I was asked the other day by a client why their SSL certificate cost more than $29.99 so I decide to explain the basic differences.

Let’s start off with what is a SSL certificate. A SSL (Secure Socket Layer) certificate is the standard security technology for creating an encrypted link between a Web server and a Web browser. It ensures that all data passed between the Web server and Web browser remains private and secured.

A SSL certificate contains the following information, the domain name which the certificate was issued for, the owner of the certificate, the physical location of the owner and the dates that the certificate is valid.

There are a large number of companies selling secure certificates and I think there are primarily 5 major providers.

* Entrust (Founded in 1994)
* Geotrust (A restarted company in 2001 that acquired the security business of Equifax)
* InstantSSL (Owned by Comodo and founded in 1998)
* Thawte (Founded in 1995 and purchased by Verisign in 1999)
* Verisign (Founded in 1995)

The difference between these companies are the types of certificates, the level of encryptions, the older browsers they support and how much transaction insurance they provide for the certificates.

So what type of certificate should you buy and who should you buy it from? Well that depends on your audience so I’m not going to endorse one or the other because there are different reasons why you would need a SSL certificate. As I go through the following reasons consider it as starting from the lowest encryption level to the highest or strongest. You would start out with users changing passwords, entering ordinary account information such as addresses, then move to credit card processing, and then finally financial services or requiring users to enter private information such as social security numbers.

This should give you a good start in deciding on what SSL certificate you will need.

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