Forum Moderators: buckworks
Again, i could be wrong so if someone could let me know.. that price sure is right.
I also have used Comodo - more expensive and possibly better recognition, and I found great customer service over email. I think they have a more in-depth verification process.
Make sure your SSL Certificate Signing Request (CSR) uses your choice of WWW or NON-WWW. I made that mistake on this occasion, and had to go through the process twice.
Unfortunately, VeriSign is still the King of Compatibility.
There are just too many older browsers out there still to consider anything but the extremely overpriced VeriSign. Sure, it's a couple hundred bucks more than everyone else, but that's just a couple of sales per year. We tried one of the cheaper solutions but after the first time I heard that a customer called to place an order because their browser said our site was not secure, we went right back to VeriSign. I can't wait for the old browsers to join the graveyard, but they are not yet there. I figure that for every one person that calls in an order because of lack of compatibility, 20 other people just leave.Unfortunately, VeriSign is still the King of Compatibility.
Very true. I am using Thawte at the moment because of this. Otherwise I would have used the much cheaper solutions out there.
It really doesn't sound that great when you have a SSL issued by "GoDaddy". Most techsavy people are familiar with this name, but when I told my father about godaddy, he impression of this company was VERY negative.
I told my father about godaddy
The fact is Verisign is no longer the leader in marketshare, so if somebody has such an ancient browser, that they are getting a certificate warning, they are probably getting the same warning from over 60% of the websites out there.
In other words, the customer won't blame you, they will blame themselves.
The browser-compatibility problems are a myth. 98% of my visitors use a modern browser, and the other 2% have issues not specific to my site.
Verisign still exists because people still believe this browser compatibility issue. Verisign, Thwarte and GeoTrust has insignificant differences in browser compatibility, but with a factor of 5 to 10 in price.The fact is Verisign is no longer the leader in marketshare, so if somebody has such an ancient browser, that they are getting a certificate warning, they are probably getting the same warning from over 60% of the websites out there.
In other words, the customer won't blame you, they will blame themselves.
I disagree. Customer will not take responsiblity for security error messages caused by older browers. Most customers don't know better and will just shop elsewere to avoid the warnings.
These people have their head in the sand, they are not going to let a few security popups slow them down.
And even if it does, do you want this type of customer?
I don't like to admit it, but it's also a brand/image issue. VS has higher brand recognition (and therefore, to some extent, trust) than other companies. For many people, if they don't see the VS logo, they think the site is being cheap by using an "inferior" SSL. (Yes, SSL is SSL for the most part, but not in the minds of Joe Consumer.)
Remember that first impressions are important to consumers. Which salesman looks better to you- the one in the Brooks Brothers suit driving a new BMW or the one in an off-the-rack suit driving a 5 year-old Hyundai?
GeoTrust and Verisign have each been pushing that they are number #1 in the certificate market. I don't know who is right.
The one good thing to come out of this, is Verisign will need to lower it prices (even more than they have)to remain competitive, which is a good thing.
I think the best rule of thumb, is don't spend alot on a certificate when you first start out, incase your business does not pan out. If things are going strong,
then you can move to a name brand certificate, to tweek the conversion rate. When you get over a million in sales, go with Verisign to catch those few extra sales.
green address bar will be from high-assurrance certificates (certificate issued on company validation)
yellow address bar will be from low-assurance certificates (certificate issued on domain name)
red address bar will be from known fraudsters or phishing attacks)
You can imagine what a yellow address bar will do to your conversion rate over a green address bar.
So in a year or so, we will be arguing over high-assurance vs low assurance certificates, not the ssl provider.
