Obtain an SSL certificate for free and link it to your website in the easiest way

In this article, we explain to you the easiest ways to obtain a security certificate (SSL certificate) for free, and to install it and install it on your site correctly in order to secure users’ data and give them confidence in your site, as the sign that your site has obtained an SSL certificate in the user’s browser shows that their private data is secure. Obtaining a free SSL certificate from the hosting company Obtaining an SSL certificate through specialized companies that have ways to obtain a free SSL certificate There are many ways that enable you to obtain an SSL certificate for your website in a free way, but let us talk about the two easiest methods, which do not require a lot of technical skills from you to complete the connection process, either through the hosting company or through SSL service providers who provide this service for free. Note: We have previously talked in detail about explaining security certificates, their types, and their benefits to website owners in: The Comprehensive Guide to Security Certificates (SSL Certificates guide). This is in case you want to know all the technical information about how security certificates work and the extent of their benefits to website owners, but let us now talk about the ways to obtain the certificate and install it on your site for free.

1. Obtain a free SSL certificate from the hosting company. If you are about to purchase hosting for your website, you need to know before purchasing hosting whether the service provider provides you with an SSL certificate for free or not, as there are many hosting companies that provide SSL certificates integrated with the hosting plan that you subscribe to. Obtaining a security certificate in this way will save you a lot of time and effort later in searching for a company to purchase the certificate from, and then installing it yourself in a way that may be difficult for beginners. For example, the following image shows the shared hosting plans of one of the hosting companies, which you will notice that they provide a free SSL certificate with all the hosting plans available with the company (instead of paying $11.95 to purchase the certificate): After purchasing hosting from one of the companies that provides you with a free SSL certificate, you may find that the certificate was installed on the domain used to purchase the hosting, and now Your site's domain appears to begin with the word https in the browser's search bar, which means that the domain has activated the security certificate. Verifying the installation of the SSL certificate on your site's domain after purchasing hosting for your site and confirming that the company you purchased from is valid. The SSL certificate is supposed to be installed automatically without your intervention.

It may take a few hours for the automatic linking process to complete properly, but you can be sure that the security certificate is installed and activated correctly. You can verify that the certificate has been installed on your site by going to the hosting control panel (cPanel), and then you will find the icon for controlling and verifying the SSL certificate: After entering the icon for verifying the status of installing the SSL certificate, a data and certificate status window will open for you: As you can see, you will find the status of the SSL certificate and an explanation of whether it has been installed or not. You can also access the certificate information and view the renewal website.

If you find that the certificate is not activated, you can do a simple procedure by entering the control panel of your site's hosting account, and then entering the security and SSL settings, and you will find the SSL control bar that you can click on to activate the certificate: With the caveat that most of these companies provide you with an SSL certificate for free for the first site on the hosting, but if you want to obtain more than one certificate for more than one site, you will pay the value of the certificate for the rest of the sites, and some companies also provide the certificate with an annual subscription or a financial value that you pay once for a lifetime subscription. But in any case, this free option will be good for you in the beginning. 2. Obtaining a free SSL certificate from intermediary companies. In the first method, we talked about how to obtain a free SSL certificate integrated with your site hosting, but as you read, it is usually free for one year and for one site only. Therefore, if you want to obtain a security certificate for more than one site and for free for life, you can rely on some intermediary companies that provide you with the service for free.

In this explanation, we will rely on a famous company that provides free SSL certificates, which is SSL For Free, which provides you with obtaining the security certificate completely free of charge for a period of 3 months. Then, after the expiration of the period, you log into your account in the company and renew the certificate for another 3 months, also free of charge. In this way, you can obtain the certificate completely free of charge, but you will have to renew it from your account in the company for free every 3 months. Therefore, you will go to the official website SSL For Free, to write your domain name and then click on the green button (Create free SSL certificate). You will then be asked immediately to register a new account on the site by writing your email and password, then click on (Register). Immediately after that, you will be transferred to the window for installing and installing the SSL certificate for free through the installation window, in which you will find your domain name, and then click on Next step. After that, you will be asked to select the purchase plan, which begins. With the free plan, which enables you to obtain a security certificate for use on one domain only, you will be forced to log into your account with the company every 3 months and renew the certificate, and therefore we will select the free plan by clicking on (Select). As you can see above, you are required to take the step of verifying ownership of your domain. You will see 3 methods that you can choose from to confirm ownership of the domain. We advise you to choose the third method (HTTP File Upload), as it is easier. In this method, you download the activation file and then upload it to the hosting provider as shown.

First, you will download the proof of ownership file on your computer by clicking (Download Auth File), and make sure that you keep it on your computer with the same name without changing it. Then we will go to the hosting account and enter the hosting control panel (Cpanel), then go to the file manager. After that, you will find the option to create a new folder, New Folder, and then click on it to create a new path within the file manager: The Create a new folder window will appear in which you write the name of the folder you want to create inside the file manager, and here you will write the file name like this (well-known.), and then click on Create new folder in order to create a new folder with the name (well-known.) Then the folder will be created, and it is supposed You should find it inside the file manager with the name that we created. If you do not find the file in the file manager, you can go to Settings and a window will appear for you from which you can choose “Show hidden files” or Show hidden files: Now you will find the file that we created is located inside the file manager: The next step, you will enter the new well-known glory.

And you create another folder inside it called pki-validation in the same way we created the first folder: Enter the new folder pki-validation, to upload the proof of ownership file that you downloaded from the SLLFor Free website by clicking on the Upload file button. You will be redirected to the file upload window, to click on Select File, to upload the proof of ownership file from your computer to be placed in its designated path in this way. After you download the proof of ownership file within your site’s file manager, you will return again to your account in SSL For Free Company, at the step where we stopped to prove ownership, let us return again to the same screen and click on Next step after verifying domain ownership and clicking on next step, the files and codes for the domain’s SSL certificate will appear to you as follows: To take the final step, you must copy those codes and add them to the Cpanel control panel for hosting your site, by going to your site’s control panel Cpanel and entering SSLTLS: which allows you to control and install the SSL certificate, in which you click on manage SSl sites: After that, the page for installing the SSL certificate will open for you, in which you will be asked to specify the domain and then fill in some data, which is: Certificate: (CRT) Private Key (KEY) Certificate Authority Bundle: (CABUNDLE) for you to fill in the fields designated for it and the certificate will be installed and activated directly on your site. Of course, this data can be obtained from your account in SSL for Free, where you copy it and place it on the certificate installation page within your account on the hosting company as shown above, then after filling out the data you will click on Install certification. .. Then wait for about an hour and you will notice that the certificate has been installed successfully and the domain appears with the security encoding that begins with Https: And do not forget to monitor your account on the SSL for Free website to renew the certificate every three months, as we explained at the beginning of the article.

What is the difference between a free SSL certificate and a paid one?

Many website owners wonder about the difference between free SSL certificates and paid versions, and are free certificates considered insufficiently secure for the site? In short, we can say that all SSL certificates, whether free or paid, encrypt users’ communication data that is made through the site, but there are some paid certificates provided by many companies around the world that provide some features that are not available with free SSL certificate providers, the most prominent of which can be explained as follows: Free certificates provide a limited level of data encryption on the site’s domain, and can be used on small sites, personal blogs, and sites that do not send and receive sensitive data, while paid certificates provide many complex layers of encryption, and they also support technology. (OV), which is used as a higher layer in encrypting user data. In free certificates, some limited security precautions are available, as some data is encrypted without authenticating the site owner’s data, while in paid certificates, the site owner must prove his data and the site’s identity to provide high layers of security for visitors as well as site owners.

In free certificates, you are limited to the limited options provided to you by the service provider, as well as many of the procedures that you perform manually. However, in paid certificates, the characteristics differ based on the purchase plan, and the activation procedures are automated, with technical support options provided by the service provider. Also, one of the most famous features found in some reliable security certificates is that they display the name of the security company that secures users’ data. Therefore, as we have explained, how important it is to install an SSL certificate on your site in securing users’ data. Therefore, you need to obtain a security certificate, whether free or at a low cost, or security certificates that are higher in protection and more expensive, which may reach $1,000. However, you certainly only need a certificate that provides you with a degree of protection that suits the data that visitors share. For example, the data that personal blogs obtain differs from the data that online stores obtain. The free option is sufficient for you in some cases, but in any case, do not neglect this step to enhance the security of your site and gain the trust of users. Read also: Secure and protect WordPress websites from all vulnerabilities | Comprehensive guide