What Is SSL?
A Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate is a must have for any website that collects sensitive information from its visitors. The SSL certificate prevents snoopers from stealing credit card numbers, login credentials, and other sensitive information. In this article, we will show you how to install a free SSL certificate from Let’s Encrypt or a paid SSL certificate from a provider such as GoDaddy or Zero SSL.
How to Install SSL Certificate for Free
One can put request to the hosting service provider to install SSL certificate for the domain. Well there are paid and free options for SSL certificate . Once you have purchased the SSL certificate download it and have it installed on your domain. You can have your website address started with http:// instead of https://
Paid Option
Companies like Comodo, VeriSign, GoDaddy, DigiCert provide paid SSL certificate for a domain or sub-domain. Prices are between $1 to $70 per year per Domain.
Free Option
Let’s Encrypt provides free SSL certificate for a website. Here is how you can get the same,
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- Verification via Email
- Verification CNAME records to your domain root directory
- Uploading a HTTP file to your website control panel
Here the easiest way to verify your domain name for free SSL certificate is verify via email Read on-
Choose your email from dropdown on which you want to receive verification email from ZeroSSL, sometime you will see web mail by default for the verification like [email protected]
In this case you need to verify it via your webmail or control panel of your website follow the below steps how to verify ZeroSSL for free via webmail or control panel.
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To verify ownership of your domains, please use the link in email to navigate ZeroSSL verification page and enter your verification key.
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Finally the free SSL certificate will get installed and https with green box will start appearing within 15 minutes.
How to renew SSL Certificate
Let’s Encrypt certificates expire in every 3 months. You need to renew the certificate. cPanel may have auto renewal option which can be enabled so that you don’t have to renew the certificate manually every time.
In cPanel, locate SSL Status option. Click on Auto SSL option to enable the auto renewal of the free SSL certificate.
To renew the certificate manually, you need to follow the same steps mentioned under the Installation process on the first page.
Redirect to HTTPS Pages
You might be surprised after installing SSL certificate on your website if your website pages still loading with HTTP: instead of HTTPS: then you might have selected http: during installation of WordPress.
You may need to redirect the HTTP only pages to HTTPS pages. In WordPress, you can install a plugin named “Really Simple SSL or SSL Zen” for this job.
In non-WordPress sites, you may need to write the redirect code in .htaccess file or use the platform’s own extension.
We hope you enjoyed our blog post on SSL certificate providers. We realize that there are a lot of options out there and it can be hard to know exactly who to trust. We hope that we were able to help you gain some clarity on the subject and that you were able to find a provider that you can trust and that meets your needs. If you have any other questions about SSL certificates and providers, please feel free to contact us anytime. We would be happy to help you in any way that we can!
