The tldr; OpenSea is the most popular NFT marketplace at the time of writing, and very easy to get started with. If you want to get started buying NFTs on OpenSea, have a look at our guide on how to buy NFTs.
OpenSea
OpenSea is a peer-to-peer trading platform designed for the exchange of digital items. OpenSea was founded by Devin Finzer and Alex Atallah in 2018. The two innovators came up with the concept of NFT marketplaces, which many other similar platforms now use.
In the NFT niche, many enthusiasts regard OpenSea as the first and one of the largest NFT marketplaces. The sheer amount of items available on OpenSea is enormous.
OpenSea hosts trades valued between 70 and 90 million USD every 30 days, justifying its claims of being the largest NFT marketplace. As a user, you have access to over 200 categories of collectibles at affordable pricing.
You can trade games, sports NFTs, utility NFTs, and digital collectibles on the OpenSea platform. More importantly, you can also trade digital arts, high-selling commodities on most NFT marketplaces.
It’s no surprise that many noteworthy NFT projects such as Cryptokitties, God unchained, and Cryptopunks use the OpenSea trading platform.
The range the platform offers makes it a highly preferable NFT marketplace. OpenSea enables users to trade NFTs on a global scale without submitting the items into the custody of the marketplace.
Rarible
Rarible is an NFT marketplace similar to OpenSea. Rarible is built on the Ethereum platform; as such, trades on it require no intermediary. The platform enables creatives to market their NFT products and talents at reasonable prices to buyers.
Alex Salnikov and Alexei Falin developed Rarible in 2020. They designed the platform to focus more on digital arts and other similar collectibles. They did this to divert attention from generic crypto and raise the level of diversity in NFT digital collectible markets.
In 2021, Rarible has enjoyed tremendous growth with the number of active users increasing by over 53% to about 12,000. The number of NFT transactions has also increased, with recent figures sitting above 32,000.
OpenSea Vs. Rarible: Audience
The two platforms are very similar to each other, and they provide almost identical services. It’s only natural that they share a similar active audience. Nonetheless, there’s a particular trait that separates the audiences of the OpenSea and Rarible marketplaces.
OpenSea is more suited to people needing a marketplace to exchange block-chain based digital assets via a smart contract. If you want to trade blockchain-based NFT using a smart contract, OpenSea is the platform for you.
Rarible, on the other hand, is the best choice for people looking to exchange digital assets in an NFT marketplace that’s more customer-centric. Rarible also has the security blockchain offers, but the platform focuses more on creators, allowing them to be a part of the decision-making process.
OpenSea Vs. Rarible: Supported Currencies
Both marketplaces mainly use ETH and wETH to buy/sell and make offers. Rarible though has the benefit of getting RARI for using the platform. RARI is their governance token, more info here.
OpenSea Vs. Rarible: Other Differences
While they both enable NFT transactions, OpenSea and Rarible are different in the following ways:
Support Level
One of the standout differences between Rarible is the training support they provide. While both platforms offer many features and functionality, there’s no point if the users don’t know how to operate them.
Rarible provides live virtual training to users on the various functionalities of its platform. Conversely, OpenSea doesn’t provide any such in-person training to new users looking to sell NFTs. Although, both platforms provide documentation facilities where users can easily access resources about the operability of the platforms.
Type of Integration Tools
Integration tools are important considerations when you’re adopting an NFT marketplace. You need to be aware of which tools you’ll need and which platform has them before making your choice.
OpenSea takes the top spot in terms of integration tools. It allows for integration with various high-end tools, including Metamask, Mintbase, Ethereum, Authereum, Arkans, Dapper, and many more.
Rarible also supports notable tools such as CoinBase wallet, Metamask, Torus, Ethereum, Nifty gateway, and Walletconnect. But the level of integration it provides is limited in comparison to OpenSea.
Minting Process
Lastly, NFT minting on the two platforms differs greatly. In OpenSea, minting occurs when you’re selling your items. In other words, you don’t have to mint the NFTs before selling them. But, you do have to cover the gas fees.
First, you list your items on the marketplace and make an offer to the buyer. Then, after selling the non-fungible token, the payment and all attached charges come back on the blockchain.
However, for Rarible, creators need to first mint NFTs before performing transactions on the platform. Not just that, you have to pay fees to list your art on the marketplace even if nobody buys the art.
OpenSea Vs. Rarible: Conclusion
OpenSea and Rarible both have many benefits, and they’re two of the best NFT marketplaces. They both have higher ratings than Superrare and many other similar marketplaces.
In terms of audience, both platforms provide top-notch services to users, and they ensure safe NFT sales.
As an emerging or established digital artist, both of these NFT platforms provide a great avenue to market your creations. Please don’t hold back on your talents; show them to the world and get value through OpenSea or Rarible.