If you are running an online academy or planning to start a tutoring business – this question must have definitely crossed your mind.
Whether you are offering group sessions or 1-on-1 sessions, choosing the right video conferencing platform is crucial for the success of your tutoring business. Google Meet and Zoom have emerged as two of the most popular choices among teachers. This blog will delve into a comprehensive comparison of Zoom vs Google Meet, examining key factors such as participant capacity, User-friendliness, interactive tools, pricing, and integration with educational resources.
TL:DR: Zoom Vs Google Meet
- Google Meet – Limited features but easy to use. Best for small tutoring businesses (<10 teachers)
- Zoom – Extensive features and automations. Best for medium to large businesses (>10 teachers)
Zoom Vs Google Meet: 7 key factors to consider
- Pricing
- Interactive features
- User interface
- Recording and storage options
- Meeting Length
- Automations and Customizations
- Data consumption and performance
1. Pricing
Google meet ends up being cheaper than Zoom. Additionally, you get to subscribe to Google Workspace which includes all the workspace features such as Mail, Drive, etc.
Google Workspace pricing
- Starter: $6/user/month
- Standard: $12/user/month
- Plus: $18/user/month
- Enterprise: Custom
- Free plan available for individuals; paid plans available for organizations
- Pro: $15.99/user/month
- Business: $21.99/user/month
- Enterprise: Custom
Both the platforms offer free plan as well.
Google Meet Pricing | Zoom Pricing
2. Interactive features: Zoom Vs Google Meet
Zoom is the clear winner here.
Zoom has far better interactive features than Google meet. It has more advanced screensharing options which are critical for engagement. Unlike Meet which has simple polls, on Zoom you can have a variety of polls and quizzes.
Additionally, Zoom has an inbuilt annotations tool which is critical for online teaching. On Meet the workaround for that would be using Miro or some other third-party digital whiteboard.
Besides, given that Zoom is developer friendly, there are bunch of tools and platforms such as Wise, Lens, Class, etc which offer many engagement and interactive tools on top of Zoom.
For Google meet you may have to rely on third-party plugins. However, they don’t work on mobile devices.
3. User Interface
Both the platforms have extremely simple user interface. However, as it is true with other google products, Meet has a more minimalistic interface making it easy on the eye. So, educators may find Google Meet easier to use as compared to Zoom.
Google meet has an easier interface at the cost of fewer features. So, given that difference between Meet and Zoom in terms of user interface is minimal – its not advised to make the decision based on this factor.
4. Recording and storage options
Recording sessions has become a critical requirement in all types of tutoring businesses. Recordings are helpful for students to review the session and for the business owner to audit their sessions. While selecting a video conferencing tool make sure it has the kind of recording options you need. Additionally, choose an LMS that automates the recordings and sharing of the same with your learners.
Zoom (Free or paid) will allow you to record your sessions on your PC. Google Meet does not support recording on device. On paid plans you can record your sessions to cloud on both, Meet and Zoom.
If you do plan to record your sessions, you should definitely go for Zoom given the ease of usage of the recording feature and more flexibility around storage options.
5. Meeting Length: Zoom vs Google Meet
For free plans – Meet is better. On Meet you can take a meeting of up to 60 minutes where as on Zoom its a 40 minutes time limit. In both cases the participant limit is 100.
For paid plans – Meet offers a limit of 24 Hrs where as Zoom offers a 30 Hrs limit. In paid plans Zoom can host up to 1000 participants where as Meet’s highest plan is 500 participants.
6. Automations and Customizations
Zoom offers extensive automations through its APIs and webhooks. Crucial daily tasks such as attendance, recording, etc can be very easily be automated on Zoom. If you have some tech capability you can easily use this APIs to create these automations on your own. Additionally, you can extract a lot of metrics from Zoom in addition to just attendance. However, there are many LMS for group or LMS for personalized tutoring in the market that have all the necessary automations built in.
Zoom also offers Web and native SDKs for you to complete customize your learner/instructor experience and build on top of Zoom. For example, Lens has a bunch of interactive and tracking features on Zoom. Such enhancements are almost impossible on Meet currently.
Meet has limited automations and customization options. There are some plugins which can automate simple tasks such as attendance on Meet. However, anything slightly more complex becomes extremely difficult to do given the limited APIs Meet has currently.
So if you run a medium to large tutoring business – Zoom should be your obvious choice. It gives you the flexibility to customize the learner experience or use an LMS that supports these customizations.
7. Data consumption and performance
I ran a few meetings, and observed that data consumption in Meet is significantly higher than Zoom. So if you want to optimize for data consumption or low internet speeds – Zoom seems like a better option.
Choosing the right video conferencing platform is crucial for the success of your tutoring business. While both Google Meet and Zoom offer robust features, the best choice depends on your specific needs and priorities. Google Meet excels in user-friendliness, seamless integration with Google Workspace tools, and cost-effective pricing, making it an excellent option for smaller tutoring groups and those already using Google’s ecosystem.
Zoom, on the other hand, provides advanced interactive features like breakout rooms and polls to engage students, offers extensive customization options, and boasts a wide range of third-party integrations, making it suitable for businesses requiring more robust tools.
Consider factors such as your budget, desired interactive features, and existing technology infrastructure to determine which platform aligns best with your tutoring objectives, ensuring an engaging and effective learning experience for your students.
