Should I go for dedicated SSL or free shared SSL? What's the deal?

[calvinrobinson]

I have two questions about SSL certificates that I'm hoping you guys will share your experience and thoughts on.

Question 1:
How important is it to have your own dedicated SSL certificate vs. using the free shared SSL certificate? Have any of you guys noticed a loss in customers or orders or any negative side effects at all from using the free shared SSL certificate?

Question 2:
What are some good places to buy SSL certificates and what's a fair price? I've contacted Verisign and their prices are beyond my budget.


[FONT=&quot]Thanks.

P.S. My apologies if these questions have been asked and answered before.[/FONT]

 

[ViviTheMage]

FREE SSL CERT?

Get a dedicated one...i've never heard of a shared ssl cert, sounds wrong.

 

[Mark R]

Dedicated certs mean you can choose your secure URL:
E.g. Http://www.example.com and https://www.example.com

On a shared cert you can't:
So you might have http://www.example.com and https://customer007xay.securesite.com

 

[jimhsu]

For the best of both worlds, try StartSSL. Free (basically) for personal sites, renew every year, but only supports site and one subdomain. So, for example, if you have https://example.com and https://www.example.com, you can't have https://mail.example.com.

Note - this is a minimally verified certificate, so if you're trying to get customers to be totally confident of your e-commerce store, this isn't it. But it works for most other sites where it's "not that big of a deal".

Far better though than any stupid "shared" certificate. That'll really drive your customers off when they see https://asdsalkdjsds.webhost.com.

Other than that, it works.