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Do I Need a Different SSL Certificate for WWW and Non-WWW Version of the Domain?

ssl-certificate-for-www-non-www-domains
When you purchase an SSL certificate to secure your website, you might wonder whether the certificate will secure the www and the non-www versions of your website. However, you are not alone and almost all website owners have this question in mind.

The www domain is not the subdomain of the non-www domain but is an alias of the non-www version of the domain. That is because WWW standards state that websites deployed without www will also deploy with www.

Many SSL certificates secure just a single domain, where website owners think that the SSL certificate will either secure the www version or the non-www version of their website. This is true as the SSL certificate will only secure the domain for which it was initially issued. So if you had purchased an SSL certificate for the www version of your domain, it will secure just that domain, not the non-www version, as well. But there are ways to secure both versions of the website using a single SSL certificate.

Read on to know if you need two different SSL certificates to secure the www and the non-www versions of your website or if just one SSL certificate will do the job.

Will Your SSL Certificate Cover the WWW and the Non-WWW Versions of Your Website?

Most certificate authorities like Sectigo secure the www and non-www versions of websites. This way, you will just need a single SSL certificate to secure both variations. When you purchase an SSL for your domain from Sectigo and generate a certificate signing request (CSR), your Comodo SSL certificate will secure both the www and non-www variations of your website. For example, if you purchase an SSL certificate for www.mydomain.com, this SSL will also secure mydomain.com and you will not have to purchase a separate SSL certificate for it. So when a visitor types in the name of your website without www, the browser will display the HTTPS protocol your website is using. This will show your visitors that your website is secure.

What if My SSL certificate Doesn’t Cover the WWW and Non-WWW Variations of My Website

If your SSL certificate secures just the www version of your website and not the non-www version, you may not have purchased the SSL certificate from us. However, you can redirect your visitors from the non-www version to the www version using 301 redirects. This way, if anyone lands on the insecure non-www version of the website, they will automatically be redirected to the secure www version of your website.

You can also go for a Wildcard SSL certificate to secure your subdomains, as these certificates will secure an unlimited number of subdomains when you purchase it for a domain. But we do not recommend using a Wildcard SSL certificate to secure the non-www domain as you will have to pay extra. All you can do to save money and also secure both versions of your website is to go for a Sectigo SSL certificate that will automatically secure the www and the non-www domains.

The following are the Sectigo SSL certificates we recommend for a single domain that will secure the www and the non-www version of the website.

Brand Name Certificate Name Price Per Year
Sectigo Positive SSL Certificate $8.78/year Get It Now
Sectigo InstantSSL Certificate $30.80/year Get It Now
Sectigo PositiveSSL EV Certificate $79.84/year Get It Now

Wrapping Up

By now, you might have understood that Sectigo SSL certificates secure the www and the non-www versions of websites automatically. If you are looking for an SSL certificate to secure both the versions of your website, look no further than an SSL certificate from Sectigo so that you can be assured that the www and the non-www versions of your website will be secured.
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