• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

AreWeConnected.com

Custom WordPress Websites that Rock!

  • Home
  • About
    • Hire a Tech Dude!
    • Recommendations
    • Add your testimonial
  • WordPress
    • Custom WordPress Website Build
    • The Managed EVERYTHING Website!
    • Making your site “SECURE”
  • FAQ
    • Making Your Site SECURE
  • BLOG
    • Posts about WordPress
    • Guest Post and Comment Policy
  • Contact

Free SSL Certs

Wordpress · August 20, 2018

44
SHARES
FacebookTwitterSubscribe

If you haven’t figured it out yet, there’s almost always a cost to FREE, not necessarily a monetary cost but a cost none the less.

Free Advice usually isn’t the best advice – right?
Free TV (your local broadcast) comes with commercials – right?
Free WiFi usually comes with an ad screen from the provider, not to mention the packet sniffers trying to capture your online banking passwords – right?

Don’t even get me started on Free Candy – you know what they say, “fool me once…” 😉

scary clown

Which brings us to today’s topic:

SSL Certificates

SSL Certs are the backbone of making your site https. I’ve been writing a lot about that kind of stuff since Google publicly decided that they want all the web to be secure. While they are entitled to their opinion they also threw their weight at it – and when Google speaks, you should listen.

They announced that https was going to be a ranking signal – for those that are concerned about SEO, they are talking specifically to you!

Then they announced that their browsers were going to warn everyone that a site was UNSECURE before loading that page. Make no mistake. this time they were talking to ALL site owners.

I was nothing but excited when Let’s Encrypt first came out.  You see, depending on the type of SSL Cert you need they can cost a considerable amount of money. My SSL Cert costs me $150 a year.  Let’s Encrypt offers basic SSL Certs for FREE!

That’s great, right?
Truth be told yes it is. It really is.
Today, most hosting companies will offer a Free SSL when you start building your site. That’s great too.

So what’s the catch?

Most every SSL Cert out there is valid for a year. With some you can even buy 4 years worth at a time!

Purchasing options for SSL Certs

Not so with Let’s Encrypt. 

90 days on encryption

Now to be perfectly fair – they also make the automation of renewals possible (all of this stuff happens within your host, it’s not something you or I would do).

Why in the world would they do that?

From their website:

  1. They limit damage from key compromise and mis-issuance. Stolen keys and mis-issued certificates are valid for a shorter period of time.
  2. They encourage automation, which is absolutely essential for ease-of-use. If we’re going to move the entire Web to HTTPS, we can’t continue to expect system administrators to manually handle renewals. Once issuance and renewal are automated, shorter lifetimes won’t be any less convenient than longer ones.

They go on to say

We recommend that subscribers renew every sixty days.

Those are very good reasons. The problem is that automation sometimes isn’t automatic.

Recently I was working on a website we were developing. It had a free SSL CERT that was supposed to be automated.  Well, guess what?  Yup, the free SSL expired and guess what automatically did not happen?

For almost 5 days everyone was looking at the site like this:

When I say everyone I mean mostly me, the developer. The site wasn’t live yet, but with a bad SSL, everyone is blocked from getting your site. Luckily for us, the site was in development so few people actually saw the warning.

Can you imagine if this was your site and it was up and running – how would you feel?

To be fair – this wasn’t Let’s Encrypt’s fault it was the hosting company who’s automation didn’t do it’s thing the way it should. I have a few others who’s SSL Cert renewed just fine. I’d even say that you might never see this happen to your site using a FREE SSL CERT. But if you do there’s not much that you can do about it except wait for host to fix the issue – and that really sucks!

I’m currently working on making customer sites secure these days and if at all possible I’m recommending that they NOT go with FREE – at least not right now until the hosts get this all figured out.

I’ll use it for the sites that don’t matter much like my motorcycling blog but if it matters I’ll go with NON FREE for now – thanks.

AufRoad.com

Want to hire me to make your site SECURE? Just ask!

Photo by Robert Zunikoff on Unsplash

  • Author
  • Recent Posts
Mike Mueller
Connected?
Mike Mueller
VP of Happiness at AreWeConnected.com
A former professional hand model, Mike builds Custom WordPress Websites that rock!


He's an avid hockey fan, rides a mountain bike, sometimes rides a road bike, has a few motorcycles (he had a really fast one, bought a cool orange one, rode a really slow one, and now,a perfect "BDR Weapon"). If that isn't enough, he makes cheese and sourdough bread, loves strong beer and good red wine, and poorly plays the Mandolin.
Mike Mueller
Connected?
Latest posts by Mike Mueller (see all)
  • 8 Questions Your Web Developer Should Have Asked - April 27, 2021
  • Slack, Chat or Discord? - April 6, 2021
  • Unsplash Bought by Getty Images - March 30, 2021
44
SHARES
FacebookTwitterSubscribe
New Comment Policy:
If you see something, say something!
(shamelessly borrowed from Homeland Security but really, let's bring commenting on posts back!)

Filed Under: Wordpress

Previous Post: « There’s a storm coming
Next Post: 350 Words »

Primary Sidebar

Who runs this Pop Stand?

Mike Mueller
Mike@AreWeConnected.com
PH: (925) 456-4567

Connect

  • Facebook
  • Flickr
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • RSS
  • Tumblr
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Look, it’s Just a Newsletter!

  • While I might write a bunch, the newsletter is set to go out only on Wednesdays. That's it!  Just one day a week! Can you handle that?
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

FREE Downloads

Icon
1827Small Biz Websites Built so far…

Let's Build Yours!

Expert Google Workspace help

Get Started and then hire the right help!

Lighten up!

Search: (anything)

Sign In / Up

  • Account
  • Website Management Subscription
  • The Managed EVERYTHING Website!

DM me. Really!

Have a question about anything I do? DM me! Message @mikemueller

Who to host with?

It's the #1 question I'm asked - where to find inexpensive shared hosting. Here's who I recommend.
Data Servers are a HUGE drain on the power grid. Here's a host that sources 300% of it's power from Wind and Solar! On top of that, their service ROCKS!
Check out GreenGeeks

Need more power?

WPEngine has it!

Hacked?

Sucuri Security
Creative Commons License
This site was built, is hosted, and backed up, and maintained by Mike Mueller. AreWeConnected is about the open sharing of ideas without a hidden agenda. Assume any link on this site is an affiliate link, Clicking on affiliate links costs you nothing extra (probably saves you $) and helps support this site.
PRIVACY POLICY

MANAGE YOUR ACCOUNT

CHAT
...another Custom Wordpress Website by Mike Mueller Hi!