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Ask HN: Why HTTPs certificates cost at least 50$?

5 points by tbarbugli 13y ago

nodata 13y ago
They don't. If you want to pay for one it costs about ten bucks a year: https://www.gandi.net/ssl/grid https://www.gandi.net/ssl/grid If instead you want a free cert: http://www.startssl.com/ http://www.startssl.com/
- tbarbugli 13y ago
  Well, if someone sells them for 100$ and startssl for free, there must be some difference in terms of service right?
  - nodata 13y ago
    Not really. The more expensive certificates offer insurance, but if you read the small print you'll see that it isn't worth much.
  - zimpenfish 13y ago
    Free startssl certs only run for a year. For me, it's worth paying for e.g. a 5 year one to put off the renewal faff.
  - samwillis 13y ago
    You can't use the Free StartSSL certificate for commercial websites.
    - workhere-io 13y ago
      I can't seem to find that info on their page. Do you have a link?
- workhere-io 13y ago
  If you want to pay for one it costs about ten bucks a year: https://www.gandi.net/ssl/grid https://www.gandi.net/ssl/grid Also worth noticing is that SSL comes free for one year with domains bought at Gandi.
andyfleming 13y ago
From my understanding, the prices vary usually because they are including insurance up to a certain amount if things go wrong with the certificate. SSLs.com (formerly cheapssls.com) has them for reasonable prices like this one you can get for 5 bucks a year (which is ultimately issued by Comodo). http://www.ssls.com/comodo-ssl-certificates/positivessl.html http://www.ssls.com/comodo-ssl-certificates/positivessl.html
- tbarbugli 13y ago
  what can go wrong with a certificate?
  - bmelton 13y ago
    They could be insecure, fraudulently generated, not recognized by a substantial browser share, etc. Google Comodo SSL fraud for a better picture.
Patrick_Devine 13y ago
It's funny, I was just asking myself the same question and was poking around various sites to see what types of SSL certificate products were on offer. I found this site: http://www.sslshopper.com/article-top-10-ways-to-save-money-on-ssl-certificates.html http://www.sslshopper.com/article-top-10-ways-to-save-money-... as well as this page: http://www.sslshopper.com/cheapest-ev-ssl-certificates.html http://www.sslshopper.com/cheapest-ev-ssl-certificates.html Pretty much every large company uses VeriSign, which isn't cheap. Twitter, Apple and PayPal all use EV certificates (which make the url bar go green) from VeriSign which are between $1000 to $1500 each. It kind of comes down to whether you want an EV cert or not. Certain sites are cheap for non-EV certs (Like Comodo), and others offer cheap EV certs (GeoTrust and DigiCert will sell you one for $300/year). The cheapest for everything seems to be GoDaddy, but, I guess caveat emptor.
casca 13y ago
Comodo PositiveSSL: $9/year, works with all modern browsers and email clients: https://www.namecheap.com/security/ssl-certificates/domain-validation.aspx https://www.namecheap.com/security/ssl-certificates/domain-v...

5 points by tbarbugli 13y ago

They don't. If you want to pay for one it costs about ten bucks a year: https://www.gandi.net/ssl/grid https://www.gandi.net/ssl/grid If instead you want a free cert: http://www.startssl.com/ http://www.startssl.com/

tbarbugli 13y ago
Well, if someone sells them for 100$ and startssl for free, there must be some difference in terms of service right?
- nodata 13y ago
  Not really. The more expensive certificates offer insurance, but if you read the small print you'll see that it isn't worth much.
- zimpenfish 13y ago
  Free startssl certs only run for a year. For me, it's worth paying for e.g. a 5 year one to put off the renewal faff.
- samwillis 13y ago
  You can't use the Free StartSSL certificate for commercial websites.
  - workhere-io 13y ago
    I can't seem to find that info on their page. Do you have a link?
workhere-io 13y ago
If you want to pay for one it costs about ten bucks a year: https://www.gandi.net/ssl/grid https://www.gandi.net/ssl/grid Also worth noticing is that SSL comes free for one year with domains bought at Gandi.

andyfleming 13y ago

From my understanding, the prices vary usually because they are including insurance up to a certain amount if things go wrong with the certificate. SSLs.com (formerly cheapssls.com) has them for reasonable prices like this one you can get for 5 bucks a year (which is ultimately issued by Comodo). http://www.ssls.com/comodo-ssl-certificates/positivessl.html http://www.ssls.com/comodo-ssl-certificates/positivessl.html

tbarbugli 13y ago
what can go wrong with a certificate?
- bmelton 13y ago
  They could be insecure, fraudulently generated, not recognized by a substantial browser share, etc. Google Comodo SSL fraud for a better picture.

Patrick_Devine 13y ago

It's funny, I was just asking myself the same question and was poking around various sites to see what types of SSL certificate products were on offer. I found this site: http://www.sslshopper.com/article-top-10-ways-to-save-money-on-ssl-certificates.html http://www.sslshopper.com/article-top-10-ways-to-save-money-... as well as this page: http://www.sslshopper.com/cheapest-ev-ssl-certificates.html http://www.sslshopper.com/cheapest-ev-ssl-certificates.html Pretty much every large company uses VeriSign, which isn't cheap. Twitter, Apple and PayPal all use EV certificates (which make the url bar go green) from VeriSign which are between $1000 to $1500 each. It kind of comes down to whether you want an EV cert or not. Certain sites are cheap for non-EV certs (Like Comodo), and others offer cheap EV certs (GeoTrust and DigiCert will sell you one for $300/year). The cheapest for everything seems to be GoDaddy, but, I guess caveat emptor.

casca 13y ago

Comodo PositiveSSL: $9/year, works with all modern browsers and email clients: https://www.namecheap.com/security/ssl-certificates/domain-validation.aspx https://www.namecheap.com/security/ssl-certificates/domain-v...