SSL Certificate Pricing

cheap SSL Certificates

[harrydom]

I've noticed that Versign is selling SSL certificates for $349, but other sites are selling them for $60 or so.

What's the advantage to buying from Verisign?

[fathom]

hmmm... their "brand".

[Clark]

I think this whole ssl thing is a scam. Go with the cheapest. The public has no clue how this all works anyways and will not likely to not shop with you because they don't like the company you bought your cert from. 90% of those SSL hosts will send out the credit card info via unsecure email anyways but if they have SSL, they look like they're secure.

You can also use self-signing cert if money is an issue for you.

[smackman]

One thing to keep in mind is to make sure that whoever you choose is supported by all the popular browsers. You don't want to end up with the warning window popping up because someone isn't supported. People do assume if that happens that the site is thus unsecure. This will also happen if you roll your own certificate. I've used Thawte in the past (which is since been acquired by Verisign), but they are still about half the price of Verisign. I would think most reputable companies would have a link somewhere on their site showing which browsers have their root certificates embedded in so that you won't get the warning box if you have one of theirs.

[amznVibe]

these two charts might help you decide on a lower cost SSL certificate
(but keep in mind it's from a provider that sells certs so its biased a little)

[whichssl.com...]
[whichssl.com...]

[Clark]

Whose certs does that provider sell?

So bottomn line it boils down to this, you need free ssl, but don't care about netscape, go with freessl=88% penetration.

Cheap but includes netscape and 99.3% of internet, go with comodo. If you care also about the few users on ie 4.0 go with thawte and verisign.

[amznVibe]

Domain Name: WHICHSSL.COM

Administrative Contact:
Abdulhayoglu, Melih [e-mail]
Comodo Research Lab Ltd

Doesn't mean the charts are wrong, just means you need to understand its not independent advise.
We've gotta cut the cord on the Netscape 4.x folks by 2004, they cost so much time and money for such a tiny minority.

[fathom]

We've gotta cut the cord on the Netscape 4.x folks by 2004, they cost so much time and money for such a tiny minority.

yup... a little like holding on to those bell-bottom jeans because they might make a comeback.

Target markets is your most profitable markets, not the least.

[Clark]

ah well done. Hahaha. Steve, the charts definitely looked like an ad for comodo but what a stupid way to advertise. At least get another name on whois before you do that!

Netscape 4? who cares :)

What happens to them, it pops up a box but still works right?

[harrydom]

Thanks for your great posts. Here's the stats my log file analyzer came up with for hits on my site:

IE 6.x 46.0%
IE 5.x 32.7%
IE 4.x 1.2%
Nav 6.x 3.1%
Nav 4.x 4.2%
Nav 3.x 1.7%
Nav 2.x 0.8%
AOL 6.x 0.5%
Opera 0.3%
Other 9.6%

[amznVibe]

Your stats for ancient browsers seem much higher than typical. I am curious what geographic and market/product your site targets (don't post your own site's URL here, only stickymail if you wish) The NS 3.0 and 2.0 percentage just blows my mind. Who on earth is using them. Unless you are testing your own site in older versions for compatibility?

regardless of the caution statements, I find this chart more realistic [upsdell.com...]

[harrydom]

My site is a stock market site targeted mostly to individual investors. The stats I listed were for December 5, 2002 to Jan 29.

Here is the visitor breakdown for the top 10 countries:

U.S. 27155
Canada 1039
United Kingdom 586
Australia 268
Singapore 168
France 144
Germany 138
India 128
Italy 125
China 102

[amznVibe]

facinating... well maybe they are coming from China with ancient hardware but that may just be a bad guess on my part... NS2 + NS3 would be nearly impossible for me to support on my sites... NS4 is hard enough and too much work... I guess just give them an opportunity to view the data without SSL or a way to upgrade to a browser than will run on very old hardware like Opera 6 perhaps

[hobbnet]

When we got our certification through Verisign they tried to sell us the upgraded 128 bit encryption for a ton more money. We ended up declining but when we set up our secure space we got the 128bit encryption. So yea, don't pay more for the 128bit ;)

[gleeloyd]

For $49 I just bought a 128-bit Equifax cert through rackshack.com. I think they call it "Quick SSL". The application process is all automated but, but fairly involved. $49/year thereafer. Works fantastic - even with Opera! Shoppers don't care as long as they don't get any ugliness while they are in the checkout process!

Try it!
Gary