In this article I will share with you some of the best NFT marketplaces that I have researched in web 3. NFT marketplaces are where you can showcase and sell your art. Every marketplace has a different audience and vibe, so it is essential that you choose the best NFT marketplace for you, your audience and your work. If you are curious to learn more, keep reading.
NFT Marketplace Defined:
An NFT marketplace is a platform where NFT’s (ie. your artwork) is found. NFT marketplaces are the central hub where NFT’s are displayed, bought, traded, auctioned and sold. As mentioned in a previous article, NFT’s, are not just limited to artwork. Anything that is in its digital form can be bought and sold as an NFT.
Can I share my art on multiple NFT marketplaces?
There are many artists who have collections displayed in different NFT marketplaces. Most NFT artists however, start off by choosing one platform to host their collections. They may or may not choose to expand from there.
Although technically speaking, you can share a collection on more than one NFT marketplace, it is in good practice to not share the same collection in more than one NFT marketplace. After speaking with many successful artists in the NFT world, I would highly suggest that if you want to post collections in varying NFT marketplaces, to share different collections on each marketplace.
Why? Well for starters NFT’s are meant to be one-of-a-kind, non-replicable (Hence, why they are named non-fungable tokens). If you are selling the same artwork in two different marketplaces and both of these get sold, there would be two owners of that same item and that item is now replicable.
You get my drift.
What NFT Marketplaces are out there?
There are many NFT marketplaces out there. After much extensive research, I will only cover the top NFT marketplaces based on my current recommendations. These can change overtime as new NFT marketplaces are appearing in the scene. With the vast amount of options it is just a matter of choosing the right marketplace for you.
I would recommend that you also do your own research to select what is best for you and your artwork. The main goal is to determine where your audience resides. Let’s dive into some of the most popular NFT marketplaces to date:
1. Opensea:
Link: https://opensea.io
If you have some basic knowledge of NFT marketplaces, then you would have heard of Opensea. This is the biggest NFT marketplace, and the first, with some of the most popular known collections hosted on this platform. Launched in 2008 Opensea has grown to cater more than 600,000 users. As with other NFT marketplaces available, you can buy, collect, auction, trade and sell your NFTs.
The interface is kept very simple and user-friendly. If you take a look at the main page you will see the following tabs:
- Search bar: this is where you will able to search for and find specific NFT names.
- Explore: This is where you will see the different types of NFT’s available in the Opensea market. They have a simple filtering system if you are searching for specific price range, specific collections and chains.
- Stats: This is a very useful tab for artists, collectors and traders. Here you will find all of the transactions that are happening across Opensea in real-time. Feel artists block? Check out this section to see what is trending, you might get your next idea for a collection. This section is a great way to see the analytics of what items are being bought at the moment.
- Resources: This is a great tool to help get you started. The help center is available for when you need questions answered. This is also available at the bottom of the page.
- Create: This is where you can set up and create your own world within the Opensea marketplace. Once you set up your wallet and have the appropriate funds for one-time transaction and gas fees than you are good to post your first collection! I will be breaking down what gas fees are in a future article so keep an eye here if you want to learn more.
Pros:
- Very Diverse Audience (Art, Collectibles, Domains, Music, Photography, Trading Cards etc.)
- Very User-Friendly Interface and large Help Center compared to other NFT marketplaces.
- Various blockchains support available: ETH, Polygon, Solana, Klatyn.
- 2,5% fees with no service charge to buyers.
- Gas free marketplaces also available.
- Great artwork featured system. You can get your artwork featured on main page if you #opensea and @openseanft, as well as paste you collection http address when sharing your work on SM.
- Compatible with all leading wallets in the marketplace.
Cons:
- One-time fees, reoccurring fees, and gas fees can get pretty high so have to keep an eye on that in order to not pay high gas fees.
- A wallet is necessary to buy and sell NFTs.
- You need to have ETH in your wallet in order to make any transactions on Opensea but you can use over 150 ETH based crypto currencies for transactions.
2. Rarible:
Link: https://rarible.com
Rarible is the community owned NFT marketplace. This platform also allows artists to create and sell NFTs as long as you have a crypto currency wallet. Both auctions and fixed price offers are available on this platform. This marketplace tugs at the hearts of many in its unique selling proposition, in that it is ‘the world’s first community owned NFT marketplace.
Rarible is known for its RARI tokens which give users on this platform governance powers. Owners of this token have voting power to make decisions on how the platform operates. Founded in 2020, more than 400, 000 NFT’s have been created. Rarible is also not limited to digital art, you can upload videos, collectables, music, books, movies, or anything in within its digital form.
The User interface of the site is busier than the previous two NFT marketplaces, however it displays many of the NFT’s that are available on the platform. Its style reminds me of gaming social platforms. On their main page you will find the following tabs:
- Search bar: Where you can search for specific items, collections or users.
- Explore: Where all of the NFT items in the marketplace are located. You can navigate NFTS through specific chains – for example: ETH, Flow, Tezos or Polygon.
- My Profile: Where user signs in with their wallet to view and create their profile.
- Following: Where users can view NFT’s that they are following. Also need to sign in with wallet to view this feature.
- Activity: Where you will find all of the transactions that are happening across Rarible Marketplace.
Pros:
- Great platform for new NFT artists to showcase their work while collecting RARI tokens, giving them voting power over how the marketplace operates.
- Shifting towards becoming Decentralized Autonomous Organization (meaning with RARI tokens, users will be in charge for all of the decisions for the platform).
- Rewards NFT sellers and buyers with RARI tokens.
- OpenSea Integration. As Opensea is the largest marketplace for selling NFTs this integration allows your listed NFT’s to also be viewed on OpenSea.
- Great Royalty system.
- Low Transaction fees only 5% overall.
- Buyers can purchase your work with debit card, credit card or google pay.
- Compatible with 7 wallets in the marketplace.
Cons:
- Connecting wallet to platform is not as user-friendly – hence not as easy to create and list NFT’s.
- Charges 2.5% transaction fee for both NFT sellers and buyers.
- You don’t pay any upfront costs to create NFT’s on Rarible.
- Help Centre is not as informative, large or easy to find.
- No free listings.
3. Mintable:
Link: https://mintable.app
Mintable is another NFT marketplace built on the Ethereum blockchain. Although it was founded in 2018, Mintable is still considered one of the newer NFT marketplaces in the scene. I think that it has great potential for growth. This NFT marketplace makes it easy for artists to sell and auction artwork.
Mintable is also not limited to digital art, as artists can create digital assets PDF’s, MP4s, music and games into NFT’s, As with other NFT marketplaces available, you have to connect your wallet and have ETH available in order to sell and buy on the platform.
The User interface of the site is busier than the previous two however it displays many of the NFT’s that are available on the platform. Its style reminds me of gaming social platforms. On their main page you will find the following tabs:
- Search bar: Where you can search for specific NFT’s.
- Browse: Where you can browse all the collections that are available in Mintable Marketplace.
- Mint: Where artists create their NFT. Based on the blockchain that you want to mint on. You can also choose gasless or traditional minting options here.
- Resources: Where the marketplace blog is available.
Pros:
- Very similar to OpenSea – easy to create and list NFT’s.
- Allows creators to mint their NFT’s at no cost.
- Has gas free features available (note: but also takes 5% marketplace fee on sales for gasless NFT’s)
- Low creator fees (2.5 marketplace fee for normal NFT’s).
- Artists can create their own digital store.
- Great way to avoid gas fees, which is typically associated with transactions of NFT’s.
- Waives upfront gas costs for creators.
- Vast educational resources available.
- 24/7 customer support available with Mintable Pro.
- Payment methods available are credit card and cryptocurrency.
- Up to 50 free listings.
Cons:
- High transaction fees when compared to the other NFT platforms mentioned above.
- Not as many users in this marketplace but it is growing daily.
- Compatible with only 3 wallets in the marketplace.
- 10% marketplace fee for printable NFT’s and there is still a marketplace fee on sales for gasless NFTs.
4. SuperRare:
Link: https://superrare.com
SuperRare is another well-known marketplace in the NFT world so it is worth mentioning for new artists to be familiar with. It is the best place to sell you artwork if you have unique and 1/1 (meaning an NFT that has been issued as a single or unique item). As this is the platform for one-of-a-kind items, the options available are different from other marketplaces, hence the name SuperRare.
What also makes SuperRare unique is that it has a social network built into the marketplace. Although it is not designed for new NFT artists it is worth noting that SuperRare sometimes selects new NFT artist to showcase their work in their marketplace, so if you are a new artist don’t rule it out just yet! If your artwork is unique, you still may have a chance to be chosen.
The user interface of the site is clean and simple enough to navigate. They have a featured art section available. On the main page you will find the following:
- Art: This is where you will find the market, series and features tabs. The market is where you will find the digital art that is available. You can also use the filters tab to get more specific with pricing. Series is similar to collections where artists can showcase a group of unique art. And feature tab highlights projects and special releases.
- Community: where you will find trending artists, top collectors, SuperRare discord and Blog posts. Help centre is also located under this tab.
- Editorial: SuperRares newsletter and Editorial features.
- Search tab: Where you can search for specific artists or artwork.
Pros:
- Every artwork is unique and one of a kind.
- Fixed transaction fee: 3% for all transactions
- Royalty revenue fixed at 10% if traded on the secondary market.
- Great for private style auctions and sales.
Cons:
- Not as accessible for new and upcoming
- NFT artists as they are exclusive to who they choose to work with.
- Not as user-friendly, although easy to navigate.
- Have to go through an application process before selling on this platform. However, this can be seen as both a pro and a con.
- Only limited to digital art (gif. Video, JPEG, 3D art)
- Fee can become higher overall compared to other marketplaces for artists.
- Takes 15% commission fee for creators who post collections on the platform.
- Help center not as large or user-friendly and not easy to find on main page.
- Only allows ETH to buy and sell.
- Only compatible with 4 wallets in the marketplace.
Which NFT Marketplaces Do I recommend?
There are many other NFT marketplaces then the ones I have listed above. I have researched the top NFT marketplaces at the time of writing this article and highlighted the top 4 that have a presence in the NFT world and that welcomes new artists to a larger community.
As a first time NFT artist I would recommend Opensea. This is where my collections are stored because I find Opensea to be very user friendly and the resource center was very helpful. When I was a new NFT artist. I found that Opensea was very straight forward and the learning curve was very minimal compared to the other marketplaces. The help center was large and had wider coverage when compared to the other marketplaces. This is good for new NFT artists who might need assistance along the way, however, keep in mind that their contact centre does take a long time too contact you.
I also like the option of having a gas free marketplace. This is great because it is the best of both worlds. Keep in mind that most NFT collections are available on the ETH blockchain and that this gas-free blockchain doesn’t come without its fair share of technical difficulties. Lastly, I like how artists can get a fair chance to get their artwork featured on the main page without having to pay for advertisement. A con to this is that it is rare to get featured, but still possible.
With the varying marketplaces to choose from remember to choose what is best for you. They are not limited to the ones that I shared with you today. I hope that this article helped demystify some the options out there for you to choose which platform is best for you.
I would love to hear your thoughts. If you are an NFT artist, what platform do you use? If you are a new NFT artist I would love to know what questions you have or which platform you decided to go with. And If I can answer your questions, I would definitely do so! feel free to contact me on social media and if you found this article useful click that share button! Knowledge is power!
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Until next time creatives
