--- title: "ENS marketplace fees compared: ENS.Tools, OpenSea, Blur, Grails" description: "Four marketplaces, four fee structures, four very different all-in costs for the same trade. A side-by-side breakdown of what each platform charges, where the fees go, and what protocol the trade settles on." published: "2026-05-24" author: "ENS.Tools" canonical: "https://ens.tools/blog/ens-marketplace-fees-compared" readingMinutes: 5 tag: "Guide" --- # ENS marketplace fees compared: ENS.Tools, OpenSea, Blur, Grails Four marketplaces, four fee structures, four very different all-in costs for the same trade. A side-by-side breakdown of what each platform charges, where the fees go, and what protocol the trade settles on. ENS names trade across multiple marketplaces. Every platform charges something — the question is how much, who pays it, and what you actually get for it. The fees aren't comparable on first glance: some are taken from the buyer, some from the seller, some bundled into a listing price that hides the cost, some atomic, some off-chain custodial. This is a head-to-head on the four most-used venues for `.eth` trades in 2026. ## The fee landscape PlatformPlatform feeCreator royaltySettles via**ENS.Tools**2% (atomic, on-chain)0%Seaport 1.6**OpenSea**2.5%0% (creators can request)Seaport**Blur**0% (zero-fee)0.5% min (enforced)Blur Exchange**Grails (Vision)**0% (advertised)N/ASeaport / custom ## What "atomic on-chain" actually buys you Seaport-based marketplaces (ENS.Tools, OpenSea, Grails) settle the entire trade in one transaction. The buyer's payment, the seller's NFT transfer, and any fee splits all happen as a single atomic operation on Ethereum. The implications: - **No escrow risk.** Either the entire trade happens or none of it does. The marketplace never holds your funds or your NFT. - **Fees are bundled into the order.** When you sign a sale, you sign for seller_proceeds + platform_fee as the single payment spec. The platform can't skim more later. - **Verifiable on-chain.** The 2% fee going to `enstools.eth` is visible in every fill we settle. It's not an off-chain accounting promise. ## The Blur asterisk Blur advertises 0% platform fee — true on the surface, but the platform enforces a minimum 0.5% creator royalty on every fill, plus their points-based liquidity-mining economy creates indirect incentives that end up costing sellers something. For ENS specifically, where there's no "creator" in any meaningful sense, the 0.5% feels like a platform fee with a different label. Net effect for sellers: roughly the same as a 0.5% platform fee. Net effect for buyers: 0% (Blur is buyer-friendly on price). The pitch makes sense if you're a high-volume bidder; less so if you're listing. ## Worked example: selling a 5-letter name for 1 ETH You list a name for 1 ETH. Buyer accepts. Here's what each party takes home: - **ENS.Tools (2%):** seller gets 0.98 ETH, platform 0.02 ETH to `enstools.eth`, buyer pays 1 ETH plus gas. - **OpenSea (2.5%):** seller gets 0.975 ETH, platform 0.025 ETH, buyer pays 1 ETH plus gas. - **Blur (0% + 0.5% royalty):** seller gets 0.995 ETH, royalty 0.005 ETH (to ENS DAO if recipient is configured, else void), buyer pays 1 ETH plus gas. - **Grails (0%):** seller gets 1 ETH, platform 0, buyer pays 1 ETH plus gas. Disclaimer: Grails monetises via curation + drops, not per-trade fees; the 0% is sustainable today but business models change. ## Why we charge 2% Honest answer: the platform fee funds ongoing development. ENS.Tools is not VC-backed and is not running on a treasury that subsidises trading. The 2% pays for: subgraph hosting, edge functions, indexer maintenance, design, customer support, the AI Search infrastructure, the Farcaster Frame, and every other surface you can use without ever paying anything directly. We considered going to 1% to undercut OpenSea. The math doesn't work for a small team building a real product, and 2% is still meaningfully cheaper than the largest alternative. ## Which to use, in plain English - **You want lowest seller-side fee on a single sale:** Grails today, Blur if you can take the royalty. - **You want the deepest order book + a workflow that handles offers, collection bids, bulk listings, and notifications:** ENS.Tools. 2% is the cost of having one place that does all of it without a custodial layer. - **You're shopping for prestige collection floors:** Check all four — listings are cross-posted from Reservoir and floor differences of 5-10% across platforms are common. - **You're listing dozens of names at once:** ENS.Tools is the only platform with a bulk-list flow that signs all orders in one session. Single transaction per name on the others. Browse the marketplace: [/trade →](/trade)