Google and Microsoft are two of the biggest tech giants in the world. Microsoft and Google are rivals in the tech industry. They are continuously presenting new technology, devices, software to get the market dominance and to turn more users in their side.
Although Microsoft became popular because of the windows operating system and Google is widely known for the worldwide google browser and its other facilities. Google has integrations like Microsoft Word known as google docs, google sheets as Microsoft excel, presentations for Microsoft PowerPoint, and so on.
We all know about google meet as it has got enormous popularity in the last year as an online video communication application. On the other hand, team is Microsoft’s attempt at an online video communication service.
Though it doesn’t get much popularity like zoom and google meet, still Microsoft team is a robust online video communication application that comes with a huge benefit.
However, we are here comparing google meet and Microsoft team, their features, offerings, and price plan to understand which one is best. If you are interested, then let’s drive into the discussion.
Contents
What is Microsoft team?
Microsoft is a part of Microsoft 365 that is undoubtedly one of the best collaborative software collections. Microsoft 365 includes word, excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, OneDrive, Outlook, teams that are necessary for all types of business and organizations.
So, you can say Microsoft teams is a business communication platform that includes video conferencing, storage, integration, and so on.
You may have known about Skype for business which was so popular once as a versatile online video communication tool supported only by computers.
If you don’t use Skype, then no problem, because Skype has become older and people don’t love to pay attention to it when Microsoft itself introduces its new replacement Microsoft teams.
Team also replaces another Microsoft operated business messaging application Microsoft classroom.
Microsoft released the platform in May 2021 and the android version was released after 17 days in June. As it was just released, it isn’t getting much popularity but very soon it will be in the mainstream and compete with other applications.
Now let’s see what Microsoft includes in its video communicating platform.
What is google meet?
Google meet is one of the most popular video communication applications at present. It has robust features, great security, and all the required functions to make your online communication seamless. Google meet was released in 2017 as a paid google workspace integration.
But according to the huge demand for online video communication in the previous years, Google made its free version available to everyone. You can start using google meet anytime with a web browser, no software installation is required.
Google meet is overall best. You can easily create meetings, join others’ meetings from the invitation, video recording, schedule meetings, and also integration with other google workspace applications.
Google makes the platform secured and convenient to use for all types of people. Its user experience is appreciable that includes a few options to adjust and get ready for meetings.
Google is always looking for comprehensive user comfortability and so it continuously upgrades, makes changes to all its integrations. Recently it brings massive adjustments in google meet functions such as AI controlled display adjustment, noise cancellation, background changing etc.
Currently, there are 300 million Google meet users around the world and they all agree about google meet is the best and comfortable virtual calling experience.
What are the features of Microsoft Team?
As of April 2021, the Microsoft team has 145 million users all over the world. If you have experience using such an application like zoom or google meet you can find it get at able to use.
Microsoft teams can be a perfect integration to all types of video communication requirements. You can use it for business, education, live online events, and personal communications.
However, Microsoft teams have some unique features that you can’t find in other applications such as teams and channels. Through the channels, teammates can chat with each other and also can use @ to invite other teammates.
The other Microsoft Teams features are,
- Team: Team’s administrator or owner can send invitation or specific URL to allow community, group, or team to join. It is a very good option for teachers and distance learning communities to create specific teams and make learning interesting
- Channels: teams are made up of channels which are created by the team members. You can say it communication channels that members can use to communicate and discuss different topics creating different channels
- Chat: Microsoft team has chat option that allows one-to-one and group chats. Teammates can chat with each other or a particular person can send messages to the whole team. During chats, users can use emojis, format text
- Users can choose to mark a message as urgent or important. Important messages show up with a red side border and an exclamation mark, urgent messages notify the receiver at regular intervals until they are seen
- File sharing
- Screen sharing
- Video calling, online meeting
- Audio conferencing
- Microsoft 365 integration
- Security
- Business phone access
What are the features of google meet?
Google meet comes with a variety of features that can make you fall in love with this exciting video communication application. Whether you are a business or you are going to use it for personal communication with friends and others, google meet is perfect to go.
Here are all the google meet features at a glance to help you compare this with Microsoft teams.
- Free and paid plans, free plan is limited while paid plans are include more and more
- With the free plan, you can add up to 100 participants in your conference while with the max paid plan, you can add up to 250 participants
- Good support
- Real time captioning
- Background changing
- Record meeting that isn’t available in the free plan
- Storage service to store recorded video meetings safely
- Google workspace integration
- Video filters for smartphone users
- Built in chat option
- File sharing
- Adjustable layout
- Noise cancellation
- Dial in phone numbers
- Paid plans are not much costly
Comparison of google meet and Microsoft teams
After seeing the features of both google meet and Microsoft teams, we have arranged a face-to-face comparison of features between google meet and teams. Let’s see what it shows,
| Feature | Google meet | Microsoft teams |
| Best for | Personal, small business and organizations | Best for businesses |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Meeting length | Up to 24 hours | Up to 24 hours |
| Participant limit | 250 | 300 |
| Screen sharing | Yes | Yes |
| Recording | Yes | Yes |
| Background customization | Yes | Yes |
| Integration | Google workspace | Microsoft 365 |
| Instant messaging | Yes | Yes |
| Browser access | Direct access, don’t requires software installation | You have to download and install the team’s software |
| Person to person messaging | No | Yes |
| LMS integration | Pilot program | Yes |
| Mobile access | Yes | Yes |
| Customer support | Yes | Yes |
| Whiteboard | Available with third party integration | Yes |
| Dial in call | Yes | Yes |
From the feature’s discussion above, both the Microsoft team and google meet are perfect to utilize video conferencing requirements. Both have much muchness but if you are a business, you better choose Microsoft teams.
Google meet is also perfect to use business and commercial purposes, but it allows only 250 participants in a meeting. so, if you are a team with more than 250 members, then it can’t help you. Whatever your purpose is, just look at the above comparison and make your decision.
Google meet VS Microsoft teams: Price and plans Comparison
We have come through all the features of google meet and Microsoft teams and now we will see the price and plan them. For your convenience, both google meet and Microsoft teams include free and paid plans.
Needless to say, free plans have limitations in features but that won’t affect if you are experiencing it for personal purposes. Google Meet and Microsoft teams have several paid plans that you should consider precisely.
Realizing which plan will be perfect is the way to make the best value. Here we are showing all the price plans of them and also the differences between each plan clearly.
Google meet plans
Google meets free plan is free to use for all. Anyone can start using the google meet free plan without any cost and can make virtual conferences with up to 100 participants at once. You can do video calls max of 60 minutes and there is no recording option in the google meets free plan.
Besides the free plan, google meet also has four individual plans with different advancements. Actually, these aren’t google meet plans rather they are called google workspace plans. It is because the meet is a part of google workspace.
If you are interested to use google meet with all the paid features unlocked, then you have to purchase any of the google workspace plans before. Here are all the google workspace plans with pricing below.
| Plan | Price | Participants | Time |
| Business starter | $6 per month | Up to 100 | 24 hours |
| Business Standard (Best for small business) | $12 per month | Up to 150 | 24 hours |
| Business plus | $18 per month | Up to 250 | 24 hours |
| Enterprise | Customizable | Up to 250 | 24 hours |
| Google Workspace Essentials | $8 per month | Up to 250 | 24 hours |
Microsoft teams plans
Similarly, Microsoft teams also come as a part of Microsoft 365. Microsoft 365 provides all the office collaborative applications including Microsoft word, excel, PowerPoint etc. therefore, if you want to use Microsoft team, you have to make purchase any available plans it includes.
Microsoft team free plan
Microsoft team’s free plan is also limited in features. So, it is necessary to know what it includes and what’s not in the free version. Let’s see what you will get at first. With Microsoft teams free plan, you will allow to,
- Meet for 60 minutes
- Up to 10 GB of cloud storage
- Guest access
- Security and compliance
- Host up to 100 participants
- Unlimited chat
- Up to 500K internal and external users
- Market availability
And here is what you don’t have in the free plan.
- Record Meeting
- Host meeting to more than 100 people
- Additional storage, with plans starting at 1 TB file storage per user
- Rich file collaboration in the Office desktop apps
- Additional first- and third-party app integrations
- Advanced IT controls
- Enterprise-level security and compliance
- Phone and web support around the clock
Microsoft paid plans
There are two paid plans for Microsoft teams, one is basic and the other standard packages. Here are the details of the two plans.
| Plan | Price | participant | Time |
| Basic | $2.50 user/month | 300 | 24 hours |
| Standard | $10 user/month | 300 | 24 hours |
Microsoft Teams vs Google Meet: Which is Right for You?
Choosing the right collaboration is highly important for organizations and small teams because it keeps them organized with all the work and activities. Also, these video communicating applications are widely using in distance learning.
Especially during the covid 19, schools and colleges have relied upon these applications to conduct online lessons, giving classwork or assignments to university level students, and so on. In a word, these tools keep up the study process even in the lockdown session of covid 19.
The best thing is, both google meet and Microsoft teams are available in free versions so you can make final decisions by testing them.
However, Microsoft teams are mainly designed for business communication and collaboration. Business teams can benefit greatly with its high data storage and other Microsoft integrations like excel.
On the other hand, google meet is designed for all purposes. despite its fewer participants’ issues, it still preferred because of its high security, support, and stable connection.
Finally, if you are looking the best for value, google meet is ahead of Microsoft teams. Though both provide quite similar facilities like video meeting, chatting, recording and others, you can pick any of them that suits your purpose. Hope the above discussion will help you a lot in this regard.