By Mike on 20th Nov 2015
You might have guessed it would happen, but we'll tell you now: Domain validated SSL is soon going to be free from the large CAs. Domain validated (DV) certificates are produced for next to nothing – they don't require any identity checks – and their price has been heading downwards for years. StartCom have given out free DV SSL for years – officially only for non-profits, but in practice for anyone who asked. More recently Mozilla started Let's Encrypt, which provides domain validated SSL for free.
We haven't confirmed the others, but considering the market share of the two we've confirmed, it's fairly safe to say they'll follow suit.
Domain validated SSL will now be positioned by CAs as a minor loss leader for other security products, including EV certs, PKI management and analysis tools. This is going to be hard: the large CAs have a terrible reputation amongst web developers. We've also been told there's a chance they'll create a new brand to focus on the free products as a way of countering that.
Mike MacCana, founder at CertSimple.
An EV HTTPS certificate verifies the company behind your website. But getting verified is a slow painful process. CertSimple provides EV HTTPS certificates 40x faster than other vendors. We check your company registration, network details, physical address and flag common errors before you pay us, provide verification steps specific for your company, update in realtime during the process, and even check your infrastructure to help you set up HTTPS securely.
Verify your site now!