So, if you are an Artist, Creator or Designer, you may have probably heard of NFT’s right now. It’s getting really hot all around the internet, from Steve Aoki who had sold one of his NFT artwork called “Hairy” from his collection “Dream Catcher” for a staggering $888,888.88 USD dollars. And of course, you may have already heard of Beeple, who sold his “Everydays” for a whooping $69 Million dollars, just shocking the entire Art industry and the world itself. And there are many more!.
Today, I am not here to motivate you to get serious about this NFT game or demotivating you by telling you about all these artists selling their artwork for millions. Today, we are here to to help you decide on which NFT marketplace is right for you. Because even though the hype is real and its a high time for artists to actually give a shot in the NFT game, its more likely that your NFT Artwork might not sell, the first time you list it. Or it could be the other way round and you may end up selling millions worth of artworks on your first go!.
However, if we really want to nail this NFT hype, we need to analyze the market first, figure out what the buyers or collectors are really looking for and what product really sells well. Today, we will take the first step by just analyzing the top 5 NFT marketplaces and find out which NFT marketplace would be a better option for artists who are early on this NFT hype.
1. OpenSea
Website : https://opensea.io/
I think the best NFT marketplace is definitely OpenSea. And I really mean it because of several reasons. OpenSea is one of the first and the largest Peer to Peer NFT marketplaces out there. OpenSea currently has over 10 Million monthly visits on their marketplace website. The reason why OpenSea is best for Artists is because it has low transaction and listing fees. With the seller paying on upto 2% to 2.5% while the buyer pays 2% – 2.5%. The fees are much much lower compared to other marketplaces where the fees normally linger between 7.5% to 8.5%. Add Paypal fees of 12% and you can imagine the marketplace and PayPal alone taking 20% of your profits.
Another great thing about OpenSea is Gas Free Transaction for highest-bid auctions. Gas fees are required for making the ETH transactions and things just keep getting complicated, the more you get into the NFT space. Luckily, OpenSea pays the Gas Fees for you, if you are in a high bid auction.
Just like that, you can even sell upto 30 NFT items in bundles. OpenSea offers lots of features and support for its users and especially for artists for whom, things can get really expensive. It is also really easy to connect your wallet with the OpenSea NFT platform as OpenSea directly connects with wallets like MetaMask and many other popular Crypto Wallets.
So, by far OpenSea is one of the best NFT platforms for artists and content creators.
2. Nifty Gateway
Website : https://niftygateway.com/
Nifty Gateway is another exclusive NFT marketplace that is really popular and some of the best artists are on this NFT platform. Nifty Gateway prides itself by having the best security among all of the other NFT marketplaces and the reason being, Nifty Gateway was created by a Cyber security company called Gemini.
On Nifty Gateway, the fees are 5% plus 30 cents to cover up transactions fees. 5% is still not very expensive and the commission fees are 10%. This means that, every time, your artwork gets resold, you get 10% of the profits. However, one of the downsides of Nifty Gateway is that fees are unexpected and not transparent. You never know, when the Gas fees quickly rack up and you could end up spending $40 to $70 extra.
Besides that, one of the best things about Nifty Gateway is artwork aesthetic. You’ll find some of the top artists and creators on the platform and this is important because it also helps you as a artist build credibility on the platform and helps you to sell your artwork. It’s not like Rarible, where you’ll just find all kinds of artists listing their artwork.
And, if Nifty Gateway, finds out a talented artists, it quickly features them on their marketplace, they also feature their collection to be exclusive and that could mean the world to many artists out there.
However, one of the cons of Nifty Gateway is that, Direct withdrawals to Bank accounts are only possible in US. While the rest of the artists might have to transfer their sales profits to their Crypto wallet and then use the Crypto wallet to Direct Deposit to their bank account.
3. Super Rare
Website: https://superrare.co/
Super Rare is another famous NFT marketplaces that I consider to be the best out there. Super Rare focuses solely on exclusive art rather than just being able to list any kind of artwork on the platform. This means, it can be difficult to list your work and get approved, however, once you get into Super Rare, there can be lots of potential for your artwork to gain success.
Super Rare is also based on the ETH blockchain and the fact that Super Rare focuses on exclusivity can be a good thing for a lot of talent artists out there.
However, one of the drawbacks of Super Rare is gallery fees as artists have to pay whooping 15% gallery fee. There is actually no other NFT marketplaces that does this but I understand why Super Rare does this is to bring exclusivity into their marketplace. While other fees include buyer fees which is 3%. But if we consider a typically art gallery, the gallery fees can be anywhere from 30% to 50%.
Although, for many this might not make sense, but artists have to remember that Super Rare is all about being exclusive, standing out from the crowd and collecting rare artworks. This means, there’s lots of potential here to actually make your first sale become successful.
4. Foundation
Website: https://foundation.app/
With it’s primary focus on Digital Art, Foundation was launched in February 2021 in the USA. It calls itself the new creative economy. Foundation although being late in the NFT game has actually acquired a lot of success lately. With Nyan Cat one of the meme NFT’s of a cat floating through space leaving trails of rainbow selling for $590,000, while they have sales of even higher amounts than this.
The reason why Foundation is listed on the top 5 NFT marketplaces for artists is because it can be difficult to get into foundation. As their approach to the NFT community is creator first by having artist themselves select and invite other artist to join the marketplace.
Therefore, at Foundation, you’ll find some of the best artists out there, and as far as I know, it can be difficult to get into Foundation.
Besides that, the fees in Foundation is pretty high. As there is a 15% service fee charged on the highest sale price of your NFT. Gas fees depend upon the buyer and seller and if you make a sale, and if the buyer has not completed the transaction, it is optional for you to pay the extra gas fees to speed up the transaction.
5. Rarible
Website: https://rarible.com/
Rarible, no doubt is one of the top NFT platforms out there. It is also one of largest NFT marketplaces and it is an open source NFT platform where buyers can mint, buy or sell digital collectibles. Their primary focus is art assets and virtual collectables.
What makes Rarible really stand out is because of their unique minting process. Artists or collectors can mint NFT’s without having to code them or learn coding. Due to this, there is very low barrier to entry into the platform and almost anyone can join the platform, create an NFT on the go and list it.
Rarible trades are done through a smart contract and the information is logged on a blockchain ledger. This offers security and transparency for both buyers and sellers.
One of the downsides of Rarible is basically low barriers to entry. Although, this is great for artists and especially people with no coding skills, it can make the platform very saturated and crowded. Rarible, in fact is pretty crowded and due to that, you never know if you NFT will ever sell or even reach a potential collector.
Besides that, Rarible gives it’s users a lot of freedom as they can also set their Royalty fees. Unlike other marketplaces where the Royalties fees are fixed to 10%, Rarible users are allowed to set their own Royalties.
Conclusion
Right now these are top NFT marketplaces out there and no doubt all of them are great. All of them have their own pros and cons and if I were to tell you which one would I personally pick from the list, then it will be OpenSea for sure. The reason why I choose OpenSea over all the other NFT marketplaces is because its has a balance of not being too saturated yet maintaining that exclusivity. It also has the lowest transaction fees plus, OpenSea also pays for your Gas Fees on High Bid auctions. This could mean a lot for artists who have just joined the NFT hype.
