OpenSea Alternatives

What is OpenSea?

OpenSea is a marketplace that specializes in NFTs and was launched on December 31, 2017. It was the first DeFi NFT market where buyers and sellers could easily make transactions on its platform. Since its inception, co-founders Devin Finzer and Alex Atallah have been working to develop a platform that is recognized by many.

The creators were motivated by the release of CryptoKitties and networked with members of early NFT Discord servers to figure out what the community desired in a platform. Their user interface is simple to use, allowing potential collectors to filter through their database of 34 million+ digital assets.

The crypto-collectibles are grouped into categories ranging from the sort of asset (domains, metaverse, GIFs) to artists (Beeple, Jose Delbo), and even specific collections (Mutant Ape Yacht Club, CryptoPunks).

OpenSea was originally developed on the Ethereum blockchain alone, but it has now been integrated with Polygon and Klatyn. The market allows users to buy and sell both ERC-721 and ERC-1155 non-fungible tokens using smart contracts based on blockchain technology.

OpenSea Competitors

Rarible

Launched in 2020, Rarible is one of the closest OpenSea alternatives in the industry. It was created to be a little more creator-centric than OpenSea. This NFT marketplace hosts over 100,000 crypto assets that are frequently collected by enthusiasts. Artists are able to set a royalty percentage when minting an NFT, meaning they can continually earn from secondary sales of their crypto art.

Rarible has its own governance token, RARI, that allows holders to vote on future changes to the NFT platform. Assets on the Rarible market include photography, art, music, gaming items, domain names, and NSFW content.

Rarible’s transaction fees for digital collectibles are 2.5% for both buyers and sellers. They also allow their API to be used so that other developers can track the information about each transaction.

For further comparisons, read OpenSea vs Rarible.

Mintable

Mintable was founded by Zack Burks in 2018 in Singapore. Not only is it a peer-to-peer marketplace for digital items, but it is also known for the three ways artists can mint new NFTs on their platform. Creators can mint in the usual way (paying extra ETH in gas fees), or use Mintable’s gasless or printable minting solutions.

When using gasless minting, the platform will take extra steps to ensure that the digital art is completely unique and not available elsewhere. Artists are not able to collect royalties on secondary sales when setting up gasless NFTs.

Printable minting allows an artist to set up a collection of potential NFTs. Only those purchased are minted and the creator can remove unsold pieces at a later date to preserve the rarity of digital goods that were purchased.

To learn more about this platform, read our comparison between Mintable and OpenSea.

Foundation

Foundation is an auction-based marketplace that works exclusively with trending artists who know how to use social media to help showcase their work. The platform was founded in 2020 and it prides itself in being closer to an art gallery than a general marketplace.

As creators mint tokens on the platform, they set a “reserve” price for each piece. When a potential buyer decides that they are willing to pay at least that price, they can start off the bidding for that amount of cryptocurrency. At that point, a 24-hour auction will begin. If a bid is placed in the last 15 minutes, the timer will reset to 15 minutes. When the auction ends, the person who bid those most will purchase the asset.

Artists pay a 15% commission to the gallery when their work is initially sold. They will receive 10% royalties on all future sales of their work. The platform also charges a 2.5% transaction fee on all secondary sales.

You can learn more from our Foundation Marketplace review.

SuperRare

SuperRare was founded in 2018 by John Crain and Jonathan Perkins. The platform is known for being extremely exclusive on whom they allow to mint on their platform, only inviting a few new artists per month.

Due to the rarity and quality of art on the platform, many collectors flock to the marketplace to buy and collect digital art. SuperRare currently averages between $25-30 million in monthly sales from the 15,000+ assets available in their collection.

When an artist’s work is initially sold, the artist must pay a 15 percent commission to the gallery. The good news is, that on all secondary sales, they will receive a 10% royalty. The platform also charges a 2.5 percent transaction fee on any secondary transactions.

For further comparisons, check out our post, OpenSea vs SuperRare.

MakersPlace

Based in San Fransisco, MakersPlace is an NFT marketplace with an art gallery setting. In order to mint NFTs on the platform, you must be invited by the platform. When selling their work, artists will pay a 15% commission to the gallery but will receive 10% royalties on all future sales.

Unlike other similar marketplaces, MakersPlace allows their collectors to pay via PayPal or credit card. This means that people will be able to purchase items using USD, rather than purchase and transfer cryptocurrency through exchanges like CoinBase or Binance. Unfortunately, collectors still can’t use bitcoin to make transactions. Buyers using PayPal or credit cards will pay a 2.9% transaction fee.

MakersPlace allows people to purchase non-fungible tokens instantly, make offers to the seller, or participate in timed auctions.

Learn more about this platform in our MakersPlace review.

Nifty Gateway

Nifty Gateway was founded by the Gemini infrastructure in 2018. The platform allows artists to sell “Nifties,” the on-platform name for NFTs. The platform works with many top artists including Beeple, Grimes, and Steve Aoki. Artists must apply to the platform (and be accepted) before being allowed to mint their own NFTs.

For beginners who don’t want to go through the hassle of buying Ethereum, Nifty Gateway allows collectors to buy some art using a credit card. This may also allow people to purchase rare drops from top artists if they don’t have enough crypto on hand. The platform takes 5% plus 30 cents from every sale.

One drawback of Nifty Gateway is that it takes custody of NFTs. This means there is a chance that you may lose access to the asset during a breach. There have also been a few instances where hackers have been able to access an account without 2FA authentication and have stolen digital art.

Zora

Zora.co is an NFT Marketplace that was launched in 2020. It is based on the Ethtereum blockchain. The platform runs on an auction-based system similar to Foundation. After the reserve price is met, bidding starts and the highest bid will purchase the NFT. All NFTs are bought and sold with ETH.

The company also runs store.zora.co, which is an online marketplace where artists and designers can sell limited editions of physical products. The platform points toward Kanye’s Yeezys, which sell for $220, but are often sold for much more on the secondary market. To “fix” this problem, Zora allows things to be bought and traded with tokens that can be purchased ahead of time, allowing the artist to maximize their profits.

As an example, a creator puts up a set amount of an item for sale. Interested parties will then buy and sell tokens that will allow them to redeem the product before it is dropped. After the item drops, token holders can either trade in their token for the item (destroying the token) or continue to buy and sell the token on the market.

Mintbase

Mintbase is an NFT marketplace that runs on the NEAR blockchain. Gas fees on the Ethereum blockchain are high and there are often gas wars when trending collections are minted. This has made it difficult for the average collector to get into the game.

To make it more affordable for artists to mint new tokens, Mintbase decided to run on the NEAR blockchain which is far cheaper to use. The blockchain uses Rust or AssembyScript to create smart contracts, making it easier for devs to write the appropriate code. Collectors can also use the ETH <> NEAR Rainbow Bridge to move their Mintbase collectibles onto the ETH blockchain if they choose.

Creators can mint images, music, and media files to be bought and sold outright or in an auction-like setting. The platform takes a 2% fee when an item is sold.

Treasureland

Treasureland is a digital asset marketplace that runs on both the Ethereum blockchain, but also the Binance Smart Chain (BSC). The platform was launched in late 2020 by DEGO Finance, an open-source NFT ecosystem that work across chains.

Most non-fungible tokens on the marketplace are listed in BNB (Binance’s coin), though you can buy products with other coins. Treasureland lists the USD value of each token alongside its crypto counterpart.

The platform allows anyone to mint on the platform. They take 2% of every transaction.

VeVe

VeVe is a digital collectible marketplace that is available on mobile app through the Google Play store and the App store. The drops on VeVe can be bought, traded, and sold on the platform, but they can also be upgraded and customized.

VeVe is popular because it covers many different fandoms and allows you to collect characters from Batman, Star Trek, Jurassic Park, and many others. Holders can display their collections through showrooms or even use the augmented reality feature to display them alongside objects in the real world.

NFT Showroom

NFT Showroom is a digital marketplace that was built on the HIVE blockchain. Users use the HIVE coins to make transactions. The platform chose this blockchain due to it being globally accessible and gas-free. The platform is still relatively small, only making a few transactions per day.

When artists sell on NFT Showroom, they will need to pay a 10% commission to the platform. That being said, the artist will receive 5% royalties on all secondary sales of their work. The platform will also take an additional 5% from those transactions.

NiftyKit

NiftyKit is an NFT asset marketplace that was founded in 2020 in the United States. Artists can mint and sell ERC-721 smart contracts to operate on the Ethereum blockchain. The platform shares its API, allowing sellers to sell on other marketplaces or from their own websites.

Sellers can either list their items for sale or put them up for a 24, 48, or 72-hour auction after a pre-determined reserve price is met. To create on the platform, you will need to pay a monthly membership, though this will remove the necessity of paying gas fees.

SolSea

SolSea is an NFT marketplace that runs on the Solana blockchain. It allows artists to embed licenses into the smart contract when they mint their NFTs, allowing everyone to track exactly what is being traded. Transactions on the Solana chain are also cheaper than those on Ethereum’s due to how the blockchains are currently managed.

After NFTs began to be sold on Solana, it became clear that there needed to be a platform to help manage the secondary market of the digital assets. SolSea was founded to meet that need. The platform charges a 3% fee on every transaction.