SSL, short for Secure Sockets Layer, is a protocol to secure Internet communication. Free SSL hosting refers to the web hosting services that offer free SSL certificates and installation on their hosting packages.
Below you will find a list of hosting providers offering Free SSL hosting packages:
| Hosting | Editor Rating | Visit Host | |
|---|---|---|---|
 | A2Hosting | 4.4 | Visit Host |
 | DreamHost | 4.3 | Visit Host |
 | JustHost | 4.3 | Visit Host |
 | BlueHost | 4.4 | Visit Host |
 | SiteGround | 4.6 | Visit Host |
 | HostGator | 4.2 | Visit Host |
 | InterServer | 4.5 | Visit Host |
 | FastComet | 4.7 | Visit Host |
 | TMDHosting | 4.5 | Visit Host |
 | IdeaHost | 3.9 | Visit Host |
 | HostMetro | 3.1 | Visit Host |
Free SSL Hosting
SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layers. This is a protocol used to secure internet communication. Free SSL hosting refers to a web hosting service that offers free SSL protection on their hosting servers and certificate installation. It’s become commonplace for online stores to be protected by secure SSL certificates. In the absence of that, customers are highly likely to terminate online orders since online safety is very important.
Some of the benefits you would experience should you choose free SSL hosting to include great reliability and fast servers. To whet your appetite further, here are a few more features to expect from free SSL hosting:
Ease
With free SSL hosting, you get a shared SSL certificate. On the other hand, a dedicated SSL on a website requires you to have a SSL certificate that identifies you and it must be installed on your server. On top of that, a shared SSL certificate doesn’t require extra configuration like a dedicated SSL certificate would require.
What’s more, dedicated SSL certificates are not cheap with the minimum costing around $150 a year and the most expensive being $1000. On the other hand, you need not worry about these costs once you use free SSL hosting.
Rankings
In late 2014, Google upped the ante and introduced new rules for website rankings. Among the new rules was websites that had SSL’s would be ranked higher on search results compared to ones that didn’t.
It’s, therefore, important for you to get free SSL hosting. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out the higher you’re ranked on search results the better prospects you have of garnering new clients and visitors to your site.
Support
With free SSL hosting, you get support from your host. The support is basic and mainly meant to help you in case the site crashes or goes down.
Experience
In case you’re a newbie in the computer world, free SSL hosting will give you valuable insight into the encryption and hosting industry. Should you decide to move to a paid hosting service you’ll know what to look out for before joining a particular host. You’ll also be able to identify bargain deals.
Commitment
With free SSL hosting, you are not tied to a contract. This means that should you feel your host is misusing you or is providing substandard services you can easily shift to another host. On the flipside, users on a paid hosting service will be wary of shifting hosts since they’ll lose their money.
Cons
One of the biggest disadvantages is that the host gets to place advertisements on your site at no cost.
In comparison to paid SSL hosting, you get limited bandwidth and disk space. It’ll be hard for you to perform your tasks with limited resources.
There are fewer features available to you if you choose free SSL hosting. Features such as CGI scripts, FTP, SMTP may be unavailable.
How do I sign up?
Fortunately, the internet has made this a relatively easy task. There are various websites that offer free SSL hosting. All you have to do is identify one that fits your requirements. The signing up process is pretty easy and should take a maximum of five minutes.
Wrap-up
There are many gains to be made from using a free SSL hosting services. All you need to do is identify one that fits your specifications.