Is a Free SSL Certificate Better than a Paid One?
As technology is evolving, fraudulent activities are increasing every day. As a result, online visitors and website owners are worried about security. That is where an SSL/TLS Certificate comes in. The present market is surprised by a wide range of choices for SSL certificates with the best security and encryption strategies and gradually getting intense to pick the best. It will never be easier to get and set up an SSL/TLS Certificate, and therefore using an SSL certificate for your website is non-negotiable.
Are you new to the business or running a start-up company? If yes, a free SSL may seem like the ideal choice if you have never managed an SSL certificate. Yet, let’s see how it holds up against Paid SSL Certificates, and before we go any further, let us get some detailed information about free SSL and Paid SSL.
What is a Free SSL Certificate?
As the name infers, free certificates do not cost anything, and the purpose behind the creation of a free SSL certificate is to offer access to HTTPS for all websites.
Free SSL certificates fit into two categories.
Self-Signed Certificates: There is no need for Certificate authorities to sign them. It can get signed by the issuers.
Signed Certificates: These SSL certificates will get signed by the Certificate authority authorities.
What is a Paid SSL Certificate?
These are the standard SSL Certificates to which you need to invest money.
These paid certificates will get issued and signed by the trusted CAs.
Paid Certificates get directly get from the CAs, or you can purchase from the resellers.
Now you can ask, Is a Free SSL Certificate Better than a Paid One? Or why should I pay for the same SSL/TLS certificate when you can get it for free? Well, there are some major differences between the two.
Let us understand the differences between free and paid SSL Certificates.
SSL Certificate Validity Period
The most noticeable difference between paid and free SSL Certificates is its validity period. The free SSL Certificates provided by popular CAs are issued for 30 days maximum. Whereas, the maximum validity period of paid certificates is one year and up to six years. The actual validity period is one year. But, if you choose six years multi-year SSL/TLS certificate plan, you can utilize the six years’ validity, unlimited certificate reissues, and other benefits.
Acmetek, a Platinum partner of DigiCert, announced a New Multi-year Plan to help customers simplify SSL/TLS certificate management ahead of 1-Year Lifetime Requirements.
To know more about the Multi-year SSL/TLS Certificate Plan, read our Multi-year blog.
Level of Trust
Free SSL Certificates will offer only Domain Validation options as they provide a basic authentication level to a website. Henceforth, these certificates can be suitable for small basic websites and blogs. Whereas, paid SSL Certificate will offer Domain Validation, Organization Validation, and Extended Validation options. These certificates play a vital role while protecting your website.
Technical Support
The process of enabling SSL- from generating CSR to installing SSL, it could be a complicated task. It could be more complex if you dealt with SSL certificates never before. It is essential to have technical support from an expert team. Free SSL certificates will not get any tech support from certificate authorities. Whereas in paid SSL certificates, technical support will be given beginning from choosing the right SSL Certificate to installing an SSL certificate on the website. This technical support privilege can be continued until the certificate lifetime.
Warranty
If you are planning to buy something, you need to have an assurance of the quality. The SSL certificates are not exceptional to check the warranty. The free SSL Certificates will not come with a warranty and in case if something worse happens with your website while using free SSL, CAs cannot help you in any case. Whereas, paid SSL certificates will assure warranty if something goes wrong at the end of Certificate Authorities.
Conclusion:
Why paying for an SSL/TLS Certificate should consider an Investment?
Investing in paid SSL Certificates is like investing in your Business Enhancement. Paid certificates offer high-level validation that can display your verified details to the customers to bring trust to the organization. As we know, customer trust is one of the essentials to building a successful business and investing in a paid SSL will boost your sales.
Acmetek, a platinum partner of DigiCert, will offer the privilege of security and authenticity to the most comprehensive range. Find out the advantages of investing in Acmetek paid SSL Certificates.
Test your website with 14 days free trial Certificate service from Acmetek.
To build a testing platform on your website and assess the business requirement of the SSL certificate, enable 14 days free trial Certificate. Acmetek Free Trial SSL Certificates are offered from trusted Certification Authorities like DigiCert (formerly Symantec), Thawte, GeoTrust, and RapidSSL SSL Certificates with 14-day validity.
Acmetek Offerings:
- Easy to use certificate management platform that helps reduce the risk of outages with key features like notifications, easy management, and automation.
- Live support when you need it from experienced experts.
- The highest level of security and assurance for your business and customers.
- Control users and their actions with features like audit trail, approver workflows,Single Sign On (SSO), and Multi-Factor Authentication.
- Choose which validity period works best for your business and use-case.
- Discover, monitor and catalogue all certificates on your network.
- Access robust security reports on demand, including server and certificate vulnerabilities.
We hope our blog helped you in understanding better about SSL Certificates and choose the right SSL/TLS certificate that fulfils your requirements.
To get 14-day free trial SSL Certificates, contact our specialist today.
