Copilot
Security	Encrypted by default. Top-tier plans offer Client-Side Encryption.	End-to-end encryption is optional and not on by default.	Enterprise-grade security via Microsoft 365, with advanced add-ons.
Max Participants	Free: 100. Paid plans up to 1,000.	Free: 100. Paid plans up to 500 (1,000 with add-on).	Free: 100. Paid plans typically 300, up to 1,000 for webinars.
Time Limit	Free: 60 mins. Paid: 24 hours.	Free: 40 mins. Paid: 30 hours.	Free: 60 mins. Paid: 30 hours.
Recording	Saves to Google Drive, integrated with Google Calendar.	Saves locally on free plans; cloud recording on paid tiers.	Stores recaps, transcripts, and files directly within Teams.
Collaboration	Integrates with Workspace, Miro & Figma for whiteboards; includes polls & Q&A.	Native interactive whiteboard, breakout rooms, and co-annotation.	Integrated with Microsoft Whiteboard & Loop; offers threaded chats.
Captions	Live captions with real-time translation included.	Automated live captions. Translated captions require a paid add-on.	Live captions with translation available on most business plans.
Integrations	Native to Google Workspace; connects to other apps via add-ons.	Extensive App Marketplace with over 2,000 integrations.	Integration with Microsoft 365; supports over 1,900 apps.
Pricing	Bundled with tiered Google Workspace subscriptions.	Standalone product with free and tiered paid plans; add-ons cost extra.	Included with Microsoft 365 licences, available as a standalone product.

Final thoughts

To sum up, the choice between Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom depends on your organisation’s specific priorities, existing software ecosystem, and security requirements. All three platforms have evolved beyond simple video calling to become robust collaboration hubs.

Google Meet’s primary strength is its seamless integration with Google Workspace. It offers a simple interface, robust security, and powerful AI features via Gemini for automated notes and real-time translation. The platform provides generous features on its free and entry-level tiers with transparent pricing, making it a strong option for businesses seeking ease of use and AI-driven productivity.

For organisations embedded in the Microsoft 365 environment, Teams is a comprehensive collaboration platform, not just a video conferencing tool. It has deep integrations with apps like Outlook and SharePoint. Teams excels at collaboration, offering persistent chat, file co-authoring, and numerous third-party app integrations. Microsoft Copilot provides powerful AI assistance, automatically generating notes, action items, and summaries. Additionally, for businesses with strict security needs, Teams Premium offers advanced features like end-to-end encryption and watermarking

Zoom, while once the undisputed leader in the market, now faces stiff competition. Its primary advantage remains its user-friendly interface and a strong focus on the core meeting experience. However, the free version’s limitations, overall value for money and integration with other software can be a drawback. From a cost perspective, Zoom can be a less economical option. Google Meet and Microsoft Teams are incorporated into the wider Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 subscriptions, respectively. This means users receive a full suite of office tools, including video conferencing, for a single fee. As Zoom is typically a standalone product, it often brings additional expense for those already paying for a comprehensive productivity suite. Additionally, the shadow of past security concerns, despite significant improvements, may still make security-conscious organisations hesitant. 
 

Finally, whichever option you choose, remember: the best tool is the one that aligns with your existing workflows, security posture, and long-term collaboration strategy.