This guide will dive deep into the best Solana NFT Marketplaces in 2022. The NFT market is enormous. Trading in NFTs increased from $100 million in 2020 to an amazing $22 billion in 2021, according to DappRadar, and it doesn’t appear to be slowing down. Large companies have joined the NFT bandwagon, including Adidas, Nike, and Gucci.
Table of Contents
Why choose a Solana based NFT Marketplace?
So we know that an NFT Marketplace is like the Amazon of NFTs where you can create (mint), sell and buy NFTs. You can either create an auction or sell your NFTs at a fixed price in most of these marketplaces.
Currently Ethereum blockchain is the leader in hosting and capturing the NFTs market. Though, Solana which came a bit later in the scene is eventually garnering attention from artists and collectors of NFTs. The primary reasons for this is the low minting cost, low transaction fee (Gas fee), less time taken to mint, buy and sell NFTs and the security offered by the Solana based NFT marketplaces. A quick comparison of NFT Marketplaces based on Ethereum and Solana is given below for your reference.
| NFT Marketplace | Minting Fee | Transaction Fee (Gas Fee) | Time taken | Security |
| Ethereum | $ 50-100 | ~$7 | 1-5 minutes average which can further extend | Highly secure although few incidents have been reported |
| Solana | ~$1.5 | ~$0.00025 | few seconds | Highly secure although few incidents have been reported |
Best Solana NFT Marketplaces in 2022
Solsea
- First Solana based NFT Marketplace which allows you to buy, sell and mint NFTs.
- It makes you embed copyright licenses and unlockable content with your NFT.
- Solsea also provides a calendar for buyers to track new and fresh NFTs to buy before they become costly.
- Solsea displays NFTs with rarity ranks which is made possible by
- Virtual NFT Art Fair: “First 100” is a virtual NFT art fair which showcases the pioneers and early adopters.
- Commission charged-3%
- Wallets supported-Phantom, Sollet, Solflare(both web and mobile), Slope, Torus, Coin98 and Ledger.
- SolSea supports both video files (.mp4 and .mov) and audio files (.mp3, .wav, .ogg and .m4a), on top of image files (.jpeg, .png and .gif), as well as PDFs
- Solsea gives you a rich user experience with defined categories of NFTs
- Fees-There is a small listing fee which is returned when your NFT is sold. Fees for minting vary depending on the size of the file uploaded
How to buy NFTs in Solsea?
You can buy NFTs on Solsea using SOL cryptocurrency (or tokens). Connect your Solana compatible wallet like Phantom, Sollet, Solflare(both web and mobile), Slope, Torus, Coin98 and Ledger and buy the NFT of your choice. You can also fund your wallet with SOL tokens using the Moonpay and FTX Pay services.
Solanart
- Solana based NFT Marketplace which lets you buy and sell NFTs.
- You can list your digital assets as NFTs in Solanart simply by filling in their application form.
- Solanart offers some of the most sought after NFT collections like Degenerate Ape Academy and Aurory.
- Wallets supported: Solflare, Phantom, Sollet, Torus, Ledger, Glow, Slope, Clover, Solong, MathWallet and Coin98
- Fees-Listing of NFTs is free. 3% transaction fee on each sell of NFT
How to buy NFTs on Solanart?
You can buy NFTs on Solanart using SOL cryptocurrency (or tokens). Simply connect the Solana compatible wallet to Solanart by clicking on “Connect Wallet” button on top right corner of the web page. Select and buy the NFT of your choice using SOL tokens.
DigitalEyes
- Create sell and buy NFTs
- Wallets supported: Solflare, Phantom, Sollet, Torus, Slope, Solong and MathWallet.
- Transaction fee-2.5%
- Buyers of the NFT are also charged a royalty fee defined by the NFT minter plus a service fee.
- Top collections-Pesky Penguins, Aurory, Degenerate Ape Academy
Magic Eden
- Create, sell and buy NFTs.
- Transaction fee- 2%
- As in Digital Eyes, creators can set their royalty fee on their NFTs.
- Wallets supported: Solflare, Phantom, Sollet, Torus, Ledger, Glow, Slope, Clover, Solong, MathWallet, Exodus, Spot and Coin98
Metaplex
- Another popular Solana based NFT Marketplace which also offers a decentralized applications that prints and sells NFTs.
- Creating NFTs in Metaplex can be quite complex for non-coders and non technical people.
- Date of launch-3rd June 2021
- Type of NFTs supported-art & collectibles and gaming collectibles
- Wallets supported for buying and selling NFTs-Phantom
- Supporting partners-Backed by Multicoin Capital, Jump Crypto, Solana Ventures, Samsung NEXT, Animoca Brands, Alameda Research. Other celebrities supporting Metaplex are Michael Jordan, Allen Iverson
- Fees-~$0.50 (Source)
- Number of NFTs minted till the date of writing this guide-11.5 Million
Solport
- Another Solana NFT Marketplace for creating, selling and buying Solana NFTs.
- Solport offers features like scarcity filters, user auctions, notification of marketplace activity via Telegram, Discord.
- Type of NFTs supported-Digital art collectibles
- Wallets supported for buying and selling NFTs-Phantom, Solflare, Slope, Glow and Sollet
- Fees-2% sales commission charged to sellers of NFTs. There are no fees for listing, unlisting, or refunding offers.
ExchangeArt
- An NFT Marketplace in Solana that also features hand-selected art collections.
- Type of NFTs supported-Digital art as well as hand selected artworks.
- Wallets supported for buying and selling NFTs-Phantom, Solflare, Glow, Slope, Torus, Ledger, Blocto, Sollet.
- Fees-Transaction fee of 2.5%. No listing fee.
AlphaArt
- AlphaArt is a 100% decentralized NFT marketplace owned by Piggy DAO.
- You can even earn Solana on AlphaArt by owning and staking Piggy Sol Gang NFTs
- Type of NFTs supported-Digital collectibles, gaming collectibles
- Wallets supported for buying and selling NFTs-Phantom, Solflare, Sollet, Ledger
- Fees-No listing fee, however a sales fee of 2% is charged on each successful sale of NFT.
FTX
- FTX is a popular cryptocurrency exchange which has recently launched an NFT Marketplace for Solana.
- FTX US offers the minting, selling and buying of NFTs
- Type of NFTs supported-digital, gaming collectibles, PFPs, photography
- Fees-2% fee on each sale or trade of NFT. $3 to mint/list your NFT using FTX self service NFT minting tool.
Solible
- Solible is an open source project and an NFT Marketplace launched in October 2020. It allows minting, selling and buying of NFTs.
- In March 2021 Solible was ported to Solana based decentralized exchange Serum. This means NFTs could be bought and traded in a decentralized manner on Solible.
- Listing an NFT is free of cost in Solible.
- NFTs in Solible represent digital items or items linked to real world assets like sports apparels and paintings.
- Wallets supported: Sollet and Bonfida
- You can buy and sell NFTs on Solible using USDC, Frontier (FRONT) and Serum’s native coin SRM.
- Although the Solible website fails to give you a rich user experience. Most of the NFTs listed take too much time to load and some do not load at all. This gives you the impression that these are not listed anymore or removed by the creator. Add to it, there are no categorization of NFTs. Also the number of NFTs listed is small compared to its competitors like Solsea and Metaplex.
Best Solana NFT Marketplaces in 2022-A Summary Table
Summary table for best Solana NFT Marketplaces in 2022
| Market place | Fees | Wallets supported | Support | User Experience | My ratings out of 5 |
| Solsea | a) There is a small listing fee which is returned when your NFT is sold. b) Fees for minting vary depending on the size of the file uploaded | Phantom, Sollet, Solflare(both web and mobile), Slope, Torus, Coin98 and Ledger. | Sound support structure. a) The FAQs section is quite comprehensive and is able to sort out most of your doubts. Medium Discord b)Raise a support ticket here. | Rich and smooth a) NFTs are categorized b) Simply create an account to get started with minting | * * * * |
| Solanart | a) Listing fee-zero b)Transaction fee-3% on each sell of NFT c) Royalty or Creator fee which is set by the NFT minter | Solflare, Phantom, Sollet, Torus, Ledger, Glow, Slope, Clover, Solong, MathWallet and Coin98 | Sound support structure, although the FAQs section is not as comprehensive as that of Solsea. Raise a support request here. | Rich user experience with proper defined categories of NFTs. You can simply connect your wallet to buy and sell NFTs. | * * * |
| Digital Eyes | a)Transaction fee-2.5% b) Royalty fee set by NFT minter c) Listing/ delisting fee-zero | Solflare, Phantom, Sollet, Torus, Slope, Solong and MathWallet | A comprehensive FAQs and Guides page for buyer/seller and creators which almost covers all your queries. | Rich user experience categorizing NFTs to latest, trending and top verified collections. There is a Mint Calendar also which displays the NFTs to be listed in the coming weeks and months, so that you do not miss to buy and sell your favorite ones in the beginning itself. | * * * |
| Magic Eden | a)Transaction fee-2% b) Royalty fee-Set by NFT Minter c) Listing/ delisting fee-zero | Solflare, Phantom, Sollet, Torus, Ledger, Glow, Slope, Clover, Solong, MathWallet, Exodus, Spot and Coin98 | Visit this for all the different articles and support. They have their Twitter, Discord, YouTube, TikTok and Podcast also. | Rich user experience with features like Insights (to check collections and markets stats) | * * * * |
| Metaplex | ~$0.50 | Phantom | GitHub link Instagram link Twitter link Discord link | Rich user experience. Backed by celebrities like Michael Jordan, Allen Iverson. Although creating NFTs do require a bit of technical knowhow. So Metaplex is not suited for non-technical creators. | * * |
| Solport | a)Transaction fee-2% b) Listing/ delisting fee-zero | Phantom, Solflare, Slope, Glow and Sollet | A well listed FAQs page Discord Page @Solport_Bot on Telegram Twitter Page | Rich user experience but not as mesmerizing as Solsea, Digital Eyes. | * * * |
| Exchange Art | a)Transaction fee-2.5% b) Royalty fee- c) Listing/ delisting fee-zero | Phantom, Solflare, Glow, Slope, Torus, Ledger, Blocto, Sollet. | Sound support ecosystem Raise a ticket Twitter Page Discord Page Instagram Page YouTube Channel Medium Page | Rich user experience with NFTs categorized as recent, recommended and top NFTs in the series. One of the sought after features in creating an Auction for an NFT. | * * * * |
| Alpha Art | a)Transaction fee-2% c) Listing/ delisting fee-zero | Phantom, Solflare, Sollet, Ledger | Twitter Page Discord Page | Rich user experience with NFTs categorized as PFP, Lifestyle, Art, Gaming and more. Also one can earn Solana by owning and staking Piggy Sol Gang NFTs | * * * |
| FTX | a)Transaction fee-2% c) Listing/ delisting fee-$3 | Either buy SOL tokens directly in the FTX wallet or transfer SOL from your Solana compatible wallet to FTX wallet. | Since FTX is anyway an exchange, the support system is strong. Help Centre link | Quite cumbersome for beginners who are not so familiar with cryptocurrency exchanges. Good platform for experts. | * * * |
| Solible | Listing/ delisting fee-zero | Sollet and Bonfida | I was not able to open the FAQ and Support page. Please check if you can open it at your desktop. FAQ Page link | The Solible marketplace appears poorly maintained. Though some artworks took a great deal of time to open, some did not open at all. Minting on Solible is also not easy for the non-technical. You need to have a GitHub account and mint your NFT manually. | ** |
Conclusion
By now we have come to know that Solana is running fast in the race of NFTs and can even eclipse Ethereum in the coming years. The most popular, user friendly and rich in features NFT Marketplaces on Solana are Solsea, Digital Eyes, ExchangeArt and Magic Eden. It is true that most of us (especially the beginners) only know of OpenSea as the NFT Marketplace available to buy and sell NFTs. But eventually we can see a new trend where due to the lesser transaction and minting costs and lesser time taken, people can turn their attention to Solana based marketplaces.
However on the downside Solana marketplaces have faced some regular outages and downtimes making sellers and buyers to make their next move at the right time. There have been few rug pull scams also which has dented the image of Solana. But any new technology has few loopholes which the scammers leverage upon to have bad benefits.
Ethereum too has faced security issues in the past. If you ask me not Ethereum and Solana based marketplaces will co-exist in the future. Ethereum 2.0 might have some improved feature which will help it to sustain the client base. Solana by the time should have gained a respectable participants to maintain and grow.
