How to Add a Free SSL Certificate to Your Website

Let’s Encrypt is a free, automated, and open Certificate Authority. It provides a free domain validation SSL certificates for you website that lasts for 90 days, but can be automatically renewed.

This is great as it provides a safer more secure internet. However there are pros and cons to using Lets Encrypt and it may not cover your requirements. These are discussed in our article 'Free Lets Encrypt SSL Certificate Vs Paid For SSL Certificate'

This article shows how to set up your free Lets Encrypt SSL certificate on your website.

1. Log into your portal at https://www.nuttyabouthosting.co.uk/portal.

2. Click on your hosting plan to take you to your hosting control panel.

3. Click on the 'Web Sites' option, under the Web & Applications heading.

4. You will see your list of websites with their SSL status. The site we have selected currently has no SSL.

5. Click on the website name to go to the website details. Then click on the 'SSL' tab. You will see there is no SSL certificate installed. It then lets you either generate a CSR for any other SSL provider, upload an exsiting SSL certificate, for example a wildcard SSL certificate, or install a free certificate from Let's Encrypt. Click on that option.

6. You now need to tick the checkbox to accept the Let's Encrypt terms and conditions. The select the website hostname you would like the SSL to be issued against.

7. You SSL certificate will now be generated and applied to your website.

8. Congratulations you now have a secure website with the free Let's Encrypt SSL certificate.

9. This status is updated in your website summary. You can also see the 90 day expiry date.

10. You can now navigate to your website and put https in front of your URL i.e. http://www.holidayhome-devon.co.uk becomes https://www.holidayhome-devon.co.uk You will want to put in a redirect to make your website always resolve to https.