How Much Does it Cost to Build an NFT Marketplace in 2022?

NFTs or Non-Fungible Tokens have been in the news for quite some time now. At the time of writing this article, the NFT market cap was around $6,677,232, which is susceptible to change with fluctuations in the market. This extraordinary growth has not only resulted in benefiting the owners and creators of NFTs but also the marketplaces where they are being hosted.

NFT marketplaces like OpenSea, Rarible, and Superfarm have become the epicenter of funding and high revenue – a sign that every business model that NFT is touching is turning into gold. But what makes the NFT marketplace the epicenter is the fact that it hosts multiple NFTs – meaning the source of revenue that it opens is much greater than direct NFT creation and selling. 

While the pieces around NFT development and the cost it incurs are weeding across the internet, we will dive a bit deeper. In this article, we will look into the cost of NFT marketplace development and what blockchain enthusiast entrepreneurs need to know when they enter the space and develop the NFT platform.

So, without further ado, let’s get started!

What is an NFT Marketplace?

The important element of knowing how to create an NFT marketplace is to understand what it is. An NFT marketplace is an online marketplace where creators sell their non-fungible virtual products, and the buyers procure them using cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or Ether. The marketplace charges a transaction amount every time an NFT is purchased off their platform. 

After the NFT is purchased, the buyer gets a token, which is a unique identifier that contains proof of ownership and information about provenance, author, and authenticity. 

In case you are looking for a primer on NFT, head on to our article – What is NFT And How Does It Works – A Detailed Guide.

Now, as we know what NFT is and how to buy tokens, let’s look into the top NFT marketplaces:

Now that we have established how expansive the NFT marketplace is becoming and where to buy NFT, there are some things that every custom NFT marketplace development company wants you to know before you get on the track of development.

What to Know Before you Set Off Your Plans to Build an NFT Marketplace?

With so much hype around the NFT, many blockchain enthusiast entrepreneurs are showing interest in building an NFT marketplace to connect buyers and sellers. Below are a few essential things you must know before you step into the world of NFTs. 

Non-fungible token standards

Standards are the driving force of an NFT. They guarantee that the asset will act in a specific way and showcase how to interact with the asset’s basic functionalities. 

At present, there are two standards that are commonly used for creating an NFT:

• ERC721: The standard uses mapping of unique identifiers to the addresses that represent the owner of the identifier. It offers a permissioned way of transferring the assets using the ‘TransferFrom’ method.
• ERC1155: Under this standard, the IDs used do not just represent one asset but a class of assets. Compared to the ERC721 standard, this is a lot more efficient. For instance, if you are a game developer and your goal is to sell 100 armor sets, you will need to write 100 smart contracts for ERC721, but for ERC1155 you will need to write one contract and state the quantity.

Non-fungible token metadata

In the NFT space, there is a concept called ownerOf. It offers a way to look up the owner of an NFT. For example, when you search for ownerOf(290491) on ABC NFT’s smart contract, you can see the owner of the token 290491 is XYZ – this information can then be verified on marketplaces like OpenSea. 

But how do OpenSea-like platforms understand what item 290491 is and what are its unique attributes? This is where the metadata comes into play. Metadata offers descriptive information for specific token IDs such as pictures, descriptions, or any additional traits. 

Besides the nomenclatures, there is one thing that every first-time entrepreneur struggles with – knowing the legal documentations for building the best NFT crypto platform. 

Legal documentation for building the best NFT marketplace mainly includes: 

• Company formation 
• Terms of service 
• Community standards
• Privacy policy
• IP consideration details. 

How Does an NFT Marketplace Work?

NFTs, as you must know from our NFT guide article, run on smart contracts. Every token has a set of unique information recorded in a smart contract and a blockchain to provide security and immutability. 

The working of NFT goes with these simple steps:

Step 1:

Usually, all the NFT marketplaces work on a common flow. The user signs up on the platform and installs a digital wallet where they store cryptocurrencies and NFTs. They then create their collection by displaying the work and choose choosing the payment token they’d like to accept for their digital item. 

Step 2:

The next step is either selecting a bid for the auction or keeping a fixed price. When an item is listed, a transaction is created, which launches a smart contract for the user’s wallet.

Step 3:

Once you approve the platform’s collection moderation request, the NFTs appear on the list of sales where you can then accept bids. 

In return for the work that the platform does for transferring funds and NFTs, the marketplace charges some fees on the selling amount. 

Now that you have the prerequisite knowledge of the NFT marketplace space and its working, let us answer one of the most asked questions, ‘How much it costs to develop an NFT marketplace?’ The entire cost of it is dependent on the NFT marketplace features set it contains – the information that we will be looking into in the next section.

How Much Does it Cost to Create an NFT Marketplace?

We’ve arrived at an intriguing question that everyone wants to know the solution to: How much does it cost to create an NFT marketplace? Or what is the cost of NFT development?

Well, everything is dependent on the amount of work required. For example, the cost will be reduced if you choose to use a ready-made solution.

Starting an NFT marketplace with a popular clone script will save money and make it more accessible to startups and entrepreneurs. An exact price can’t be told without knowing the requirements and specifications, however, the fundamental elements of the NFT marketplace clone script usually cost around $100K -500K. Again, this is not a fixed amount, but just an estimation. 

The NFT cost may increase depending on the customizations you need to meet your business needs. If you want to build your own NFT marketplace from the ground up, then the NFT cost for that will be higher than the ready-made solution.

The platform functionality follows the same pattern. You’ll have to spend more money on marketplace development if your requirements lead to a complicated platform (one with dynamic features that haven’t been done previously). Not only the platform but the tools and technologies used also determine the NFT cost. As it is said, the more the merrier. But everything comes with a price, and the price with extra additions will surely be more.

Now that we answered one of the most asked questions, ‘how much does it cost to make an NFT,’ let’s discuss the must–have features for NFT marketplace that cannot be ignored.

The Must-have Features for NFT Marketplace Development 

If you are looking to develop an NFT marketplace, there are both front-end and back-end features you need to look into. NFT developers for marketplaces must create a user experience that makes it simple to search for desired files and a back-end process that seamlessly handles complicated transactions. Also, the final cost to create an NFT marketplace depends on the number of features you decide to include. 

Keeping that in mind, below are a few must-have features that you need to consider when creating NFT marketplaces. 

• Storefront – This section of the marketplace provides users with information around the article: details, owner, bids, price history, etc. 
• Search functionality – The platform must support category tagging and management functionality, which would make it easy for the users to look for collectibles that they are willing to buy.
• Create listing – This feature of the marketplace is centered around the sellers. The platform should allow users the feasibility to create listings where they can add in their NFT details.
  
• Auction and buy – An efficient NFT buying system is a must-have part of the NFT marketplace development services. You should give users the option to add bid amount, expiration date, and a watchlist showing details of the bid’s status.
  
• Wallet – Your users will have to make use of wallets for sending, receiving, and storing NFTs and cryptocurrencies. You can either create your own wallet in-app or integrate existing wallets inside the application to make the experience frictionless. Read how much it costs to develop a crypto wallet on Blockchain.
  
• Instant notification – The marketplace should have an instant push notification tool that sends all the newest information via emails and pushes notifications about real-time data such as the debut of collectibles, new non-fungible tokens, future auctions, and so on.
  
• Ratings – Ratings are a useful tool for both buyers and sellers in the NFT business model. Users are more likely to do business with those who have a strong reputation. A scoring system can also prevent negative behaviors like false representation or retreating of a transaction before the smart contract goes into effect.

While these are the must-have features of an NFT marketplace, there are a number of other features as well such as the ability to create NFTs, multi-payment gateway integration, etc. Entrepreneurs have the option to merge NFT platforms, NFT crypto platforms, and NFT trading platforms – all in one space. 

Considering the wide spectrum of the NFT feature range, it can be extremely difficult to allocate a price range when you create an NFT marketplace like discussed. What we advise is that you contact our team of Blockchain and NFT developers and let them brainstorm and then share the price range with you. 

How can Appinventiv Help you Build an NFT Marketplace?

Now that you know the working and the features of the NFT market and how much it costs to build an NFT marketplace, the next step is to connect with a blockchain app development company in the US that can help you convert your idea into a highly profitable marketplace with their custom NFT marketplace development specialization. 

Having developed NFT business models and marketplaces, we understand the space inside out. We can offer you the options of both: building a custom NFT marketplace or developing one which is based on OpenSea SDK. In addition to the marketplace, we can also help you with the creation of NFTs that are specific to your brand – as a way to expand your revenue model. 

Irrespective of what your business idea is, we are here to help you turn it into a revenue-friendly reality when we develop the NFT platform. 

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. Can I create my own NFT?

A: Yes, you can create your own NFT with 5 simple steps:

• Choose the form of your NFT
• Set up your digital wallet 
• Choose your NFT marketplace
• Tokenize your art
• List on the marketplace

Q. Can we tokenize anything to NFT?

A: Yes, practically everything can be tokenized to NFT. Anything that a user is prepared to offer and that has a distinct feature. That will almost certainly increase its value.

Q. Which is the most popular NFT marketplace platform?

A: Here are some of the most well-known NFT platforms leading the race:.

• Rarible
• Open sea
• SuperRare
• Foundation

Q. What is the cost of NFT development?

A. The average cost of NFT development varies from $100K -500K. But this is just an estimation as it depends on several other factors such as tools and technologies used, the complexity of the marketplace, and more.

Q. How to build an NFT marketplace?

A. If you are planning to build an NFT marketplace for NFT buyers and sellers, below are the key steps you should consider to avoid any mistake:

• Choose niche
• Choose your project’s UI/UX design
• Move to front-end deployment
• Use smart contracts token generator
• Test and deploy