As of 2020, the market size of NFTs was around $340 million. But in 2021, Market Business Insider reported that the market size of the NFT market peaked at $41 billion.
The increasing demand for NFTs has kicked off a corresponding increase in the number of white label NFT marketplaces. According to DAppRadar, there are currently 271 different NFT marketplaces.
These developments show that creators are set to make huge revenues from NFTs. But the question is, where are the best places to sell your NFTs as a creator?
Therefore, this article will give an in-depth explanation of what the best NFT marketplaces are, and the top-tier ones you should consider using for your NFTs.
NFT marketplaces are platforms where NFTs can be stored, displayed, traded, and in some cases minted NFT (created). Just like how Amazon and eBay are for selling tangible goods online, the NFT marketplace is where people can also trade blockchain-based items.
You might be curious to ask, "how does an NFT marketplace work?" Simply put, it is an online platform where NFT creators can sell NFTs and buyers could easily search for—and purchase—the NFTs based on trends, category, personality, or these NFT utilities
There are various examples of NFT marketplaces including LooksRare, Foundation, NFTify, and so on.
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Zoddo and Guts, two anonymous people, founded LooksRare to be a community-first NFT marketplace that actively rewards all users of the platform. Whether you're a creator, collector, or trade LooksRare platform tokens.
Ultimately, the LooksRare platform aims to give back to users and creators of the platform. What this means is that LooksRare can offer users new features at any point in time. Here are some of the features that they plan to implement soon:
The LOOKS token is LookRare’s native currency. You can choose to either stake your LOOKS token or swap them for a different cryptocurrency of your choice.
Pros
- It has a token of its own called look unlike opensea doesn't have a token.
- It has wide popularity and acceptance among the NFT community.
Cons
- It is very new and has not faced the test of time.
This was the first NFT marketplace with a whooping trading volume of over $3.5 billion. OpenSea is a decentralized marketplace that allows users to buy and sell non-fungible tokens. Founded in 2017, the NFT exchange initially began as a platform for collecting CryptoKitties.
But, with time, it has expanded beyond collectibles. It's currently a marketplace for a wide variety of digital assets, including art, domain names, game items, and music.
OpenSea makes use of the open-source blockchain Ethereum in addition to ERC721 and ERC1155 to confirm that NFT collectors own the assets they’re listing on the marketplace. What’s more? The company has introduced Polygon blockchains to allow fast, low-cost trading.
Pros
- Over 150 payment options.
- A large variety of NFT collectibles
Cons
- The gas fee might be exorbitant due to the price of Ethereum
- The server crashes too often
- Has poor customer support
Foundation has established itself as a reliable and curated NFT marketplace. It describes itself as a bridge between crypto and culture to foster a network of mutual support between artists, creators, and collectors.
The platform is built on the Ethereum network, and to use it, you need to connect a wallet like MetaMask.
Creators can easily access the “Creator Invites” feature after selling their first NFT. It supports payments in Ether and the seller receives 10% royalty on every resale.
At Foundation, you will have to pay 5% service fees. Meanwhile, the fee is excluding the Ethereum gas fees that the Ethereum network requires to process transactions.
Pros
- Curated and limited NFTs
- Artist-run NFT marketplace
- High-quality art and projects
Cons
- Limited and exclusive creator list
- Relatively high gas fees
Solanart is a marketplace for NFTs that runs on the Solana network. With Solana, each transaction is provably fast and secure at scale, and the ability to trade across chains opens the door to a vibrant ecosystem of collectibles.
The NFTs in Solanart are tagged with SOL prices, and users are only allowed to use SOL in putting NFTs as the platform accepts no other currencies at the moment.
Solanart allows any user to create a shop and list their own NFTs for sale under a fixed price or a revenue split with the marketplace. Users can buy from other users, or shops on Solanart.
It promotes artists and creators by providing them with a trustless marketplace to share their art.
Pros
- Lower gas fees
- Ultra-fast transaction speeds
- Interoperability
Cons
- The verification process of listing an NFT is tedious
Rarible is an NFT marketplace designed to sell both single pieces of art and collections. It attracts sports, gaming, and media as artists release collections of works. Rarible is commy-owned and promotes decentralization.
It uses its token, RARI, and the platform's users take part in moderation and get to vote on any platform upgrades. Rarible has partnered with some big brands to secure artists' work and create unique NFTs, including Adobe.
Rarible uses Flow, Ethereum, and Tezos blockchains. When you mint your NFT, you choose which token you'll use, and you can share search options with OpenSea.
Pros
- Community-owned
- Can offer low carbon and gas fees
Cons
- Can be dominated by big brands
Axie Infinity is an NFT marketplace for games centered around fantasy creatures called Axie. The birthplace of the game in Vietnam. Axie Infinity rewards players with ERC-20 AXS (Axie Infinity Shards) tokens.
At the moment, the website claimed to have more than 19,000 monthly active on-chain users.
The Axie Infinity Marketplace charges the sellers a 4.25% marketplace fee. There are four separate gas fee categories based on speed — Slow, Standard, Fast and Rapid.
Pros
- The easiest place to buy Axie Infinity NFTs
Cons
- Slow performance
- Only allows two means of payment
Decentraland is a virtual world built on the Ethereum blockchain. It was conceptualized in the year 2017 by a public blockchain company called Metavchargedlding Ltd based out of Shanghai, China.
The virtual 3D world of Decentraland mainly uses MANA tokens and LAND parcels. MANA tokens are the currency in Decentraland.
Transactions in Decentraland Marketplace attract a 2.50% MANA burn as charged by the participants. All MANA tokens burnt will be removed from circulation. Since it operates on Ethereum, users will have to pay Gas fees for making transactions via the Tools in the virtual world.
Pros
- It is popular.
Cons
- It has an expensive transaction fee because it's on the ethereum blockchain.
NBA Top Shot was formed from a partnership between the NBA and Dapper Labs - a blockchain company with a history of highly trafficked marketplaces. Simply put, NBA Top Shot is an online forum for trading basketball collectibles.
Fans can buy and sell video clips of their favorite players, called "moments," from recent seasons. According to DAppRadar, the daily trading volume of NBA Top Shot is usually around $977k.
Pros
- Uses the Flow blockchain, which has lower fees than Ethereum
- Does not require users to make payments via cryptocurrency
- Widely regarded as the most successful NFT collectible with a heavy emphasis on the mainstream audience
- New drops are available regularly
Cons
- Limited support for cryptocurrencies
- NBA Top Shot is a completely custodial NFT platform
- Still in the early stages of development and users must verify their identities
Enjin Marketplace was built on the Ethereum network and the company behind the marketplace also launched its coin in June 2018: Enjin Coin. For the records, the Devs at Enjin created the new popular ERC-1155 NFT standard.
Enjin charges transaction fees whenever you trade NFTs on their marketplace. The commission is normally a percentage of the sale amount in the relevant trade.
The main challenge faced by most NFTs today is creating tangible value — collectibles that NFTs are more than simple pictures or collectibles. Enjin enables the creation of NFTs that achieve this with a focus on two core tenets: identity and utility.
Pros
- Enhances a cross-chain network designed to bring NFTs to everyone.
- Helps you discover, buy, and sell rare and unique NFTs.
Cons
- Enjin crypto wallet is not open-source and, therefore, lacks adequate vetting.
- The platform only allows the Enjin wallet.
Founded in 2021 by Nikita Ngan Nguyen, NFTify already boasts of 12,000 business built. NFTify is positioning itself as the Shopify of the NFT market.
NFTify doesn't identify as another usual "marketplace" like the rest. Instead, it is a marketplace builder platform. In other words, it is empowering creators to stop relying on third-party NFT marketplaces and build their branded NFT storefront.
Bearing in mind that most people find the concept of creating their own NFT storefront complicated and costly, NFTify is a simple intuitive platform where anybody can easily create their own NFT marketplaces and trade NFTs.
Thereby enhancing the influx of creators into the NFT market. The platform charges a 2.5% transaction fee on each NFT trade or you pay in its N1 token.
Pros
- It requires zero coding to build storefronts
- It is budget-friendly
- It is customizable
- It has built-in marketing tools
Con
- NFT creators need to drive buyers traffic to the store
SuperRare brings more of a gallery model to the NFT space. It's an art-first NFT marketplace that puts credibility and artistic intent above meme-friendly art. You will find SuperRare filled with celebrity NFTs.
It reportedly only accepts 1% of the artists who apply, which sounds elitist, but it means that if you're accepted you know you're in a catalog of highly curated and interesting artworks.
The approach makes SuperRare feel like a high-end gallery, and that's further enhanced by a rule enabling its artists to mint one of their originals – no Editions here.
This means the pieces are more scarce and so, as the name suggests, rare.
Pros
- Curated and rare artwork
- Has a fine gallery mood
- Fantastic editorial blog
Cons
- Accepts low number of applicants
- It is mainly for artists
FTX NFT marketplace allows users to buy, sell as well as mint NFTs cross-chain across the Ethereum and Solana blockchains. The cross-chain trading across the blockchains will be done using smart contracts that connect the two chains.
Fees are slightly different based on whether you are on the FTX international of FTX US. For FTX international, there’s a 5% fee on each sale or trade.
For FTX US, there’s a 2% fee on each sale or trade. Listing/minting your own NFTs will cost you $1. Royalty specified in the NFT will also be deducted. FTX caps maximum royalty at 40%.
Pros
- It is easy to use
- Its fees are affordable
Cons
- Limited access for users in the US only
- It is based on only Solana
CryptoPunks is developed by Larva Labs. CryptoPunks is powered by the Ethereum blockchain network. The CryptoPunks marketplace is a project consisting of 10,000 unique characters.
These algorithmically-generated 24 x 24-pixel art works mainly include guys and girls with a punk look. Other NFTs include Zombies, Apes, and a few Alien characters.
These NFTs can be bought only through Ethereum using the MetaMask or Mist wallets.
Pros
- It is very popular and has a strong community
Cons
- It has an expensive gas fee because it's on the ethereum blockchain
- It has only three NFT collections - Autoglyphs, the Cryptopunks, and Meebits
The Binance NFT marketplace is a marketplace for all forms of digital artworks and collectibles. Powered by BSC blockchain infrastructure and community, the Binance NFT marketplace claims to provide high liquidity for users to launch and trade NFTs.
If you have Binance tokens (BNB) accessing the marketplace is even easier, and you can use ETH, BNB, and BUSD to bid collectible. On the other hand, you can deposit ETH or BSC NFTs if you're looking to sell.
Pros
- Low transaction fee
- Large and secure marketplace
- Cash-out using fiat
Cons
- It doesn't have built-in marketing tools
Nifty Gateway is an exclusive NFT platform that is popular within the blockchain world. It essentially combines crypto-technology as well as collectible artworks in an attempt to create a rich suite of high-value, tradable assets which bring a world of investment potential.
Nifty Gateway is an exclusive marketplace that is specifically reserved for the artwork and music that has been curated by the Nifty team. This allows some of the best artists as well as musicians out there to create NFTs and sell them there.
Pros
- Extremely exclusive artists on the platform
- Purchase NFTs with a credit card
- Easy to use platform for crypto beginners.
Cons
- Custodial NFT marketplace (no wallet)
- Need to be an established artist to be accepted to the platform
As we have said earlier, there are about 271+ NFT marketplaces at the moment. This puts some creators in a dilemma because they don't know the best marketplace for their NFTs.
In deciding which marketplace suits your NFT collections, there are a lot of factors to consider. If not, your NFTs might not sell as they should.
At the moment, the greater population of people doesn't know much about NFTs. Therefore, an ideal NFT platform should be optimized enough for people who are not blockchain natives to navigate.
Thus, the user interface has a huge role to play in delivering a smooth user experience. This is the question to test how user-centric an NFT marketplace is: "Can an average man successfully buy NFTs from the marketplace without excessive external guidance?"
If the answer is "no," then you should know that such a marketplace will not help your sales. Beanie Maxi once and some other users once complained about the complex UI/UX of Opensea.
When you are doing your due diligence on the best NFT marketplace for your NFT, you should double-check the strength of the platform's bandwidth. However, this might be quite difficult to find out at the early stage.
The reason is that you can't know the platform's bandwidth at its early stage, but when its user base can expand. In other words, it is easily detectable in bigger NFT marketplaces.
When the bandwidth is not strong enough for the large user base, the platform might be shutting down or "snapping" regularly. For example, the Opensea server crashed a couple of times last year when there was unusual traffic.
By implication, trades will be halted anytime the NFT marketplace is down.
There are different blockchain networks for NFT including Tezos, Solana, Polygon, Arbitrum, Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, and so on.
First, you need to determine which blockchain ecosystem on which you'd mint your NFT. This diversity of blockchain networks exists as a solution to the downsides of the Ethereum blockchain.
How do you evaluate a blockchain network? Consider these:
For instance, building on Polygon requires lower gas fees and is faster. Similarly, Immutable X is a layer-2 solution on Ethereum that is more environmentally friendly and relatively faster.
Apart from that, the most popular nft marketplace in question must also support your preferred blockchain. Mintable, for instance, is an NFT marketplace on both the Ethereum blockchain and Immutable X. Thus, it is only useful for you if you also want to use these networks.
The reason all NFT marketplaces, as many as they are, have their respective users is because each of them has what it is popular for. This is always obvious so you don't need much research.
Here are some NFT marketplaces and what they are popularly known for:
Therefore, you should only set up your NFT on a platform that supports your niche.
Creating or trading NFTs is still a relatively new activity, and there could quite be questions about issues in every step. That proffers a need for a responsive customer success team.
The role of the customer success team is to ensure that you, as the creator of their platform, have the best user experience. These are the two factors that will let you determine if the customer support is great:
For a while now, there have been many complaints about the unresponsive customer support of Opensea.
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There are a lot of NFT wallets including Metamask, Coinbase wallet, Algo wallet, and so on. Each NFT marketplace has the number of wallets it supports, and this is always in line with the underlying blockchain it supports.
For now, NFT wallet integration is important for two reasons. First, it helps you to log in to your account, thereby enhancing security. It shows how blockchain-native the platform is.
Secondly, the NFT wallet that the NFT marketplace allows also determines how you'd get paid as an NFT creator. For example, Enjin Marketplace only allows you to sell and buy NFTs in its native ENJ tokens.
Your storefront is a gallery where your NFT collections will be displayed for people to see and ultimately purchase. These are the critical factors you must assess to know if an NFT marketplace has a good storefront:
First, the storefront should be able to furnish the prospective buyers with basic descriptions of the particular NFT - title, creator, price and the respective protocol. More importantly, an ideal storefront should have a payment method.
At the backend, your storefront should have a dashboard where you can oversee all your NFTs, their performances, and the sales you've made so far.
Management of your NFT sales is important. This is why you should be notified of every activity that goes on in your store. Beyond that, the history of your sales should be handy for the sake of accountability.
This feature looks underrated, but it will go a long way to determine how fast your NFTs will sell. A good NFT marketplace must have a search engine where the users can look for various NFTs in different categories.
The search engine—on request—will filter NFTs into NFT music, NFT meme, NFT cards, photos, and so on. If you sell meme NFTs, buyers can quickly search and get to your category.
Anyone who is fully into NFT will agree that marketing is one of the backbones of making sales as an NFT creator. As a result, you should prioritize NFT marketplaces that have built-in marketing tools and grow NFT business.
While these built-in tools may not be perfect, they are nonetheless always helpful. Some NFT marketplaces offer tools for email marketing, content marketing, targeted ads, and even search engine marketing.
Taking NFTify as a case study, it provides its customers with:
There are tons of NFT marketplaces to choose from. But before you decide on which platform suits your NFT, you need to go over the 10 criteria of an ideal NFT marketplace again. This is a simpler way to know the best NFT marketplace for you:
Check out for:
Then put these qualities side-by-side with your NFT to check if your value-propositions match.
As much as there is a lot of money in NFT, you need to kick-start your journey by creating your first collections of NFT. As a creator, you'd have hands-on experience when you create your NFT storefront.
On this note, we recommend that you create a store on NFTify because it is the easiest and most cost-effective to set up and it gives your brand autonomy. This marketplace builder platform has all the qualities of a great NFT marketplace without lifting any fingers to code.
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1. Which NFT marketplace is the biggest?
So far, Opensea is the biggest NFT marketplace in terms of sales volume.
2. How much does an average NFT platform charge upon every sale?
As an NFT creator, most NFT platforms will charge you around 2.5% upon every successful sale.
3. Can I sell the same NFT on different marketplaces?
This is technically possible, but it is not encouraged because you might get sued for it or lose your reputation.
4. Can I sell an NFT I bought?
If you have purchased an NFT from a marketplace, then you can also sell it to others.
5. How do I know the best marketplace for my NFT?
There are a lot of factors to consider. But primarily, check if the niche of your NFT is compatible with the marketplace and if it has the necessary features to engage your prospective customers.
6. Who are the types of people that can create NFT?
Virtually anybody can become an NFT creator. It's not limited to some set of people. Once you mint a digital file onto the blockchain, you have become an NFT creator.