What is Wildcard SSL?
HTTPS (Secure HTTP) is a requirement for all websites. You may have some questions about what type of SSL certificate works best for you. In order to serve your site in a secure way, HTTPS, you need to install an SSL certificate on your server and then configure your site to make HTTPS connections. Before you can do that you will need to figure out what kind of SSL certificate to use.
A wildcard SSL certificate is a digital certificate that is applied to a domain and all its subdomains. Why is wildcard is important and what is the difference with Standard SSL certificate?
As you can see on the image above, Standard SSL certificates are applied to only www.example.com and example.com. It means if you want to have a subdomain like blog.example.com it won't be applied to and browsers will show a warning if you browse the address.
Why Wildcard SSL certificate?
Wildcard SSL is a top choice for companies managing multiple sites hosted across numerous subdomains. A certificate configured for *.example.com, will secure www.example.com, as well as blog.example.com, mail.example.com, payment.example.com and the others. The asterisk is used to serve as placeholder for all possible subdomains.
Wildcard SSL vs Standard SSL
Regardless of type of SSL certificate, they both provide the same industry-standard encryption strength. Both come with 2048-bit RSA signature keys and encryption up to 256 bits.
The major difference comes in terms of the subdomains they secure. Standard SSL provides encryption for only www and non-www version of your website. On the other hand, Wildcards secure websites with multiple sub-domains. For instance: *.nameocean.net.
Price is often the main concern in choosing between these options. If you have the need to secure more than one subdomain, wildcard certificate is expensive but more cost effective. Even standard ssl certificate is cheaper, you will need to buy one more standard ssl certificate for each subdomain.
NameOcean's Free SSL Certificate
Good part is NameOcean provides Free Wildcard SSL Certificate for everyone. Just buy a domain name from NameOcean and download your Wildcard SSL Certificate from NameOcean's dashboard. If you have a current domain name and want to have a free ssl certificate, you can transfer your domain to NameOcean right now.
If you want to read more about registering or transferring a domain, look at the articles below.
Transfer a domain to NameOcean