A website is a great investment that is worth the best level of protection. This can only lead us to find out which SSL certificate is best.
Most of the time, many people assume that SSL certificates are only for huge websites and eCommerce businesses. However, whether you have a blog site, portfolio, and even more an eCommerce platform, you definitely need an SSL certificate.
Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) is like a digital signature from one computer to another computer. It protects sensitive data by encrypting it before it travels on the information super-highway and makes your site look trustworthy.
It is used for digitally securing data, file transfers, and credit card processing as required by PCI.
The use of SSL certificates is mandatory for all websites as stipulated by Google and even more eCommerce sites that process sensitive personal information.
There are various levels of validation that you can opt for. They are important in finding out which SSL is best for you. Let us have an in-depth look at these.
These levels of validation dictate the visual hints your website has to prove that it is secure. They include:
Therefore, as a website owner, you need to find out which SSL certificate is best suited for the type of website you run. We have gathered useful pointers for you to guide you in identifying a suitable SSL certificate. Read on till the end to also discover some of the best SSL providers you can consider.
You need to find out from the following types which SSL is best for you. These are:
Dedicated means that you pay for it and fully own it while Shared is convenient and free but there is a lot of security concerns that lower the customer experience for your visitors.
Different validation levels have varying warranty amounts, for example, domain validation certificates can carry a warranty that is up to $20,000 while the extended validation can carry a warranty of up to $1.75 million. The warranty is meant to cover any damages caused by certificate authority-related errors that have the potential of bringing down your company.
For example, an eCommerce site, or any other site that processes credit card information will require a minimum of 128-bit encryption. Anything higher than that would be better but anything lower would be considered insecure.
There are many branded SSLs out there and you can easily buy one from your eCommerce provider but if you are selling expensive items or anything that involves a high level of security you can look for a branded SSL that is more trustable, like GeoTrust, AskSSL, or VeriSign.
This is regardless of whether you get your SSL certificate from your eCommerce provider or another source. You need to know the steps on how it will be installed on your site to stay up and running.
Finally, we are at the place where you determine which SSL certificate is best for you. However, this does not disqualify the others. It only means that it is what is most suitable for your website or application.
Protip: Narrowing down your selection solely based on pricing can lead to frustration. The best way is to choose several SSL certificates that have the features you are looking for and then select the one that is within your budget range.
You can find a summary of some of the best SSL certificates in subdomains in the table below alongside their basic features and prices. Also, you can click here to explore more packages like the ones highlighted below.
SSL Certificate | Features | Pricing |
AskSSL Starter |
|
$3.99 |
Unlimited Free SSL |
|
$0.00 |
Multi-Domain SSL |
|
$16.99 |
Wild Card Domain SSL |
|
$49.99 |
Ask SSL EV SAN |
|
$150 |
AskSSL EV |
|
$69 |
Rapid SSL |
|
$12.60 |
Comodo PositiveSSL Wildcard |
|
$99.40 |
GeoTrust QuickSSL Premium |
|
$67.20 |
In the quest to find out which SSL is best we have been able to see that it is a decision highly dependent on the type of website one runs. The most important part is that you don’t go without installing one of the aforementioned certificates from as low as zero dollars to keep your site secure and trustable.