SSL Certificates

So it seems now (or soon) having an SSL certificate/https is required or favored by Googles latest algorythm update. Seems even for basic websites not using ecommerce, as it should help in their SEO rankings.

With that said, has anyone purchased & began using an SSL recently? Admittedly I use GoDaddy for hosting, and while I'm ok with my hosting package & pricing (they've been helpful in their support, just gotta know how to work it & catch more flies with honey than vinegar), their prices for SSL certificates seem a bit steep, $50-$70/year.

I'm guessing its A LOT easier to use the SSL thru your web/domain host, as opposed to 3rd party. Anyone know of a method/company that has SSLs for less, thats easy to pull off using a domain from a different registrar (GD)? Worth doing or should I just suck it up & pay the higher amount to avoid troubles.

 

There are much cheaper ssl certificates available, try those on namecheap

 

Godaddy's prices for SSL certificates are just crazy. There are many other options that are available out there.

You may want to look into using Let's Encrypt for your SSL needs. They are free, by the way...

 

Thanks, a followup question however to using a 3rd party SSL cert provider. Is it pretty seamless (both in setup & troubleshooting)? I'm self hosting, and managed to get multiple WP sites up & running (1 or 2 for business the others mostly demo & testing sites), but each time its all sorta just hanging by a string as far as my scope. I'm really not a server or PHP/SQL person, just not within my scope. I've done external nameservers etc on occasion.

Anyway, thing its worth doing with another provider? My fear is 3 months later site goes down & GoDaddy says call them, & they say its GoDaddys issue etc. And yeah Ulterios, $70/yr for an SSL just seems ridiculous.

 

This information on SSL certificates is really useful. But I want to make sure I understand, you can get an SSL certificate for your domain / site from Let's Encrypt for free? Sounds too good to be true but if this is the case, then it's definitely worth checking out! thanks much!

 

Let's Encrypt opensource SSL ,required to renew after few months.

 

Hi Dana, You are very welcome.

Yes, the Let's Encrypt SSL certificates are free. They are a nonprofit company that offers SSL's for free but one catch is that they need to be renewed every 3 months instead of yearly as most SSL issuers do. The renewal can be done automatically with a plugin in your hosting (if it's installed) or by manually renewing them.

An easy way to get an SSL from LE is to use a free service at sslforfree.com. They make it easy to get and setup your SSL's and they will also notify you by email when it's time to renew your certificates. It's a good option if your host does not have a Let's Encrypt plugin installed on your hosting control panel.

GoDaddy doesn't have (at last check) a Let's Encrypt plugin in their hosting CP so sslforfree.com would be the way to go. GD wants to charge people to buy their SSL's through them so they didn't have the LE plugin in their CP at last check and probably won't anytime soon.

It's really a good alternative to paying for your SSL.

Good Luck.

 

You don't have to pay a cent. You can use "LetsEncrypt".

Or you can do it via cloudflare. Both are super easy to setup & both options are free.

 

So you know with hosts like us SSL is free with all sites, you should never be charged for SSL as it’s free to supply.

 

Thanks so much for the info, I really appreciate it. I found out that GoDaddy and HostGator both charge for their SSL certs. So a free option is still something I'm considering. Thanks again.

 

I definitely think that NameCheap is an excellent choice for someone who wants to get an SSL affordably, and it's from a reliable company.

 

Incidentally, I just signed up with BlueHost and they do offer free SSL certs with all of their hosting packages. Just thought I'd mention it in case anyone was interested.

 

Have heard about bluehosting from time to time, do they seem to be pretty reliable, good bandwidth and user interface?

 

Yes you can buy SSL from Namecheap. Just like Bluehost, SiteGround also offers free Let's encrypt ssl certificate. This might be helpful if someone wants to change/sign up with a new host!

 

Welcome to the forum blueink!

 

So far they've been great with lots of tools and aids to set up your domain.

 

You can also get a free ssl cert here: https://www.wotrus.com/english/freessl.htm

However, I would recommend doing some reading on if you should use a free cert or not, particularly some of the answers provided here: https://www.quora.com/Is-there-any-problem-to-use-a-free-SSL-certificate-for-my-domain

Of note:

"From buyer’s perspective point, the value of the CA is determined looking at the success of CA in placing its root key (browsers & operating systems). The big giants like Microsoft or Mozilla, make CAs goes through several administrative and legal procedures before accepting the CA root keys of the respective CAs in their products and definitely it costs a lot of money. Now, you only imagine it will not be hard to think that they are carrying some other illegal activity, if all the certificates provided free of cost."

...and keep in mind that free certs also only do domain validation, not company validation and whilst I assume most wouldn't notice, myself being a tech guy, if I am giving out my credit card details on a site that uses a cert from a provider I'm not familiar with then I am skeptical on providing my details.

Just in-case you wanted to use a paid SSL, I use RapidSSL myself and you were asking about getting them from a hosting provider; the host I use recently added that ability and now have a large range of SSL certs from different providers - they are KnownHost and no, I don't have any affiliation with them other than being a long time customer.

 

I think that NameCheap is pretty awesome, they provide SSL with their hosting packages a lot of the time

 

Or you can try CloudFlare SSL for free. Most of my sites are using free SSL from CloudFlare.