Most UK businesses standardised on a video conferencing tool in 2020 and haven't seriously revisited the choice since. Five years on, that's a non-trivial mistake. The market has moved underneath you: Zoom's pricing has climbed, Microsoft Teams is dramatically more capable than its 2020 incarnation, Google Meet has become a credible standalone product, and a quiet Norwegian challenger (Whereby) has earned its place for some specific use cases.
The single most-overlooked fact in 2026 is this: if you're paying for Microsoft 365 and paying for Zoom Pro, you're almost certainly buying capability you've already paid for. Same for Google Workspace plus Zoom. The two tools you've bundled with the office productivity suite are now genuinely competitive — and the £15 per user per month you're paying Zoom on top is, for most general business meetings, no longer earning its keep.
Pick by your existing stack, not the brand you remember
Microsoft 365 shop: Microsoft Teams (included in M365 Business Standard at £9.40/user/month and above). Strong calendar integration with Outlook, meeting recording and AI summary included, generally reliable. Heavier client app than Meet or Zoom; external-guest experience improving but still slightly clunky; webinar features trail Zoom.
Google Workspace shop: Google Meet (included in Workspace Business Starter at £5.20/user/month and above). Browser-based, no install required for participants. Calendar integration with Google Calendar. AI features (auto-translation, summary, noise cancellation) included. Webinar features trail Zoom; recording requires paid Workspace tier.
Independent / multi-vendor team: Zoom for reliability and feature depth, or Whereby for lightweight no-install meetings. Zoom is £12-£20/user/month for the tiers most businesses need; Whereby is £8-£15/user/month for paid.
Heavy webinars, training, large events: Zoom still leads. Best webinar features, large-event handling, registration, breakout rooms.
Quick external meetings, no install required: Whereby. Browser-based, share a URL, the other person clicks, you're in. Custom branded URLs (yourname.whereby.com) and EU-resident infrastructure.
The three giants, what they're each best at
Microsoft Teams has matured dramatically since 2020. Bundled with M365 enterprise tiers (Business Standard, Premium, E3, E5). Strong Outlook integration, meeting recording with AI summary, integrated phone calls (with appropriate add-ons). The honest weakness: heavier client app, slower to load, and the external-guest experience is workable but not delightful.
Google Meet has matured into a credible standalone product. Lighter footprint than Teams or Zoom. AI features baked in. The free tier (60-minute meetings, up to 100 participants) is adequate for occasional non-Workspace use. Less third-party integration depth than Zoom.
Zoom remains the most-recognised brand and still has the best feature depth across specific use cases — large webinars, training events, breakout rooms. Reliability is excellent. Cross-platform consistency is best in class. The catch in 2026: pricing for serious use has climbed, and most businesses don't actually need Zoom-specific features. Most "Zoom features" are now in Teams or Meet.
Whereby (Norwegian, EU-resident infrastructure) has become a quiet favourite for consultants and small teams who want video meetings without heavy enterprise tooling. No install — share a URL, click, in. Custom branded URLs. EU-resident infrastructure is GDPR-friendly by default. Less feature depth than the giants; smaller participant limit on cheaper tiers; less brand recognition with clients.
The specialist alternatives worth knowing exist
- Loom — async video messages rather than live meetings; £8/user/month; complementary to live tools
- Riverside.fm — best for podcast-quality recorded interviews; not for general meetings
- Around.co — designed for collaborative work sessions, less formal than meetings
- Cisco Webex — still used by some enterprises, particularly with existing Cisco infrastructure
For most SMEs in 2026: stick with one of the main four; specialists complement, don't replace.
What two months of testing actually showed
For our M365 enterprise tester: Teams won clearly. Bundled, reliable, integrated. Adding Zoom on top couldn't justify the marginal cost.
For our Google Workspace tester: Meet was the obvious answer. Lightweight, reliable, bundled.
For our independent / multi-vendor team: Zoom won on reliability and external-guest experience. Whereby as backup for quick external meetings without install.
The pattern: the bundled tool almost always wins on cost-effectiveness when you're already paying for the productivity suite. The exception is when you specifically need feature depth Zoom has that the others don't (serious webinars, multi-region training events).
How I'd actually advise picking
Businesses on M365 (most UK SMEs): Teams. Stop paying separately for Zoom unless you have a specific webinar use case.
Google Workspace shops: Meet. Same logic.
Independent / multi-tool teams: Zoom Pro at £12/user/month if reliability and feature depth matter; Whereby for the same use case at lower cost if you can live with fewer features.
Consultants doing client meetings: Whereby if your clients vary in their tooling. The no-install approach is genuinely easier on the client side, and the URL-as-front-door is good UX.
What I'd swerve: Zoom Premium tiers unless you specifically run webinars; the gap to Pro is rarely justified for general business meetings.
What no tool fixes
- Bad meetings. No tool makes a poorly-run meeting good.
- Time zones. Async tools (Loom, async videos in Slack) often beat live meetings across distributed teams.
- Action item discipline. AI summaries help; follow-up is still on the human.
Affiliate disclosure: Morningfold has affiliate partnerships with Zoom, Microsoft, Google Workspace, and Whereby. Verdicts above are based on testing — see editorial standards.