What Are The Different Types of SSL Certificates?

types of ssl certificates

Here are the 6 types of SSL Certificates to consider and the best SSL Certificate for each :

There’s a lot of confusion when it comes to what SSL/TLS Certificate options are available in the market and which SSL Certificate is perfect for you.

In this cyber age, every business needs a strong source of security that takes care of their business environment and assures their customers and visitors that they are safe on their website.

In this regard, SSL (secure socket layer) can be of use as a medium of online security. Let us go through some information about SSL and different types of SSL certificates.

SSL is a security protocol that provides a secure medium, to deliver the data between the server and the browser. If your website does not have an SSL Certificate, visitors may abandon a shopping cart, sign up process. However, you can avoid all that with an SSL Certificate and increase the ROI of your business.

To establish secure communications with your E-Commerce business, the customer’s browser seeks to validate your website’s authenticity by requesting an HTTPS Certificate. SSL certificate verifies the identity of the website owner. Once the SSL Certificate is recognized, a secure connection will be established for website security. Encrypted data will be transmitted between the web server and the customer browser once the secure connection is set.

 

Why is HTTPS important?
Google began to mark websites without HTTPS as “Not secure.” Insecure websites will suffer in terms of SEO ranking, as well as lack of customer trust. Read More

 

However, website owners more often fail to understand the gap between various SSL Certificates. Let us understand profoundly, which types of HTTPS certificate you should choose for your website.

Types of SSL Certificates

Domain Validation Certificate:

Domain validation (DV) refers to the basic verification by a certificate authority in which the owner name and domain ownership will be checked. Domain validation certificate offers quick issuance and there is no need to follow any legal paperwork. The automation process requires no detailed verification.

Hence, the price of such SSL certificate is lower than any other certificates. The certificate comes with the SHA-2 algorithm as per current security standards prescribed by the CA/Browser forum.

There are Positive SSL, RapidSSL certificate, QuickSSL Premium, SSL123 certificates, and many more; which are authenticate and cost-effective.

Cheap DV SSL Certificates

PRODUCT NAME TYPE Sale Price BUY / RENEW
Comodo Positive SSL DV $5.00/yr. PURCHASE
RapidSSL Standard SSL Certificate DV $8.00/yr. PURCHASE
RapidSSL Wildcard SSL DV $65.00/yr. PURCHASE
Comodo Essential SSL DV $3.00/yr. PURCHASE
Comodo Positive SSL Wildcard DV $40.00/yr. PURCHASE
Comodo Essential SSL Wildcard DV $28.00/yr. PURCHASE
Comodo Positive SSL Multi Domain DV $15.00/yr. PURCHASE
Comodo Exchange Server SSL (UCC) DV $80.00/yr. PURCHASE
Comodo Positive SSL Multi-Domain Wildcard DV $80.00/yr. PURCHASE
GeoTrust QuickSSL Premium DV $32.00/yr. PURCHASE
Thawte SSL123 DV $28.00/yr. PURCHASE
GlobalSign DomainSSL DV $88.00/yr. PURCHASE
GlobalSign Domain SSL Wildcard DV $350.00/yr. PURCHASE

Organization Validation Certificate:

Organization Validation (OV) SSL is a step ahead of domain validation certificate as such type of HTTPS certificates not only confirms domain ownership but also proves business identity over the web. Visitors get assurance about website existence when they observe that they are not dealing with any forged website.

Moreover, all web transactions will have robust 256-bit encryption along with 2048-bit root encryption. If we talk about few legitimate organization validation certificates then GeoTrust BusinessID and Thawte SSL Web Server fall into this category.

Buy OV SSL Certificates

PRODUCT NAME TYPE ISSUANCE TIME SALE PRICE BUY / RENEW
Thawte SSL Web Server OV 3 Days or Less $70.00/yr. PURCHASE
GeoTrust True BusinessID Certificate OV 3 Days or Less $60.00/yr. PURCHASE
GeoTrust Multi Domain SSL OV 3 Days or Less $175.00/yr. PURCHASE
GlobalSign OrganizationSSL OV 3 Days or Less $180.00/yr. PURCHASE
Thawte SSL Web Server Wildcard OV 3 Days or Less $250.00/yr. PURCHASE
DigiCert Secure Site OV 3 Days or Less $290.00/yr. PURCHASE
GeoTrust True BusinessID Wildcard OV 3 Days or Less $290.00/yr. PURCHASE
DigiCert Secure Site Pro OV 5 Days or Less $770.00/yr. PURCHASE

Extended Validation Certificates:

Extended Validation (EV) SSL bears the supreme level in terms of authenticity, integrity, and security. EV checks the physical, legal, and operational existence of a business and offers the highest level of validation. Mostly financial, banking, eCommerce and government organizations prefer EV SSL certificate as such websites have a bunch of online transactions on their websites on a daily base.

Moreover, the website address bar will turn into green bar. The green address bar in Extended Validation SSL ensures that the website is original and legitimate as a result, visitors can easily identify it is not a phishing website. If we talk about EV SSL then, GeoTrust EV SSL and Comodo EV SSL are worthy option to secure the website.

Buy EV SSL Certificates

PRODUCT NAME TYPE SALE PRICE BUY / RENEW
Comodo EV SSL EV $65.00/yr. PURCHASE
Thawte SSL Web Server EV EV $145.00/yr. PURCHASE
GeoTrust True BusinessID EV EV $130.00/yr. PURCHASE
GeoTrust Multi Domain EV EV $325.00/yr. PURCHASE
GlobalSign ExtendedSSL EV $300.00/yr. PURCHASE
DigiCert Secure Site EV EV $770.00/yr. PURCHASE
DigiCert Secure Site Pro EV EV $1200.00/yr. PURCHASE

Code Signing Certificate:

Code Signing certificate adds the identity of an organization to the public and private key relates to Public key Infrastructure (PKI). An end user when downloads software will not face any unwanted publisher warning as well identifies publisher’s name.

The certificate ensures about code and content integrity that the software code once signed is not altered by any third person. Moreover, a timestamping feature is enabled to prevent code from being expired even the certificate itself is expired. Users will not get any type of warning while downloading a software.

Code Signing cert helps to increase the trust level and confidence of users as a result, more downloads will be expected.

Code Signing certificate can be of two types: standard and EV Code signing certificate that a developer or publisher can opt as per validation level.

PRODUCT NAME TYPE ISSUANCE TIME SALE PRICE BUY / RENEW
Comodo Code Signing certificate OV 3 Days or Less $210.00/yr. PURCHASE
DigiCert Code Signing certificate OV 3 Days or Less $369.67/yr. PURCHASE

Wildcard SSL Certificates:

Wildcard SSL certificates works on an asterisk (*) character and a dot (*) that come before the domain name. Wildcard SSL is fit for those businesses which run on unlimited subdomains of the main domain.

For example, *.yourwebsite.com as a primary domain can secure blog.yourwebsite.com, shop.yourwebsite.com, secure.yourwebsite.com, etc.

Wildcard SSL Certificate

Each byte that passes between two ends (browser>>server>>browser) will be encrypted with SHA-2- a modern algorithm standard. Wildcard certificate saves hard-earned money and eases certificate management.

Days are gone when you have to remember multiple renewal dates; wildcard here manages all subdomains under single protection. 

Product Name Type Cheapest Price Details
Comodo Positive SSL Wildcard DV $40.00/yr. Read More
Comodo Essential SSL Wildcard DV $28.00/yr. Read More
RapidSSL Wildcard SSL DV $65.00/yr. Read more
Thawte SSL Web Server Wildcard OV $250.00/yr. Read more
GeoTrust True BusinessID Wildcard OV $290.00/yr. Read more
GlobalSign Domain SSL Wildcard DV $350.00/yr. Read more

Multi domain SSL Certificates:

Multi domain SSL certificate, aka SAN/UCC SSL certificate, is a secure shield for a different level of multiple domains and subdomains. A single certificate provides encryption to create a secure tunnel for data transmission between the server and the browser.

The certificate is an ideal choice for QA testing environment, shared hosting, and medium and large organizations where a number of domains serve different purposes, and each domain requires strong encryption to save from data sniffing.

SAN/UCC SSL certificate is compatible with Microsoft Exchange servers and Office Communication Servers and work over mobile and desktop browsers competently.

Product Name Type Best Price Details
Comodo Positive SSL Multi Domain DV $15.00/yr. Read More
Comodo Exchange Server SSL (UCC) DV $80.00/yr. Read More
Comodo Positive SSL Multi-Domain Wildcard DV $80.00/yr. Read more
GeoTrust Multi Domain SSL OV $175.00/yr. Read more
GeoTrust Multi Domain EV EV $325.00/yr. Read more

Single-Domain SSL certificates:

Single domain SSL certificate or standard SSL certificate is an entry-level certificate where the validation process is fast compare to other types of certificates. Single domain SSL verifies domain ownership of an SSL requester by checking the WHOIS record.

There is no documents verification required during the validation process; hence, a certificate’s issuance takes a few minutes. Single domain SSL comes with a secure site seal that can be put on a website to assure visitors.

There will be no business information vetted, so; will show only encryption information in the browser.

Which SSL Certificate is right for you?

After going through the above types of SSL certificates, a thought may come into your mind that which SSL is suitable for your business. Your business needs will decide the choice of SSL certificate.

In the below points with examples will clear question regarding the right choice of SSL.

Easy Certificate Management: Apart from SSL certificate, the main part is simple and effective certificate management. Most legitimate certificate authorities like DigiCert, Comodo, Thawte, RapidSSL, and GeoTrust handle different certificate tasks ranging from certificate enrollment, issuance, reissuance, revocation, validation, etc. if an organization manually handles all its certificates, it would require hours of hard work and permanent employees to manage all certificate activities.

Affordable Price: If organization put emphasis on budget, then there are many SSL certificates starting from domain validation to wildcard SSL that may help the business with right security even at the lowest price. Compare to certificate authority prices, SSL resellers offer very cheap price on HTTPS certificates with the best customer support as a business gets generally from a direct certificate authority. CheapSSLShop is one of the best reseller of different SSL certificates that offers huge discount on different SSL certificates.

Vulnerability Assessment: Vulnerability assessment comes with HTTPS certificate that identifies, and alerts about website vulnerability. For example, Digicert offers vulnerability assessment with its SSL certificates. An organization can schedule weekly scan on web pages, applications, server software, and network ports. Malware scanning alerts the business when the site is infected with any critical vulnerability.

Highly Trusted Seal: Every SSL certificate bestows site seal that assures visitors and customers about website authenticity. If we talk about most trusted seal then Norton Secured Seal would come at first place. The Norton Secured seal is seen half a billion times per day on websites across 170 countries. There are 77% of consumers are familiar with this seal.

When a customer clicks on the Norton Secured Seal, he/she will see the information about the organization, the status of your malware scan, and HTTPS Certificate details.

Apart from Norton seal, there are other trusted seals like Thawte trusted seal, Comodo site seal, GlobalSign secure site seal, etc.

SSL Certificates by usage: SSL certificates can be varied by its usage just like: single domain SSL (to secure your single domain / blog), Wildcard SSL (to secure your sub-domains), UCC or SAN SSL (Secure Multiple Domains), EV SSL (Green Bar Security), SGC certificate (Protection on Old Browsers).

Additionally, if you want to secure software code, you can go with Code signing certificate.

Top Most Trusted SSL Certificate Authorities and Brands

CheapSSLShop is a global provider of legitimate SSL certificates of RapidSSL, GeoTrust, GlobalSign, Thawte, Digicert, and Comodo. You will get the same quality SSL certificates as you directly buy from these certificate authorities. CheapSSLShop offers huge discount on different types of SSL certificates that can please your pocket as well offers best customer support for any potential SSL related query.

Conclusion:

SSL certificate is an ideal protocol that has proved its authenticity in this current cyber world. Now, if you are ready to secure your website with SSL certificate, then there are types of SSL Certificate to select. If your mind is still puzzling with the choice of appropriate SSL certificate, feel free to contact our support team.

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