How To Obtain Free SSL Certificate for your personal Website – HTTPS
Get Free SSL Certificate – As we know, since August 2014, the search engine giant -Google- announced that they are starting to use HTTPS as a ranking signal.
A Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate helps us to encrypt the data being transmitted via the Internet. It will come in handy if you are running a blog or a personal website and logging into them from an unsecured public access WiFi Hotspot.
An SSL certificate serves two important functions. The first, which you already know, is that it enables encrypted communication. But the second, and often overlooked function is that the SSL certificate verifies the identity of the other party you intend to communicate with. This is very important, easily as important as the encryption itself.
SSL certificates cost a lot if bought from providers like Verisign, GoDaddy etc. In this article, I’ll describe how to get FREE SSL certificate as a simple case without paying $100-$150 for similar services.
1Let’s Encrypt
Let’s Encrypt is a collaborative project with Linux Foundation and new certificate authority sponsored by Mozilla, Akamai, Automattic, Cisco, Facebook, chrome etc. which offers SSL Certificate in free.
It’s automated that means you don’t have to spend time in creating CSR and send to CA authority to get it signed. It all happens in the background on your web servers.
2Comodo
Comodo offers free SSL at zero cost for 90 days. Get your free SSL certificates issued in minutes with highest strength and bit encryption. Comodo’s root certificates are embedded in all major browsers and devices and are trusted by 99.9% of the Internet population.
3Cloud Flare
Cloud Flare is a U.S. company that provides a content delivery network, Internet Security services, and distributed domain name server services. They make your website faster and secure. Cloud Flare power many popular sites including Reddit, yelp, Mozilla, StackOverflow, etc.
Recently, Cloud Flare announced universal SSL in free for all the users. That’s right even if you are in the free plan. If you are using Cloud Flare and SSL is not yet activated then here is how you can do it quickly.
- Login into Cloud Flare
- Select the website you want to enable SSL
- Click on Crypto icon
- Ensure it’s configured as “Flexible” and status shows as “ACTIVE CERTIFICATE”
4StartCom
StartCom is a Certificate Authority based in Eilat, Israel that has three main activities – StartCom Linux Enterprise (Linux distribution), StartSSL (certificate authority) and MediaHost (web hosting). The StartCom gives the free certificate for personal use. In order to get the cert, you need to validate the domain ownership.
5WoSign
WoSign is another authority to provide a certificate for 2 years without any cost. It supports SHA2 algorithm. “WoSign CA Free SSL Certificate G2” issues a cert.
