Why are DigiCert certificates so expensive?

Can you get a SSL certificate for free?

With a self-signed certificate, you can be assured that the site is safe and you are in complete control of the security.

Self-signed certificates offer limited functionality. In the case of an SSL certificate you need to pay a certificate reseller to issue it for you. This could cost from 20 - 200 plus VAT, depending on the quality of service that is offered.

We'll guide you through all the steps you need to take to obtain a valid SSL certificate for your website. We'll do it for less than 20. We have no hidden costs. We are a small business ourselves so we know the pain of getting a certificate. You can rest assured that we will try to help as much as we can.

Getting your certificate: SSL certificates are issued by certificate authorities (CAs). A certificate authority is a trusted company who issues digital certificates. They act like a bank, you can open a bank account with them, which gives you access to a credit card. These organisations are trusted by your web browser or web server and issue certificates that you can use to encrypt information on the web.

In order to set up an SSL certificate, you first need to get a certificate reseller to issue it for you. After the certificate issued you will need to add it to your web browser.

You can get a certificate from almost any Certificate Authority and they all have similar policies. There are many different types of certificate to choose from, for example Class 1, Class 2 and Extended Validation. We explain them all in the next section. There is plenty of choice but to make life simple, we will just look at Class 1 for our examples.

Choose a provider: The easiest way to start is to sign up with a popular CFor example RapidSSL, who issue all their certificates from a data centre in Switzerland. Their support is good and they charge a flat fee for all certificates.

Or BitSlt, who are also Swiss and charge a small fee based on the number of certificates issued. You can also choose to host your own certificate. For this you would need to either purchase a dedicated SSL certificate or use a free certificate offered by a hosting company.

The SSL certificate that you use must be validated before you submit the final certificate application form. Get your certificate!

What is the difference between SSL and DigiCert?

SSL (Secure Socket Layer) is an encryption protocol and DigiCert is a certificate authority. Why the two companies have such different purposes? Why do I need both? DigiCert offers certificates for use as authentication for public facing web sites/services. This includes things like SSH, email servers, web mail and web mail gateway, etc.

SSL comes in two flavors: Transport Layer Security, used by browsers; and Secure Socket Layer, used by applications. The former is widely used for web browsing. The latter is used in order to provide data integrity for a specific application running on a server, which will likely only be visible to the application when connected.

You don't need them both, you just need one from each category.

How much does a DigiCert SSL certificate cost?

With this question, you'll want to know how much a SSL certificate costs and if you can afford it.

The costs for a Certificate Authority (CA) certificate is the same as for any other certificate - so you'll need to decide which is the right option for your needs. Below, you can find out the approximate price for any domain registered by a company that uses a certificate.

The price per year is based on the renewal frequency and the certificate usage - the more certificates you need the higher price you will be paying. Also, some domains may come with discounts from the CFor more information, you can use the certificate comparison tool at or contact us. We are experts in our field and can help you choose the right solution for your business.

SSL Certificate prices in general. If you want to understand how much a certificate cost, we recommend you compare certificate prices on the site They offer price comparisons for over 2,000 SSL/TLS certificates. SSLCertificatePricing.com and SSLShopper are the best websites for comparing certificate prices.

With that being said, there are 4 important factors that determine the certificate cost: Your desired usage of the certificate (for example, business, home page, email, server etc.) Your renewal frequency, and Your domain's renewal frequency. The length of your renewal.

With those parameters you can make the best decision for yourself. Below you will find the approximate price for most of the domains we have. However, each domain has its own set of properties that determine the price. To get an accurate price, please contact us.

1-2 years: Certificates renewal after 1-2 years is much cheaper than for a short term certificate. That's because for longer periods of time the renewal will not be necessary. Therefore, a short term renewal can only be valid for a certain amount of time. As long as you're renewing your certificate after one year, a three years certificate won't provide a better value. However, longer term certificates are generally much more expensive than for 1-2 years.

More details about the cost of a certificate depends on the period of validity of the certificate.