Let’s Encrypt SSL certificates free for hosting customers

Let's Encrypt SSL certificatesIf you own a website and you plan to grow your audience or even keep your current visitors for longer, you have to get an SSL certificate for it. The well known in the hosting industry Secure Sockets Layer certificate has only recently become a must, since, as officially declared by Google, it is now a search engine ranking factor.What’s more, later this year, every non-HTTPS

What’s more, later this year, every non-HTTPS web page will get flagged by Google’s popular Chrome browser. The reasoning is that HTTPS offers a higher level of security compared to the obsolete HTTP for any visitor around the world.

Because of this and the vast demand of SSL certificates, SSL providers have decreased their prices and obtaining an SSL for your site is more affordable than ever.

On the other hand, you don’t really need to pay for your SSL, if you’re running a small to a mid-sized website. Thanks to a fantastic new international initiative by Let’s Encrypt you can apply for and receive an SSL certificate for free.

Needless to say, Let’s Encrypt SSL certificates are now present on our platform as well.

What is the Let’s Encrypt initiative?

Established on April 12, 2016, Let’s Encrypt is an open certificate authority (CA). It provides free digital x.509 certificates for website owners all around the world. As a result, the latter can enable HTTPS (SSL/TLS) for free.

The goal of Let’s Encrypt is the gradual creation of a secure and up-to-date world wide web.

There are several important traits that define the Let’s Encrypt SSL certificates.

They are available for free and are renewed automatically by the hosting provider. They rely on an open-source code with millions of active contributors, so any potential security holes are quickly patched.

Plus, all issued SSL Certificates are available publicly, to eliminate abuse or security breaches.

What is the difference between regular SSL certificates and Let’s Encrypt SSL certificates?

Provided that you can get a free of charge SSL certificate for your website, whether a personal blog, an online forum or a web store, you’re probably wondering ‘who would pay to get an SSL anymore’. However, the Let’s Encrypt SSLs and the commercial SSLs can co-exist without any conflict.

Here are all the major differences between Let’s Encrypt and commercial SSL certificates:
regular ssl vs lets encrypt ssl

Which kind of SSL certificate should you get?

You can use Let’s Encrypt or a commercial SSL for protecting your website and they’ll both offer you an identical level of security. There are other differences, however.

In case you need to protect a small to a mid-sized non-commercial website, such as a web blog or a photo gallery, there’s no need to consider commercial SSLs. Let’s Encrypt will do the very same job for you for free.

In case you own a web store or a large corporate website, a commercial SSL is the optimal solution, because it comes with a warranty.

That being said, commercial SSL certificates are currently very affordable. Obtaining one should not be a problem even if you have a tight budget. What’s more, they will remain affordable for some time, due to Google’s announcement that they’ve become a search engine ranking factor which resulted in a boost in SSL registrations.

Therefore you can easily afford to obtain an SSL from a trusted certificate authority.

How to get a Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate from the Hepsia Control Panel?

Go to the Hosted Domains section of the Hepsia Control Panel and press the Edit Host button. You can find it in the Actions column:

Let's Encrypt SSL edit host Hepsia Control Panel

After that, click on the SSL Certificates drop-down menu.

Left-click on the ‘Request Let’s Encrypt SSL’ option at the very bottom of the SSL options list.

Let's Encrypt SSL request certificate Hepsia Control Panel After that press Edit Host and wait for a couple of seconds for your certificate generation.

NOTE: You must select a shared SSL IP address or a dedicated IP address if such is available. You can do this from the IP Address drop-down menu.

You’re all done! Your Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate will be successfully installed for the domain name that you’ve selected.

Your domain will get the Let’s Encrypt icon in the SSL table:

Let's Encrypt SSL enabled Hepsia Control Panel

The last step is to redirect all traffic to the HTTPS version of your website. The fastest way to do that is with a simple .htaccess redirection:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{SERVER_PORT} 80
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://www.your_domain.com/$1 [R,L]

Remember that the Let’s Encrypt feature will not be visible and selectable if your domain is not hosted with us.

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Revolutionary by nature, the Let’s Encrypt free SSL certificate initiative has issued more than 24 million certificates since from its start in April 2016, until December 2016. It’s gradually turning the web into a safer place and it has enjoyed huge popularity. It managed to attract millions of participants who share their experience and give advice to everyone who’s interested.



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