Comparison of Zoom and Microsoft Teams

The following gives a feature comparison of Zoom and Microsoft Teams and an explanation of how to use specific key features within Microsoft Teams.

Meeting types

A comparison of Zoom and Teams meeting types
Meeting type	Zoom	Teams
Standard meetings	Yes	Yes
Recurring meetings	Yes	Yes
Channel meetings	No	Yes
Personal meeting ID's¹	Yes	No
Webinars²	Yes	Yes
Town Halls³	No	Yes

¹ A personal meeting ID in Zoom is a permanent number that is assigned to your account and can be used by anyone that has the number to join a meeting with you at any time. For this reason it should be used with caution. There is no direct equivalent in Microsoft Teams, however you can use the Meet now function to start an instant meeting at any time, or a recurring calendar invitation.(Note that this links to Microsoft content)
² Webinars are large scale events with audience participation, for internal or external audiences
³ Town Halls are large scale broadcast events, primarily for internal audiences and with minimal interaction

Core features

A comparison of Zoom and Teams core features
Core feature	Zoom	Teams
Participant Capacity	Meetings and webinars up to 500 attendees with a standard licence Additional capacity is available on request as follows: Webinar: 1000, 3000 or 10,000 attendees Meeting: 1000 attendees	Meetings and webinars up to 1000 attendees for staff members as standard. Use of breakout rooms limits the number of attendees in the meeting to 300. Town hall: 10,000 attendees as standard, up to 20,000 attendees with a Teams Premium licence (available on request).
Chat	Meeting only chat. Ongoing chat available via Zoom app.	Meeting chat ongoing and ingrates with Teams chat.
Screen sharing	Yes	Yes
File sharing	Yes – within chat only	Yes – integrated with OneDrive/SharePoint
Recording	Yes – saved locally or in the cloud	Yes – saved in the cloud (OneDrive/SharePoint)
Transcription	Yes	Yes

Scheduling a meeting in Microsoft Teams

Meetings in Microsoft Teams can be set up either from the Outlook desktop app, Outlook on the Web, or from the Teams app. See the Microsoft guides below for instructions on how to schedule a meeitng:

Meetings with external attendees

External users can be invited to a Teams meeting by sending the Teams meeting invitation to their email address. The experience will vary depending on whether they have a guest account in UCL's Microsoft environment. Externals would have a guest account if they have previously been invited to join a Microsoft Team at UCL.

Externals can click on the one-click join link to connect to the Teams meeting.

All external users will need to wait in the 'lobby' and be admitted to the meeting.

If the external person has a guest account, the name from their guest account will be automatically shown in the meeting. External people who do not have a guest account will have to enter the name they wish to be displayed in the meeting. Once they have done this they will have to enter a CAPTCHA for verification before being placed in the lobby.

Additional features

Breakout rooms

Breakout rooms are available in both Zoom and Teams webinars and meetings, however Teams has a lower maximum capacity for attendees and rooms, and participants cannot self-select their breakout rooms.

Comparison of breakout rooms in Zoom and Teams
Breakout room	Zoom	Teams
Maximum attendees	1000 (meeting) 5000 (webinar)	300 (meeting or webinar)
Maximum breakout rooms	100 (meeting) 200 (webinar)	50
Allow attendees to self select room	Yes	Yes; option must be set by organiser.

The following Microsoft guide gives a detailed explanation of how to manage breakout rooms in Microsoft Teams.

Recording a Teams meeting

Recordings for scheduled Teams meetings are saved to the OneDrive of the meeting organiser, even if they did not start the recording or attend. Recordings are stored in the Recordings folder.

Recordings for 1:1 and group calls are saved to the OneDrive of the user who selected record

Recordings for meetings in a Teams channel are saved to the document library of the Team in the Recordings folder

Comparison of additional features in Zoom and Teams meetings

Comparison of additional features in Zoom and Teams meetings
Additional feature	Zoom	Teams
Whiteboard	Yes	Yes
Can add co-presenters?	Yes	Yes
Participant controls available?	Yes	Yes
Waiting room/lobby	Yes	Yes
Lockable meetings	Yes	Yes
Assigning participant roles	Yes	Yes
Passcodes	Yes	Yes
Moodle integration	Yes	No (in development)

Device Availability

Device	Zoom	Teams
Desktop	Yes	Yes
Web browser	Yes	Yes
Mobile	Yes	Yes