SSL Certificate Reviews, Comparison, Installation Guides & Error Fixing Tricks

Making Sure Your Site Gets the Right SSL Security

Most Popular SSL Certificate Authorities

A Certificate Authority (CA) is an entity that properly validates, issues, and stores digital security certificates for every use case across the digital world. These CAs manage the infrastructure, trusted roots, public keys, private keys, and credentials for the authentication and encryption of data in motion.

The CA/B Forum is the governing body for public web server certificates, more commonly known as SSL/TLS certificates. There are 50+ publicly trusted CAs across the globe.

AboutSSL.org is an affiliate website operated by The SSL Store who is now a DigiCert, Inc. company, but still reviews and recommends multiple CA providers, such as; DigiCert, Thawte, GeoTrust, RapidSSL, Comodo and Sectigo since they are among the most trusted SSL Certificate Authorities globally.

DigiCert

Thawte

GeoTrust

Comodo

Sectigo

Major SSL Certificate Types

There are three main types of SSL Certificates: Domain Validated (DV SSL), Organization Validated (OV SSL), and Extended Validated (EV SSL). While the following SSL products all offer standard 256-bit encryption to secure data transit, each has different functionality, verification process, and ways they display in the user’s browser.

Domain Validated (DV) SSL

A DV SSL certificate is the most basic, fastest, and cheapest route to secure a website. It simply authenticates the owner of a website’s URL (i.e., a domain) through a file upload, an email, or a CNAME record in as little as five minutes. It activates HTTPS in a browser’s address bar. It’s the cheapest and most convenient option but provides the least amount of assurance, making it best suited for individual or blogging websites.

Organization Validated (OV) SSL

The original type of SSL validation, an OV SSL certificate requires a few more steps than DV SSL certificates to validate an organization’s website. The CA authenticates a business’s details to confirm they meet certain requirements and takes around 1-3 business days (which can sometimes be expedited if you’re in a hurry) to complete. It activates HTTPS and a dynamic site seal. We recommend OV SSL certificates to secure business or Ecommerce websites.

Extended Validated (EV) SSL

An EV SSL offers the industry’s highest-level of assurance and digital trust. It is similar to OV SSL but implements stricter policies, so it takes longer to validate. An EV SSL certificate will activate HTTPS, a dynamic site seal, and display the company’s name in a visitor’s web browser. EV SSL certificates are recommended for any business that stores sensitive customer data, like financial or medical information.

More SSL Types

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SSL Reviews

Before getting an SSL Certificate, it’s a great idea to check the technical features, price, validation type, and other important aspects. AboutSSL provides an authentic review of different SSL Certificate Authorities and SSL Certificate products to help you understand the functionality of each; read them all below.

Read Reviews

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Compare SSL

AboutSSL’s Comparison Tool is easy to use; simply choose 2 or more SSL products to compare features side-by-side. Our SSL certificate comparison covers the product’s technical features, validation type, number of domains, servers, lowest price, warranty, refund policy, site seal, and other important attributes.

Compare SSL

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SSL Coupons

AboutSSL offers SSL coupon codes with massive discounts, deals, and promo codes of the world’s leading SSL Certificate authorities like Comodo, Sectigo, DigiCert, Thawte, GeoTrust, RapidSSL, and more. Why spend more on your SSL-related purchases? Use our coupons to save money while securing your website!

SSL Coupons

SSL Certificate Browser Errors and Troubleshooting Guide

An SSL certificate must be properly installed to successfully display a website within a browser. Just one simple mistake will trigger an error in most popular browsers (such as Google Chrome, FireFox, Safari, etc.) and show a warning to visitors instead of loading the website.

SSL Certificate Errors in Chrome

Google Chrome is the most trusted and widely used web browser in the world, and prominently displays any SSL Certificate errors. When issues arise, Chrome shows users that the website’s SSL certificate is not trusted, or there are SSL Certificate mismatch errors. Learn about Google Chrome SSL errors in our fixing guides.

SSL Certificate Errors in Firefox

Mozilla Firefox is the second most popular web browser, also prominently displaying any SSL errors to users. Firefox displays common SSL error messages such as “Secure Connection Failed” and “This Connection is Untrusted”. Read our Firefox SSL guide below for more information on identifying and fixing these issues.

SSL Certificate Errors in IE

Microsoft-owned Internet Explorer, although not popular as it used to be, still has users worldwide and is quick to display SSL slip-ups. Their versions of SSL errors include “Untrusted SSL Certificate error” and “Invalid SSL Certificate”. Learn more about the other Internet Explorer SSL errors and how to fix them in the guide below.

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Best SSL Certificate Providers

Are you looking for the best SSL Certificate providers that fit your budget?

AboutSSL brings you the list of best SSL Certificate providers of 2025 that offer a premium range of SSL certificate products. Why buy direct from these CA’s when you could save big with us?