Microsoft Teams and Zoom are two of the highest video conferencing tools we have now today.
They assist organizations communicate and collaborate from anywhere at any time, ensuring a seamless, uninterrupted workflow.
And as firms keep transitioning into hybrid or distant work, it’s only natural that the demand for tools like Microsoft Teams and Zoom continues to grow.
But which app is best for your business?
In this text, we’ll compare Microsoft Teams vs Zoom by discussing their features, advantages, drawbacks, and pricing plans to enable you to select the precise one.
Table of Contents
Let’s dive right in!
Microsoft Teams vs Zoom: An in depth comparison
Microsoft Teams and Zoom have many similar features, but they’ve some distinguished differences too.
Before we dive into the differences, let’s try what these apps do:
What’s Microsoft Teams?
Microsoft Teams is a unified communications platform that mixes chats, voice calls, virtual meetings, Office 365 tools, file sharing, etc., to create a shared workspace. Its mobile app allows users to access Teams and work from anywhere.
Listed here are some key features of Microsoft Teams:
- Unlimited group video calls with a closing date of 60 minutes per session.
- Allows 100 meeting participants per session.
- Easy file sharing via Microsoft apps comparable to SharePoint, Office 365, etc
- Access to cloud storage.
- Customized virtual backgrounds and whiteboards for video calls.
- Available on Android, iOS, Windows, Mac, and Linux devices.
Try our step-by-step guide on the way to use Microsoft Teams.
What’s Zoom?
Zoom is a cloud-based, reliable video conferencing tool that lets arrange virtual meetings, webinars, audio calls, etc. It offers a straightforward user interface that anyone can easily navigate and use. It’s a well-liked collaboration tool for workspaces in addition to private users.
Listed here are some necessary features of Zoom:
- Unlimited group video calls for 40-minutes per session.
- As much as 100 attendees per online meeting.
- Unlimited 1:1 meetings with a 30-hour closing date per session.
- Easy file sharing with third-party tools like Dropbox, Google Drive, etc.
- Access to cloud storage.
- Supports Android, iOS, Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems.
Learn the way to use Zoom with our easy step-by-step guide.
Now that you recognize what these tools are, let’s dive into Teams vs Zoom:
1. Video quality
Each apps aim to offer good video quality for smooth, uninterrupted meetings.
A. Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams provides an AI-based video optimization that mechanically adjusts the video quality to the user’s network quality. It also offers full HD 1080p support and bandwidth constraints for high-quality video viewing.
B. Zoom
Zoom uses 720p by default for its video chat.
But when you might have a Zoom Business or Zoom Enterprise plan, you may change the default 720p to 1080p for higher video quality.
Zoom also offers virtual background, video filters, etc., for a fun virtual meeting.
Quick recap
MS Teams provides high-quality 1080p for many formats aside from its live events, while Zoom delivers the identical quality only in Zoom Business and Zoom Enterprise plans.
2. Chat systems
A solid feature is important to make sure easier file sharing and collaboration between its users.
Here’s a have a look at their chat functions:
A. Microsoft Teams
Teams offers a variety of chat functionalities, comparable to:
- Individual chats: For one-on-one messages.
- Group chat: Should you wish to talk along with your family or friends, first search and add them to a gaggle. After naming your group, you may start messaging immediately.
- Chat in a channel: In an expert setting, you should use channels to interact along with your team. Here you may start conversations using the ‘post’ tab. Your team members can reply under the actual post, which can begin a threaded conversation.
- Chat in a gathering: You can too chat in real-time during a live meeting. This manner, you may add necessary meeting notes, share links to docs, have conversations, and rather more.
B. Zoom
During a Zoom meeting, you may send messages to all participants like a gaggle chat or select individuals.
The chat feature means that you can share files, note the meeting minutes, etc. You can too send private messages to individuals during a gaggle video. Moreover, Zoom enables its hosts to regulate the chat function by disabling the complete chat or private chat during group meetings.
Nevertheless, the chat feature in Zoom is barely accessible during a video call. Should you wish to talk along with your team outside of a gathering, you’ll need to use one other Zoom platform called Zoom Chat.
Quick recap
Microsoft Teams offers additional features like access to chats out of meetings, individual chats, chats inside a channel, etc. throughout the tool.
Meanwhile, Zoom users need to use a special collaboration platform called Zoom Chat to attach and send messages to individuals, channels, and groups when not on Zoom calls.
3. Participant limits
It’s necessary to know the way many participants a video conferencing app will allow you to add. That’ll enable you to select an acceptable app in response to your organization’s size.
A. Microsoft Teams
A free version of the Microsoft Teams account means that you can create a gaggle of 100 participants. You can too add more participants with:
- Its basic paid plan that supports a session of 300 attendees.
- A Microsoft Office account that helps you to add 20,000 listen-only participants.
- Live events that support 10,000 participants.
B. Zoom
The free Zoom plan supports 100 attendees per 40-minute group meeting.
Meanwhile, you may add a maximum of 500 participants with its Zoom Enterprise paid plan. If you might have a bigger enterprise, you may all the time increase the meeting participants by purchasing an add-on.
Quick recap
Zoom supports 1000 attendees with its addon, while MS Teams users can only add 300 participants per session.
4. User interface
User interface refers to how well you should use an application or software.
Here’s an in depth comparison of the user interfaces of each apps:
A. Microsoft Teams
In MS Teams, users need to navigate across a stream of features comparable to different channels, teams, the Microsoft Office ecosystem, etc. So, it could take them a while to grow to be aware of the app and its infinite collaboration features.
But on the plus side, it opens up an entire recent world of collaboration amongst your employees that’ll help run your virtual office seamlessly.
B. Zoom
Zoom’s user interface is thought for its simplicity and ease of use. It embeds all its additional features within the settings, leaving the house screen with just the essential features.
The house screen also uses a visible hierarchy in color, size, and position, helping users easily find what they need. This manner, even individuals with the slightest technical knowledge can start using Zoom immediately.
Quick recap
In its quest to offer its users with a comprehensive collaboration experience, Teams needed to sacrifice a bit on ease of use. Alternatively, Zoom offers a straightforward, intuitive, and clear interface.
5. Room systems
A well-configured room system enhances your organization’s collaboration by providing top-notch audio conferencing, video meetings, and productivity features.
So, let’s try how well the room systems of MS Teams and Zoom fare:
A. Microsoft Teams
In Microsoft Teams, you may each enter a room or create one easily with just a couple of clicks. You can too add a channel for every of your organization’s departments, giving them an area of their very own to work individually and host exclusive group meetings.
Teams helps you to add around 300 people (paid account) for one session, and you may broadcast it to 10,000 people at a time.
You can too schedule individual or group meetings on the calendar or hold one at a moment’s notice. All of your meeting recordings shall be uploaded to your Onedrive or SharePoint account, and its links will get added to the chat.
It also provides additional features like whiteboards, screen sharing, live events, live captions in 28 languages, webinars, etc.
Microsoft Teams lets you might have just one meeting organizer for a room or video conference. Because of this nobody else can control the Microsoft Teams rooms of their absence. The host may also take part in a person breakout room and see their chat history.
B. Zoom
Much like Teams, you may assign a Zoom room to every virtual team in your organization. Users must wait in a waiting room until they’re assigned a breakout room.
You’ll be able to schedule meetings in Zoom by integrating the tool with default calendars like Google Calendar and Microsoft Outlook. Hosts can record the Zoom meeting, and these meeting recordings shall be stored either in Zoom portals or in your PC.
All Zoom invitations will either have a link or a Zoom meeting ID and password you can use to affix a gathering. You can too join with the phone number given within the invite link.
Zoom also helps you to assign hosts and co-hosts, making it easier to facilitate group meetings. Besides, Zoom certifies each integrators and hardware providers to supply a top quality Zoom room experience.
With Zoom, you too can share screens, conduct webinars, use whiteboards, and live captions.
Quick recap
Microsoft Teams and Zoom share similarities of their room systems like breakout room, whiteboard, screen sharing, webinars, etc.
Nevertheless, Zoom provides additional features comparable to multiple hosts, secure login, certified integrators, and hardware to make sure a top quality user experience.
6. Integrations
Integrations across various applications enable you to bring your information together and centralize your work. Additionally they allow you to incorporate different collaboration tools, enhancing your productivity.
Let’s compare integrations in Teams and Zoom:
A. Microsoft Teams
Teams offers integrations with the desktop versions of Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and other Microsoft Office tools comparable to Microsoft SharePoint, OneDrive, Microsoft Stream, Skype, etc. The fundamental Microsoft Office integrations can be found without cost users as well.
Teams also integrate with non-Microsoft tools comparable to:
- Adobe Creative Cloud.
- Mail Clark.
- Zapier.
- ClickUp.
- GitHub.
- Google tools (Google Meet, Google Drive, Google Workspace, etc.)
B. Zoom
Zoom offers 1000+ integrations within the Zoom Apps Marketplace, available to free and paid users.
A few of the integrations Zoom offers include:
Quick recap
Teams is a great option if you happen to use the Microsoft Office ecosystem because it provides tons of collaboration features with its own apps. Nevertheless, Zoom still offers more integrations than Microsoft Teams.
7. Security
As your work shifts online, it’s necessary to be certain that your whole organizations’ sensitive information and data are well-protected.
Here’s how Microsoft Teams and Zoom protect their users’ data:
A. Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams assures you a secure collaboration platform built on Microsoft 365’s enterprise grade cloud. For added security measures, you may all the time take the assistance of third-party cloud protection tools.
It also offers team and organization-wide two factor authentication, data encryption, and single sign-on through Active Directory. Moreover, Microsoft Teams provides advanced threat protection (ATP) for Teams and content shared across all integrated apps.
For instance, if a file you received is malicious, ATP helps you detect if it’s malicious and blocks users’ access to this content.
B. Zoom
After a couple of security scares prior to now, Zoom has diligently worked on its security – aiming to offer one of the best for its users.
It encrypts all voice calls, video chat, and screen sharing with a 256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard. You can too decide to activate end to finish encryption for every video meeting. This assures that no third party, including Zoom, can access your sessions.
Your chats in Zoom are also subjected to Advanced Chat Encryption in order that only the intended recipient receives the message.
Quick recap
Zoom continues to boost its security measures, while Microsoft has already established itself as a reliable, secure platform.
8. Pricing
Let’s have a look at the pricing plans of those service providers:
A. Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams offers a free version with limited features, and its paid plans include each personal in addition to business plans.
The private plans for a single user are priced at $6.99 and at $9.99 for six people.
While Teams business plans are as follows:
Free Plan:
- 60-minute video call sessions.
- Supports 100 members per session.
- Chat and collaboration for 500k members.
- And more.
Microsoft 365 Business Basic ($6 user/month)
- Meetings of 300 attendees
- Web and mobile versions of Office apps
- Cloud storage of 1TB
- And more.
Microsoft 365 Business Standard ($12.50 user/month)
- Webinars.
- Premium desktop versions of Office 365.
- Attendee registration and reporting tools.
- And more.
Microsoft 365 Premium ($22 user/ month)
- Advanced security.
- Cyber threat protection.
- Advanced device management options
- And more.
Microsoft Teams also offers a 30-day free trial.
B. Zoom
Zoom offers the next pricing plans:
Free plan:
- Unlimited 1:1 calls.
- 100 participants per meeting.
- 40-minute group meetings.
- And more.
Zoom Pro ($12.49 user/month)
- Unlimited whiteboards.
- 30-hour group meetings.
- Large Meeting add-on helps you to add 1000 members for $50 a month.
- And more.
Zoom Business ($18.32 user/month)
- 300 participants per session.
- Managed domains
- Company branding.
- And more.
Zoom Enterprise (Contact sales)
- All features of Business and Pro plans
- Supports 1000 participants.
- And more.
Quick recap
Microsoft Teams’ paid plans start as little as $6/month, offering basic features which could be an enormous help for small businesses. It also provides a 30-day free trial for its paid plans.
Alternatively, Zoom’s paid plans are barely expensive, ranging from $12.49. But it surely offers interesting features like add-ons so as to add more participants. It also provides an infinite free plan with basic features.
Final verdict
Each Microsoft Teams and Zoom have their strengths and weaknesses.
Microsoft Teams could be one of the best option for people already using Office 365 and small businesses on the lookout for a less expensive premium plan.
Meanwhile, Zoom offers a user-friendly interface, more integrations, and the next participant limit.
And while each function as standalone apps, you too can integrate them with other apps for max functionality. You should use Teams for internal communication while using Zoom for external meetings with clients.
Ultimately, one of the best video conferencing app is the one which meets your corporation needs. So use our detailed comparison of Microsoft Teams vs Zoom to make the precise alternative to your company!