Is there a difference between a free SSL Certificate or Paid SSL Certificate?

sslstoreindia

New member
A free SSL Certificate may look good and cost-free solution but it comes with certain boundaries. On the other side, paid SSL certificate is an excellent choice for any kind of business which has more advantages compared to free SSL Certificate.

Let us find out the difference between Free SSL vs Paid SSL Certificate

Free SSL

  • Domain Validated Only
  • Unsuitable for Ecommerce and Government Websites
  • May hurt your customer trust and confidence
  • Limited Lifetime (30-90 days)

Paid SSL Certificate

  • Different options like OV SSL, EV SSL, SANs, Wildcard etc
  • Suitable for every business platform
  • Extended Lifetime access (1-2 year)
  • Higher warranty amounts
 
I originally thought you were asking this as a question but this seemed to be more like an answer.

Anyways, for personal sites, blogs, freelancers, etc. free SSL is good.

If you're an enterprise which is registered legally then you should invest in EV SSLs which costs just around $500-$1000 per year (there are more costly ones though)

Again, both the SSLs do the basic stuff, SECURITY (encryption) during transmission of sensitive data from browser to the web server.
 
I originally thought you were asking this as a question but this seemed to be more like an answer.

Anyways, for personal sites, blogs, freelancers, etc. free SSL is good.

If you're an enterprise which is registered legally then you should invest in EV SSLs which costs just around $500-$1000 per year (there are more costly ones though)

Again, both the SSLs do the basic stuff, SECURITY (encryption) during transmission of sensitive data from browser to the web server.

Agreed but EV certs are MUCH cheaper than that.
 
Agreed but EV certs are MUCH cheaper than that.
EV SSLs which costs just around $500-$1000 per year (there are more costly ones though)

Try Half that cost

Wholesale the cheapest i can get is $129 for a Thawte SSL Web Server with EV, but then you have to place your profit onto of that, so retail will be $200 to $250, but direct from Thawte it is $299 for 1 year
 
Free SSL certificates only come with a Domain Validation option. DV certificates are used only for providing a basic level of authentication. Whereas the paid SSL certificates do come with OV & EV options, which are absolutely necessary for protecting business websites.
 
Technically speaking, both types of SSL certificates simply encrypt the data in transport in order to avoid any man in the middle attack.

Now, in order to avoid such attack, free SSLs have a certain level of security by the level of encryption that they provide, while the paid ones have even higher level of security
 
A free SSL Certificate may look good and cost-free solution but it comes with certain boundaries. On the other side, paid SSL certificate is an excellent choice for any kind of business which has more advantages compared to free SSL Certificate.

Let us find out the difference between Free SSL vs Paid SSL Certificate

Free SSL

  • Domain Validated Only
  • Unsuitable for Ecommerce and Government Websites
  • May hurt your customer trust and confidence
  • Limited Lifetime (30-90 days)

Paid SSL Certificate

  • Different options like OV SSL, EV SSL, SANs, Wildcard etc
  • Suitable for every business platform
  • Extended Lifetime access (1-2 year)
  • Higher warranty amounts
Image result for Is there a difference between a free SSL Certificate or Paid SSL Certificate?
A free or paid SSL certificate both are the same there is no difference between security. Free SSL is better for non-commercial websites like blog websites. Free SSL certificates are ready to use a product like they don't come with any warranty or support.
 
I would consider that the difference being sought here is between free SSL certificate and paid SSL certificate.

A free SSL certificate is the one which you get without paying for it. In terms of security, and encryption is concerned, a free SSL certificate is as secure as a paid SSL certificate. This is quite contradictory to the common belief that only paid SSL certificate provides an ample amount of security and proper encryption.

Now, the question to ask here should be *‘why should I pay for an SSL certificate when I can get it for free?’*

Free SSL certificate comes with following demerits:

It does not provide Organisation validation and is restricted to domain validation.

It comes with a validity of 30–90 days, contrary to the validation period of 1 or 2 years for a paid SSL certificate.

Business support is not available for free SSL certificate, In case of an issue with free SSL certificate, one has to go through a bunch of old forum posts to be able to find a possible solution.

There is nothing like a warranty if anything goes wrong on the CA’s end like a failure of PKI instance. Paid SSL certificates come backed by warranties to ensure availability and enhanced uptime.
 
I use paid SSL as it offers a higher warranty amounts. It is one of the reasons I prefer paid SSL. SSLs price are not a big deal they don't cost much.
 
A free SSL Certificate may look good and cost-free solution but it comes with certain boundaries. On the other side, paid SSL certificate is an excellent choice for any kind of business which has more advantages compared to free SSL Certificate.

Let us find out the difference between Free SSL vs Paid SSL Certificate

Free SSL

  • Domain Validated Only
  • Unsuitable for Ecommerce and Government Websites
  • May hurt your customer trust and confidence
  • Limited Lifetime (30-90 days)

Paid SSL Certificate

  • Different options like OV SSL, EV SSL, SANs, Wildcard etc
  • Suitable for every business platform
  • Extended Lifetime access (1-2 year)
  • Higher warranty amounts

Thanks for highlighting the differences. Saying that, once most consumers see the lock icon, that's sufficient for them to trust your company (right or wrong).
 
Thanks for highlighting the differences. Saying that, once most consumers see the lock icon, that's sufficient for them to trust your company (right or wrong).

In a way yes, but can you trust a site with a free SSL cert. 100% and the answer is NO.

Fraudsters who clone genuine sites like Nike/Apple etc. will never pay for SSL certs. and you used to spot these as they would never be secure, so had no padlock, but now these use free SSL certs, so as you say people see a padlock as think the site is safe and secure.
 

Forum statistics

Threads
80,722
Messages
248,160
Members
20,665
Latest member
Saranya Subramaniam
Top