In this post, I’m not going to convince you how important a website is these days. Being present online is essential. But what happens when the website already exists? Does it mean customers will start coming in droves? Unfortunately, reality looks different. A website itself is only the beginning of your path to gaining new customers. Performance, SEO, responsiveness, and promotion are key areas you need to take care of if you want to be visible to potential clients. The costs of maintaining and promoting a website are often only a small part of the budget that was spent on creating it. From my experience, many clients ignore these issues and overpay for services they do not actually need. I’m not going to describe every aspect of maintaining a website here /that will be covered in a separate post/. Today, I want to discuss SSL certificates — one of the simplest ways to save up to PLN 300 per year on a single domain.
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What exactly is an SSL certificate?
The first versions of SSL certificates appeared as early as 1994. They were created by Netscape to improve the security of data transmission on the Internet.
SSL is a kind of “secret code” between your website and the user’s computer. Thanks to it, data such as passwords, card numbers, or contact form details are encrypted, and nobody can see them while they travel from the website to the server and back.
SSL is most commonly associated with the HTTP protocol, meaning HTTPS, but it can also be used to secure many other protocols, including Telnet, SMTP, POP3, IMAP, or FTP, as these protocols themselves are not responsible for encrypting transmission.
Today, we generally distinguish three different classes of certification, which differ in the level of verification:
- DV (Domain Validation) — basic protection without verification of the entity’s data
- OV (Organization Validation) — with verification of the domain and the organization
- EV (Extended Validation) — with detailed verification of the applicant and the domain
As you can see, SSL certificates are not a new invention. It is difficult to say precisely when browsers started warning users about their absence, but a key moment for SSL development came in 2017, when Google Chrome version 56 began clearly marking websites without HTTPS as insecure. Today, websites without a certificate are practically unable to gain users’ trust. Additionally, a browser warning about an unsafe website scares users away — over 80% leave such a page — lowers the site’s credibility, and may prevent forms, payments, or login features from working properly.
Where do SSL certificates come from?
Today, due to the widespread use of certification, adding SSL to your domain is very simple. In many cases, we get it for free for 12 months when purchasing a domain. But what happens after a year, when it has to be renewed?
Let’s look at the offer of one of the largest and most popular hosting companies in Poland: a basic certificate with ECDSA P-384 encryption costs PLN 100 in promotion. The regular price is already PLN 250. However, if we wanted an option with subdomain protection, a Wildcard certificate, the cost would be around PLN 400. This offer, of course, applies to one domain. If there are several domains, such a certificate must be purchased for each of them. On top of that, we must add the cost of the domain itself, which according to the current price list of this provider, outside the promotional period, is around PLN 250.
Let’s imagine Mr. Jan, who runs a hair salon. Mr. Jan has a nice website where clients can book appointments and check opening hours, directions to the salon, additional information, and the contact form — that is, one email account. The domain, SSL certificate, and hosting were previously purchased as a package by the developer while creating the website. After about a year, the time came to renew the domain, hosting, and SSL certificate. Mr. Jan received an invoice from the provider for a total amount of around PLN 2,500 per year, of which PLN 250 was for the certificate and another PLN 250 for the domain.
The example described above is a very common situation among our clients. Changing hosting or moving to another, cheaper provider is possible, but it takes time. Often, when a client asks about it, it is already too late for migration in a way that would maintain continuity of the website and email service. The situation is different with SSL. In 95% of cases, we can replace the certificate with a free Let’s Encrypt certificate.
Let’s Encrypt is an excellent solution for simple websites, blogs, or non-profit projects. It is a service provided by Internet Security Research Group (ISRG). The main goal of the project was to make the costs of certificate management cheaper. It should be remembered, however, that Let’s Encrypt, unlike commercial providers, does not offer a financial guarantee in the event of encryption breaking, which may be important for online stores and companies processing large amounts of personal data.
Is it worth using a free Let’s Encrypt certificate?
It is definitely worth using a free Let’s Encrypt certificate if you run a simple website, blog, or non-profit project, do not process personal data on a large scale, and do not expect a financial guarantee in the event of encryption breaking. In such cases, Let’s Encrypt meets security requirements, significantly reduces website maintenance costs, and its implementation is quick and convenient.
Today, an SSL certificate is no longer an add-on — it is a necessity. Fortunately, you do not always have to pay for it. In many cases, free Let’s Encrypt is fully sufficient and allows you to avoid unnecessary costs.
So before you pay several hundred złoty per year for something you can have for free, it is worth checking what options you have.
If you want to know whether your website is already using a free SSL certificate, write to kontakt@weboowo.pl. We will check it for you free of charge and tell you how to recover up to PLN 300 per year on each domain.
