SSL Certificate is a must-have feature to almost all business-related websites, which will help build the trust with your visitors. Besides, it’s also a ranking factor considered by Google and impact your website ranking in this industry most popular search engine. In below, we will talk about the best Cheap SSL certificate from free SSL, Cheap DV SSL, OV SSL, Wildcard SSL to highest security EV SSL.
Best Cheap DV SSL
The DV SSL is Domain Validated SSL Certificates, providing 128-bit encryption. This kind of SSL certificate is simple to apply for. You just need to prove your ownership on the domain. The information in the WHOIS can help you pass the validation. Due to simple validation process, the DV SSL is generally issued within minutes. Some even is issued immediately. Furthermore, the DV SSL is the cheapest SSL certificate type.
However, the DV SSL has clear drawbacks as well. Since it only requires the domain validation, your visitors still do not know who are really running this website. The DV SSL also creates chances for hackers to poison your DNS and then acquire a DV SSL for your site. The next step is to redirect your visitors to a fake website so that hackers can gain visitors’ information like credit card number and passwords.
If you want a DV SSL certificate, you can check the best cheap DV SSL as following:
Positive SSL
$9/Year
RapidSSL SSL
$11.35/Year
Comodo SSL
$53/Year
To find a completed list of DV, please check out NicSRS DV SSL Online Store.
Best Cheap OV SSL
OV refers to Organization Validated. As its name shows, the CA will validate details of a company or organization that is going to use this SSL. Due to more complex validation process, it usually costs several days to install an OV SSL certificate. But the OV SSL certificate contains both domain name and organization name, bringing more trust. Check the best cheap OV SSL certificate in below. OV SSL is the most popular type of SSL certificate within businesses and organization.
True BusinessID
$89.3/Year
DigiCert Plus
$170.5/Year
Secured Site
$295.02/Year
To find a completed list of OV, please check out NicSRS OV SSL Online Store.
Best Cheap EV SSL
EV stands for extensive validation. Namely, before issuing an EV SSL certificate, CAs will verify many things. For example, CAs will validate whether you company or organization legally authorizes you to purchase EV SSL certificates; whether the company/organization owns the domain that is secured with EV SSL; whether the website is active. Besides, CAs will also verify the name, address and phone number of your company/organization. Moreover, you website or organization should not be on blacklists of any government.
Though EV SSL certificate is complex to gain, it offers the highest level of trust. Among the 4 SSL certificate types, EV is the only one giving green address bar. With the well-marked green address bar, visitors will instantly your website is secure.
Here is a list of Best Cheap EV SSL for your website, and to know more, please visit NicSRS EV SSL Store.
GeoTrust EV
$156.75/Year
Comodo EV
$122.41/Year
Secured Site EV
$806.55/Year
Best Cheap Wildcard SSL
Wildcard SSL Certificates allows you to secure a single domain name as well as its first-level sub domains. For instance, with a Wildcard SSL certificate, you can get your www.example.com secured as well as other sub domains, such as blog.example.com, photo.example.com, mail.example.com, etc. Therefore, you will save a lot by use Wildcard if you have multiple websites to secure.
Wildcard SSL is relatively expensive, and it’s only available on DV SSL and OV SSL.
RapidSSL Wildcard
$94.86/Year
Geotrust Wildcard
$318/Year
Check out all Wildcard SSL from NicSRS Wildcard SSL Online Store.
What’s SSL Certification
Secure Sockets Layer, namely SSL, is an internet security protocol to build encrypted connections between servers and clients. Servers can be web servers, mail servers, etc. Accordingly, clients can be web browsers, mail clients, etc. With SSL, all data transferring between servers and clients keep encrypted, private and secure.
You may doubt whether SSL certificate is essential for your website or your email account. Our answer is that all depends on you. But you have to know that data are in plain text when they transmit between servers and clients. In other words, hackers are easy to intercept and acquire these data. So, if your website or email account usually has sensitive information transmitted, like credit card numbers, you had better install a SSL certificate, secure your website/email account, and improve credibility.
To install a SSL certificate, you need purchase a SSL certificate from a Certificate Authority (CA). As a matter of fact, SSL certificates have many types, including DV SSL, Wildcard SSL, OV SSL, EV SSL, the SSL for single domain, the SSL for multiple domains and so on. You can choose the SSL type based on your requirements.
How Do SSL Certificates Work?
It was reported that about 47% American adults had their personal information stolen by hackers in 2014. And most events happened in large companies like Yahoo, Home Depot and Chase, as a result of data breaches.
Google as the biggest browser on the planet with over 60% market share, has greater responsibility to protect website owners as well as visitors’ information from hacking or stealing. The “non-secure” warning for site visitors is also seen as the final nail in HTTP coffin.
Human sophisticated cryptography encryption methods can be dated back to ancient Greece and Rome.
There are two keys integrated with one SSL certificate: the private key and the public key. The public key is designed to encrypt or lock a connection, while the private key to decrypt or unlock it. Take the SSL certificate as an extra layer of privacy between your data and the rest of the world. Only when a hacker has both randomly-generated keys could he steal your messages.
In a nutshell, SSL certificates have been one of best methods to keep data secure. As a business website owner, you may need to secure some sensitive information, such as usernames, passwords, credit card numbers, and email addresses. Using an SSL Certificate can not only help encrypt information sent from a browser to a server, but also tell your visitors that your website is trusted.
How to Choose SSL certificate?
It is estimated that global cyber crime costs will reach $2 trillion by 2019, tripling the amount of $500 billion of 2015. Even the former President Obama urged both government employees and citizens to use two-factor authentication.
Google, among all the tech companies, is the most proactive to implement SSL certificates. The search engine giant announced by the end of January 2017 that Google Chrome would regard sites without HTTPS as non-secure. Seeing three reasons for securing a website with HTTPS and SSL, including Authentication, Data Integrity and Encryption, Google hopes to create a more secure internet.
However, many site owners, especially business website owners with much customer personal information and credit card details, might be in confusion since there is no one-size-fits-all SSL certificate to use.
So, which SSL should you choose? And why?
Which Type of SSL Certificates To Choose?
Like the below picture showing that all SSL certificates provide session security and encrypt any information submitted through your business website, but different type of SSL certificates come with different level of identity information and display differently in browsers. From lowest to highest, there are three main trust levels for SSL certificates: DV (Domain Validated ), OV (Organization Validated) and OV (Extended Validated).
Domain Validation (DV) SSL Certificates—The CA issues the certificate only needs to verify that the recipient is the owner of the domain that is going to be covered. Just in a few minutes, the whole verification process can be completed. Therefore DV SSL certificates are also known as the quickest and easiest way to secure a domain. As well, this is the most affordable SSL certificate type, some DV SSL certificates are offered for free like Let’s Encrypt.
Organization Validation (OV) SSL Certificates—The CA requires a business to complete a light vetting process before issuing an OV SSL certificate. Typically, this type of SSL certificates take 1-3 days to be issued. Offering more SSL and trust indications than basic DV SSL certificates while charging for less expensive price than EV SSL certificates, OV SSL certificates are a nice middle-ground option.
Extended Validation (EV) SSL Certificates—Only when a business is an official company registered with a government authority can it be issued an EV SSL certificate. The whole verification process will take between 3-5 days. EV SSL certificates meet the highest, most stringent requirements while lending the most credibility to the issued business website by displaying the business’ name in a green bar like this:
In addition to the above, there are other criteria to classify SSL certificates, like multi-domain and wildcard.
Why Use OV SSL Certificates and EV SSL Certificates for Your Business Website?
Undoubtedly, EV SSL certificate delivers the highest level of security. But at the same time, it is billed at the most expensive pricing. If you are running a small business website, you might not be willing to spend so much money on an SSL certificate. Given that, EV SSL certificate is most suitable for medium to large business websites, who can afford it and look forward to investing for long term profit by building good credibility as the most trusted business.
On the other side, if you have just started your online business and don’t have much budget for sensitive information encryption, but still want to make your customers assured about the safety of their sensitive information like PayPal, credit card or band account details, OV SSL certificate could be a good option to consider.
Which SSL Brands Are Most Trusted & Secure?
You may still be in confusion after understanding what type of SSL certificates to use for your business website. There are at least hundreds of certification authorities (CA) around the globe. Each CA is boasting about the most trusted and secure SSL certificates. So, which SSL brand should be your option?
Symantec is the largest CA worldwide and they have the most recognized symbol of trust across the web—the Norton Trust Seal. Symantec, the name itself has added the most value of any CA in the industry. All Symantec SSL certificates are Organization Validated or Extended Validated. Also worth mentioning is that the pricing of Symantec SSL certificates on average is the highest in the industry.
If you need more affordable OV and EV SSL certificate solutions, there are other trusted and secure CAs to consider, like GeoTrust, Comodo, DigiCert, and Thawte.
Instead of purchasing an SSL certificate directly from the CA, you are recommended to get one from a reliable SSL certificate reseller. Just as we know, NicSRS is the industry-leading provider of SSL Certificates. They resell different type of SSL certificates by partnering with world’s leading CAs.
I have searched for many SSL providers, and I find that Bisend is one of them offering multiple trusted brands and give us amazing discounts. I like this SSL certificate provider.
I am using the free Let’s Encrypt SSL offered in my Bisend hosting plan for my blog site. It is very easy to install it with their Plesk Panel and the company gave me a detailed guideline through the process. Very thankful for that.