SSL certificate question for apache server with two subdomains.

[born2run]

Hi I have a single ip apache server and I'm setting up two subdomains test.example.com and www.example.com.

I intend to test my new site software on test.example.com and then in a few days rename my test to www site ie www.example.com.

My question is, to test the software with ssl can I buy two different ssl certs for each subdomain and then use only one for www.example.com ? I don't want to spend dough on wildcard domain as I'd would be deleting test.example.com in a week or so maybe less.

Please advise. Thanks!

[Peter_S]

Depending of your need, it's not mandatory to "buy" a certificate. You can get one free, for example at Let's encrypt (excepting if you need specific features).

If your test sub domain is only for you, you can use the www cert. You'll get a warning in your browser, but you can tell the browser to ignore the error.

You can also create a free certificate at Let's encrypt for the purpose of your test, (or self signed certificate, which will cause a warning in the browser, but which can be ignored too).

[keyplyr]

Lets Encrypt [letsencrypt.org]