An SSL certificate is an important security tool for any website. It establishes an encrypted link between your site and the user’s browser, which helps protect the data that you send and receive. This encryption makes it difficult for anyone to eavesdrop on your communications, including criminals and even government agencies.
There are two kinds of SSL certificates: paid wildcard SSL certificates and free wildcard SSL certificates. Before you choose which one is right for your site, you need to understand the benefits and limitations of each type.
When you’re choosing an SSL certificate, you have a few options. You can choose a free one, or you can choose a paid one—or both!
What’s the difference between free and paid options?
It depends on what you need. Free certificates are great if you just want to secure one domain, but once you start needing to secure multiple domains, it’s better to go with a paid certificate instead.
Paid certificates also come in two forms: single-domain and wildcard certificates. A certificate wildcard allows for any subdomain to be secured with that certificate. This is especially useful for companies that manage multiple domains that all use the same hostname (for example, blogs.example.com).
Wildcard SSL Certificates are also known as “Universal” or “Unified” SSL Certificates because they can be used on multiple domains at once without having to buy separate certificates for each one individually, like most other types of SSL Certificates require.
Why do I need an SSL certificate?
You need an SSL certificate because it’s the best way to secure your website and safeguard your customer’s data.
Your website is one of the most vulnerable parts of your business, and the only way to protect it is with an SSL certificate wildcard. It can help to prevent identity theft and credit card fraud by ensuring that all data sent over your site is encrypted so it can’t be intercepted or read by hackers or other bad actors.
Without an SSL certificate, hackers could use a man-in-the-middle attack to get access to your site and trick customers into giving up their credit card numbers or personal information. With an SSL certificate in place, this kind of attack would be impossible – the hacker wouldn’t be able to intercept the communication between you and your customer because everything would be encrypted.
Free SSL Or Paid – Which is Better?
It’s a common misconception that free SSL certificates are inherently inferior to paid ones. In fact, the opposite is true.
Free SSL certificates are just as safe and secure as paid ones – the only difference is who’s paying for them. With free SSL, it’s you (and your company). With paid SSL, it’s the company you’re buying from. The security and safety of your site are still guaranteed by the same third-party certificate authority (CA) that would issue either type of certificate.
That said, there are some things to keep in mind when you’re choosing between paid and free SSLs:
- Paid SSL certificates can be revoked if you stop paying for them; free ones cannot be revoked unless they break the CA’s terms of service agreement.
- Paid SSLs expire after two years, while free ones last forever!
- Paid SSLs have more features than free ones, including EV certificates (which have green address bars).
- Free SSLs come with a cost: you have to pay for hosting or another service provider that supports it (like Cloudflare or AWS).
Conclusion
The decision to buy an SSL certificate is a big one, and it’s important to make sure you choose the right one.
Here are some tips for choosing which certificate is right for you:
1) Do your research! Don’t just go with the cheapest option make sure you know what kind of security it offers and how long it will last.
2) Make sure the company selling it has a good reputation and high customer satisfaction scores. They ought to give a money-back guarantee if something turns out badly with your certificate.
3) Look at reviews of different companies on sites like TrustPilot or BBB before making a purchase.
