What Google Meet Cannot Do
Here is where the comparison starts to matter. Google Meet was built for workplace communication. It was not built for selling your time. The moment a client hands you money, you need infrastructure that Meet simply does not provide.
No Payment Collection
Google Meet has no mechanism for charging someone before they join a call. Zero. You cannot set a price, send a payment link, or gate access to a meeting behind a completed transaction. If you want to charge for sessions, you collect payment through a completely separate tool, Stripe, PayPal, Venmo, or an invoicing app, and then separately send the Google Meet link after you have confirmed receipt.
This creates friction in both directions. Clients have to pay in one place and get the meeting link from another. You have to manually verify payment before every session, or risk someone joining a session they have not paid for.
No Booking System
Google Meet does not have a scheduling interface. There is no booking page where clients can see your availability, select a service, and reserve a time. Scheduling happens via Google Calendar invites, which requires back-and-forth email negotiation ("Are you free Tuesday?" "How about Thursday?") or a separate scheduling tool.
To give clients a self-service booking experience, you need Calendly, Acuity, or a similar tool. That is another subscription and another integration.
No Automated Reminders
Google Calendar sends a default reminder 10-30 minutes before a meeting. That is it. There are no customizable reminder sequences (24 hours out, 1 hour out), no confirmation emails that reinforce what the client paid for, and no automated messages that help reduce no-shows. Custom reminders require a scheduling tool layered on top.
No Recording Management by Client
Google Meet records calls only on paid Google Workspace plans (Business Standard or above, $12/month per user). Recordings go to Google Drive, organized by date and meeting title. There is no connection between a recording and the client it belongs to. Finding the recording from a session with a specific client three weeks ago means digging through Google Drive manually.
No AI Session Summaries
Google Meet recently added AI transcription features, but they are workspace-focused (team meeting notes, action items for internal teams) and are not built around the coaching or consulting use case. There is no automatic post-session summary sent to your client. Writing session recaps after every call is a manual task that takes 15-20 minutes per session.
No Client Profiles or History
Google Meet does not know who your clients are. Each meeting exists in isolation. There is no record of how many sessions Sarah has had with you, what you covered in your last call with James, or which clients are overdue for a follow-up. Client management lives in a spreadsheet or a CRM you have to maintain separately.
No Public Booking Page or Branding
Google Meet does not have a public-facing profile page where potential clients can discover you, browse your services, see pricing, and book directly. You have a generic Google Meet URL. That is not a professional booking experience for someone paying $150-500 per session.
The DIY Google Meet Stack
To fill in all the gaps, here is what a functional paid session setup on Google Meet actually requires:
Google Workspace Business Standard: $12/month per user
Required for recording. The free version of Meet does not record.
Calendly Standard or Acuity Emerging: $12-20/month
For self-service booking and calendar sync. Without this, scheduling is manual email back-and-forth.
Stripe for payment: 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction
Calendly's paid plan supports Stripe integration for payment collection at booking time. Without this connection, you are chasing payments manually.
Something for client management: $0-30/month
Spreadsheet if you are disciplined, Notion for slightly better organization, or a CRM like HubSpot's free tier. Whatever you use, maintaining it takes time.
Something for session notes: $0-10/month
Otter.ai or similar for transcription if you want anything beyond memory and handwritten notes.
Minimum monthly cost before you earn anything: $24-42/month
That is the floor, and it assumes you are comfortable stitching these tools together and troubleshooting when an integration breaks. Many people end up adding Zapier ($20/month) to automate the handoffs between tools, pushing the baseline to $44-62/month.
A dedicated platform like Talkspresso is built around one assumption: the person hosting the call is charging for it. That single premise changes the entire product.
Instead of video tool plus scheduling tool plus payment processor plus client tracker plus notes app, you get one integrated experience.
Your booking page is your storefront. Clients land on a professional page with your photo, bio, services, pricing, and availability. They pick a service, choose a time slot, pay, and get a confirmation with the meeting link. No back-and-forth. No chasing payment.
Built-in HD video. The session happens on the platform. No Meet link to generate. No third-party app clients need to download.
Automatic recording and AI summaries. Every paid session is recorded by default. After the call, the platform generates a transcript, key takeaways, and action items. Your client gets a professional post-session summary automatically. You spend zero minutes on recap emails.
Client history. Every session is logged under the client's profile. You can see every session you have had with a client, every recording, every summary, and every action item. Before your next call with someone, a 30-second review brings you fully up to speed.
Testimonials. Request a review from a client with one click. When they submit it, it appears on your booking page. Social proof that builds itself.
No monthly subscription. Talkspresso charges $0/month and takes a 10% platform fee on paid sessions. You pay nothing until you earn.
Side-by-Side Comparison
Here is how the DIY Google Meet stack compares to a dedicated paid session platform across every dimension that matters.
| Feature | Google Meet + Calendly + Stripe | Talkspresso |
|---|
| Monthly subscription | $24-42/month | $0/month |
| Transaction fees | Stripe: 2.9% + $0.30 | 10% + Stripe: 2.9% + $0.30 |
| Public booking page | Calendly (separate tool, limited branding) | Built-in, fully branded |
| Payment collection | Stripe via Calendly integration | Built-in, required before joining |
| Calendar sync | Google Calendar (via Calendly) |
The Real Cost Comparison
Let us look at total cost at different revenue levels. These numbers use Google Workspace Business Standard ($12/month) plus Calendly Standard ($12/month), plus Stripe processing.
Assumptions:
- Average session price: $150
- Google Workspace: $12/month
- Calendly Standard: $12/month
- Stripe processing: 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction
- Talkspresso: $0/month, 10% platform fee + Stripe processing
At $750/month revenue (5 sessions)
| Cost | Google Meet Stack | Talkspresso |
|---|
| Monthly subscriptions | $24.00 | $0 |
| Platform fees | $0 | $75.00 |
| Stripe fees | $23.70 | $23.70 |
| Total cost | $47.70 | $98.70 |
| You keep | $702.30 | $651.30 |
Winner at $750/month: Google Meet stack (by $51/month)
At $2,250/month revenue (15 sessions)
| Cost | Google Meet Stack | Talkspresso |
|---|
| Monthly subscriptions | $24.00 | $0 |
| Platform fees | $0 | $225.00 |
| Stripe fees | $71.10 | $71.10 |
| Total cost | $95.10 | $296.10 |
| You keep | $2,154.90 | $1,953.90 |
Winner at $2,250/month: Google Meet stack (by $201/month)
What the Numbers Leave Out
On raw subscription versus fee math, Google Meet stack wins at every revenue level. A percentage-based fee costs more than a flat subscription once you are earning consistently. That is just arithmetic. (For a similar cost analysis of the Calendly + Zoom + Stripe stack for masterclasses, see our payment platform comparison. If you are comparing Zoom specifically, our Zoom vs dedicated platforms guide covers the same analysis for Zoom Pro.)
But the numbers above leave out three things that change the real comparison:
Admin time. At 15 sessions per month, the DIY stack generates roughly 5-8 hours of admin work: verifying payment before each session, sending Zoom links (or Meet links) manually, writing post-session summaries, organizing recordings in Google Drive by client, following up on missing payments, and chasing testimonials. At $150/hour, that is $750-1,200/month in your time. The platform fee difference is $200. The time cost difference is $750-1,200.
Conversion. A broken multi-tool booking flow loses clients. Someone who lands on your Calendly page, pays on Stripe, gets a confirmation email with a Google Meet link, and then receives a separate reminder loses the thread somewhere. Even a 5-10% improvement in booking completion at the $2,250 revenue level means $112-225/month in additional bookings. One extra session more than covers the fee difference.
Client experience and retention. A client who pays $200 and receives a professional post-session summary, a recording, and AI-generated action items is more likely to rebook than one who paid through Stripe, joined a generic Google Meet, and got nothing afterward. If the average client books 4 sessions instead of 2 because the experience felt worth it, the math inverts entirely.
The Google Meet stack is cheaper in direct tool costs. A dedicated platform is cheaper in total cost of ownership once you account for your time and what a better client experience does to retention and conversion.
Professionalism and Branding
This is worth addressing directly because it affects revenue even when it is hard to quantify.
A Google Meet link looks like: meet.google.com/abc-defg-hij
A Talkspresso booking page looks like: talkspresso.com/yourname
When you charge $150-500 per session, the end-to-end experience is part of what you are selling. Clients who are evaluating whether to pay you or someone else are making that judgment based on every signal: your bio, your photo, your pricing, how easy it is to book, what happens after they pay, and what they receive after the session.
A cobbled-together multi-tool setup with a generic Google Meet link at the end does not signal the same professionalism as a clean booking page, a purpose-built video room, and an automatic post-session summary arriving in their inbox within minutes of the call ending.
This is not about aesthetics. It is about whether a prospect converts into a paying client and whether a paying client comes back.
Scheduling and Booking Experience
One area where Google Meet users consistently underestimate the friction is the booking flow.
With the DIY stack, a new client goes through something like this:
- Find your Calendly page (you have to share it)
- Pick a time
- Get redirected to a Stripe payment page
- Complete payment
- Receive a booking confirmation from Calendly with a Google Meet link somewhere in the email
- Add it to their calendar
- Remember the meeting link when the time comes
If any step breaks, which happens regularly when Calendly and Stripe integrations hiccup, the client bounces or you spend time manually fixing it.
With a dedicated platform, the flow is:
- Land on your booking page
- Pick a service and time
- Pay
- Receive one confirmation with everything in it
- Click the meeting link when the time comes
Fewer steps. One tool. Nothing to break.
Who Should Use What
Stay with Google Meet if:
- You are running free sessions or free discovery calls. Meet is perfect for this and free.
- You are already operating the full stack smoothly and do not want to migrate.
- You are at high volume ($5,000+/month) with a VA handling admin. The flat subscription cost stays cheaper at scale.
- Your clients or employer requires Google Workspace tools by policy.
- You need Google Meet-specific features like integration with Google Classroom or specific enterprise tools.
Switch to a dedicated platform if:
- You are just starting out and do not want to pay $24-42/month before your first booking.
- You are spending hours each week on admin: verifying payments, sending links, writing notes, organizing recordings.
- Your post-session experience feels bare (no recap, no recording, no structured follow-up).
- You want to offer group sessions, workshops, or webinars without adding another tool.
- Your time is worth more than the subscription savings at your current session volume.
- You want to sell digital products (recordings, PDFs, courses) alongside live sessions.
The Hybrid Approach
Many coaches run both in parallel. Google Meet for free discovery calls (quick, no payment needed, under 40 minutes) and a dedicated platform for paid sessions (where the full booking, payment, recording, and summary workflow justifies the fee). This gives you the best of both: Google Meet's zero-cost simplicity for exploratory conversations and a professional end-to-end experience for sessions where money changes hands.
The Bottom Line
Google Meet is excellent for what it was designed to do: free, reliable video calls in a workplace context. If you are running team standups, internal reviews, or free sessions with clients, it is the right tool.
But it was not designed for selling your time. The moment payment enters the picture, you need a booking page, a payment processor, automated reminders, recording management, post-session summaries, and client history. Google Meet handles none of those. You end up managing a four-tool stack that costs $24-42/month in subscriptions and 5-8 hours per month in admin overhead.
A dedicated platform like Talkspresso was built specifically for paid sessions. One link handles booking, payment, video, recording, and AI summaries. Your client gets a professional experience. You get your admin time back.
If you are early in building your paid session business, start with a platform that charges nothing until you earn. Add complexity only when the math justifies it.
For a full breakdown, see our 9 best platforms for paid video calls or read how creators sell paid video calls to their followers.
For a full breakdown, see our 9 best platforms for paid video calls or read how creators sell paid video calls to their followers.
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