OpeningBid vs Artprice
Artprice, run by Artmarket.com, has published art market data for decades and is widely used in Europe. Its free annual reports are cited across the art press. OpeningBid is a newer auction intelligence service for art and design. Below is a factual comparison of prices, free features and coverage as each site showed them on 19 October 2026, including where Artprice is ahead.
At a glance (as of 19 October 2026)
Artprice prices below are the list prices its subscriptions page showed a UK visitor, in GBP, on 19 Oct 2026; the page does not say whether VAT is included. OpeningBid's prices are the full price you pay.[1]
| OpeningBid | Artprice | |
|---|---|---|
| Free account | Up to 3 artist follows and email alerts, email digest, watchlist, 25 past-result reveals a day (price)[2] | Member (free): follow 10 artists or works, alerts, news and reports; search shows an overview only, no results[3] |
| Short-term access | 7-day Premium trial, no card[4] | Basics day pass, £32[3] |
| Entry paid plan | Premium, £4.99 a month or £50 a year (US $5.99/$60, €4.99/€50)[4] | Basics, £275 a year (no monthly option): results and future auctions, follow 500[3] |
| Analytics plan | Included in Premium; market indexes are free to view[4][5] | Premium, £49 a month, £445 a year or £725 for two years: adds "Intuitive ArtMarket" analytics and indices comparison[3] |
| Professional plan | n/a | Professional, £57 a month or £595 a year[3] |
| Free trial | Yes, 7 days, no card[4] | None stated; a free one-artist demo is offered[3][6] |
| Upcoming lots | 72,313 lots in 459 upcoming or live sales from 131 houses; shown in full to Premium, work only on a free account[7][2] | Future auctions included from Basics; upcoming detail requires a subscription[3][8] |
| Live bids on open online sales | Premium: Christie's, Sotheby's, Phillips, Bonhams and Swann[2] | Not described on the subscriptions page[3] |
| Independent estimate next to the house estimate | Fair Estimate, a model-based band for upcoming lots[9] | Separate valuation report, £72 per work[3] |
| Free artist summaries | Medians, records, sell-through, price by size[6] | World ranking, best-selling category, main marketplace, counts by medium[6] |
| Coverage stated | 14.2 million lots from 503 auction houses[10] | Artprice states over 30 million indices and auction results and records from 7,200 auction houses[11] |
| Example depth: Andy Warhol | 20,255 lots[6] | 57,948 results[6] |
On price, plan for plan: Artprice Basics costs 5.5 times OpeningBid's annual plan (£275 against £50). Artprice Premium costs 8.9 times per year (£445 against £50) and 9.8 times per month (£49 against £4.99).[3][4] Both are list prices shown to a UK visitor: OpeningBid's are the full price you pay, and Artprice's are its listed prices.[1]
Where OpeningBid is different
- Price and a monthly option. Premium is £4.99 a month or £50 a year; Artprice's results plan is sold by the day or the year.[4][3]
- Free alerts. Follow up to 3 artists free and get emails before and after their sales. Artprice's free Member account also includes alerts, on up to 10 artists or works.[2][3]
- Upcoming lots and live bids. One search across upcoming sales from 131 houses. Premium shows these in full, with current bids on open online sales at five major houses; free accounts see the work only.[7][2]
- Fair Estimate. A model-based band next to the house estimate on upcoming lots, included in Premium, with a public method. It is a second opinion, not an appraisal.[9]
- Design-led, and design is in scope. A fast, modern interface; 3.5 million design lots sit alongside fine art.[12]
- Monthly market indexes, free. Five headline indexes (NEWGEN75, CONT500, PRINTS250, PHOTO150 and PAINT200) are updated monthly and free to view, with a published method.[5]
- One dated count. We publish how many lots and houses we hold, with the date: 14.2 million lots from 503 houses on 19 October 2026.[10]
Where Artprice is stronger
- Depth and history. On the artists we checked, Artprice lists more results than we do: Andy Warhol 57,948 against our 20,255; Marc Chagall 52,261 against 14,492; L.S. Lowry 8,480 against 2,237.[6] Artprice states its archives go back to the 1700s.[13]
- Annual reports. Artprice publishes a free annual art market report and a contemporary art report, widely cited by the press.[13]
- Analytics. Its Premium plan adds turnover, unsold rates, sales by country and medium, and a 25-year rating, which OpeningBid does not match one for one.[3]
- Languages and Europe. Artprice publishes in many languages and is strongest in France, Italy, Spain and Germany.[13]
- Free artist rankings. World rankings by auction turnover are visible without a subscription.[6]
Which should you choose?
Choose Artprice if you need long historical depth, multilingual reports or its analytics plan. Choose OpeningBid if you want upcoming lots, free alerts and a second opinion on estimates at a monthly price of £4.99.
FAQ
How much does an Artprice subscription cost? On 19 October 2026 Artprice showed Basics at £32 for a day or £275 a year, Premium at £49 a month, £445 a year or £725 for two years, and Professional at £57 a month or £595 a year. A free Member account gives alerts on 10 artists but no results.[3][1]
Is there an alternative to Artprice with a monthly plan? Yes. OpeningBid Premium costs £4.99 a month or £50 a year, with no VAT added, and a 7-day trial with no card needed.[4][1]
Does OpeningBid publish market indexes? Yes. OpeningBid publishes monthly market indexes, free to view, including NEWGEN75, CONT500, PRINTS250, PHOTO150 and PAINT200, with a public methodology.[5]
Does OpeningBid have as much history as Artprice? No. Artprice lists more results on the major artists we checked and states archives back to the 1700s. OpeningBid's data is weighted to 2001 onwards.[6][13][2]
Can I follow artists free on OpeningBid? Yes. Up to 3 artist follows and email alerts are free with an OpeningBid account.[2]
Follow artists free
Follow up to 3 artists you collect, free, and we'll email you before their work comes to auction.
Artprice and Artmarket.com are trademarks of their owner. OpeningBid is not affiliated with or endorsed by Artprice. Competitor details are taken from Artprice's public pages and press releases on 19 October 2026 and may have changed since; see the sources below. Competitor prices are the list prices shown on their sites; OpeningBid's prices are the full price you pay, as OpeningBid is not VAT-registered.
Sources
Sources
-
OpeningBid is not VAT-registered, so the price shown is the price you pay. Where a competitor adds VAT at checkout, UK buyers pay that on top of the list price shown. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4
-
OpeningBid pricing page, https://www.openingbid.art/pricing, accessed 19 Oct 2026: free accounts get search, the work itself on every lot, 25 past-result reveals a day (price only; the auction house is Premium), a watchlist, up to 3 artist follows and the email digest. Upcoming and live sales are shown in full to Premium; free accounts see the work only. Premium shows current bids on open online sales at Christie's, Sotheby's, Phillips, Bonhams and Swann. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7
-
Artprice subscriptions, https://www.artprice.com/subscriptions, accessed 19 Oct 2026 in a browser (UK IP, GBP). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12 ↩13 ↩14
-
OpeningBid pricing page, https://www.openingbid.art/pricing, accessed 19 Oct 2026. Fair-use limits on Premium: OpeningBid Terms §5, Fair use, https://www.openingbid.art/terms#fair-use, accessed 19 Oct 2026. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7
-
OpeningBid market indexes methodology, https://www.openingbid.art/methodology/market-indexes. Latest published month: September 2026. ↩ ↩2 ↩3
-
Our side-by-side check of each site's logged-out artist pages, 19 Oct 2026: https://www.artprice.com/artist/30269/andy-warhol, https://www.artprice.com/artist/5240/marc-chagall, https://www.artprice.com/artist/17992/laurence-stephen-lowry and the OpeningBid equivalents. Artprice counts include "other attributions"; compare orders of magnitude only. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8
-
OpeningBid upcoming and live sales, 19 Oct 2026, 17:46 UTC: 459 sales with status upcoming or live, 72,313 lots, 131 houses. ↩ ↩2
-
https://www.artprice.com/sales/futures, accessed 19 Oct 2026. ↩
-
Fair Estimate methodology, https://www.openingbid.art/methodology/fair-estimate. ↩ ↩2
-
OpeningBid site statistics, 19 Oct 2026: 14,226,862 lots, 9.6 million results, 503 auction houses, 132,148 artists. ↩ ↩2
-
Artmarket.com H1 2026 financial report press release, https://www.prnewswire.com/apac/news-releases/artmarket-com-h1-2026-financial-report-one-of-a-kind-ai-systems-intuitive-artmarket-r-and-blind-spot-will-drive-the-next-phase-of-growth-for-ai-first-artprice-in-2026-2030-842424647.html, accessed 19 Oct 2026. ↩
-
OpeningBid database, 19 Oct 2026: 3,524,237 lots in the design category. ↩
-
Artprice 32nd annual report release, https://www.marketscreener.com/news/artmarket-com-publishes-its-32nd-artprice-annual-report-the-art-market-in-2025-showing-12-grow-ce7e5fdfd981f025, accessed 19 Oct 2026; visitor country mix from Similarweb, https://www.similarweb.com/website/artprice.com/, accessed 19 Oct 2026. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4