Free SSL Certificate

With the added push of web browsers a lot of website owners are opting to get SSL certificates for their websites. A question asked often is:

Is a free SSL certificate a good enough option for my website?

Let me clear the matter for you by contrasting the minimum benefits of both paid and the most  popular free SSL certificates from Let’s Encrypt.

Paid certificates give you the following benefits:

  • Encrypt the communication channel between the web browser and the website / web server.
  • Provide a verifiable site seal / badge from a global security brand to display to your website visitors to build trust.
  • Provide a warranty for you to assure your website visitors that they are protected from any loss resulting from the malfunction of your SSL certificate.
  • Provide a long validity period of 1-2 years so you do not need to renew and replace certificate files often.
  • Support for any certificate issues.
  • Enable web browser push notifications.
  • Improve SEO ranking in search engines.

By contrast, Let’s Encrypt free SSL certificates offer:

  • Encrypt the communication channel between the web browser and the website / web server.
  • Short validity period of 90 days.
  • Enable web browser push notifications.
  • Improve SEO ranking in search engines.

Web hosting companies offering Let’s Encrypt free SSL certificates take care of the shorter validity by auto-renewing the certificate for domains hosted with them.

However, the lack of support, site seal and warranty make these certificates suitable just for personal websites / blogs where visitors do not need to submit any personal or financial information.

Any e-commerce / business website needs to build trust to enable visitors to interact with the website, either to submit account info, or payment info. Paid certificates are ideal for this purpose, especially since they cost less than domain registration, and they also enable web push notifications which can be used for marketing purposes.

You can get a Let’s Encrypt free SSL certificate from here.

You can get a paid certificate from a global brand at a very affordable price from here.

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