FREE SSL Certificates
Yes, you can get a SSL Certificate for free or you can buy one. But don’t make the same mistake that I did.
Buying An SSL Certificate
At name cheap you can buy an SSL Certificate for $8.88 a year. If they are your registrar you pay a lot less for the domain name than at Godaddy*. But I do not host my domain on their servers. I already has a pre-existing host account at ipage.com
So I bought the certificate at NameCheap and went to install it at iPage. There should be an install tool on the hosting panel to do this. However, iPage says “Unfortunately we do not support third party SSl. If you wish we do have Paid SSl as well as the Free SSl”. iPage charges$36 a year for an SSl certificate.
That “ticked” me off! A cost of $8.88 or $36 a year.
A Free SSL Certificate
Since my host site does not support a purchased third party SSl, I had them install a FREE one. The support rep was surprisingly helpful and knowledgeable. It was fast and efficient. The whole support session lasted only about 5 minutes and the process was complete.
I had wasted much more time than that trying to do it!
However, the FREE certificate is valid for only 3 months.
My SSL Certificate Options
- If I want the free one renewed I need to go to support every 3 months and have them do it.
- I could pay iPage $36 a year for a paid one
- I could switch hosting from iPage to NameCheap and pay $8.88
Resources: Free CSR Generator
* Check out my post “NameCheap Really Is Less Expensive than GoDaddy“
