Compare Zoom and Google Meet

Compare the features of Zoom (umn.zoom.us) and Google Meet (meet.google.com) to help you decide which tool is best for your needs. Google Meet natively integrates with Gmail and Google Calendar, but Zoom offers many additional features. 

Note: Health Care Component (HCC) members must take a training course about HCC requirements and wait up to one business day for access to their HCC Zoom accounts.

In this article:

When to Use

Zoom

  • Professional meetings and interviews that you want recorded
  • Hosting webinars
  • Large meetings

Google Meet

  • When needing automatic language translation 
  • Smaller, informal meetings
  • One-on-one meetings or interviews

Recording Capability

Zoom

Google Meet

  •  Yes, for non-HCC staff and faculty only

Screen Sharing

Zoom

  • Simultaneous screen sharing (the meeting host can allow multiple people to share the screen at the same time).
  • Annotation of screen sharing

Google Meet

  •  Only one person may share their screen at a time

Accessibility

Zoom

Google Meet

Maximum Number of Participants

Zoom

  • Up to 300 people in meetings
  • Up to 1000 people in webinars

Google Meet

  • Students: up to 100 people
  • Staff and faculty: up to 1000 people

Who Can Host?

Zoom

  • All faculty, staff, and students can host meetings.

  • Only faculty and staff can host webinars.

Google Meet

  • Faculty, staff, and students can host a Google Meet.

Who Can Attend?

Zoom

  • Anyone can attend meetings and webinars, including individuals outside of the University.

Google Meet

  • Anyone can attend meetings and webinars, including individuals outside of the University. However, users in China may have difficulty joining.

Data Considerations

Data usage for each of these applications varies widely based on factors such as how many people are attending the meeting and meeting settings used. For a benchmark on measuring how your device will perform with each of these applications, refer to the following resources:

Additional Features

Zoom

Google Meet

  • In-meeting chat with all meeting participants
  • Initiate virtual breakout sessions:
    • Meeting participants can be placed in breakout rooms to hold small-group discussions.This feature is for staff and faculty only. 
  • Spotlight a speaker
    • Set a primary active speaker for all participants
  • Pin a speaker 
    • Set your view to a specific speaker; this does not affect other participants
  • Hide other participant's video
  • Share a whiteboard (Jamboard) for group annotation

 Learn More

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