Let's Encrypt Issues its 1 Billionth Certificate

[engine]

February 27, 2020 was a milestone for Let's Encrypt as that's when it issued its 1 billionth certificate.

One thing that’s different now is that the Web is much more encrypted than it was. In June of 2017 approximately 58% of page loads used HTTPS globally, 64% in the United States. Today 81% of page loads use HTTPS globally, and we’re at 91% in the United States! This is an incredible achievement. That’s a lot more privacy and security for everybody.

Another thing that’s different is that our organization has grown a bit, but not by much! In June of 2017 we were serving approximately 46M websites, and we did so with 11 full time staff and an annual budget of $2.61M. Today we serve nearly 192M websites with 13 full time staff and an annual budget of approximately $3.35M.

[letsencrypt.org...]

Earlier stories
Let's Encrypt Now In Public Beta:Anyone Can Get Free HTTPS Certificates [webmasterworld.com] Dec 4, 2015

[topr8]

not sure how they are counting them though, as they need to be renewed every 90 days - is a renewal counted as a new certificate i wonder?
having said that, i'm very happy with them - and once auto renew is set up all seems to be very smooth! so far anyway.
well done letsencrypt.

[Dimitri]

The proof that Let's encrypt is/was a big thing, is that today, it's considered something common and obvious. Congratulations!

[lammert]

Yes, I think a renewal is counted as one certificate because they mention serving 192M websites. That is a little bit more than five certificates per website which is roughly a year worth of certificates time per website.

[engine]

Yes, just to confirm, it's 1 billionth certificate, not sites. Even so, that's quite a feat, and key to it is making it work 100% of the time.

Clearly, a robust system in place.

[Dimitri]

Coincidence: back to that time, I was considering getting a TLS cert, honestly, I don't remember what was my motivation, so I've been looking around how it worked, and where to "buy" one, and Gandi.net was running a super special discount ,and I thought wow I am lucky, perfect timing! So I placed an order, but, their ordering system was down, with a "try later" message. The next day, when I opened my browser, to check Google news, the first headline (thank you "profiling") was about the opening of Let's Encrypt!