Cheap vs. Expensive SSL Certificates Price War – Which One Should I Buy?

Deciding between Cheap Vs Expensive SSL Certificates? – You should Choose SSL Certificates as per your requirements and from an authorized re-seller who give great discount on price.

A few days before, I came through an interesting debate on Cheap SSL certificate verses Expensive SSL certificate. As the discussion went long enough and received several opinions. Being a part of SSL2BUY family, this discussion inspires me to focus on this subject. SSL2BUY is a company that plays a global role in providing diversified SSL certificates at affordable prices.

Before digging deep, let me explain in brief about SSL certificate. The SSL certificate is a modern and an innovative encrypted technology that encodes online information with vigorous encryption, keeps prying eyes, data lose away from your data.

It is false that all certificates carry equal value. For example, there is a huge difference between $10 and $1200/yr SSL certificate. Very few out there know about the validation types that defines the authenticity and verification level of an SSL certificate. The validation type matters a lot when buying SSL security therefore, the price varies from certificate to certificate.

Types of SSL Certificate Validation:

When you talk about SSL certificate, there are mainly three types of validations: domain validation, business validation and extended validation. All these vary according to their verification process and prices.

Domain Validation

Domain Validation is a primary level of authentication as it verifies the ownership of the domain name. The certificate requester must have a generic email address to prove the control over the domain. The CA possibly will check the WHOIS record of a domain name to confirm contact information. Learn more about the domain validation process.

Such certificate can be issued in a few minutes and are low priced certificate hence; the website owner can start to protect their customers immediately. However, domain SSL carries the same encryption strength, but due to primary authentication, such certificate is ideal for newbie or start ups. If you want a low priced SSL, then domain validation certificate will be the best choice for you.

Figure 1: When you purchase domain validation certificate that will not show the organization name in the certificate details, because it only authenticates your domain name. 

Organization Validation:

If you want to go ahead in class of validation, then the organization validation certificate is on the second position, which requires verification of business identity by the CA. The certificate authority confirms that the website is an authenticate business before issuing the certificate. It requires a thorough validation procedure; include examining the applicant’s business papers (such as the Articles of Incorporation) and affirming the correctness of its physical and Web addresses. Such certificate requires a few days of issuance and is pricy compared to domain validation. Learn more about the organization validation process.

The organization validation certificate is the best option for businesses carrying online transactions and accepting sensitive data. This certificate is ideal for small and medium business enterprises so if you want robust encryption and want to establish the identity of your business over the web at a moderate price, then the organization validation certificate is an ideal choice.

Figure 2: Once organization validation certificate is installed on your website that will display business name and location in the certificate details. 

Extended Validation:

Extended Validation (EV) carries the highest validation hence; it turns the browser into a green address bar that offers customers and visitors to click on it to see the details of a verified organization and certificate. Extended Validation requires a vigorous validation compared to other types of validations like domain and business validation. The detail process prescribed by the CA/Browser forum indicates that such certificate is valid for certain organizations, government agencies, sole proprietorship, and general partnerships. The authentication process includes verification of official government records, non-government data source, documents related to operational existence. Learn more about the Extended Validation Process.

Extended Validation certificate carries the same encryption with extended validation hence, it is ideal for businesses where financial transactions and sensitive information is carried out. Therefore, if you are financial institutions, e-commerce websites, then extended validation is the best option. EV SSL Certificate helps to protect against phishing attack and enhance web conversion.

Figure 3: Due to strict verification process Extended Validation certificate enable green bar in the browser and will exhibit organization name, unit and business address in the certificate details. 

Some Myths about SSL:

Many people perceive that there are some features like warranty amount, browser compatibility plays vital role in SSL certificate prices, which is not quite correct.

Even the warranty amount offered for different SSL certificates also varies which protects users against mis-issuance of the certificate. It is undoubtedly that all certificates carry the same SHA-2 algorithms and has more than 99% browser compatibility, but the main difference is certificate validation, which decides the certificate level.

SSL Price War

As explained earlier, the SSL certificates price mostly depends upon the validation process and the reputation of the certificate authority. You will find the huge price difference between different providers also depending upon different value added services such as vulnerability assessment, daily malware scans, phishing detection, seal-in-search, and others. Here you need to understand your requirement first and then choose the product.

Huge price difference between a CA and Re-seller

This is a very important point! You will find the huge price difference between a certificate authority and re-sellers for the same certificate. The main reason behind this price difference is; huge purchase that is being made by authorized re-sellers. There is no harm purchasing from re-sellers as you will not only get huge discount but also will get instant support while installing your SSL certificate.

Conclusion:

The SSL certificate industry is very competitive and there are numbers of certificate authorities offering same type of SSL at different price range. Here I strongly recommend buying an SSL certificate from an authorized re-seller who is authorized to resell the same certificate at highly discounted prices.