Starting today, you can obtain a SSL certificate issued by Let’s Encrypt for any of your domains hosted with Pressjitsu. No charges, no confusing CSR’s, no manual domain validation processes, just click, click, HTTPS!

In the Domains section of your Pressjitsu control panel, you’ll find a link to your SSL certificates management page, where you can request a new certificate from Let’s Encrypt. You can also add subdomains to your certificate, which is useful for “www.” or “cdn.” The requested certificate will be issued and installed on your server within a few minutes.

How it Works

Let’s Encrypt is a free, automated and open certificate authority, which has recently opened up to the public and currently in beta. It allows us to request domain validation certificates for any domains that we host, all at no additional cost, thanks to some generous sponsors.

Here’s how it works under the hood:

The CA runs a what is called an ACME server, which handles such certificate requests, verifies the domain ownership/control and issues/revokes the requested SSL certificates. All of this happens automatically, with no human interaction at all, which means you can have HTTPS in just a few seconds!

Note that Let’s Encrypt issues DV (domain validation) SSL certificates only, so if you’re looking for EV or OV certificates, you should look towards a more traditional CA. Let’s Encrypt also does not currently support wildcard certificates, however, it does support SAN certs, so you’ll just have to explicitly provide a list of all your subdomains to secure them all.

Renewals

All certificates issued by Let’s Encrypt are currently valid for 90 days, which may seem a bit too short and perhaps inconvenient. And it’s true — renewing SSL certs every year is already inconvenient enough, renewing them every 90 days would be a complete nightmare.

But Let’s Encrypt is automated, remember? We automatically renew all issued SSL certificates every 60 days, and update them on your servers, without you having to worry about it. Without you having to even know about it, it all happens behind the scenes.

A More Secure Web

Let’s Encrypt is a huge leap towards a more secure web and we’re excited about it. We’re even considering forcing HTTPS by default on all WordPress admin requests early next year.

If you’re a Pressjitsu customer, feel free to head to your Domains section via your control panel, and grab your free SSL certificate right now. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to open a support ticket.

If you’re not hosted with Pressjitsu yet, click here to start your free trial.