What Is An SSL Certificate? How Much Is An SSL Certificate?
Summary
An SSL Certificate is responsible for creating a secure communication between client and server.
What is an SSL Certificate
SSL is the Secure Socket Layer protocol which is responsible for creating secure communication between client and server. This is done by both server and client authentication and the negotiation of an encryption algorithm and cryptographic keys.
Internet users associate SSL with the padlock that appears in your browser's address bar when you enter the secure area of a website. They know to look for this before entering any personal or financial information online. If information is entered on an unsecured website, the data is transmitted from your computer to the web server un-encrypted and viewable in plain text. Anyone 'sniffing' packets on the network or on the internet can capture your information and use it fraudulently.
All Bluehost customers have a free shared SSL Certificate available through Let's Encrypt for all assigned and parked domains and subdomains. These should install and activate themselves. Please see How to activate a free SSL Certificate for more information on manually enabling your free certificates.
To utilize the SSL protocol with your domain, the Bluehost server needs to have a Private (non-shared) SSL Certificate installed specifically for your domain. This can only be done if your account has a Dedicated IP address. For information about purchasing a Dedicated IP address, please Click Here.
Please note, for Standard and Pro accounts, you can only have one Dedicated IP and one SSL Certificate. This is because you will have only one cPanel. For VPS, dedicated, and reseller accounts, you can have multiple Dedicated IP and SSL Certificates because you can create multiple cPanels within your account.
Once you have purchased a Dedicated IP for your Bluehost account, you may continue with one of the following knowledgebase articles:
- Purchase a Comodo trusted Private SSL Certificate via your Bluehost cPanel
- Generate a self-signed certificate via your Bluehost cPanel SSL/TLS Manager
- Purchase a trusted Private SSL Certificate through a 3rd party
Note: SSL Certificates are domain-specific. When renaming the main domain please be aware that the SSL Certificate for the old main domain will not work after the rename process. The new main domain name will require a new SSL Certificate.