Every entrepreneur and every company that has a website must be secure. Every business is at risk from the increasing number of online attacks. Your reputation and brand depend on the security of your website. Customers are giving you sensitive information such as credit card numbers and credentials.

Customers are more likely to return to your site if there is a breach of their data or a loss of customer information. SSL certificates are a great solution. These certificates are an essential part of your online security system.

We’ll be introducing you to the top SSL certificate providers in this post so you can choose the best one for you.

What is an SSL Certificate?

SSL certificates allow you to encrypt or protect communication between your website and visitors. SSL is Secure Sockets Level. This is where the encryption comes in. These files contain small data files that protect a cryptographic key for a business’s credentials.

They are used to bind domain and server names as well as company data and locations. These certificates are used frequently on web pages that require sensitive information, such as passwords and payment information. You should ensure that you link to your login pages, payment pages, opt-in pages, and other pages.

These encryptions create a “lock”, which prevents others from accessing your online activity. This prevents hackers from reading credit card numbers, login credentials, and other information.

This type of secure browsing is essential for social media sites. It’s easy to identify websites with SSL when you browse the internet. A padlock will often be found next to a website’s URL. This indicates that it is secure.

When you visit the most well-known website such as Google, one should appear in your browser’s URL bar.

Any site that uses email servers or e-commerce sites, must have a valid SSL certificate in order to prove its identity. Any user can view the SSL certificate to verify the identity of the company.

Passwords, usernames, and SSL certificates protect users’ payment information. They also increase Google rankings and strengthen customer trust. Secure websites can increase conversion rates and help you improve your customers’ trust.

Installing the certificate on a website server is all that’s required to enable secure browsing sessions for visitors. After you have completed the installation, nobody can access the web traffic between your web browser and the server. You can also look at the URL to determine if the site is secure. Sites that are secure will have “https ://”” instead of “http ://”” at the beginning.

Consider these Things Before You Buy an SSL Certificate

Which level of validation should you choose?

There are three levels to SSL certificates. These indicate the visual clues that your site must provide to verify it is secure. These levels of validation include:

• Domain-validated (DV) SSL certificates: Provides basic protection with no visual cues or ties to your company. These certificates are great for people on a tight budget or with basic websites that don’t collect personal information.

• SSL Certificates Organization Validated (OV): Provides basic business verification for any company who requests the SSL certificate at an affordable price.

• Extended validation SSL certificates (EV SSL certificates): These offer the best visual cues and require highest levels of business verification.

What number of domains would you like to protect?

A single certificate can be purchased if you only need to protect one domain. Website owners must secure more than one domain, however, as is the case with most website owners. These domains can be divided into two types: subdomains and fully-qualified domains.

Wildcard SSL Certificate

With a single SSL certificate, Wildcard SSL certificates allow you to protect unlimited subdomains from the main domain. Wildcard SSL can be used to protect these domains:

• domain.com (main domain)
• mail.domain.com
• login.domain.com
• ftp.domain.com

Two benefits are provided by wildcard SSL certificates. It saves you the hassle of installing and purchasing individual certificates for each domain. You don’t have to go through the entire validation process to purchase an SSL certificate. This saves you a lot of time. It also saves money as you don’t have to pay for each SSL certificate.

Note: Wildcard certificates can be validated with two domain validations.

Multi-domain/ SAN SSL certificate

Multi-domain/SAN SSL certificates are available with gradation over Wildcard SSL certificates. This certificate is different from Wildcard SSL certificates in that it allows you to secure multiple fully-qualified domains with subdomains. If you want to protect more than one domain, you should consider SAN SSL certificates.

Time for issuance

Domain validation is best if you need the certificate issued quickly. OV SSL can take up to 2 days to issue. Because it requires a lot of scrutiny, the EV SSL can take around 2-4 days to be issued. The issuance process can take longer if there are any doubts on the CA’s part.

Guaranty Amount

There are different warranties offered for SSL certificates. The warranty amount will increase depending on the level of validation. The certificate authority will pay money back if there is a fraudulent accident. This should not happen, and almost never does. However, it’s better to be prepared.

8 Top SSL Certificate Providers You Can Trust

1. SSLs

SSLs.com is one of the most popular SSL certificate providers, targeting small-and-medium-sized websites providing comparatively low-priced SSL protection, dedicated support staff, and a 30-day money-back guarantee.

SSLs allow website visitors to see real-time verifications of their business credentials. They simply need to hover over the padlock.

This certificate offers high-end security with 2048 bit signatures as well as 256-bit encryption keys.

Pricing: The Personal SSL starts at $3/year and the eCommerce SSL certificate is $36/year.

2. SSL.com

SSL.com focuses exclusively on the sale and implementation of SSL certificates. This company is a highly-rated certificate authority and their impressive offering includes trusted SSL, unified communication, subject alternative names, and extended validation certificates.

SSL.com offers tiered certificates that can be used to attract large numbers of customers. They are available for small businesses who only require basic SSL, to large enterprises looking to license multiple domains and subdomains.

Pricing: SSL.com is $36/year

3. Trust

Entrust is a US-based company that has been in business since 1994. It has a reputation for being a smooth, efficient machine that creates certification easily and seamlessly.

Entrust was founded around a wide range of security products, including ID card printers and credit card printers, authentication system, and a private key infrastructure (PKI). One of Entrust’s most powerful products is SSL certificates. This certificate was created after significant investments in secure systems. Customers love that they can manage multiple certificates from one management console.

Entrust provides customer support via chat, email and phone. There are phone numbers for various countries.

Pricing: Entrust prices start at $174 per annum and go up to $608 per annum.

4. GlobalSign

GlobalSign, a Belgium-based certificate authority is one of the most favored certificate authorities for large companies. It offers the standard validation levels for wildcard and SAN variants.

Single domain certificates can be used to encrypt your website’s mail, owa, and subdomains. If you use one of these subdomains for your mailing address, this is extremely useful.

You also have unlimited access to server licenses and certificate renewals via the board. GlobalSign includes an SSL checker, daily malware scanning, phishing detection and a trust seal.

GlobalSign provides discount codes for SSL providers that transfer or upgrade to an EV level certificate. It is an excellent choice for larger organizations that require multiple certificates.

Pricing: GlobalSign’s pricing includes $249/year for Domain Validated, $349/year for Organization Validated and $599/year for Extended Validated.

5. SecureTrust

SecureTrust, a subsidiary TrustWave Holdings, is available. This provider focuses on OV certificates and EV certificates, which makes it more suitable for businesses. These OV/EV certificates come in five pricing tiers, which allow you to secure as many as 5,10, 20, 50 or 100 domains.

It is easy and straightforward for the provider to validate your domain ownership. First, you will need to verify your domain ownership by email. The company will then look up all information about you business.

SecureTrust support is available 24 hours a day via email, phone and live chat. You will receive prompt, accurate and helpful responses.

Pricing: SecureTrust SSL certificates start at $157.49 annually 

6. GeoTrust

GeoTrust was previously owned by VeriSign, Norton and now works as a subsidiary to DigiCert. The company specializes in three areas: SSL certificates, SSL and Signing Services for Enterprise Services.

GeoTrust is a great choice for SSL certification. It starts at the domain level and goes all the way to True BusinessID, which has EV certification.

GeoTrust SSL certificates are available in many industries and areas, including governmental organizations, healthcare institutions, and financial institutions. Although it takes some time for the authority to perform identity checks in Organization or Extended validation certificates, it’s worth it because it will protect your company against any security threats and phishing attacks as well as establish your identity over the internet.

GeoTrust also has 256-bit encryption and other features that will ensure the highest level of security for your website. The SSL certificate provider offers a warranty up to $1,000,000 and a 30-day return policy.

Pricing: The GeoTrust SSL Certificate’s cost ranges from $61.20/year to $330.37/year.

7. Thawte

Thawte has taken over 40% of the global market and is one of the best SSL certificate providers in the industry. DigiCert now owns the brand after a series of acquisitions that culminated with 2017’s success. Although its parent company focuses on large enterprise-level clients, Thawte’s solutions are primarily for medium-sized businesses as well as small enterprises.

The three products they offer are separated into three different types of warranties and customer assurance. You can purchase each one as a multiyear plan with up to 6 year validity, and a wildcard SSL certificate at an additional cost. Thawte issues certificates in three days. Basic plans take only minutes to set up.

Prices for SSL certificates from Thawte start at $149/year and go up to $344/year

8. Network Solutions

Networks Solutions was founded in 1979 and is one of the most well-known names in digital services. Although their role as SSL certificate provider has not been a major part of their brand, the low entry cost of their products has made them a viable option for small and medium-sized companies.

The company offers multi-year-term domain, extended, multiple-domain SSL certificates as well as wildcard and extended certificates. It is important to remember that the base price of the various packages does not allow for quick validation. This means that the process could take up to five days.

Pricing: Network Solutions SSL certificates start at $50.00/year and go up to $579.00/year. The Basic plan (Organizational validation) is the most popular package, at $124.50/year.

Summary

Before you can choose the best SSL certificate to protect your eCommerce website you must first identify what you are trying to protect.

Remember that an SSL is not only for domain protection, but also to protect your website and build trust with your users. Data theft could be a grave threat to your business. You, as an owner of an e-commerce website, must ensure that your customers’ data is protected at all costs.