A Rarible clone is a creator-first NFT marketplace where artists mint and sell their own work without writing a smart contract. This guide explains how Rarible works, which parts a copy needs, and which Rarible choices a new marketplace should change.
Rarible made three choices that set it apart. It let creators mint with no upfront gas through lazy minting, it gave its community a governance token, RARI, and it later backed a dedicated chain, RARI Chain, where node software enforces creator royalties.
What Rarible is
Rarible is an NFT marketplace founded in 2020 that runs on its own open protocol, the Rarible Protocol. The marketplace at rarible.com is one app on top of that protocol, and other teams use the same protocol through an API and SDK to run their own storefronts.
The Rarible Protocol documentation lists 36 live chains in October 2026, including Ethereum, Base, Polygon, Arbitrum One, zkSync, Aptos and RARI Chain. The API returns NFT items, ownership, orders, activity history and collection statistics such as floor price and volume.
How Rarible differs from OpenSea
Rarible and OpenSea are both open marketplaces, but they started with different users. OpenSea began as a place to trade existing collections, while Rarible began as a place where single creators could mint work without writing a contract. That starting point led Rarible to three features:
- Lazy minting. A creator signs the token metadata and the sale terms off-chain, and nothing goes on-chain until a buyer pays. The buyer's transaction mints the token and transfers it in one step, so the creator pays no gas to list.
- Shared and custom collections. A creator can mint into a shared Rarible contract or deploy a separate ERC-721 or ERC-1155 collection through the Rarible interface.
- An open protocol. The Rarible Protocol offers indexing, order and minting APIs on many chains, and third parties build "community marketplaces" that share the same listings.
The OpenSea clone guide covers the open-market model, and this page covers the creator side.
Rarible fees
Rarible's help center describes a tiered fee that falls as the sale price rises, and the buyer and the seller each pay the rate. The tiers in the help center are:
| Sale price (USD) | Fee on each side |
|---|---|
| $0 to $100 | 7.5% |
| $100 to $400 | 5% |
| $400 to $2,000 | 2.5% |
| $2,000 to $4,000 | 1% |
| $4,000 and above | 0.5% |
The same help article says that users who lock RARI tokens pay no Rarible.com fee, though they still pay gas and any creator royalty. Marketplaces built with Rarible's marketplace editor pay 0% to Rarible, and the owner of such a community marketplace can set its own fee. The tiers come from Rarible's help center article on fees, and Rarible can change them at any time.
The RARI token and governance
Rarible launched the RARI token in July 2020 and gave it each week to active buyers and sellers, one of the first "trade-to-earn" token programs. RARI holders vote on protocol decisions through the RARI Foundation's DAO. The maximum supply is 25 million RARI.
Trading rewards brought short-term volume to Rarible, and some of that volume was wash trading by users who traded with themselves to collect tokens. Voter turnout in most NFT DAOs has stayed low. A token for a new marketplace needs a defined list of decisions that holders control, and it should not pay users to trade. The guide to an NFT marketplace with governance covers voting design.
RARI Chain and enforced royalties
Major marketplaces made creator royalties optional in 2022 and 2023. The RARI Foundation responded with RARI Chain, a Layer 3 network built with Arbitrum Orbit that settles to Arbitrum One. Its testnet started on November 30, 2023, and The Block reported the mainnet launch on January 24, 2024.
RARI Chain enforces royalties in its node software, so the royalty does not depend on each marketplace's policy. EIP-2981 only reports a royalty rate, so real enforcement must come from the token contract or from the chain itself. An ERC-721C contract, for example, limits transfers, while RARI Chain enforces royalties at the chain level.
Components of a Rarible clone
| Component | Purpose | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Lazy-mint contract | Mints the token on the first purchase from a creator's signed voucher | Needs signer checks and replay protection. Get it audited. |
| Collection factory | Lets creators deploy their own ERC-721 or ERC-1155 contract | Minimal proxy clones (EIP-1167) keep each deployment cheap |
| Exchange | Fixed-price sales, offers and auctions | Reuse an established order protocol such as Seaport or the Rarible Protocol |
| Royalty handling | Reads EIP-2981 and pays royalty splits | Decide before launch whether you enforce royalties or only honor them |
| Storage | Keeps media and metadata on IPFS or Arweave | Pin the files with your own service, and use more than one gateway |
| Moderation | Handles copyright takedowns and impersonation checks | Open minting attracts copied art within days |
What a Rarible clone should copy
- Gasless creation. Lazy minting removes the upfront gas cost for a new creator, but the contract must verify that the creator signed each voucher.
- An open API. Other teams can build storefronts on your order book, and each storefront brings you new buyers.
- Creator-owned contracts. Many creators want their own contract address, because it proves where the work came from and lets them move to other marketplaces.
What a Rarible clone should change
- Open minting with no checks. Unchecked minting fills a site with stolen art, so verify a creator before search results promote that creator's items.
- Token rewards for trading. Trading rewards attract wash trades, and wash trades make volume figures useless.
- Many chains at launch. Rarible supports dozens of chains with a dedicated protocol team, but a startup should launch on one chain and expand later. The page on cross-chain NFT marketplace development covers the costs of expansion.
Effort and scope
A creator marketplace indexes only the items minted through it, while an OpenSea-style marketplace indexes every collection on a chain, so the creator marketplace is the smaller build.
A focused build has lazy minting, a collection factory, and fixed-price and auction sales on one EVM chain. A small team of two or three engineers, a designer and part-time QA can reach an audited launch in three to five months. That figure is an estimate from the component list above, not a quote. A white-label NFT marketplace can shorten the time, but the buyer gets less control over the minting contracts.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a ready-made Rarible clone script?
Rarible publishes a public API and a multichain SDK, not a clone script, and teams use them to build their own marketplaces. Vendors who sell a "Rarible clone script" sell their own code, which needs a code review and a contract audit.
Is lazy minting safe for buyers?
Lazy minting is safe when the contract verifies the creator's signature on each voucher and marks each voucher as used. The main risks are bugs in that check and creators who sign vouchers for art they do not own, which is a moderation problem, not a contract problem.
Do I need a governance token like RARI?
No. Most marketplaces run without one, and a token makes sense only when holders have real decisions to vote on and you have legal advice on how regulators may treat it.
Can I build on the Rarible Protocol instead of from scratch?
Yes. The Rarible Protocol offers an API and SDK for listing, buying, bidding and adding your own front-end fee. Check the current documentation for supported chains and terms, and note that your marketplace then depends on Rarible's service staying online.
How do I enforce creator royalties?
Enforce royalties where trades settle. Use a token contract that limits transfers to approved operators, or launch on a chain that enforces royalties, such as RARI Chain. A marketplace policy alone fails when buyers can trade on another venue.