What is italki?
italki is a marketplace: tutors list themselves, set their own prices, and you book video lessons one at a time. Tutors are either “professional teachers” with credentials or “community tutors” — native speakers without formal qualifications who are usually cheaper. For Indonesian there are hundreds of tutors, many in Indonesia itself; for Malay the pool is smaller but real.
There is no course. A lesson is what you make of it: free conversation, working through a textbook, correcting your writing, or role-playing a job interview. Payment is per lesson through italki credits, with a small platform fee.
What italki does well
Nothing replaces talking to a person who answers back. italki makes that cheap and easy: a trial lesson for a few dollars, tutors available at almost any hour, and the freedom to switch until you find someone you click with. Indonesian tutors are plentiful and inexpensive; Malay tutors can explain exactly where Malaysian usage differs from what you learned for Indonesia.
For intermediate learners it is the fastest way to turn passive vocabulary into speech, and for beginners a weekly lesson provides accountability that apps never quite manage.
Where italki falls short
italki does not teach you words. If you arrive at a lesson with a vocabulary of fifty words, you will spend an expensive hour nodding, and a community tutor may not know how to structure a beginner’s path. Quality varies — some tutors are superb, some just chat — and the burden of planning is on you.
Malay learners should expect fewer tutors and less availability at popular times. And because there is no content between lessons, you need another source for vocabulary, reading and review — which is most of language learning.
How BahasaSystem.com compares
BahasaSystem.com is the opposite kind of tool: self-study, free, and focused on the words. Its 1,500 most-common Indonesian words are levelled and themed, each with its Malay equivalent and a flag on the 680+ that differ, with audio in either language. The Interval Study deck schedules review with FSRS, and 90+ dialogues and news articles with quizzes give you reading and listening practice.
It cannot talk back to you. But it makes sure that when you do book a tutor, you have the vocabulary to use the hour — and it costs nothing, so your budget goes to lessons.
The verdict: which should you choose?
This is not an either/or. italki is the best place to practise speaking Indonesian or Malay with real people; BahasaSystem.com is a free way to build and keep the vocabulary that speaking requires.
A good routine: BahasaSystem.com daily for words and reading, one italki lesson a week to use them — and ask your tutor to point out where Malay or Indonesian usage differs from what you learned.