Chaturbate.com and cam4.com are both in the top rank of freemium live porn cam sites. Either of them allows you to go to the site and see a huge range of broadcasting models, both men and women, who are doing live streaming of themselves masturbating and having sex for anybody to watch.

At their site you can log in to chat to the broadcasters, you can collect a list of favorites that you want to view regularly, and you can give them tips or take them into private shows for a personalized individual show. If they are so similar then does it matter which one you use? There are differences and in this comparison article we will dep dive into those to see which ones make a difference and which do not.

Which one, Cam4 vs Chaturbate, what exactly is different and what are the vital things you need to know before you use either? Read on to find out the essential details before you sign up.

Cam4 vs Chaturbate

Free video chat

Want to just watch the video for free without even signing up for a basic account? You can do that at both sites, and if you don’t mind missing out on being able to set favorites then it works fine. You can aways use the favoriting function in your browser anyway as each model.

At chaturbate an unregistered guest, someone who doesn’t even have a basic account, and still browse the models, see the video, hear the sound, even open the full-screen view. What you can’t do without an account is to type anything in the text chat. Very few cam sites allow actual guests to type, and even at those that do the models tend to ignore them.

Cam4 is similar in that you can do almost anything you would want at a site like this, except make favorites or type in the text chat. One difference though is that at Cam4 as an unregistered guest you’ll see a lot of ads. That includes pop-up ads in your browser and also pre-roll video adds and occasionally “ad breaks” during the video. You can hit “skip ad” or just refresh your screen to get past these, but they do interrupt the flow somewhat.

Although similar the experience at Chaturbate is better because of less ads. Not zero ads, but less. At CB the ads are constrained to the side of the screen and occasional pop-ups but never actually in the video.

Result: Chaturbate wins

Using without a credit card

Not ready to give your credit card details to a live porn site yet? It is reasonable to be cautious until you get to know the site and whether it is worth your while spending some cash there. In that case both Chaturbate and Cam4 let you sign up for an account by only proving an email address and a username with password. You don’t have to pay for tokens or give over any private information at all, in fact it is probably best not to.

Result: Tie

Number of cam performers online

Both sites offer rooms with girls only, those with couples and rooms with men in them. We are talking here about broadcasters who are modeling properly.

Chaturbate is the larger site in terms of overall number of broadcasters, but the number is different for different types of rooms.

There are almost 10 times the number of girls online at Chaturbate as at Cam4. That doesn’t mean there not enough at Cam4, far from it, but just that CB has a massive number:

  • Chaturbate: 5,400 vs Cam4: 780

Of course that varies from time to time, but it indiciates the overall range.

With couples the difference is still there, but a lot less. It is common to see CB having double the number of couples as Cam4, but only double, not 10 times.

  • Chaturbate couples: 588 vs Cam4: 240

The situation is similar with men, if you want to see gay guy cams then Chaturbate has more, but only less than double.

  • Chaturbate: 1,600 vs Cam4: 960

Cam4 has plenty of guys online, more than it has couples, but still not as much as the competition.

The most obscure cateogyr is tranny or transexuals. If you want to see chicks with dicks then Chaturbate leads again and by several times.

  • Cahturbate Trans cams: 800 vs Cam4: 120

In every category Chaturbate wins in terms of shere numbers, but Cam4 still has a huge range.

Result: Chaturbate wins

Taking models into private shows

Both sites let you take the cam girls into a private show where she is performing just for you and you can get some privacy. This costs money though and how much it costs varies a lot between sites. At both Chaturbate and Cam4 the prices are set in tokens which disguises the actual cost a bit, the price of a token is also not consistent as it depends on how you purchase them what they cost.

After doing all the calculations you can find out that the cheapest cam girls at Cam4 are charging a bit more than 90 cents a minute, it works out to $0.912 for each 60 seconds you spend in chat with them. Over at Chaturbate the discount models are only a little under 50 cents each, the calculated amount is $0.48 for each private minute.

If you look at the high end models who have the most expensive chat rooms then the picture is similar. Chaturbate is still cheaper with it costing under 10 bucks or $9.60 per minute. That presumes the most expensive models, but tokens purchased at the best possible rate via bank transfer or cryptocurrency.

The equivalent top-of-the-line cam girls at Cam4 are costing almost 20 bucks, I calculate it would cost each minute $18.24 on the same basis. That will be the highest end or special events such as big group shows, but still, it is a very expensive experience.

Result: Chaturbate wins at half the price

Add note about viewer by model

Do you ever notice that when you go into a room where you have tipped before the model will greet you by your real name, will remember just what you like and offer you that pose or special thing?

It is a bit like being greeted by the Maître D in a fine restaurant, the barman in your regular bar, where they know which drink you want and exactly how you like things.

Feels great doesn’t it? And those barmen and cam girls must have a fantastic memory to remember every “customer” they have.

Only it isn’t quite as skilled as it seems. On some cam sites there is a place beside your name for the model to make her own notes about you, then when you go back into her room days or months later she can see that note and be reminded that yes your real name is “John” and you have a thing about her knees and will tip for her to bend over or whatever.

Am I spoiling the fun by revealing this? Hopefully not, it is all part of good customer service. As to comparing Cam4 and Chaturbate, the point is that at both Chaturbate and Cam4 offer this feature. Therefore any time you get greeted by name and she asks you how your wife is doing, have yo managed to convince her to do anal yet perhaps, that isn’t a feat of memory or good service, it is just a website feature.

Result: Tie

Affiliate program

Yes, both Chaturbate and Cam4 offer so called “affiliate programs” which mean that you can introduce your friends to the sites and get reimbursed for your trouble. That is a great way of paying back some of the money you’ve spent on all the girls, but unless you can get a large number of people to sign up under your name it wont’ amount to a great deal of cash.

All the cam girls you meet on the site are automatically in the program and that is why they will try to encourage you to sign up again with a new account that is created under their account, so that they get the signup benefit. If they choose, it is an option, to go on a percentage basis then it means as well as the 50% of the fee you pay that they would normally get there is an additional percentage they receive because they have “introduced” you to the site.

That is strictly against the rules of course, to get people to sign up again when they are already members, but people do and that’s why.

It is the same for both Chaturbate and Cam4.

Result: Tie

Broadcast without age verification

Want to just turn on the webcam on your own computer so that the model, or anybody else, can see you? Then you are out of luck at Chaturbate where only viewers with a verified age verification document on file can activate their cams in public.

If you want to show yourself to the model then you can do that privately using the Cam2Cam feature at chaturbate, but turning on your cam for anybody to see requires you to have uploaded a passport, drivers licence or similar government issued ID as your proof of age.

At Cam4 anything goes, just log in and hit that “Broadcast” button at the top of the screen to start showing your video feed live. You don’t need to install any special software or do anything except click “Allow” when your browser tries to turn on your cam.

Result: Cam4 wins

Cam2cam

Both sites let you show yourself to the model, but how it is done is quite different. Things have changed as well so old instructions you have seen may not apply and things may change again. As of the time of writing (July 2021) it works like this.

  • Chaturbate Cam2Cam is a link built into the chat window, when you click it your webcam will turn on and the cam girl will see a message inviting, but not requiring, that she look at your video. If she does look at you then a dot on your screen changes color and you know when she is watching. Sound doesn’t work though, although there is a “unmute” button it doesn’t work in all the tests I’ve done. That means you’ll still have to type to interact with her and it is a far cry from the two-way “Skype” / “Zoom” experience everybody is now familiar with. You can’t get around this by simply opening a password-protected broadcasting room the way you used to, not unless you have uploaded government ID that is.
  • Cam4 Cam2cam is also undergoing changes but currently the best way to do it is to open a broadcasting window yourself, and set a password so only the person you give the password to can watch you. Or you can show yourself to everybody at Cam4 if you want, that works as well. There is a built-in Cam2cam option but every time I try it it says it isn’t available at the moment. Just clicking “broadcast” works fine and you also get a full broadcasting window, including sound and all the chat features that go with it. Cam4 is one of the few cam sites that don’t require age verification or upload ID before streaming.

Overall the cam4 version of cam2cam is better, the only real down side is that you need to open more windows or tabs on your PC browser and that can get a bit confusing if you have too many.

Doing cam2cam on a mobile phone is pretty painful at any site, if you really want to do that then you probably should look at finding a Skype or Zoom cam girl to work with.

Result: Cam4 wins

How old are these sites

Both the sites have been around for more than 10 years and now have an established following, but while Chaturbate is today the bigger site it wasn’t the first.

Cam4 actually started operating in June of 2007 making it one of the oldest cam sites still functioning. By comparison Chaturbate didn’t get going until Feb of 2011, making it over 10 years old now.

If older means better established then an older site should be preferred, but a lot of it is anchient history so that is a matter of debate. Neither of them are new or fly-by-night operations and you can expect them to be around for a long time, which is more than you can say for the models who tend to turn over quite fast.

Result: Cam4 circa 2007

Email verification required?

Want to sign up for an account but don’t really want to give out an email address? It does put you at risk of not being able to reset the password on your account but if you want to skip the email, or give a fake email, then you can’t do that at Cam4.

When you want to sign up for an account at Cam4 y ou have to provide an email address, and then click on the verification email that is sent.

This is not true at Chaturbate where you are asked for an email, but it doesn’t actually get checked.

Result: Chaturbate wins if you don’t mind risk

Grey users: allow to chat?

A “Grey” user is one who has signed up, but doesn’t have any tokens in their balance. Either they never bought any or they have, but they have spent them already. The broadcasting cam girls can see these viewers in their list of users as “grey”, as the user names are literally grey instead of colored.

In a live porn chat room the grey viewer is the bottom of the social pile, everybody knows they either can’t or won’t tip.

In many rooms they don’t even get a chance to say anything. Not because it impossible, but because the cam girls have the option in their settings to prevent greys from talking at all.

Each cam girl is different but generally in the best rooms you won’t be able to chat as a grey, and this is true for both Chaturbate and cam4. In practice if you dig down to the least popular rooms you will find some where the girls are so bored they have turned on chatting by greys so they have somebody to chat with in the room.

Chaturbate and Cam4 are pretty much the same in this regard.

Result: Tie

Language: site interface

Both sites offer to let you use them in the language of their choice. There is a button to change the site language and then all the menus and options will apear in that language.

Both sites offer a long list of language you can use the site in. This is only about the menus and prompts, not about what language the girls speak.

Chaturbate offers a select list :

  • English, Arabic, German, Greek, Spanish, Frinch, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Dutch, Portuguese, russsian, Turkish, Chinese (many incomplete)

On the other hand Cam4 has an even longer list, but the language names are in the language itself. For example German is “Deutsch”, while some of the others I don’t recognise, with right at the bottom of the list “isiZulu” which Google tells me is the Zulu language of Southern Africa. I’m a little skeptical of this and suspect it is an automated translation. When I choose Zulu then most of the page still stays in English, so that means it isn’t reallyh a complete translation.

Therefore with Chaturbate’s smaller list of languages, but actual translations of those, then it is better.

Result: Chaturbate wins

Using on mobile phone

Both sites have a usable mobile phone website, neither of them have a dedicated app.

Cam4 lets you zoom in and pan side-to-side easily, you can combine the video and overlay the chat so you can see what is happening. Overall it is a simple and easy to navigate set, though occasionally oyuou’ll be puzzled abou aht one buttonor another does but a few taps here and then and you will work it out.

On Chaturbate you’ll find a totally different but just as workable mobile site that includes full screen as well. Sometimes the zoom or pan functions are not available, and the text overlay is slightly more primitive. There aren’t convenient buttons to get to the various tip and gift functions either. You can switch to the split-screen mode where video and text don’t overlay and that is easier to use, but the video is tiny.

Chaturbate lets you tip a model, but not go private from your phone.

Cam4 includes mobile privates, tipping, gifts and everything else you can do on a PC.

If you want to broadcast yourself then Cam4 offers an android App, but Chaturbate lets you have a beta “WebRTC” broadcaster from within your browser. Both work but the Cam4 app is a more comprehensive solution.

Overall cam4 gives a better experience on your phone and just makes it easier to use, particularly once you have learnt what all the little buttons do.

Result: Cam4 wins

Mobile cam girls outdoors

In theory either site allows you to do this, but in practice it rarely happens. The rules at Chaturbate are really strict about not letting yo ugo outdoors where anybody would see you, even in a back-garden or yard isn’t good enough and models get banned for doing shows like that. At Cam4 outdoor broadcasts are actually encouraged, but rarely happen either.

No, if you want to see girls broadcasting from beaches, forests, mall bathrooms or under the table in coffee shops then you’ll want to go to Stripchat.com where those are common, neither CB or C4 are worthwhile for this.

Result: Neither – try Stripchat instead

Rules for models

Models broadcasting on either Chaturbate or Cam4 have to abide by a lengthy list of rules. A lot of the special interests that people have are not allowed, which is why they go elsewhere. For the most part the rules for CB and C4 are similar with limitations such as no pee, no fisting, no unregistered models and so on.

There isn’t any particular thing that is allowed on one that isn’t allowed on the other so from a rule perspective they are tied. As far as whether models actually obey those rules, well that varies a lot and from moment to moment.

You may see models being asked to do things that are against the rules and they will occasionally do those things, but then you won’t find that model online again after a while as they will get banned.

Result: Tied

Value to models of tokens

When you take a model into a private show or tip her with tokens during her public show there are payouts for the models. Each token turns into money for her to spend, but the amounts are different.

At Chaturbate when a model asks for a token she is going to get $0.05 or five cents for each token she receives.

But over at Cam4 the tokens are worth $0.10 or ten cents each.

When you tip a model 10 tokens at Cam4 that is a dollar in her pocket, but only 50 cents at Chaturbate.

If models want to earn the same amount for doing something on either site then they have to ask for double the number of tokens in Chaturbate as they would in Cam4.

Which is better? Models probably earn more, which means the viewer spends more, at Cam4.

Result: Cam4 wins for models

Monthly membership plans

Both sites offer a monthly membership plan, with costs at a few cents shy of $20 per month each. What you get differs though. The main advantage is that it gets rid of all the ads, including those pesky video ads at Cam4. The other things are pretty ordinary with the exception of the automated translator for chat that Cam4 offers.

None of the benefits are earth shattering, but if you had to choose for the same price Cam4 is the more attractive option.

  • Chaturbate: “Supporting member” flag, Clean, Ad-Free Interface Custom Chat Font & Color Options Private Messaging Anonymous Tipping Animate Room Images One Time Free Bonus 200 free tokens (worth $20.99)
  • Cam4: Gold Membership, one time 100 free tokens when you sign up. Then EXCLUSIVE bonus token offers, plus more features like ‘Ad-Free’ Experience, Automated Chat Translations, Free Monthly Gold Gift

Result: Cam4 membership is more useful

Cryptocurrency for private token purchase

This one is simple, on Chaturbate you can buy using bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency using the coinpayments.net gateway system. The porn website never gets to know your financial details, name or anything else private. Instead that is all handled by the payment gateway which you can send crypto tokens from your online or offline wallet.

Buy your Bitcoins somewhere else such as on an exchange, then send them to CoinPayments to pay for your Chaturbate token purchase. Nobody will know who you are. The address you have to send with starts with a 3 so it is a P2SH address. Unfortunately there is no Lightning Network support so you will have to wait for blockchain confirmations before your purchase goes through. Allow 20 minutes but don’t be surprised if it takes hours or even days.

At Cam4 this simply isn’t an option, but you can pay with PayPal which is a little bit of protection though not much.

Result: Chaturbate for sure

Teledildonics: toys supported

Remote control sex toys? Check!

Both sites allow models to wear toys that are controlled by tips.

That means viewers get to tip for buzzes inside the model.

By far the most common toy is the Lovense Lush, that little pink tail you see dangling out of cam girls, though occasionally you see a fucking machine or a hand-held black wand vibrator that may also be tip-activiated.

Chaturbate officially suppports these toys and so does Cam4, but Cam4 also supports Kiiroo toys which are disappearly rare.

Result: Cam4 very slightly ahead

Token cost per token

  • Chaturbate: about 10 cents, down to 8, highest just over 12 cents
  • Cam4: $0.24 – $0.16 depending on quantity

It doesn’t really matter in the end as the different costs are factored in by the models when the price things. But with the minimum price of a private show being “6 tokens” at both sites the cheaper tokens at Chaturbate means the show is cheaper.

Result: Chaturbate is half the cost