FREE SSL on Dreamhost meets a specific need.
There has been an increasing need for website owners to switch from HTTP to HTTPS status and acquire an SSL certificate. Google has penalized the HTTP sites (sort of) by displaying a Not Secure warning in the address bar when navigating to such sites. Around 90% of the Top 100 Global Websites are now HTTPS-enabled, which indicates that businesses that want long-term success in the field are seriously transitioning from HTTP to HTTPS.
Many small businesses, emerging bloggers, and start-ups are still using HTTP sites. There may be many reasons for this, of which cost might be a contributing factor. Unfamiliarity with the process of installing a FREE certificate may be a factor as well.
There are free Security Certificates out there for budget-conscious website owners. These “Certs,” as they are referred to, require that you manually install the Security Certificate on your website. However, the process can be confusing at times and a bit daunting for the inexperienced user. Even less palatable, the process must be repeated every 90 days, which can become very inconvenient and annoying to the end-user.
Enter FREE SSL on Dreamhost, my go-to website hosting platform. They offer FREE SSL Certificates and provide their auto-install feature for the FREE and Paid version of SSL. I recommend the VPS Basic. It is cost-effective, fast, and reliable. They have other options such as Shared Starter, Dedicated Server, and DreamPress, their version of “Managed WordPress.” I tend to stick to the VPS Basic, which works for me. I have more than a dozen websites installed on it with no noticeable effect on the server.
The paid SSL SECTIGO DV CERTIFICATE is only $15 per year. I used it for a small eCommerce site recently with excellent results. If you are looking for a FREE SSL and want to avoid the hassle of manually installing it every 90 days, consider hosting your new website on Dreamhost VPN. It’s a fast, reliable alternative that I use personally, with automatic FREE SSL from Let’s Encrypt.