What is a SSL certificate?

A SSL certificate provides a means of vouching for your web site's integrity and authenticity. If your site requires a secure section, you want people to know that they can trust it. This can be accomplished by installing a SSL certificate on the web server.

SSL certificates may be obtained in one of two ways. Your hosting company can create a certificate or one may purchased from a SSL certificate provider such as Equifax, Thawte, or VeriSign.

One of the main factors in the decision making process of whether to obtain a certificate from a provider is cost. Certificates obtained from a provider may range in price from $100 to $1000 per year. Certificates provided by your web hosting company can be created at no additional cost. In either case, the certificate is how visitors to your site are assured of thier security generally when submitting sensitive data to your site.

Another factor to consider when making a decision about which type of certificate to use on your site is the issue of what percentage of browsers are pre-configured to accept the site's assurances that your certificate is authentic. For many sites, this process is seamless. Certificates signed by a company such as VeriSign will almost always be excepted by any browser without any warning to the visitor.

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