

Ask HN: Why HTTPs certificates cost at least 50$? - tbarbugli


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nodata
They don't.

If you want to pay for one it costs about ten bucks a year:
[https://www.gandi.net/ssl/grid](https://www.gandi.net/ssl/grid)

If instead you want a free cert:
[http://www.startssl.com/](http://www.startssl.com/)

~~~
tbarbugli
Well, if someone sells them for 100$ and startssl for free, there must be some
difference in terms of service right?

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samwillis
You can't use the Free StartSSL certificate for commercial websites.

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workhere-io
I can't seem to find that info on their page. Do you have a link?

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Patrick_Devine
It's funny, I was just asking myself the same question and was poking around
various sites to see what types of SSL certificate products were on offer. I
found this site: [http://www.sslshopper.com/article-top-10-ways-to-save-
money-...](http://www.sslshopper.com/article-top-10-ways-to-save-money-on-ssl-
certificates.html) as well as this page: [http://www.sslshopper.com/cheapest-
ev-ssl-certificates.html](http://www.sslshopper.com/cheapest-ev-ssl-
certificates.html)

Pretty much every large company uses VeriSign, which isn't cheap. Twitter,
Apple and PayPal all use EV certificates (which make the url bar go green)
from VeriSign which are between $1000 to $1500 each.

It kind of comes down to whether you want an EV cert or not. Certain sites are
cheap for non-EV certs (Like Comodo), and others offer cheap EV certs
(GeoTrust and DigiCert will sell you one for $300/year). The cheapest for
everything seems to be GoDaddy, but, I guess caveat emptor.

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casca
Comodo PositiveSSL: $9/year, works with all modern browsers and email clients:
[https://www.namecheap.com/security/ssl-
certificates/domain-v...](https://www.namecheap.com/security/ssl-
certificates/domain-validation.aspx)

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andyfleming
From my understanding, the prices vary usually because they are including
insurance up to a certain amount if things go wrong with the certificate.

SSLs.com (formerly cheapssls.com) has them for reasonable prices like this one
you can get for 5 bucks a year (which is ultimately issued by Comodo).

[http://www.ssls.com/comodo-ssl-
certificates/positivessl.html](http://www.ssls.com/comodo-ssl-
certificates/positivessl.html)

~~~
tbarbugli
what can go wrong with a certificate?

~~~
bmelton
They could be insecure, fraudulently generated, not recognized by a
substantial browser share, etc.

Google Comodo SSL fraud for a better picture.

