My last post was some time ago and outlined some of my frustrations with obtaining reasonably priced but universally trusted certificates. Some of the landscape has changed. Thawte has removed themselves from the free email certificate market and Comodo has taken their place. I am grateful that there is a rather new player in the SSL certificate arena that is offering a free one year trusted Class 1 certificate they are StartSSL.
Start SSL
http://www.startssl.com/?app=1
Instant SSL by Comodo
http://www.instantssl.com/ssl-certificate-products/free-email-certificate.html
Comodo
http://www.comodo.com/home/email-security/free-email-certificate.php
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Trusted SSL Certificates
First of all it should be easier to trust your own (self-signed) certificates. Also, I am tired of vendors calling trusted certificates "real certificates." Hello! Self-signed certificates are just as "real" as third-party signed and trusted certificates.
That being said, I am a big fan of the use of the cheapest possible trusted certificates.
Most of the time the purpose of an SSL certificate is to provide a means of encryption and authenticating the identity of the remote host. In these cases the cheapest but trusted certificate will meet the need.
I have used DigiCert, Thawte, and GeoTrust without any trust problems, but switched to GoDaddy a few years ago. They have consistently offered standard SSL certificates for less than $20 a year & sometimes for as low as $13 a year, but in the last 6 to 12 months they have raised their prices to nearly $30 a year. I did find that if I Googled for "cheap SSL certificates" GoDaddy would come up with an ad for "$12.99 GoDaddy SSL" but for new certificates only.
Here is the link from my last search...
http://www.google.com/aclk?sa=L&ai=CpCDFz8PbStjIF5XkM8LFpZ8M96WpOeuPmdgKn562kQEIABABKANQlcu3jPr_____AWDJxo-I8KPsEsgBAaoEGk_Q2IJX64AaE9U1-AIVlzsRGgV0fmnZnS9F&ggladgrp=1174843342691415765&gglcreat=1370727012606670170&sig=AGiWqtyRg6DkgkPx4lC01-Yfaa01hDzcvw&q=http://www.godaddy.com/gdshop/ssl/ssl.asp%3Fisc%3Dsslqgo008b
On the other hand, just a few weeks ago I purchased my first certificate from http://www.ksoftware.net/ssl_certs.html. They are offering COMODO signed certificates for less than $19 a year. Over the long haul they may end up taking my business away from GoDaddy.
All of this makes me seriously consider getting into the discount certificate business. This is especially true when I recently learned that the end is at hand for the Thawte Personal E-mail Certificates and their Web of Trust infrastructure.
Finally, I would love to see vendors make the use of SSL and other certificates a user friendly practice. There are just too many variations on the same theme - little documentation, no predictable implementation of industry best practices, and no consistent definition of terms.
That being said, I am a big fan of the use of the cheapest possible trusted certificates.
Most of the time the purpose of an SSL certificate is to provide a means of encryption and authenticating the identity of the remote host. In these cases the cheapest but trusted certificate will meet the need.
I have used DigiCert, Thawte, and GeoTrust without any trust problems, but switched to GoDaddy a few years ago. They have consistently offered standard SSL certificates for less than $20 a year & sometimes for as low as $13 a year, but in the last 6 to 12 months they have raised their prices to nearly $30 a year. I did find that if I Googled for "cheap SSL certificates" GoDaddy would come up with an ad for "$12.99 GoDaddy SSL" but for new certificates only.
Here is the link from my last search...
http://www.google.com/aclk?sa=L&ai=CpCDFz8PbStjIF5XkM8LFpZ8M96WpOeuPmdgKn562kQEIABABKANQlcu3jPr_____AWDJxo-I8KPsEsgBAaoEGk_Q2IJX64AaE9U1-AIVlzsRGgV0fmnZnS9F&ggladgrp=1174843342691415765&gglcreat=1370727012606670170&sig=AGiWqtyRg6DkgkPx4lC01-Yfaa01hDzcvw&q=http://www.godaddy.com/gdshop/ssl/ssl.asp%3Fisc%3Dsslqgo008b
On the other hand, just a few weeks ago I purchased my first certificate from http://www.ksoftware.net/ssl_certs.html. They are offering COMODO signed certificates for less than $19 a year. Over the long haul they may end up taking my business away from GoDaddy.
All of this makes me seriously consider getting into the discount certificate business. This is especially true when I recently learned that the end is at hand for the Thawte Personal E-mail Certificates and their Web of Trust infrastructure.
Finally, I would love to see vendors make the use of SSL and other certificates a user friendly practice. There are just too many variations on the same theme - little documentation, no predictable implementation of industry best practices, and no consistent definition of terms.
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