It used to be you paid because everyone who was trusted by browser manufacturers charged a fee, not because signing a certificate is actually hard or could be d

It used to be you paid because everyone who was trusted by browser manufacturers charged a fee, not because signing a certificate is actually hard or could be done in a "non secure" way. A signature is a signature. LetsEncrypt signatures are now trusted by the browsers, so there's usually no need to pay for the service.