If you’ve done any research, you’ve likely noticed that the typical SSL certificate price can vary wildly, from cheap as chips to eye-wateringly expensive. This may lead you to believe that you’re missing something. Are expensive certificates several times the price of cheap ones actually any better? This article will answer that question and what exactly the ideal price for an SSL certificate is.
The difference between cheap and expensive SSL
The main difference between SSL certificates at different price points is, well, nothing, actually. They all secure the connections to and from your site so that any data your users share is kept private. They are the exact same product. Some stores just sell them at different prices.
No, seriously. It’s true. Every current SSL certificate being sold today offers the same potential 256-bit encryption. This means that, with the right server settings, the cryptographic key length of your certificate will be 256 characters long. Such a key length is virtually impossible to crack even by the world’s most powerful supercomputer. Pretty cool, huh? Just make sure you make the most of your SSL by optimizing your server settings.
So why the huge price disparity, then? There must be some secret. There really isn’t. Just some stores being greedier than others. But rest assured that one store claiming their SSLs are the most powerful around is not technically lying, but most other SSL vendors could claim the exact same thing.
So how much should you pay for SSL?
Well, whatever your budget allows. But certainly don’t pay too much for it. It really isn’t worth it. And you can use the money you save for another area of your site security. But you should be a little bit discerning about where you spend your money. Don’t just go for the first cheap site you find. Make sure you read third-party reviews and find out whether people have had good experiences with the vendor in question.
You should also check what kind of customer support they provide. This means communication with customer service representatives, as well as instructional material for guiding you through the whole SSL process, from activation and validation to installation. SSL certificates can be complicated to even those with tech know-how, so you want to be sure that if you feel lost or confused at any point, there will be someone there to guide you.
Finally, research every store’s partner Certificate Authority (CA). CAS are in charge of SSL management, from issuance to revocation, and a huge part of maintaining the system is trust. For an SSL to work properly, it must have come from a trusted CA. If you get an SSL from a CA that’s not considered trusted, it may not work in major web browsers, essentially rendering it useless.
