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Creator here. While building my current startup, we had this requirement to offer custom domains to our users. We also wanted to serve those domains over HTTPS.

Creator here. While building my current startup, we had this requirement to offer custom domains to our users. We also wanted to serve those domains over HTTPS. After days of searching and brainstorming, I had no luck! I found a couple of potential solutions but they were either too expensive or too complicated. So, I spent a few weeks building an in house solution that automates the whole process of provisioning and renewing SSL certs for our users. It involves Let's Encrypt and has been working great so far! Last week I thought of offering this as a SaaS product. With the help of my friend, I coded an app where customers can add their domains in a few steps. It's live at https://autossl.co https://autossl.co. Once a domain is added to our system, we generate a CNAME record for that domain. When the domain is accessed for the first time, we generate an SSL cert on demand through Let's Encrypt and renew it every 3 months. I also expose APIs to add domains to our system. So, if you are a SaaS company offering custom domains to your customers, you can completely automate SSL issuance in an easy and cost effective way. I think it has got some potential. What do you think?

wilsmex 7y ago
Pricing?
- Sandeepg33k 7y ago
  We are still figuring it out. We will most likely have 4 tiers with the highest tier offering unlimited domains. We are thinking of pricing the highest tier somewhere between $400 - $500 and offer discounts to startups with < 10 employees.
  - Sandeepg33k 7y ago
    Note that this is not final. I haven't given any serious thoughts to it. We'll discuss pricing if this works and businesses are willing to pay for this service. At this point, this is just an experiment.
RachelF 7y ago
Cool website for a weekend project - what tools did you use to make it?
- Sandeepg33k 7y ago
  I am using Caddy internally in fleet mode and Node.js. Caddy takes care of SSL negotiation, provisioning, and renewals. My Node.js app sits behind Caddy and proxies requests to the origin. I am trying to create an edge network where SSL is negotiated at a location that is closest to the users. Caddy is battle-tested, but managing multiple Caddy servers, monitoring them and backing up the certs can become cumbersome. That's the reason I am trying to automate the whole process for businesses.
kissgyorgy 7y ago
You should have spent a couple of minutes instead of weeks to use something like Lego, certbot or even Caddy, which makes it fully automatic. Sorry, but you wasted weeks reinventing a worse wheel than what already exists.

wilsmex 7y ago

Pricing?

Sandeepg33k 7y ago
We are still figuring it out. We will most likely have 4 tiers with the highest tier offering unlimited domains. We are thinking of pricing the highest tier somewhere between $400 - $500 and offer discounts to startups with < 10 employees.
- Sandeepg33k 7y ago
  Note that this is not final. I haven't given any serious thoughts to it. We'll discuss pricing if this works and businesses are willing to pay for this service. At this point, this is just an experiment.

RachelF 7y ago

Cool website for a weekend project - what tools did you use to make it?

Sandeepg33k 7y ago
I am using Caddy internally in fleet mode and Node.js. Caddy takes care of SSL negotiation, provisioning, and renewals. My Node.js app sits behind Caddy and proxies requests to the origin. I am trying to create an edge network where SSL is negotiated at a location that is closest to the users. Caddy is battle-tested, but managing multiple Caddy servers, monitoring them and backing up the certs can become cumbersome. That's the reason I am trying to automate the whole process for businesses.

kissgyorgy 7y ago

You should have spent a couple of minutes instead of weeks to use something like Lego, certbot or even Caddy, which makes it fully automatic. Sorry, but you wasted weeks reinventing a worse wheel than what already exists.