SSL Installation of 3rd Party Certificate | Bluehost Support
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SSL Installation of 3rd Party Certificate

The following article has intended for those using our Shared hosting services. If you are using our VPS or Dedicated hosting, then you should follow the steps in the article VPS or Dedicated Hosting - Installing an SSL Certificate for a Website.

You are able to use 3rd party SSL Certificates with your hosting service. This article will explain how-to generate the Key and CSR to be used in generating the SSL Certificate.

Please note that you will need a dedicated IP address before you are able to add an SSL Certificate to your account. You can add a dedicated IP address to your hosting service from the Addons section of your control panel.

Generate a Private Key

To generate a self-signed certificate, simply follow these instructions.

(Steps to Generate a Key):

  1. From within your cPanel, click on TLS/SSL Manager icon.
  2. Click on Generate, view, or delete your private keys.
  3. Under the Generate a New Key section, select Key Size 2048 or 1024.
  4. Press the Generate button.
  5. Your private key will be displayed. Click Return to SSL Manager.
  6. Back on the SSL Manager page, click on Generate, view, or delete SSL certificate signing requests.
  7. Enter the domain and the required information into the form.
  8. Press the Generate button.
  9. If you have entered valid information, you will be shown your Generated Private Key. (if it looks blank, click back and correct any information)

    The passphrase is a challenge password used by Apache (on our server) at startup to decrypt your SSL private key.

Create the Certificate Signing Request

Steps to Generate a CSR:

  1. On the SSL Manager page, click Generate, view, or delete SSL certificate signing requests.
  2. Enter the domain and the required information into the form.
  3. Press the Generate button.
  4. If you have entered valid information, you will be shown your CSR. (if it looks blank, click back and correct any information)
  5. Provide the CSR to the SSL vendor of your choice. They will exchange it for a CRT file.
  6. With the new CRT, return to SSL Manager and click the Generate, view, or delete SSL certificates.
  7. Paste in the provided CRT file or Browse your computer for the .crt file. Repeat for CA Bundle file, if received as well.
  8. Hit the Upload button.
  9. Contact us via Phone or Live Chat to request your KEY and CRT be installed on the server.

The KEY and the CRT will be required when we install your certificate on the server (and a CA Bundle if provided by the SSL vendor). Keeping a backup copy of each of these is recommended as they may be used for this particular domain name with any host.

If you need further assistance, feel free to contact us via Chat or Phone:

  • Chat Support - While on our website, you should see a CHAT bubble in the bottom right-hand corner of the page. Click anywhere on the bubble to begin a chat session.
  • Phone Support -
    • US: 888-401-4678
    • International: +1 801-765-9400

You may also refer to our Knowledge Base articles to help answer common questions and guide you through various setup, configuration, and troubleshooting steps.