Two platforms, two different entry points
Zoom and Google Meet both do the same core thing: put two or more people on a video call. But they got there from completely different directions, and that shapes almost everything about how they work.
Zoom launched in 2013 as a standalone product built specifically for video conferencing. It was not attached to any email platform or productivity suite. That independence is part of why it became the default in so many businesses — it works regardless of what email or calendar system you use, and guests do not need a Google account or a Microsoft account to join. They just click a link.
Google Meet came out of Google's broader productivity stack. It used to be called Google Hangouts Meet, and before that it lived inside Hangouts. Today it is tightly woven into Google Calendar and Gmail. If you schedule a meeting in Google Calendar, a Meet link is already there. If you use Google Workspace — the paid suite that includes Gmail, Drive, Docs, and Calendar — Meet is part of what you are already paying for. No additional line item.
"Zoom built a video conferencing company. Google built video conferencing into a company. That difference shapes everything downstream."
Quick comparison: Zoom vs Google Meet
| Feature | Zoom | Google Meet |
|---|---|---|
| Free tier | Yes — unlimited 1:1, group calls capped at 40 min | Yes — 60-min limit, requires Google account |
| Paid pricing | Pro $15.99/user/mo · Business $19.99/user/mo | Included in Google Workspace ($6–$18/user/mo) |
| Guest experience | Desktop app recommended; browser join works but is limited | Browser only, no download required for guests |
| Google ecosystem fit | Works independently; Google Calendar integration available | Native — auto-links in Google Calendar and Gmail |
| Breakout rooms | Yes — full control, pre-assign participants | Available on paid Workspace plans only |
| Webinars | Zoom Webinars — paid add-on, purpose-built | No dedicated webinar product |
| AI features | AI Companion — summaries, next steps, chat assist | Gemini integration — transcripts, notes, summaries |
| Recording | Cloud recording on paid plans; local on free | Cloud recording on paid Workspace plans |
| Max participants | Up to 1,000 (large meeting add-on) | Up to 1,000 (paid Workspace tiers) |
| Best for | Non-Google users, webinars, breakout sessions, larger meetings | Google Workspace teams, simple client calls, zero-friction guest joins |
Zoom deep dive
Zoom's free tier is genuinely functional for a lot of small businesses. One-on-one calls have no time limit. Group meetings hit a 40-minute cap, which is a real constraint if your client consultations run longer — but for quick check-ins and discovery calls, it is workable. The Pro plan at $15.99 per user per month removes the time limit and adds cloud recording, which matters if you want transcripts or need to share a recording with a client after the call. Business at $19.99 per user per month adds features like company branding on the waiting room and managed domains.
Where Zoom wins:
- It works without a Google account. Clients on Microsoft, Apple, or any other ecosystem just click a link. No friction from account requirements.
- Breakout rooms are genuinely well-built. You can pre-assign participants, set time limits, and move people between rooms. This matters for group workshops, team training sessions, and anything where you need to split a larger call into smaller working groups.
- Zoom Webinars is a dedicated product for hosting webinars — not a workaround. Registration pages, Q&A management, panelist roles, polling, and post-webinar analytics are all there. If webinars are part of how you market your business or train clients at scale, nothing in Google Meet comes close.
- The AI Companion — included on paid plans — generates meeting summaries, captures action items, and can answer questions about what was said earlier in the call. For consultants and service businesses doing lots of calls, this is a meaningful time saver.
- Zoom integrates with a wide range of third-party tools: Salesforce, HubSpot, Calendly, Slack, and hundreds more. The ecosystem is extensive.
- Virtual backgrounds, noise suppression, and audio quality have historically been strong — Zoom built its reputation on reliable video and audio even on weak connections.
Where Zoom has limitations:
- The 40-minute group call limit on the free tier is the most common friction point for small businesses. It catches people off guard mid-meeting.
- Guest experience is less seamless than Google Meet. Joining from a browser works, but Zoom really wants guests to have the desktop app installed. Clients who are not tech-savvy sometimes struggle with the install prompt.
- If your team already lives in Google Workspace, Zoom adds an extra tool and an extra monthly cost. You are paying for something Google Meet already provides.
- Webinar add-ons are priced separately and can get expensive — Zoom Webinars starts at around $79 per month for up to 500 attendees on top of your base plan.
Zoom pricing note: Free tier covers unlimited 1:1 calls — useful for solo practitioners doing one-on-one consultations. The 40-minute group cap is the main driver for upgrading to Pro at $15.99/user/month. If webinars matter to your business, budget the Zoom Webinars add-on separately.
Google Meet deep dive
Google Meet's best argument is the one that does not show up in a feature list: if you already use Google Workspace, you are already paying for it. The $6-per-user Business Starter plan gives your team Gmail, Google Drive, Google Docs, Google Calendar, and Google Meet. There is no "add Meet" checkbox. It is just there. For small businesses already in the Google ecosystem, that math is straightforward.
The free tier is more generous than Zoom's on time — 60 minutes versus 40 for group calls — though you do need a Google account to host a meeting. Guests do not need an account to join, just a browser link.
Where Google Meet wins:
- No download required for guests. Click the link in any modern browser, grant camera and microphone access, and you are in the meeting. No install prompt, no version conflict, no "your Zoom is out of date" screen. For clients who are not technical, this eliminates the most common pre-call friction.
- Google Calendar integration is seamless. Schedule a meeting in Calendar and a Meet link is already in the invite. No copy-pasting links, no separate tool to open. The entire scheduling-to-video workflow lives in one place.
- If your business already pays for Google Workspace, Google Meet costs nothing extra. At $6 to $18 per user per month depending on the Workspace tier, you get a full productivity suite. Zoom's Pro plan is $15.99 per user per month on top of whatever else you are already paying for.
- Gemini AI features on paid Workspace plans generate meeting notes, transcripts, and summaries — comparable to Zoom's AI Companion in practice.
- Google Meet is simple. The interface has fewer options, fewer settings, fewer things to configure. For teams that just need reliable video calls and do not want to manage another complex platform, that simplicity is the feature.
- Noise cancellation and live captions (including translated captions on paid plans) work well.
Where Google Meet has limitations:
- Breakout rooms exist on paid Workspace plans but are less flexible than Zoom's — you cannot pre-assign participants before the meeting starts.
- There is no webinar product. If you want to host a formal webinar with registration, panelist controls, and attendee analytics, Google Meet is not the tool. You would need to use YouTube Live and stitch together a separate workflow.
- Clients without a Google account can join as guests, but they cannot co-host or use all features. It is less of an issue for client calls and more of an issue for collaborative team sessions with external partners who are not on Google.
- The feature set is intentionally lean. If you need advanced polling, granular breakout room control, or Zoom's depth of webinar infrastructure, Google Meet simply does not have it.
"For a small business that schedules everything in Google Calendar, Google Meet is the path of least resistance. The call link is already in the invite before you even think about it."
Pricing side-by-side
This is where the decision often gets made. Zoom and Google Meet are not directly comparable on price because Meet is bundled with a broader productivity suite.
If you already use Google Workspace: Google Meet costs you $0 extra. The calculation is simple — use what you are already paying for.
If you use Google Workspace but want Zoom anyway: You are paying for both. Workspace at $6+/user/month plus Zoom Pro at $15.99/user/month. That is a real line item to justify.
If you do not use Google Workspace: Zoom Pro at $15.99/user/month is a straightforward standalone cost. Google Meet is technically available free with a personal Google account, but without a Workspace subscription, hosting gets complicated and the business features are limited.
If you need webinars: Zoom Webinars is an add-on starting around $79/month for 500 attendees. Google has no equivalent product — budget Zoom if this matters.
Who each platform is actually for
Stop trying to pick based on feature lists alone. Two questions settle most of it.
First: are you in the Google ecosystem? If your business runs on Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Drive, using Google Meet is a no-brainer. The integration is not just convenient — it removes a whole category of friction from your workflow. Meeting links appear automatically, recordings land in Drive, and your team never has to open a different app.
Second: do your clients have Google accounts? For B2B businesses where clients are professionals with Google Workspace or Gmail, this is a non-issue. For B2C businesses serving a wide consumer base — some on Apple, some on Microsoft, some barely tech-literate — Zoom's no-account-required join experience is a meaningful advantage over requiring a Google login to host.
Choose Zoom when: Your team is not on Google Workspace. You host webinars or plan to. You run group workshops with breakout sessions. You have clients who may not have Google accounts and you want the cleanest possible join experience regardless of their setup.
Choose Google Meet when: Your team already uses Google Workspace. You want meeting links auto-generated in Google Calendar. You need simple, reliable video calls without an extra monthly cost. Your client calls are mostly 1:1 or small group consultations where basic video is all you need.
The overlap case: A team on Google Workspace that occasionally needs webinar capability does not need to abandon Meet entirely. Use Meet for day-to-day calls and client consultations. Add Zoom only when a webinar is on the calendar — or use a third-party webinar tool that connects to either platform.
Features worth paying attention to
AI meeting summaries
Both platforms now offer AI-generated meeting notes. Zoom's AI Companion is included on paid plans — it summarizes the conversation, identifies action items, and can answer questions about what was discussed. Google Meet's Gemini integration does the same on paid Workspace tiers. In practice, neither has a decisive edge here. Both save real time if you are doing multiple calls per day and do not want to write notes manually.
Recording and transcripts
Both platforms support cloud recording on paid plans. Zoom's local recording (to your computer) is available even on the free tier, which is a useful fallback. Google Meet's recordings save directly to Google Drive — convenient if your workflow already lives there. Transcripts require a paid plan on both platforms.
Screen sharing and collaboration
Both handle screen sharing fine. Google Meet lets you share a specific Chrome tab, which is useful when you want to show a client a document without them seeing your entire desktop. Zoom lets you annotate shared screens, which some instructors and consultants find useful during presentations.
The automation gap
Here is what neither platform tells you on their pricing page: the meeting itself is the easy part.
A service business running client calls has a whole sequence of work that happens around each meeting — and almost none of it is automated by default in Zoom or Google Meet. Before a discovery call, does the prospect receive a pre-call questionnaire 24 hours out? Do they get a confirmation with a link to your intake form, your pricing page, or relevant case studies? Does anyone check whether the Calendly link was actually booked, or just that a meeting exists on the calendar?
After a consultation, what happens? If you do not send a follow-up email within an hour, you are leaving money on the table — most service businesses know this and still do it manually. Or not at all. The proposal does not go out automatically. The CRM contact is not created unless someone logs it. The follow-up sequence does not start unless someone remembers to start it.
This is not a criticism of Zoom or Google Meet. They are video calling tools, not CRMs, not email automation platforms. But the gap is real. A completed consultation that does not trigger a follow-up sequence, a review request, or at minimum a CRM entry is a missed opportunity that compounds over time.
Zoom has webhook integrations and connects to Zapier, which means you can technically trigger downstream actions when a meeting ends. Google Meet does the same via Google Calendar events and Apps Script. But building those workflows — figuring out what should happen after each meeting type, wiring the integrations together, testing the edge cases — is the actual work. Most small businesses have not done it.
That is the problem Aplos AI solves. We build the automation layer that connects your video call platform to the rest of your business: the CRM entry after the call, the follow-up sequence that fires the moment the meeting ends, the pre-call prep email that goes out 24 hours before a discovery call, the no-show re-engagement workflow for clients who missed the meeting. Zoom or Google Meet handles the video. We handle everything wrapped around it.
Still manually sending follow-up emails after client calls? Logging CRM entries by hand? We map your meeting workflow in a free audit and show you exactly which steps can run automatically — regardless of whether you use Zoom or Google Meet.
Get a Free Automation Audit →The verdict
Zoom is the better standalone product. It has more features, a more established ecosystem, and a superior webinar infrastructure. If your business is not in the Google ecosystem and you need a reliable, full-featured video platform that works for everyone regardless of what accounts they have, Zoom is the safe choice. Pay for Pro, use the AI Companion, and you have a solid platform for client calls.
Google Meet wins on value and simplicity for teams already using Google Workspace. The economics are clear: it costs nothing extra if you are already on Workspace, the guest experience requires no download at all, and the Calendar integration removes friction from every meeting you schedule. If you live in Gmail and Google Calendar, switching to Meet for your calls is not a downgrade — it is a tighter workflow.
Neither platform, though, does anything about what happens after the call ends. That part is still on you — unless you build the automation.