How To Get an SSL Certificate in 5 Steps (2025 Guide)

Here’s the short, short version: An SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificate is a set of files including unique identifiers and encryption keys that say, “This website can be trusted.” With SSL encryption, users can access your site via HTTPS, a data protocol that encrypts all traffic to and from your website.

An SSL certificate signals that your site is secure and that your visitors’ data is protected when they are engaging with your website. SSL certificates also help your site rank in search results, thereby enhancing its discoverability.

The easiest way to get an SSL certificate is to subscribe to a web hosting plan that includes one for free, or has a control panel that generates free SSL certificates from services, like Let’s Encrypt — one step and you’re done.

However, paid SSL certificates offer stronger encryption and greater trust in the systems that handle this type of security. For business — and sometimes compliance — reasons, you may want to buy a long-term SSL certificate from a well-known certificate authority (CA). Luckily, while this process is more involved, it’s still easy.

Here’s how to get an SSL certificate in 5 simple steps.

How to get an SSL certificate in 5 steps

This might sound like a technical process — and it certainly can be, if you approach it that way — but setting up an SSL certificate on your website is fairly straightforward.

1. Choose an SSL provider

Certificate authorities come in all shapes and sizes. For starters, there are dedicated SSL providers, like DigiCert. The service isn’t what you’d call cheap. DigiCert’s cheapest plan starts at $27/mo, but the company is well known and trusted, which matters a lot for security products. For more affordable options, you can buy certificates from domain registrars, like NameCheap.

Web hosting companies like Bluehost offer paid, extra-fancy SSL certificates in addition to the Let’s Encrypt SSL certificates that you can get for free. If you buy your certificate from a web hosting provider, it typically offers the option to have the certificate installed for you.

2. Generate a Certificate Signing Request (CSR)

A Certificate Signing Request (CSR) is a file that includes your personal, business information, or organization details, as well as the information of the domain name/server that you want the SSL certificate for, and a private key for encryption.

Ensure that your business information is accurate before creating this request. Every web host manages it differently, but most have an option in their dashboard or control panel to generate a CSR for you. If they don’t, ask your web host’s support team for help.

3. Submit the CSR and validate your domain

When you buy your certificate, you’ll need to upload your CSR file. But, before you can get your certificate, you’ll need to validate your domain.

This means that if you want a high-trust SSL certificate, you’ll need to submit additional information. Depending on the type of certificate you need, additional verification might be necessary.

For example, Organization Validation certificates require legal proof that your business is real, and you’ll need to be prepared to receive a verification phone call.

For Extended Validation certificates, you’ll need to provide a lot of personal documentation — such as your passport or driver’s licence, credit card information, or birth certificate — and you might even need to undergo a background check.

These processes can also include:

• Email validation, where you must respond to an email set to your domain
• File validation, in which you’ll upload a small text file to your server
• DNS validation that requires you to add a special DNS record proving you own the domain

4. Install the SSL certificate on your server

Once you have your certificate file, you’ll need to actually put it on your server. Most web host dashboards and control panels let you upload your certificate files. Some providers, like CloudPanel, let you copy and paste their contents into the UI.

5. Set up HTTPS configuration

The biggest difference between regular HTTP and HTTPS connections is that HTTPS uses secure encryption. If you can still access your site when typing HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) instead of HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) before the URL, it’s time to change that.

Once again, your web host's control panel can come in handy, as most offer the option to automatically redirect all links that start with http:// to https://. But just in case, it's a good idea to change all the old internal links on your site to HTTPS to ensure every connection to your site is secure.

Types of SSL certificates

Let’s quickly go over your SSL certificate options as a website owner, as not all SSL certificates are created equal.

• Extended Validation (EV): These are the most secure and expensive certificates, which require the most rigorous validation process. They’re meant for large companies, government agencies, and other entities that require the best of the best.
• Organization Validation (OV): OV certificates are slightly less expensive and are generally intended for businesses that need to keep their customer data secure. Validation is also a bit easier than it is for their EV counterparts..
• Domain Validation (DV): These are the cheap or free domains that only require proof of domain ownership. Let’s Encrypt and other automatically generated free SSL certificates fall into this category, and they’re perfectly functional for personal and informational sites.
• Self-signed certificates: SSL certificates you can generate yourself. They are mostly intended for internal networks and development and are not ideal for professional business websites.

Why having an SSL certificate matters

Here are all the main ways that SSL certificates make life better for users, and the ways they benefit any online business:

• Protects sensitive customer data. SSL certificates enable HTTPS connections, which encrypt all traffic between you and your users’ devices. For example, SSL certificates help prevent man-in-the-middle attacks.
• Establishes trust. Having a secure site makes your site more trustworthy and credible in customers’ eyes. In some industries, like banking, it’s a compliance requirement.
• Improves SEO. Google and other search engines rank websites higher when they have SSL/HTTPS enabled, so web users are more likely to find your site.
• Essential for other website features. All modern web browsers display a warning screen on sites that don’t have SSL certificates, calling them unsafe. If you have an ecommerce website, your payment processor likely requires this security measure.

FAQs

Bottom line

See? I wasn’t kidding. It’s really not too hard. Just choose your provider, get your CSR in order, and keep an eye out for the validation email or phone call. Then, install the certificate and go.

What you get in return — the better website security, better search rankings, and making a better impression on your customers — is completely worth it.

But it’s understandable if you don’t want to bother manually generating and installing your own certificate. So don’t. The best choice for most people is just to find a web hosting provider, like Bluehost or IONOS, that automatically includes a free or paid SSL certificate in its plans.