Do you need to buy an SSL certificate?
For most sites, the honest answer is no. Free SSL is built into almost every modern host and protects your visitors exactly as well as a paid certificate. Here’s the real breakdown — and how we help on the rare occasion you do need a paid one.
If your browser already shows a padlock, you’re done. That padlock is a working SSL certificate — almost certainly a free Let’s Encrypt one your host provisioned and auto-renews. You don’t need to buy anything, and anyone selling you a “required” SSL upgrade for a basic site is upselling you.
Why free SSL is enough for most sites
The encryption in a free certificate is identical to a paid one — same algorithms, same browser trust, same green padlock. Let’s Encrypt issues hundreds of millions of certificates a year, and modern hosts (Vercel, Netlify, Cloudflare, Hostinger, virtually every WordPress host) provision and renew them automatically with zero configuration.
So when a registrar pushes a $50–$300 “SSL upgrade” on a brochure site or small-business store, it’s usually selling you reassurance, not security. We’d rather just tell you that.
When a paid certificate does make sense
There are real cases for a commercial certificate — you’re paying for validation and coverage, not stronger encryption:
- Your verified company name on the certificate — Organization (OV) or Extended Validation (EV) certificates confirm your legal business identity. Common for banks, insurance, healthcare, and anyone whose customers expect that assurance.
- One certificate for many subdomains — a Wildcard certificate covers
*.yourdomain.com(shop, app, mail, docs…) under a single cert, which can be simpler to manage than many individual ones. - A specific requirement — a payment processor, enterprise partner, or auditor mandates a commercial certificate. (If someone’s contract says so, you need it.)
If you’re in one of those situations, we source the right Sectigo certificate (DV, Wildcard, OV, or EV), handle the validation, and install it for you — no wrestling with certificate signing requests on your end.
How we help
- We tell you the truth first. If free Let’s Encrypt covers you, we’ll say so — even though it means we don’t sell you anything.
- If you genuinely need a paid cert, we handle it end to end. Sourcing, validation, and installation, so you don’t touch a control panel.
- We point your DNS correctly either way, so the certificate actually applies to your live site.