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Google Hangouts vs Zoom comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 3, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Google Hangouts
Ranking in Virtual Meetings
5th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
55
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Zoom
Ranking in Virtual Meetings
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
209
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Virtual Meetings category, the mindshare of Google Hangouts is 0.4%, down from 1.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zoom is 11.1%, down from 14.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Virtual Meetings
 

Featured Reviews

Pratiksha Volvoikar - PeerSpot reviewer
Simplified meeting management with intuitive layout options and an easy setup
I use Google Meet to set up meetings. I also use it to block my calendar for times when I am unavailable, such as during lunch We use Google Meet along with Google Calendar, which really helps with productivity. I appreciate that sharing the nine-digit code for meetings is simpler compared to…
Kallol Chaudhuri - PeerSpot reviewer
Helped us tremendously in collaborating with each other and getting our work done and offers the breakout rooms feature.
We are a team located across various locations. Not in the same geographic location. We are distributed. And it's not possible to physically travel and meet people. Sometimes it's simply not possible. But Zoom has helped us tremendously in collaborating with each other and getting our work done. Without Zoom, it would have been very, very difficult. The breakout rooms feature is also helpful. For example, I have a meeting attended by hundreds of people and want to create subgroups. I typically use it for different role-play scenarios during training if we are trying to conduct some training on presentation skills. So there's a large group, which is initially trained by an instructor. Then you get instructions that the room will be split into smaller breakout rooms. I'll give you a topic, and you'll practice in these smaller groups. That's one way I use it. So it's like a simulation of a real brainstorming session I'd have in a physical space.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"I think the simplicity of the whole thing is its valuable feature."
"Very good voice and video calling options."
"Google Meet is a clear and simple solution."
"The installation part of the product is easy since one generally needs to use a browser to use the product."
"The group chat is a very good feature, where you can see all of the participants on cameras."
"It is very easy to use and is available as soon as you open a Google account."
"The most valuable feature of Google Hangouts is there are no predefined or meeting durations. For example, Zoom meetings have a set duration, typically ranging from thirty minutes to an hour, whereas Google Meet meetings can continue indefinitely. Additionally, it is effortless to generate a meeting, whether it is a live session or for future use, and distribute your link to others, making these aspects appealing to me."
"The screen sharing is the most valuable feature. It ties in with Google docs and Google sheets so that we can work on a single document as a whole group of us at once. That's the biggest feature we rely on."
"Zoom did everything that we needed it to do."
"I don't have any issue with the pricing."
"The solution is easy to use and loads up documents for sharing."
"It was easy to use for screen sharing or sharing applications."
"The most valuable feature is the remote desktop because sometimes we have to intervene and control the client's infrastructure."
"Screen sharing is valuable. It is very easy to install, and there are 45 minutes free of charge."
"I don't have any issues with the scalability of Zoom."
"The collaboration features are good."
 

Cons

"The improvement needs to be done as per customer requirements."
"There is no recording feature in Google Meet. However, Zoom has the recording feature and we use it for any calls that require recording."
"In the next release, I would like to see call recording made available."
"The platform's screen-sharing feature and the participant panel could be improved."
"The user interface is an area with shortcomings and needs improvement."
"Google Hangouts restricts you to those with a Gmail account."
"As someone who is not very familiar with technology, I find it acceptable. I prefer to wait and see what they will come up with in the future. However, I notice that they keep introducing new features that are better than the previous ones."
"Google Meet could be more secure."
"The only thing that I can't get to work well is putting one of those little fancy wallpaper picture screens behind me during meetings so that I don't show my house or the room I'm attending from. Everyone is basically working remotely at this point. It would help to just have a neutral professional background for meetings that's easy to add."
"The solution is pricier than its competitors."
"The privacy settings need to be more apparent, otherwise anyone can wander into meeting rooms and disrupt them."
"When you join a meeting in Zoom, you may feel it is difficult to find some windows until you click a few buttons to help you eventually get to the window you want to see."
"I don't have any particular issues, but I think the user interface could be improved. Previously, I used Microsoft Teams, where the chat, video, and audio options were all easily accessible in one place, making the user experience smoother. In Zoom, it's a bit more manual. For example, we must use external chat options like Slack and manually send the Zoom URL link to initiate a chat. In MicrosoftTeams, you can directly call and chat with someone from the contact list simultaneously."
"I have had the occasional problem with the connection and stability."
"The performance could be better."
"Zoom definitely has to be more secure, but I can't think of any anything else to change."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"There is a need to make certain payments towards the licensing costs attached to the product and some other tools that are included in the suite offered by Google. Google Hangouts alone as a product is available for free."
"I don't need to buy Google Hangouts separately because it comes free with Google Workspace, and it is also available for my personal Gmail ID."
"This solution is available for free with the opening of a Google account."
"For individual use, there's no license requirement as such. For storage or some other purposes, if I go beyond 15 GB, then I need to buy something."
"There is an annual subscription to use this solution."
"Google Hangouts has reasonable pricing, but I don't use the paid version because I only have a small budget, though you get more features from the paid version."
"I pay $6 per user per month for Gmail, Google Drive, and Google Hangouts."
"We access the solution through Google Workspace. It is inexpensive to use."
"We are using the free version of Zoom."
"There is a 40-minute time limit when you use the basic version, which is free."
"I use the free version of Zoom that is available for download."
"Has a paid account for multiple users as well as a free option."
"I am using the free version."
"The exact costs are handled on a corporate level, however, I understand that if you just want to own a license for your small business or something like that, it's around $300 a year, which is very reasonable."
"Zoom is a very cheaply priced video conferencing solution, and using this product has saved our business a lot of expense."
"I use the tool's free version."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
97%
Computer Software Company
1%
Financial Services Firm
0%
Retailer
0%
Educational Organization
92%
University
1%
Financial Services Firm
1%
Computer Software Company
1%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Google Hangouts?
It's integration with Google is the valuable feature.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Google Hangouts?
I can't comment on the pricing as I have no idea about it.
What needs improvement with Google Hangouts?
The filtering is good. That said, sometimes, due to system restrictions, I can't use blur effects or other filters. The chat feature could be improved to allow tagging users for notifications.
LucidChart vs LucidSpark for brainstorming sessions over Zoom
Hi @Krista Thompson ​ - Yes, LucidSpark is a much more nimble and, in some ways, user-friendly tool than LucidChart. LucidSpark is designed to do a better job managing multiple users participating ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Zoom?
There is a concern about the free version's forty-five-minute limit. For education use, having more affordable access through institutions would be beneficial.
 

Comparisons

No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Fortinet, Veeva, Proofpoint, Box, Ticketmaster, Trend Micro, Caesars Entertainment, Santa Clara University, Pandora, Stanford Continuing Studies
Find out what your peers are saying about Google Hangouts vs. Zoom and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.
845,040 professionals have used our research since 2012.