Recommendations for places to buy TLS/SSL certificates?

April 24, 2018 5:44 PM

Where do you like buying your TLS/SSL certs -- and do you have a preference for the cert brand (say, Comodo vs RapidSSL vs GeoTrust)? I know about the free certs from Let's Encrypt*; in this case, I'm looking for 1- or 2-year wildcard (unlimited subdomains) certs with domain validation (DV) from a reputable reseller, since buying directly from an authority seems to be more expensive, AFAICT.

When searching online, I get scads of results for places that sell inexpensive certs, and some look shadier than others. So I'm hoping to get your help and separate the wheat from the chaff. What are your favorite resellers?

- This is for US-based work/business sites, rather than hobby/personal sites.

- I've looked through a few different related AskMe threads and it seems the latest is from 2013. Suggestions there for resellers include Namecheap and Gandi, which both still offer Comodo certs.

- I'm especially interested in any favorite RapidSSL cert resellers, or if people just tend to buy directly from rapidssl's site (checking there today, a wildcard DV cert for 1 year is $249).

(* I understand that Let's Encrypt and other free certs can be automated, but unfortunately I have at least one case that requires having to manually install a cert for a third-party service.... hence wanting a cert that will last for a while / avoid having to go through a lot of hoops, etc)

Thanks!

posted by rangefinder 1.4 to Computers & Internet (8 answers total)

Best answer: ssls.com (formerly cheapssls.com, it's part of NameCheap) has always worked well for me. In the past they were the cheapest around aside from some that were available as part of a hosting bundle, but I haven't shopped around recently since I've been perfectly happy with them for the better part of a decade at this point.
posted by wierdo at 6:01 PM on April 24, 2018 [1 favorite]

Oh, I should have mentioned they just dropped RapidSSL in the past few months. :(

(Actually had a minor issue because of that change, but nothing that would matter to you since you are looking for a wildcard cert)
posted by wierdo at 6:04 PM on April 24, 2018

Prior to moving over to Let's Encrypt, I had very good experiences with DigiCert, who recently acquired Symantec's former cert/pki business -- including the infrastructure supporting RapidSSL. So from a technical perspective, the cheaper RapidSSL wildcard cert seems reasonable.
posted by j.edwards at 7:11 PM on April 24, 2018 [1 favorite]

Best answer: At work we've been using thesslstore.com for Comodo certs for the past couple years, and have not had a problem with them.
posted by reptile at 8:09 PM on April 24, 2018 [2 favorites]

I've used RapidSSL for years.
posted by humboldt32 at 1:12 AM on April 25, 2018 [1 favorite]

FWIW (it doesn't apply to your case, but good to know about)- Amazon's AWS has free wildcard certs if you're using the rest of their stack.
posted by jenkinsEar at 5:15 AM on April 25, 2018 [2 favorites]

Best answer: I've bought Comodo wildcard certs from SSL2Buy and Namecheap. The former has RapidSSL certs, too.
posted by bradf at 6:42 AM on April 25, 2018 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thanks, everyone - every comment was helpful. Marked best answer if it included a recommendation with discounted pricing -- thanks for the mentions of thesslstore and ssl2buy, which offer RapidSSL certs, and I hadn't known about ssls.com (and that prices there seem to be cheaper than buying directly from the namecheap site).
posted by rangefinder 1.4 at 3:02 PM on May 13, 2018