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Ask HN: Where should I buy an SSL certificate for my site?
I need some help navigating the SSL cert oligopoly. What vendor has a reasonable price while delivering a no-scary-messages experience in virtually all browsers?
Personal experience with various vendors and any gotchas I haven't thought are especially welcome.
- run4yourlives 18y agoVerisign and move on, or use your hosting firm if they provide the service. This isn't a question worth your time, really.
- briansmith 18y agoVerisign is the only realistic choice if you want your website to work with older mobile browsers and low-end mobile browsers. Many phones from as recently as two years ago only have the Verisign root cert installed in them. If Verisign is too pricey, and you are willing to lock out older and low-end devices, but not all devices, then GeoTrust QuickSSL is the only alternative. QuickSSL is cheap enough that there isn't any reason to try to find something cheaper. All other certificates being sold have one or more of the following problems: the root cert is in few devices or only in recent devices, the root cert is present in devices but will expire in the next 2-3 years, the certificate is a chained one which won't work in some devices, the root certificate uses relatively weak crypto (1024-bit key or MD5 signature), or there is some other problem which I cannot remember off the top of my head.
- braindead_in 18y agoI recently bought a domain from namecheap and got a 1 year SSL free. Havent tried it out though.
- rms 18y agoI'm using it and it works. Note that isn't just domains that give you a free SSL certificate, it's just about any product they sell, like Whois Guard. Make sure to add it to your cart at the right stage of the process, though.
- ropiku 18y agoGoDaddy is pretty cheap and I don't see why you shouldn't use them.
- jacquesm 18y agoI wouldn't touch godaddy with a stolen computer to paraphrase the late George Carlin.
- polvi 18y agowhy is that?
- jacquesm 18y agoBecause I've had a pretty bad experience with godaddy when it comes to domain names, that burns them as a supplier in my book, possibly they are 'better' when it comes to certificates but once bitten twice shy.
- callmeed 18y agoI've used GoDaddy SSL certs without any problem. Considering they are 1/2 the price of instantssl.com, I'd say they're a fine option–especially if you're bootstrapping.
- spencerfry 18y agoWe've had great success with GoDaddy SSL too. Just because they have a terrible sign up process and UI doesn't mean that their products are terrible.
- callmeed 18y agoAgreed. I should also mention that they have the lowest wildcard certificate I can find. A few of my SaaS apps require this because they're subdomain-based. $200 is still a lot for a wildcard cert, but less than $379
- 18y ago
- BlueSkies 18y agoI started my search by looking at the providers that offered certificates accepted by Firefox and Internet Explorer. My next level of filtering was to look at cost and the ability to try the certificate for free during a trial period. I settled on Comodo (instantssl.com). The evaluation period went perfectly. At the end of the period, I paid (I seem to recall $99) for a one year certificate. They required a couple forms of indentification (driver's license, utility bill) and the process went smoothly. I am using the certificate now at bigtweet.com.
- socialtistics 18y agoMost of the resellers out there are reselling Comodo certificates. Comodo is probably the leader in terms of number of certificates issued and you can buy direct direct from them to save the middleman. They offer two classes of certificates but both are essentially the same. The difference is the amount of insurance Comodo provides you and the level of authentication you must go through to prove who you say you are. You can check them both out at: http://www.instantssl.com/ http://www.instantssl.com/ (the lower end) http://www.enterprisessl.com/ http://www.enterprisessl.com/ (the higher end)
- briansmith 18y agoComodo's default InstantSSL root is not present in many devices (Nokia Series 40 and Windows Mobile in particular, IIRC). If you file a support ticket they will issue you a certificate chained to a different root. But, that root certificate is going to expire relatively quickly, and it is hit-or-miss whether Comodo will charge you extra for it (since it effectively makes your cert. an EnterpriseSSL cert.). Comodo is also on the verge of getting its trust taken away from them, due to negligent behavior that was widely reported a month or two ago. If any more negligent behavior is discovered (not unlikely), I think browser makers will be forced to remove Comodo's root, making all their certs worthless. (They are already worthless to me.)
- christefano 18y agoHere's an article about said negligent behavior: https://blog.startcom.org/?p=145 https://blog.startcom.org/?p=145
- rarrrrrr 18y agoFYI, if you buy a wildcard cert covering .example.com, example.com itself does not match -- only subdomains do.
- iigs 18y agoThis is true, and it makes hosting www.example.com and example.com on the same IP somewhat difficult. Certain newer browsers understand the Subject Alternative Name format. Here's a link about it: http://www.digicert.com/subject-alternative-name.htm http://www.digicert.com/subject-alternative-name.htm I don't know anything about the linked site, so I'm not endorsing their products.
- metachor 18y agoDigicert is a legitimate provider of SSL certificates (my company uses them pretty much exclusively; I don't think they are any better or worse than other SSL providers that I've used professionally). One exceptional thing Digicert provides is good practical documentation for generating a certificate signing request and applying a purchased certificate to any web or application server. Makes it really easy for junior admins to get up to speed when they have to apply certs to everything from IIS to Apache, Tomcat JBoss, etc within the same environment.
- mishmash 18y agoActively considering using Digicert here so your info is appreciated. We can work around the primary domain not matching because our landing page has no real need for SSL, however, we do very much need iPhone support on the subdomains. Would you happen to know if Digicert Wildcard SSL certs work on the iPhone? Thanks
- robertss 18y agoThe DigiCert Wildcard cert does work on the iPhone.
- 18y ago
- tontoa4 18y agoI paid $14.99 for a GoDaddy certificate and I was up and going within a few minutes. The certificate creation process was pretty simple. You have to search "SSL Certificate" in Google to get the reduced price, otherwise they charge about $10 more.
- jeremyw 18y agoNote that new domain registrations at Namecheap currently include a free SSL cert (1st free), and you can use them for arbitrary hostnames. Roughly same distribution of the parent cert in browsers.
- streety 18y agoI've used namecheap to set up a cert for my site. It's the only one I've set up so far so I can't compare them to other vendors but I had no problems and would happily use them again.
- fauigerzigerk 18y agoI had no end of troubles with godaddy (unrelated to certs). I would never do business with them again.
- hikari17 18y agoWhat about thawte?
- DenisM 18y agoI'm using thawte and am very pleased with it. Compatibility was great in my tests - it covered all mobile devices (Windows Mobile at the time) and desktop browsers I cared about. The also gave me a follow-up phone call to make sure everything went well (there were NOT trying to upsell, it was a genuine help offer).
- merrick33 18y agoNetwork Solutions Pro certificate was easy to setup, offers good value at $139/year.
- sangaya 18y agoI'll second this. Verisign is a racket. Network Solutions is still a reputable company and provides the cert at a good price.
- mkull 18y agowe used thawte, but wish we used verisign because they have a cooler 'secured by' icon ;p seriously
- sirsean 18y agoTrustwave
- dhess 18y agoAnyone here have experience with StartCom? http://cert.startcom.org/ http://cert.startcom.org/
- mikeyur 18y agoI went with a comodo SSL through NameCheap.com - works great.
- dpeq 18y agoI can also recommend comodo, fast approval and great customer service!
- christefano 18y agoI'd have a hard time trusting Comodo. It's been recently shown that they will issue a certificate for any website to anyone at all, without verification: https://blog.startcom.org/?p=145 https://blog.startcom.org/?p=145
- plaes 18y agocacert.org - And it is free :) And running multiple SSL/https domains from a single IP is also possible when using recent enough software (Apache with mod_ssl which has SNI support). More info about the SNI here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Server_Name_Indication http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Server_Name_Indication
- olefoo 18y agoSNI is not supported by IE6 or earlier, and probably not feasible if you're trying to reach older mobile browsers (or even current ones, iPhone does not support it). Which really sucks because it is an elegant solution to a very real problem.
- sankara 18y agoI found trustico to be the cheapest so far. Their service is decent too.
- tylermenezes 18y agoI honestly don't think it matters too much. You can get certs from $15-$20, and, while most of them will try to upsell you to a more "secure" version to "give your visitors confidence", 90% of your visitors probably won't know who issued your certificate. As long as it's trusted in MSIE, Firefox, and Opera you'll be fine.
- nickf 18y agoIf anyone needs a cert (including the OP if he hasn't purchased yet) and help setting it up on pretty much any server/device/platform - email me. My address is on my profile. Mention HN and this thread, and I'll make sure you're looked after ;) [Disclosure: I work for a CA.]
- blender 18y agoI recently researched this and I thought Digicert looked pretty good. Digicert includes Subject Alternative Name. Our CEO insisted on VeriSign so that's what we went with - way more expensive and to get both www.example.com and example.com you either have to buy another cert (for example.com) or go through their Sales team's Managed PKI to get a SAN - ridiculous! Cheers
- robertss 18y agoYou can find reviews and ratings of SSL vendors at http://www.sslshopper.com/certificate-authority-reviews.html http://www.sslshopper.com/certificate-authority-reviews.html