: SSL certificate provider I need a SSL certificate for a new site I'm building and I have to choose a SSL provider. What to look for when choosing and what's your experience dealing with them?

@Caterina187

I switched to www.digicert.com Extended SSL for our eCommerce sites.

I used to use Verisign and Thawte.com but found digicert to be great and support is very good. If you don't need the extended (green bar) SSL I think any of the providers like GoDaddy and the like will do.

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@Hamaas447

startssl.com is free and good supported. Maybe you wanna check this. Otherwise - like Sruly written - goDaddy is a cheap and good ssl provider.

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@Holmes151

One word: StartCom
cert.startcom.org/

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@Kevin317

If you are just trying to secure your connection you want to get the cheapest cert you can find.

At GoDaddy ssl cert only cost a year which is cheaper than anywhere else I have found and they have a nice manager app and they work well in all browsers.

I have also found that if you search for ssl certificate in google you can find an ad from GoDaddy that offers the cert for even less (.99) a year.

When I build sites and all I need is the encryption for logins or a secure form this is what I use.

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@Rivera981

Certificates are priced and issued depending on your need. Lower end certificates are good for simply providing an encrypted connection for your visitors, useful when you collect personally identifiable information that is not financially related. The verification process to get one of these is usually very simple:


The certificate company looks up the contact e-mail for your domain (via whois)
The certificate company sends you an e-mail to verify the SSL request
You verify the request and they deliver your cert shortly after


If your site is e-commerce related, where users have to put in credit card / bank information to complete transactions (even if you don't store it, which I hope you would not), the certificate needs to do more than just encrypt the connection, it needs to verify the identity of your company. These certificates are of a higher grade, and require more work to verify before being issued. Hence, they are considerably more expensive.

Any SSL certificate provider is going to offer both kinds, and more. Your decision, however should be mostly based on browser compatibility. Don't go for something less just to find out that it doesn't work with an older version of IE or Safari. You'd be amazed how many people still actually use IE6. The flip side of that is ensure compatibility with newer browsers, such as Google Chrome.

RapidSSL or GeoTrust is usually a good place to start, or your hosting / registrar company may offer them to existing customers at a slightly lower cost. Just make sure that you buy one that is appropriate for the scenario at hand.

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