In the modern world, sites allow not only to receive information, but also provide hundreds of different services, including the ability to pay for purchases on the Internet, transmit data via a secure communication channel, and protect against interception of confidential information. And all this is ensured thanks to SSL certificates.
SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) are certificates for a secure data transfer protocol that improve security on the visited resource. Most sites in 2021 use SSL certificates to ensure the security of transmitted information, including when working with payment services.
All information is transmitted via a secure data transfer protocol (https), however, in order for it to function and transmit data in encrypted form, an SSL certificate must be present on the server where the site is located, a kind of electronic signature, which displays full information about the legal person, domain, certificate activity period, organization details. And in fact, SSL confirms that a given domain name belongs to a real company, and not to fraudsters, including the use of a certificate with a secret key.
The cost of SSL certificates varies from 399 rubles and can exceed 60,000 rubles, depending on the chosen company, however, at the initial stage, you can also choose a free option.
If you do not have the opportunity to buy an SSL certificate, you can use the free option in the face of Let’s Encrypt, which offers a secure connection to your site without any major changes to the server configuration. It is included in the official Debian distributions, so it is installed by default on many VDS and VPS servers and is available for ordering to all users. The main mission of the developers of this certificate is a smooth and accessible transition of most users and their projects to a secure connection, since Google, Mozilla Firefox and other browsers are going to soon refuse to support the standard http connection.
There are other options for free SSL certificates for your site, if the previous option did not suit you, for example Name, Cloudflare or Free SSL Space, but here you need to clarify whether there is support for this technology on the hosting or not. But there are a number of advantages to both options.
Cloudflare SSL Certificate offers fast, secure connection setup in a few clicks and requires little or no knowledge of the technology. Unlike Let’s Encrypt, the validity period is set immediately for 15 years, but it works only on those domains that have registered the DNS of the Cloudflare service. Users who work with this service and specify the default DNS servers to protect against DDOS and filter traffic, get a double benefit, connecting and SSL from Cloudflare for free immediately for a long time.
If we talk about Free SSL Space, then this is a relatively new "player" against the background of other services that provide free certificates, however, it protects both www and the main site, can be obtained in 5 minutes and is automatically renewed every 3 months. Its structure is similar to Let’s Encrypt, however, there is no possibility to add subdomains for the main project, and therefore each will have to order their own SSL. As a result, it is quite problematic to use such a technology if your project is designed for several regions or the whole of Russia, where each region has its own subdomain.
You should understand that a free SSL certificate will never replace a paid option for you, especially when it comes to guarantees. If you buy SSL, the certification center is responsible for security and gives financial guarantees, where the amount of insurance payments in case of user data leakage is immediately agreed. At the same time, paid certificates, as a rule, are installed in a few clicks, do not require technical skills of work and systematic renewal (an even paid period is valid, for example, 1, 2 years).
Any user who already has hosting at HostingRU can get Let's Encrypt certificate in the hosting panel for free.
To get it, you just need to follow 2 simple steps:
1. Go to the hosting panel Cpanel or ISPManager.
2. Follow the instructions to install the free certificate:
Done! Your site address is secured! Seize the opportunity to protect yourself at no additional cost!
To use the service as a gift, you need to transfer your hosting service to HostingRU.
Moving a site from another hosting is carried out by us absolutely free.
To get free hosting and SSL certificate, register a domain with HostingRU.
You can order a cheap certificate for the site