Chaturbate vs MyFreeCams – which is the best free cam site?
They are two of the biggest freemium live cam sites in the adult industry, with decades of experience and hundreds of thousands of cam models in their databases.
Chaturbate and MyFreeCams have pioneered the ‘crowd funded’ approach to adult cam shows. Gone are the days where you could only catch a show by going private, or paying a fixed amount per minute.
Both of these sites rely on their huge audiences to generate tips for models, who effectively compete against each other for a share of the baying crowd.
The end result is thousands of fully explicit live sex shows, available to the free-watching public.
You could make a case for either site as the true King of Free Cams, but in this comparison piece we will see how they compare.
MyFreeCams vs Chaturbate: How They Compare
Two household names in the live cam industry, MyFreeCams and Chaturbate both enjoy enormous popularity.
Read our full MyFreeCams review.
Read our full Chaturbate review.
MFC was one of the original adult cam sites, whilst Chaturbate burst on to the scene a decade later and rapidly rose to the top of the pile.
Here is their background:
The History of MyFreeCams
Launched in March 2002, MyFreeCams redefined the live camming landscape by offering the services of its performers for free.
They were the first website to do this successfully.
Models left to right: xRubyx, AspenRae, Starblossom. Image via MFC Facebook.
However, whilst the counter intuitive approach of getting something for nothing was an instant success for viewers, itwas initially less popular with the cam girls themselves.
Instead of paying for a private 1-to-1 chat, audiences instead were encouraged to tip the performers to help get the action started.
In this way, large groups could benefit from the generosity of others and the ‘pooled’ resources of many, meaning that everyone could enjoy a free sex show.
By 2010, MyFreeCams was one of the largest adult cam sites in the world and reportedly had over five million members and over 100,000 models.
It has since grown to 200,000+ models with at least 2500+ streaming at any given time.
The History of Chaturbate
Launched in February 2011, Chaturbate took the mantel from sites like MyFreeCams and ran with it to create an exciting new freemium service.
It focused on aggressive recruitment of models and massive advertising to create a platform where the models could afford to put on a show for ‘free’.
Of course, no show is truly free.
But if even 1% of the audience is willing to tip tokens, that can result in a huge profit for the cam model when there are thousands of viewers attached to their channel.
This freemium move proved to be a wise business decision and Chaturbate now enjoys a top five position in the most popular adult websites in the world.
It is the most visited adult cam site on the web, with a staggering 350,000+ registered models and over 5000 models online at any given time.
Registered to a holding company called Multi Media LLC , there is very little public information available about the finances of the business so we can’t report on how much money the site earns for itself.
However, judging by what thousands of cam girls are reportedly being paid, they are not short on cash!
Head to Head Stats For Chaturbate vs MyFreeCams
Using data obtained from the popular analytics website, SimilarWeb, we can see that Chaturbate takes the crown as the more popular of the two camming sites.
Ranked as the 54th most visited website in the world, Chaturbate is also the 5th most popular global adult website; only being outperformed by the top porn tube sites, Pornhub, XVideos, XNXX and XHamster.
This makes it the world’s most visited camming site.
| Metric | MyFreeCams | Chaturbate |
| Global Site Ranking | 314 | 54 |
| Adult Category Site Ranking | 31 | 5 |
| Approx. Monthly Visitors | 142 million | 435 million |
| Average Visit Duration | 4 mins 29 secs | 10 mins 59 secs |
| Pages Per Visit | 3.54 | 10.01 |
| Most Popular Traffic Source Countries | United States
United Kingdom Canada Germany Brazil | United States
United Kingdom Canada Germany France |
Not only does Chaturbate have three times as many visitors but those who do hit the site are likely to stick around 2.5 times longer. They will also visit 2.5 times as many pages during each visit.
Both sites are more popular in the United States, United Kingdom and Canada and have a reach into Europe as well as Latin America.
On these stats alone, Chaturbate has the edge over MFC.
However, the stats for MyFreeCams are still highly impressive.
It smashes the rest of the competition and only LiveJasmin comes close to matching their number of registered models.
Which Site Has Won More Awards?
Who better to settle a dispute of which site is best than the industry professionals themselves, right?
We’ve looked at the most popular awards to see who takes the crown.
Of course, there are dozens of gongs up for grabs each year and plenty of websites awarding them, so we’ve just focused on the largest players (Adult Webcam Awards (AWA), XBiz, Adult Webcam(AW) and the Live Cam Awards):
MyFreeCams Awards
- 2019 XBiz Awards – Cam Site of the Year
- 2018 XBiz Awards – Cam Site of the Year – North America
- 2017 XBiz Awards – Adult Site of the Year — Live Cam (North America)
- 2013 XBiz Awards – Live Cam Site of the Year
- 2012 XBiz Awards – Live Cam Site of the Year
- 2011 XBiz Awards – Live Cam Site of the Year
Chaturbate Awards
- 2019 XBiz Awards – Cam Site of the Year (Gay)
- 2018 Live Cam Awards – Best Overall Live Cam Site
- 2018 AW Awards – North American Platform
- 2018 XBiz Awards – Cam Company of the Year – North America
- 2017 XBiz Awards – Live Cam Company of the Year — North America
- 2017 AW Awards – Most Innovative Cam Site of the Year
- 2017 AW Awards – Homorific Award
- 2017 Live Cam Awards – Most Innovative Live Cam Site
- 2016 XBiz Awards – Adult Site of the Year — Live Cam (North America)
- 2016 AW Awards – Freemium Camsite of the Year
- 2016 AW Awards – Most Innovative Cam Site
- 2016 AWA Awards – Best Overall Adult Webcam Site
- 2016 AWA Awards – Best Credits/Tokens Adult Cams Site
- 2016 Live Cam Awards – Most Innovative Live Cam Site
- 2016 Live Cam Awards – Best North American Live Cam Site
Going by critical acclaim and industry recognition, Chaturbate appears to have the edge.
Taking 2.5 times more awards than its rival, Chaturbate certainly has a stacked trophy cabinet.
Interestingly though, Chaturbate has actually only taken the most prestigious title of ‘Live Cam Site of the Year’, once in the 2018 Live Cam Awards.
The rest of their gongs have been in niche fields like ‘Gay’, ‘North America’ and for innovation.
By contrast, MyFreeCams has won this coveted title four times including in the most recent 2019 awards from one of the leading judges of the adult industry.
For this reason, we are awarding a tie for this category proving that it is quality and not just quantity that will win you the race.
Which Site Offers Better Value For Money?
So, we now know which site attracts the most traffic and how they are faring in the industry, but what about for the users themselves?
And what about the models?
How much money do the cam stars receive? How far do tips go as a paying viewer?
Here we take a closer look at the costs of each of these sites to determine which one provides the best value for users and the most profit for performers.
Note: Neither MFC or Chaturbate are known for their new customer promo deals. See our guide to the best free cam token deals.
Value For Money on MyFreeCams
Both Chaturbate and MyFreeCams are freemium live cam services and you can enjoy a live show in the company of others for absolutely nothing.
However, you can also pay for a private 1-to-1 with any model and get personal, focused attention… for a price.
So, how much are the private chats at MyFreeCams?
A private show costs 1 token a second or 60 tokens per minute which makes a ten-minute show on the site a total of 600 tokens.
Depending on how many tokens you purchase in one transaction, each token is worth between $0.08 and $0.10. This means that a ten-minute private chat will cost you $48 to $60.
For other types of chat such as group shows, spy shows and truly private shows, the costs are as follows:
| Type of Session | Rate/minute | Cost of a 10 Minute Show |
| Spy Show | 20 Tokens | $16 to $20 |
| Group Show | 10 Tokens | $8 to $10 |
| True Private | 80 Tokens | $64 to $80 |
As for what each performer will do for tips, this varies across the site and you can find some interactive toys available to control for as little as 40 tokens all the way up to several hundred.
And, what percentage of the session fees do the performers make?
Models earn a flat fee of $0.05 per token irrespective of what the purchase price was for a token by the user.
This means that for a 10-minute private show, models will earn a fixed fee of $30.
Premium membership is free to all users who make a purchase of tokens and gives you access to all of the sites features.
Value For Money on Chaturbate
The cost of a private show in Chaturbate varies depending on the model themselves as they can all set their own rates. These can start as low as just 6 tokens a minute or go up beyond 90 tokens a minute.
Like MyFreeCams, tokens on Chaturbate vary in price depending on how many you purchase at one time. The cheapest rate is just under $0.08 whilst the most expensive is $0.11.
This means the cost of a ten-minute show on Chaturbate could vary as much as $4.80 up to more than $99!
Tipping, just like with MFC, varies across the site and you can find models who will perform for next to nothing whilst others demand much higher sums for even smiling.
It all depends on how popular they are.
You can pay an extra $19.95 per month to become a premium member of Chaturbate which gives you access to lots of neat features, removes ads and makes you more prominent in group chats. You can also pay to join the ‘Fan Club’ of your favorite models (costs vary).
And how much of all this does the performer receive?
Just like with MFC, models earn $0.05 per token which means that a ten-minute private session could see them make anywhere from $1.50 to $49.50+.
Overall, we think MyFreeCams wins the category.
When you compare the prices to other sites, both Chaturbate and MyFreeCams can be expensive, but at least with MyFreeCams there is more consistency.
Chaturbate vs MyFreeCams: A Split Decision!
So far, it is an honorable draw between the two sites.
But there are some other factors that come in to play…
If you take into consideration the design of the site and the navigation, then Chaturbate is a clear winner.
Its ease of use and addictive nature is one of the reasons it stole so many users from MFC when it first appeared.
MyFreeCams has a dated look to it that is indicative of the fact that the format is now 17 years old.
It has the feel of an ‘old-skool’ chatroom.
Both sites have a huge variety of cam models to choose from and the quality of the streams is generally very good whichever site you choose.
Both enable functionality with interactive toys, and both have models from across the world including Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe as well as in the United States and Canada.
If you are looking for a cam site that embraces more diversity – or want to watch gay or transsexual models – then Chaturbate would win out.
Note: See our pick of the best gay cam sites.
MyFreeCams doesn’t cater for this niche.
In fact, they do not have any male models on their site at all, including couples.
For this reason, we have decided that Chaturbate just narrowly edges a win.
Both sites provide a great selection of free cams to view, and there’s no reason why you can’t join both.
Either way, we hope you find this comparison helpful if you’re looking to join just one free cam site!
When looking at the traffic metrics, one thing that should be stated: Chaturbate offers a whitelabel while MyFreeCams doesn’t. Therefore, the traffic stats for CB is much greater, as Alexa, SimilarWeb and other similar networks can’t account for the whitelabeled traffic that a network has going. Granted; CB’s whitelabel isn’t used by the big names that Streamate has rocking, but they actually offer a whitelabel, while MFC doesn’t.
Good comparison!