Are all SSL Certificates the same? Overview of SSL Certificates

Selecting Right SSL Certificates for Website

Are all SSL certificates the same? Well, they are not all the same. There are three different SSL certificates available, like Domain Validation SSL (DV SSL), Business Validation SSL (OV SSL), and Extended Validation SSL (EV SSL). The advanced version is Wildcard and Multi-Domain SSL certificates. As per the functionality, all are the same.

All SSL certificates are developed to provide strong security and encryption. Choosing the certificate depends on the level of security the website needs.

What do you know about SSL Layer?

SSL layer validates your website from online shopping frauds and suspicious malware. It also protects your website from online transactions between browser and web hosting servers. However, organizations have another choice for stipulating SSL security for their businesses.

Due to increased online cheating cases day by day, every organization’s basic need is to secure its valuable data and website. Therefore, SSL certificates are in demand these days and every company insists on the best security.

As we know, each certificate has its priority and authentication process. However, for E-commerce websites, EV SSL works best. Although it comes on a pocket-friendly budget, there is no doubt about its encryption process and gives excellent results.

The ultimate solution to all these unethical practices is SSL certificates, which is a crucial step for your website and WordPress as well. Let us look at some features and benefits of all the certificates to be selected for the overall business.

Authentication

Authenticity is a must for any business and is also the best choice for security. SSL certificates provide authentication, which is very much required for any level of organization.

Trust

The most valuable thing which is earned with great difficulty is trust. Whenever a customer buys a certificate, they think of credibility and reliability. No doubt that SSL certification stands tall in the trust issues.

Read Also: Cyber Security Threats challenges.

Protection

The no-compromise benefit of SSL is a feature that is a powerful protection. SSL is the hero for its cryptography, therefore the hacker cannot make interfere with the internal aspects of your website.

Encryption

Besides, the other benefits, all SSL certificates encrypt data that is sent from a customer’s web browser to a company’s web server. However, encryption may vary from 128-bit to 256-bit. The higher the encryption rate, the better the security levels are.

Picking the Right SSL Certificate for Your Business Needs

For any business or Organizations, SSL Certificates are always a sound investment. However, by carefully analyzing what your business needs, you can always make a better choice. As there are many ways to classify SSL certificates.

• Free or paid
• Domain, company, or extended validation
• Single, multi, or wildcard domains

Before purchasing and installing an SSL certificate for your website, first, figure out what kind of SSL is right for you.

Free SSL Certificates

Free SSL Certificates come to the rescue when your business is still budding, and you can’t invest so much. In the free version, you can also secure the website effectively as the paid versions, however with few limitations.

However, some Certificate Authorities like Let’s Encrypt and Comodo give SSL certificates free SSL certificates.

Paid SSL Certificates

Paid SSL certificates are comprising other certificates available for use. The price of each paid SSL will depend on the Certificate Authority and which sort of certificate you require going with. However, as mentioned, using a free SSL certificate has limited constraints.

If you can afford it, or a company that needs a high-end SSL Certification can make the most use of it.

The following versions of paid SSL certificates will explain who should use this

Domain Validation SSL Certificate: (DV)

Domain Validation carries basic authentication and issues less than an hour. It doesn’t require paperwork; therefore, the user does not need to carry any documents to secure their website. Domain Validation is a hassle-free process.

• Domain Validation is the primary level certification having 2048-bit CSR encryption.
• Mostly used for non-e-commerce websites.

Organization Validation SSL Certificate: (OV)

• Organization Validation is the next step after Domain Validation. Here it’s a must submit useful documents to a certifying authority. Going through all the documents, CA will issue the required certificate to the firm or company.
• Organization validation offers great help for business. Eventually, Organization Validation for business organizations drives more traffic to your website, increasing the profits, too.
• The most business offers validation with SSL that are vigorous security. Of course, they will meet the industry standards too.
• An added advantage is when a user with the previous version of the web browser can also get protection for an online website.

Extended Validation SSL Certificate: (EV),

• The extended Validation certificate, however, proves to be the most reliable in the SSL certification process. This provides a full-length business authentication with deep-dive verification. Here, a green bar to show the customers the website’s authenticity.
• Extended Validation Certification provides an extension feature than regular validation. When compared to all certificates, EV stands. Another added feature of EV is it has phishing protection property. Most people will rely on this effortlessly.
• EV certification can secure your website’s confidential information with the help of strong encryption. Hence, the EV certificate offers full protection for the website with SGC featured technology, also protecting full-fledged against phishing and spamming.

Single Domain SSL Certificates

For the DV, OV, and EV SSL certificates, only a single domain name will be secured. For people who own a business website, single-domain SSL should be enough.

If you wish to buy one of those and next want to continue a sub-domain to it, then you need have to gain a new SSL certificate.

Wildcard Domain SSL Certificates

Coming to a wildcard domain SSL certificate will protect only one domain. However, the major difference between wildcard domain SSL and a single-domain SSL certificate is that the wildcard domain SSL protects all sub-domains which come under that website.

Read Also: Selecting the right web hosting server

Multi-Domain SSL Certificates

Finally, we have a multi-domain SSL certificate. This enables you to secure domain names from different businesses or hosting plans below the equivalent certificate. There are some use cases for these sorts of certificates. Namely, organizations that maintain various web properties and for web hosting clients on shared hosting accounts.

An Overview of the SSL Certificates Available

Certificate Type	Types of Sites	Features
Extended Validation (EV)	e-commerce Sites collecting personal info Sites where user trust is crucial	2048 bit encryption Green Bar at top-of-the-line Used by web hulks like Twitter, banks, etc. Mostly issued in 3-5 days
Organization Validation (OV)	e-commerce Sites collecting personal info	Verifies that the site is a registered government entity 128 bit, 256 bit, or 2048-bit encryption Mostly issued in about in a day
Domain Validation (DV)	Testing Sites Internal Sites Non-e-commerce Sites	Budget-friendly Almost issues immediately

Recap

Therefore, as mentioned above, all SSL Certificates, are the same. It depends on the organizations, which type of SSL they need.

As discussed, the major categories decide the level of cybersecurity you will offer to your website.

Each organization demands a different SSL, so decide proactively and be always alert and get ready to face the cybersecurity challenges by providing the best security to your website.