Did the price of Verisign SSL certificates increase dramatically?

[budbiss]

I have never used Verisign before. I always hear people state how there certificates cost a whopping $300/year. Well, I just went on to look into getting one and its $995/year. Did the price go up or am I looking at the wrong item on their site?

[jay5r]

IMHO, the ones for $999 are overkill. The ones they have for $399 are still excellent.

[verisign.com...]

But you can buy a Thawte certificate for 1/2 the price - and Thawte is owned by Verisign...

[thawte.com...]

I regard Thawte as highly as Verisign, but I'm not sure if customers do or not. Chances are most customers don't even care.

[pageoneresults]

But you can buy a Thawte certificate for 1/2 the price - and Thawte is owned by Verisign.

You can also buy a Starfield Cert for 1/2 of the 1/2 the price. ;)

Chances are most customers don't even care

I'd agree with that statement. As long as the page is secure, that seems to satisfy most consumers. I have yet to have a visitor question the validity and/or integrity of an SSL Cert.

[budbiss]

I'm honestly only considering it to be able to display the Verisign name. We already belong to the BBB and display their logo on our site. I just want to do my best to let visitors know that we are legitamite. I too am not sure if the general public is aware of what Verisign is and will even notice it on the page. My hosting company offers what they call "server-wide SSL" for no extra charge; so I could just use that I suppose.

[budbiss]

Pageoneresults,
I am aware that Thawte was purchased by Verisign. I was thinking about going with them since it would be cheaper. I recognize Thawte, but I'm not so sure anyone else does. I'm thinking I will either try Verisign or just go with something very cheap.

[pageoneresults]

I've done a little bit of research in this area. I'm fortunate in that I have access to a corporate entity with over 60 employees and they are your "average" users.

I set up three different pages, all with the exact same content.

1. A perfect page. No errors and secure with a 128 bit SSL Cert.

2. The same page above that made a call to a file that was not at an https address.

3. The same page above at an http address.

The results? Page 1 was of course the winner. It passed all browser tests, etc.

Page 2 was a show stopper. Most of the users were scared to death of the IE warning thrown when calling an insecure file into a secure page. You know that popup dialog that you'll see when this occurs. Normally what has happened is there is a hard coded http request within the html. That won't work!

Page 3 was a mixed review. Some were more than willing to enter their personal information on an unsecure connection. A few knew that it wasn't safe. I asked them why and they said they were looking for the "padlock" icon in their IE status bar. A few (Firefox users) were looking for the address bar to turn yellow and the padlock icon to appear.

My conclusion was that people pay more attention to what their web browser is telling them as opposed to what is on the web page.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for promoting a secure website visibly. Just don't overdo it. I see some sites that are just inviting trouble. Those Hacker Safe logos are one. I can just picture a script kiddy taking pleasure in trying to hack into a hacker safe website. From my perspective, that worrys me as an advanced user as I know what the invitation may bring.

Verisign seals, Thawte seals, Starfield seals, etc. are nice little icons to have on your site. Just be sure you've covered all your bases and you've provided a secure environment for your user.

Remember, as a consumer, my biggest fear should be what happens to my data after it is submitted. Not necessarily during the submission process, but what happens after the fact. You know, those lost laptop stories? :)