The booming of Metaverse has led to the dramatic growth of NFTs. In 2021, this field jumped to more than $17 Billion of value, according to data from Nonfungible.com. As such, it’s no surprise that NFT marketplaces, which provide tools to create and trade digital assets, are critical to the fast movement of NFTs.
Among a bunch of NFT marketplaces, OpenSea and Rarible are two prominent names with many great features.
In this topic, we will distinguish these two by digging down on the both advantages and disadvantages.
Overview of OpenSea and Rarible
| Services and Features | OpenSea | Rarible |
| Launch year | 2017 | 2020 |
| Multi-chain | Yes | Yes |
| Decentralized governance | No | Yes |
| Native token | No | Yes ($RARI) |
| Payment options | Around 150 cryptocurrencies | ETH, FLOW and XTZ |
| Credit card payment | No | Yes |
| Trading fee | 2.5% | 2.5% |
| Royalty fee | 10% | Up to 50% |
| Gasless/lazy minting | Yes | yes |
| Monthly unique users | Around 500,000 | Below 10,000 |
| Beginner-friendly interface | Yes | Yes |
| Mobile app | Yes | No |
| Messaging feature | No | Yes |
(Cre: CoinDesk)
About OpenSea
OpenSea is well known as the world’s first peer-to-peer NFT marketplace. The platform lets users buy, sell, and discover digital assets. The thing that makes this platform special is it enables all most of its operations on the blockchain. Moreover, with decentralization as the big part of it, users do not need the input of an intermediary to create, buy or sell NFT-based digital items.
– Key features:
- Multichain Support: OpenSea has recently integrated Polygon. This is a blockchain that makes Ethereum tokens, such as NFTs, faster and cheaper to transfer.
- Largest NFT Marketplace: As it was the first NFT marketplace created, OpenSea has been also the world’s largest marketplace for NFTs with millions of different NFTs available to buy and trade.
- Create NFTs: OpenSea allows users to create and sell their own NFT collections. Once the collection is done, you can start uploading them and minting them to the blockchain. With each NFT sold, you can earn royalties up to 10%.
About Rarible
Rarible’s business template is similar to OpenSea’s where users are offered a seamless and peer-to-peer gateway into the NFT market. Simply, it offers easy-to-mint and trade features designed solely for NFTs. And just like OpenSea, Rarible boasts a dynamic ecosystem that houses a variety of digital items, including artworks, collectibles, in-game assets and many more.
– Key features:
- $RARI Token: Rarible is the forefront NFT marketplace to offer a governance token for buying and selling. With each transaction on the platform, are transfered to vote on policies and decisions. The tokens are distributed weekly.
- Royalties: Rarible offers users 30% for creator royalties. This means that each time NFT is sold, owners can earn royalty fees on the transaction.
- Free minting: Users can mint tokens free on Rarible. And users only need to pay for the gas fees when the NFT is sold.
The strengths and weaknesses of OpenSea and Rarible
Here are the highlighted pros and cons of the two platforms to make it easier to choose which one is more suitable for your requirements:
| Pros | Cons | |
| OpenSea | – A beginner-friendly platform – Supports up to 150 payment options. – Features NFTs from multiple blockchains. – Include a vast range of NFT collections and projects. – Have mobile app – Allow initiation of gasless minting. | – A multi-chain platform. – Has an established decentralized governance system. – The features and tools available are easy to use. – Offers a lot of flexibility when it comes to royalties with up to a 30% royalty fee. |
| Rarible | – Not very reliable in terms of security. – The royalty fee is fixed at 10%. – Does not run a decentralized governance system. | – Lack of restrictions makes it difficult to eradicate fraud completely. – Does not have a mobile app. |
Conclusion
So, which one is a better marketplaces?
The final answer all boils down to personal preference and what you are willing to give up in order to access a specific feature or service.
Rarible is better than OpenSea in the royalty sharing when selling an NFT. On Rarible, you can charge up to 30% royalty, whereas OpenSea only allows you to charge up to 10%. OpenSea, in turn, has more advantage about the gas fee when it integrates Polygon blockchain. Now you can buy or sell NFTs without any sort of gas fee.
But if we had to choose one, we would go with OpenSea. As the first NFT marketplace, it is more stable than the young Rarible, and there are way more active users on it which in theory gives you a better chance at selling an NFT.
(Reference: CoinDesk and Koditips)
Check out this topic for top 10 marketplaces in 2022: https://en.cryptory.net/post/top-10-nft-marketplaces-you-should-know-in-2022/