Many online retailers, banks, and the government will use a Secured Sockets Layer, or SSL on their website. There are many different ways to get a SSL certificate. There are many different types of SSL certificates to be able to get. There is a dedicated SSL certificate, a shared SSL certificate, a wildcard SSL certificate, and a free SSL certificate. We will discuss all 4 here.
A dedicated SSL certificate
A dedicated SSL certificate is assigned to only one domain name. So in order to have a dedicated SSL certificate you need to have a unique domain name. If you have more than one website you may not want a dedicated SSL certificate. You would need a dedicated SSL certificate for each website. So if you have more than one domain name you may want to look into getting a shared SSL certificate.
A shared SSL certificate
With a shared SSL certificate you can register all of your domain names with one SSL certificate. So, with a shared SSL certificate you can have more than one domain name that will work with the Secured Sockets Layer. If you have more than one domain name this may be more economical than a dedicated SSL certificate for each one. There is a hosting fee for each SSL certificate that you purchase.
A wildcard SSL certificate
This is kind of like the shared SSL certificate. If you have two website you can get a wildcard SSL certificate. The wildcard SSL certificate will allow you to register more than one domain name on the same wildcard SSL certificate. When you purchase a wildcard SSL certificate you may find that it is more economical than a shared SSL certificate.
A free SSL certificate
A free SSL certificate is just that free. However, you may find that a free SSL certificate is not right for your business. Sometimes the free SSL certificates do not work as well as the wildcard, dedicated, or shared SSL certificates. This may be because the free SSL certificate is not as secured as the wildcard, dedicated, or shared SSL certificate. So customers visiting your site when you have a free SSL certificate may be in jeopardy of having some of their important information stolen from your website.
You will find that all of these SSL certificates: the dedicated SSL certificate, the shared SSL certificate, the wildcard SSL certificate, and the free SSL certificate will work on your site. However, you will find that these SSL certificates do not work the same. When you get a SSL certificate you need to make sure that the SSL certificate to purchase is the right one for your business. If you need something totally secure like you are an online bank, PayPal, or eBay and you’ll want to get a dedicated SSL certificate. A dedicated SSL certificate is probably the most secure of all SSL certificates. So, whatever your business you need to make sure that you have the right SSL certificate for the type of business that you do.
