Zoom vs. Google Meet: When Should I Use Each Tool?

K.C. Kourtz Updated by K.C. Kourtz

It can be challenging to determine when Zoom or Google Meet is the best tool for your needs. The chart below should help you decide which tool makes sense for your meetings. If you would like a consultation or support to use any of these tools, please contact Rhianon Gutierrez and K.C. Kourtz.

Before using any of these tools, we recommend that you review our Zoom and Google Meet Safety Tips. If you are a teacher who wants to use Zoom, we recommend that you access it via Clever.

Capability/

Consideration

Zoom

Google Meet

How to Sign Up

Go to Clever and look for Zoom under "Staff Links."

Sign in with your BPS Gmail and select Meet from the 9-dot "waffle" Google Apps menu in the upper-right corner of your BPS Gmail, schedule a meeting through Google Calendar or go to meet.google.com.

Tutorials

Target Audience

  • Students
  • Teachers
  • Administrators
  • Central Office
  • Students
  • Teachers
  • Administrators
  • Central Office

Best For...

Meetings under 40 minutes

Meetings with up to 250 people where only video, audio, and screen sharing is needed

Live streaming for up to 100,000 viewers using the BPS domain only (bostonk12.org, bostonpublicschools.org)

Recording

Yes; but this feature is currently disabled for teacher accounts.

Yes; but this feature is currently disabled for BPS accounts.

Screen sharing

Yes

Yes

Maximum number of participants

100 (Basic); 300 (Licensed)

250

Features

  • Live transcription with saved transcript
  • Language interpretation (Licensed only)
  • Breakout rooms
  • Polling (Licensed only)
  • Alternative hosts (Licensed only)
  • Virtual filters and backgrounds
  • Online whiteboard capability
  • Google SSO
  • Google Calendar embedded (via Chrome extension)
  • Enhanced meeting security controls
  • Live auto captioning of spoken English
  • Live auto captioning that translates from a spoken language to another (i.e. English dialogue to Spanish captions)
  • File Sharing (via in-meeting chat)
  • Google Calendar embedded
  • Background blur and virtual backgrounds
  • Polls
  • Breakout rooms

How did we do?

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