So today I figured out how to install acme.sh to my hosted server space for my websites, and used acme to issue an SSL certificate and install it for a domain. It uses LetsEncrypt, and ZeroSSL for the default Certificate Authority (CA). Then I notice that ZeroSSL only allows a free 90 day certificate, and only 3 of those before you have to pay. Is there any way to generate actual free SSL certificates that do not expire for a year or more and that can be renewed free? I have heard that most hosting plans now provide free SSL certs, so is my hosting company just providing cheap hosting but making money on the backend by charging for SSL certs?

I host a few small businesses and, being a small business myself, I'm not able to afford annual wildcard certificates for my server... It may only be slight exaggeration to say that I'm lucky to pay for AWS where I've got my infrastructure (which is basically just a VM running Windows server since I do most of my web development in C#).

I tried with Lets Encrypt but having to manually renew every certificate every month is a bit more PT than I'd like; I wouldn't have a problem with every 6 months...

ZeroSSL is great because I don't have to install the certificates manually the way LE wants me to, but that's a 1 off for 90 days requiring me to pay for better - which is fair, but I just can't support the additional overheads right now.

So I'd be eternally grateful if you fine folk could direct me to an alternate service.

Thanks in advance.

So, I've got a new website for a OC building business I'm starting, and I need to have my site secure as I am collecting some info from customers from a contact form. I am hosting with names.co.uk for free atm, and I gave them a call earlier today about the problem and they've told me that the only way to get an SSL certificate is to upgrade the site for £180 for the year, which is the sort've money I don't have atm.

If anyone has any ideas about maybe transferring the DNS or something that'd be greatly appreciated :)

I had been getting 90 day SSL certificates for free from ZeroSSL. They have now stopped doing them and I'm looking for an alternative. I need to paste the Certificate, Key and CA Bundle / Intermediate Certificate code into the back end of the website. ZeroSSL offered this, but it appears Let's Encrypt etc does not? I need to do this for free as the website is for a small non-profit fan club.

Annoyingly, the web host would generate a free certificate, but the club insisted on continuing to run the email through a different host, therefore we had to split the DNS. I can't even remember how we did that now. The committee were adamant that the email was working perfectly fine and, no, I couldn't take over the email, even though this SSL thing is a big headache for me and I was doing it all for free.

So, is there an alternative to ZeroSSL? Or is my only alternative getting them to pay/sorting out this split DNS fiasco?

Not too long ago a came across a site called CloudFlare.com

Comes out you can run https thru their servers. All you need to do is change your DNS nameservers (very simple).

Wordpress sites are especially easy. Select the Flexible SSL in CloudFlare and install the Cloudflare Flexible SSL plugin and you got a green lock on your site.

Makes the site look very professional and much more trustworthy. Edit: Flexible SSL doesn't protect your data, if you have sensitive data, you probably should purchase and install a ssl certificate. This is more for the looks, and seo boost.

You can add multiple websites on the same cloudflare account. I already am running 3 sites thru them.

Thought I'd share!

I want to buy domain on a separate site and use it on hetzner hosting. Do I get free SSL certificate for my domain or is it only for 1 domain included when buying hosting?

Whats the difference between purchasing an SSL certificate from domain registrars like GoDaddy, PorkBun, NameCheap, Cloudflare and using a free certificate from LetsEncrypt? I want to know regarding professional usage as well as personal usage.

Would appreciate some input. Thank you.

I found that many web hosting companies now offer a free SSL certificate. It also seems they all get it from "Let's Encrypt".

And then on the other hand, they also sell you "premium" certificates ranging from $30 to $300 a year!

I do understand that some are really Premium, with identity verification, which will appear in the address bar of the browser.

But for the rest of us, if you just want a secure connection, is there any reason *not* to use the free / let's encrypt certificate?

Can anyone explain the difference between all these SSL certificate types?

Thanks a lot!

I was using godaddy, but need ssl and don't want to pay their high price or have a hassle w a free one/spend a lot of time on that. Also, I don't like how adding a second domain name to hosting works in the file manager, with the 2nd added website is a folder inside the public_html file of the first site that is hosted. I don't know if it matters, but why is there not a separate file manager for each site?

Anyway, what I am looking for is webhosting with free ssl or easy to set up free ssl and cPanel. I don't use wordpress. And I might use php and phpMyAdmin. I'm not going to have a lot of website for the near future, so paying a few dollars a month for one or 2 separately is ok.

And for SEO considerations..besides ssl certifications, what should I look for as far as speed?

So, a couple of months ago, I saw that the old good SSLForFree Certificate Generation Wizard got bought by other company & free unlimited SSL wildcard also normal Certificates have been limited to only one non-wildcard certificate. I was really disappointed by that fact. So I started searching for an alternative, maybe someone did something similar to the old good SSLForFree, & I found one! Here is the link to the website https://unossl.com It basically got every key feature that SSLForFree had. As of now, I created several SSL Certificates for my projects. What do you think?

Hello Y'all,

I just switched my domain registrar from namecheap to porkbun, partially because namecheap was charging me for SSL, only to find out that the SSL is a function of the host, not the registar.

(I also got cheaper registrar prices, so it's fine :))

Any suggestions on how best to get free SSL while retaining namecheap as my host for 3 of my websites?

(I've created my websites using their website builder, and it seems to be a great price, so planning to stay with them for now ... although I'm open to suggestions)

A Porkbun support tech mentioned certbot, and I've also seen cloudfare and lets encrypt in other posts etc. ...

Your advice is most appreciated.

LW

I assume there's better encryption with the paid one, but I was wondering if there's any more perks or if a free one should even be used

The company I work at has an ecommerce website that I recently set up for them using WordPress. When I set it up, I used a free SSL certificate from letsencrypt.org.

The company still had an old SSL certificate from GoDaddy that is coming up for renewal soon. Should I be using the paid SSL cert over the free one?

I found this article that implies the paid one is worth it for ecommerce, but I feel like it could be outdated.

So what's the deal with SSL certs? What are the advantages of the GoDaddy cert over the Letsencrypt one?

Thanks.

Update: I figured out a few options per the comments, thanks all!

Is there a trivial way to add SSL support to your domain?

I intend to self-host a very basic family file sharing app. My domain name provider provides it for 11$/year.

Would you all pay that price, or is there a small overhead alternative?

Made my first site for my first business and have it hosted on Godaddy (are they good for hosting?) I have the site up and running using my own index.html in the cPanel. Is there a way to get a free or low cost SSL Certificate Godaddy wants $140 a year?

Thank you and sorry for the savant question.

I was going through the documentation on the Emby site for setting up SSL but the ZeroSSL site they are recommending is just a trial and then you have to switch to a paid plan after 270 days. I know Letsencrypt used to be the goto but I think I remember seeing something about that not working for Emby anymore? Any suggestions?

Is there any SEO benefit to paying for an SSL certificate vs free SSL from Lets Encrypt, particularly in regard to E-commerce sites?

Some advice will say that longer-term certificates are better for authority, whilst other will mention the improved security from more regularly renewed certificates.

Any thoughts/experiences on the subject?

Thanks

Edit: It may help to give a little background. What prompted me to ask this question was a notification by email today from an unnamed SEO product provider. The email stated that our SSL Cert is due to expire (which is fine it's on autorenewal), but it also advised that having short-life SSL certificates is bad for SEO.

Is it worth paying for an SSL certificate? who provides trusted and cheap SSL certificates?