Google Meet Competitors & Alternatives
The information in this article is based on our research, interviews with customers of the platforms, and dozens of hours hand-testing each platform. The details of our review process can be found in this description of our research methodology.
With millions of users, Google Meet is one of the best video conferencing options for small businesses. It’s not nearly as powerful or feature-rich as top players like Zoom or Microsoft Teams, but nonetheless, it offers fantastic value and the ultimate ease of use.
Google Meet is a fantastic video conferencing software for freelancers and small businesses. It’s the most user-friendly platform on the market and comes at an incredible value, especially if you already use Google Workspace. Because it’s in the same suite of tools, Google Meet integrates seamlessly with other Google Workspace applications including Gmail and Google Drive.
There are five video conferencing tools we believe are worth consideration before you choose Google Meet. They differentiate based on participant limits, webinar features, and additional capabilities. It’s important to understand who each solution was built for as that will dictate how well each tool will mesh with your business. For example, though Zoom has a high-quality free plan, it has the most advanced video conferencing features and therefore is also appropriate for enterprise customers.
Here’s a breakdown of our review criteria. We rate each software tool based on their features, usability, pricing, and customer support availability. Here’s how Google Meet’s competitors rank in each category.
| Software Company | Analyst Rating | Features | Usability | Pricing | Customer Support |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zoom | 92 | 10 | 9 | 8 | 9 |
| Microsoft Teams | 91 | 10 | 8 | 9 | 8 |
| Google Meet | 89 | 8 | 10 | 10 | 8 |
| Webex | 88 | 9 | 9 | 8 | 9 |
| BlueJeans | 87 | 9 | 8 | 8 | 10 |
| GoToMeeting | 86 | 9 | 9 | 8 | 8 |
Throughout this article, we’ll provide a comprehensive overview of Google Meet and list the most popular competitors and alternatives for you to consider. For a more in-depth description of Google Meet, read the full Google Meet review.
Table of Contents
- Google Meet’s Top Features
- Google Meet Competitor Overview: Features
- Google Meet Competitor Overview: Pricing
- Top Google Meet Competitors
- Bottom Line
Google Meet’s Top Features
Google Meet offers the standard video conferencing features, albeit without webinar capabilities. Otherwise, features like participant limits, screen sharing, and participant actions are relatively on par with the top competitors.
| Google Meet Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Meeting Time Limit | The free version of Google Meet allows users to meet one-on-one for 24 hours, or in group meetings for up to an hour. The paid plans allow you to host group meetings for 24 hours. |
| Unlimited Meetings | Having unlimited meetings is crucial because it won’t hinder your ability to hop on a call with coworkers or customers at any time. |
| 100-250 Participant Limit | The free plan allows 100 participants to be on a call at once. The Enterprise plan allows for 250 participants, and while most small businesses will likely not need such a high limit, it’s helpful to know that there is so much flexibility. |
| Screen Sharing | Screen sharing is one of the most crucial aspects of video conferencing software. With Google Meet, hosts or participants can share one tab, an entire window, or their whole screen with the group. |
| Hand-Raising and Polls | In the paid plans, Google Meet allows participants to raise their hands and participate in polls. These are slightly more advanced features but ones that are crucial for participant engagement. |
| Dial-In | Having dial-in capabilities is important for employees who may not have access to a laptop or the Google Meet mobile application. In these cases, participants can dial the number provided in the meeting invitation, key in a PIN number, and join the call via audio. |
| Closed Captions | Google Meet enables live closed captions in multiple languages, which makes video meetings more accessible. |
| Storage - with Google Drive | The free plan and the Individual Plan have a 15GB Google Drive storage limit, while the Enterprise Plan has unlimited storage. |
Google Meet Competitor Overview: Features
This chart shows you the main features found in video conferencing software platforms, and compares which solution offers what. The main features you will want to pay attention to are the meeting time limits and participant limits, as those are what will hinder your business most if they’re too restrictive.
Google Meet Competitor Overview: Pricing
Google Meet has an entirely free plan, which many competitors also offer. The free version of Google Meet is slightly less restrictive than other free plans because there’s an hour-long time limit, as opposed to 40 minutes with Zoom or 50 minutes with Webex.
The table below displays the pricing for just the video conferencing features. Add-on features and separate webinar pricing are not included here, and will come at an additional monthly or yearly price on top of these rates.
| Video Conferencing Software | Pricing |
|---|---|
| Google Meet |
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| Zoom |
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| Microsoft Teams |
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| Webex |
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| BlueJeans |
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| GoToMeeting |
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Top Google Meet Competitors
Google Meet is fairly similar to all the other tools below, though not quite as nuanced as industry leaders like Zoom or Microsoft Teams. Considering the balance between features, pricing, and usability, we found that Google Meet is in the middle of the pack for small business video conferencing software.
The top Google Meet competitors are:
- Zoom
- Microsoft Teams
- Webex
- BlueJeans
- GoToMeeting
1: Zoom
Zoom is the most popular video conferencing platform in the world with more than 300 million daily meeting participants. It’s both more expensive and more powerful than Google Meet, with higher participant limits and the best webinar functionality in the space. Google Meet’s free plan is slightly more beneficial, given that customers can hold hour-long meetings rather than being cut off at 40 minutes.
- You want to conduct hour-long meetings for free
- You already utilize Google Workspace or Gmail for your business
- Your business does not have any use for webinars
- You want more features and higher participant limits
- You want to make use of webinars for your business
- You have a higher budget for your video conferencing software
2: Microsoft Teams
Among video conferencing tools, Microsoft Teams is the most similar to Google Meet. It’s part of the Office365 suite of tools, much like Google Meet is part of Google Workspace, and both are slightly less feature-rich than alternatives.
The choice between these will come down to whether your business already uses Microsoft or Google tools. If your business uses neither, we recommend Microsoft Teams simply because you have the option to add more features and webinar functionality to your plan.
- You already use Google Workspace or Gmail
- You don’t need webinar functionality
- You want a slightly more user-friendly interface
- You already use other Office365 tools
- You need to use webinars for your business
- You’re interested in free chat and cloud storage
3: Webex
Webex is a mid-tier video conferencing platform that combines affordable video conferencing and audio call plans. Compared with Google Meet, it’s a tad less user-friendly, and the Webex free plan caps meetings at 50 minutes. However, the free plan includes polling, hand-raising, and breakout sessions, which Google Meet only offers in the paid plans.
If you don’t mind something slightly less straightforward, Webex is a suitable alternative to Google Meet.
- You already use Google Workspace for your business
- You want longer meetings on the free plan
- You want a more user-friendly platform
- You don’t mind 50-minute meetings on the free plan
- You want an otherwise robust free plan
- You want access to Facebook live streaming
4: BlueJeans
BlueJeans is one of the only video conferencing platforms without a free plan, though the plans are still quite affordable. The software is reliable nonetheless, and it’s more feature-rich in general than Google Meet.
- You’d like to make use of the free plan
- You do not need free meetings to extend past an hour
- You’d like to pay per person rather than per license
- You want ready access to customer support teams
- You don’t need a free plan for your business
- You want to make use of webinar features
5: GoToMeeting
GoToMeeting has generally higher participant limits than Google Meet, but like BlueJeans, GoToMeeting does not offer a free plan. GoToMeeting also has integrations with top business tools like Salesforce.
We recommend Google Meet over GoToMeeting for most small businesses because it’s a better value. However, GoToMeeting is still worth considering because it’s one of many GoTo products, including GoToWebinar and GoToConnect.
- You want video conferencing features for free
- You want a more modern, user-friendly interface
- You’d like to use Google Meet in conjunction with other Google tools
- You want to use other GoTo products for your business
- You want one of the most advanced webinar providers on the market
- You want more available customer support
Bottom Line
Google Meet is the most user-friendly video conferencing software. Though you cannot host webinars with Google Meet, the platform still offers mid-tier power and will be of significant value to any business that already uses Gmail or Google Workspace. Its main drawback is that the video quality can decrease if your internet connection isn’t strong, which we didn’t find as often in the alternatives.
Here’s a quick recap of who we recommend each video conferencing software for:
- If you’re looking for the most sophisticated video conferencing software, look into Zoom
- If you want a high-power platform for a relatively low monthly cost or already use Office365, check out Microsoft Teams
- If you’d like an affordable combined video conferencing and call plan, check out Webex
- If you’d like a mid-tier video conferencing platform with a webinar add-on, consider using BlueJeans
- If you’re interested in bundling your video conferencing platform with webinar or phone software, consider GoToMeeting