Google Meet vs Wire

Google Meet

Capacity is genuinely published — 100 to 1000 participants depending on plan, 24-hour meetings, noise cancellation from Standard, in-domain live streaming at Enterprise. But the evidence never mentions a screen share, a breakout room, a mute control or what happens when half my class joins on a weak mobile signal, and anchor five requires exactly those — so I stop just under it.

Wire

Video conferences are published at up to 150 participants on the paid team plan, but I found no public information on breakout rooms, on mute-all or other host moderation, or on how a call behaves when someone's connection drops to one bar — the three things my classroom needs most. Screen sharing in a call is never stated outright; the sharing that is documented is file sharing, and capacity above the team tier sits behind custom pricing.

Google Meet

Judged on documented mechanism, and the evidence documents none: the privacy policy never states what is encrypted, against whom, or who holds keys. No fact names a lobby, a passcode or host-controlled admission either; the closest things are Enterprise DLP and context-aware access, which are directory rules, not meeting encryption — silence lands at the bottom.

Wire

The strongest encryption record I have judged: end-to-end encryption covers text, voice, video and files by default, the cryptography is MLS with its key management explained, the source is open and independently audited, and the vendor states plainly that it has no access to encryption keys and uses no backdoors. Participants can verify each other's device fingerprints and ID Shield checks identity against your own identity provider. I hold back a point only because a lobby or per-meeting access policy is not documented — guest access rests on password-protected links.

Google Meet

Nothing on the evidence says a student can join from a browser without installing anything, join as a guest without an account, dial in by phone, or get live captions — the plan tables list participant counts and AI add-ons and stop there. The single reach-adjacent fact is 'real-time speech translation' sold as a paid add-on, which is not captions and not included. By the anchors, silence on all of this is the bottom, not the middle.

Wire

Guests can join by link with a password, which I value, but that is where the reach story ends: I found no public information on joining from a browser without an install, on telephone dial-in, on live captions, or on an accessibility statement. For the half of my class on a phone in a dead spot, and for the ones who need captions and keyboard operation, I cannot promise them a way in from what is published.

Google Meet

Recording arrives at Standard and attendance tracking at Plus, Vault gives admins retain/archive/search, and domain admins can restrict some settings — real tooling. But no fact says who may record, whether the room is told, where the recording is stored, or for how long it lives, and nothing says attendance tracking can be switched off for a works council. That is anchor three's shape: the feature exists, the governance is manual and unstated.

Wire

I found no public information on recording at all — who may record, whether participants are told, where a recording is stored, or how long it is kept. The documented retention windows cover logs and usage data rather than recordings, and the admin console's switches govern file sharing and guest links but say nothing about capture, so a works council has nothing here to read or to switch off.

Google Meet

Room hardware exists as a separately sold add-on, and Plus brings Secure LDAP, endpoint management and Vault — genuine stack presence. But the evidence documents no calendar integration, no SSO mechanism, no API, and no way to run the product anywhere but Google's cloud; anchor five needs the first three of those, so I sit just under it.

Wire

Identity and deployment are well covered: SAML single sign-on, SCIM provisioning, an open-source SDK with sample apps and webhooks, and a genuine on-premises option with the same MLS protection as the cloud. The two staples of a working week I look for are silent — I found no public information on calendar integration or meeting-room system support — and the marketplace itself is announced as coming in late 2025, with the captured pages describing the SDK's supported languages differently.

Google Meet

The pipeline computes 0/10 and I mostly agree: provenance is Google LLC in California, the UK controller is Google LLC in Mountain View, media routing and data residency are unknown, and the only named subprocessors are 'affiliates and other trusted businesses'. The slivers are Google Ireland Limited as controller for EEA users and 'enterprise data regions' locked behind the unpriced Enterprise tier — a crack of light, not a guarantee, and I weigh this heavily.

Wire

Media and metadata sit on servers in Germany and Ireland, the subprocessor list is published with locations, analytics are self-hosted in the EU, and the one US entry — Stripe for payments — is named alongside documented transfer safeguards. I weigh the gaps heavily: the contracting entity is Wire Swiss GmbH in Zug, outside the EU, with a Berlin-registered EU representative, and the identity of the hosting provider is not confirmed on the captured pages; an on-premises option exists for those who must remove the question entirely.

Google Meet

Per-user euro prices, billing period, the 16% annual discount, participant caps and pooled storage allowances are public per plan — better than most. But Enterprise, the only tier with 1000 participants and streaming, is 'Let's talk', every add-on is 'sold separately' and unpriced, and dial-in and VAT treatment are unmentioned — a school with 301 teachers cannot compute its annual invoice from these pages.

Wire

Per-person prices are public with the billing period stated — "€7.45" per person/month for annual payment, "€8,94 per person/month" for monthly — and limits are given for chat groups and for 150-participant video conferences. But I found no public information on dial-in rates, recording storage, VAT treatment or minimum term, and everything above 100 people moves to custom pricing, so a buyer cannot compute the annual invoice from public pages alone.