Website Secure Certificate (SSL) sellers in New Zealand

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catchlight

6 posts

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#220279 3-Aug-2017 11:20

Secure Certificates (SSL Certificates) are a must have in e-commerce to keep credit card details safe on the web, but these are now becoming required by Google if you collect any type of information via your website. Makes sense right? Google maintains its market edge by providing the best results and a secure site is becoming part of what makes a good list of website results. In short, if you want your website to rank well in Google you should have an SSL Certificate.

Can anyone recommend a New Zealand based Secure Certificate seller that has good service, preferably with phone support.

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meow
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#1836395 3-Aug-2017 11:24

You don't need NZ based. Just use LetsEncrypt and be done with it. No point adding complexity on something that should be automated and once a SSL certificate is loaded you just need a process to handle renewal (which LetsEncrypt does).

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timmmay

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#1836396 3-Aug-2017 11:24

Why do you need an NZ based reseller or phone support? Just use a free Let's Encrypt certificate, unless you need identity verification for e-commerce.

baplaski

28 posts

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#1836398 3-Aug-2017 11:26

Honestly, if you can, I'd recommend using Lets Encrypt (https://letsencrypt.org/) over any of the commercial Certificate Authorities. It's free and automated.

networkn

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#1836458 3-Aug-2017 11:49

If you do want a commercial one, SSL2BUY has been awesome in the past 5 years we have used them.

lxsw20

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#1836482 3-Aug-2017 12:11

Used Digicert and always been happy with them. I see they have just purchased Symantecs certificate business too.

ANglEAUT

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#1836518 3-Aug-2017 12:57

michaelmurfy: You don't need NZ based. Just use LetsEncrypt and be done with it. No point adding complexity on something that should be automated and once a SSL certificate is loaded you just need a process to handle renewal (which LetsEncrypt does).

timmmay: ~~Why do you need an NZ based reseller or phone support? Just use a free Let's Encrypt certificate, unless you need identity verification for e-commerce.~~

baplaski: ~~Honestly, if you can, I'd recommend using Lets Encrypt (https://letsencrypt.org/) over any of the commercial Certificate Authorities. It's free and automated.~~

Sorry, but Letsencrypt is not the solution to every problem. Does catchlight need a certificate that is valid for longer than 90 days? Must the certificate be a domain validated cert or must it have extended validation? Does he run his own web server or does he have a hosted solution? If he is using his own web server, is he running IIS? Initially, Letsencrypt did not support IIS.

Let's get catchlight to provide more context so that we can answer with something applicable. Especially as SSL certificate DO NOT keep credit card data safe. SSL certificates encrypt the traffic between the browser and the server. That does not mean the CC data is stored securely in the DB or cached securely on the web server. Other solutions are required for that.

catchlight could mint his/her own SSL certificate and does not need to buy one. That would also give him/her a valid SSL certificate. It just wouldn't be trusted by major browsers.

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timmmay

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#1836529 3-Aug-2017 13:10

IcI:

Sorry, but Letsencrypt is not the solution to every problem. Does catchlight need a certificate that is valid for longer than 90 days? Must the certificate be a domain validated cert or must it have extended validation? Does he run his own web server or does he have a hosted solution? If he is using his own web server, is he running IIS? Initially, Letsencrypt did not support IIS.

Let's get catchlight to provide more context so that we can answer with something applicable. Especially as SSL certificate DO NOT keep credit card data safe. SSL certificates encrypt the traffic between the browser and the server. That does not mean the CC data is stored securely in the DB or cached securely on the web server. Other solutions are required for that.

catchlight could mint his/her own SSL certificate and does not need to buy one. That would also give him/her a valid SSL certificate. It just wouldn't be trusted by major browsers.

That's all true, but for many common scenarios it's a good choice.

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catchlight

6 posts

Wannabe Geek

#1836531 3-Aug-2017 13:14

Thanks all for your replies. If it was just a personal website, I would probably go with Let's Encrypt, but even then the 90-day renewal thing seems like a bit of a pain. Though it sounds like it can be automated??

I'm looking to buy SSL Certificates for my website clients and was after a good service for doing this here in NZ. Correct, they'll probably just buy them from the US anyway, but I was after good service at a reasonable cost. By good service, I mean people who are accessable and knowledgeable enough to help out when if get stuck. :)

sbiddle

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#1836538 3-Aug-2017 13:24

Buying NZ based offers no benefits - and considering there isn't really much in the way of "service" it's very hard to differentiate between the thousands of resellers out there now except on price.

Letsencrypt is fine for personal, but when the going price of a cert us US$5 per year you don't need to bother with renewals if you just get 3yr certs.

nigelramsay

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#1836541 3-Aug-2017 13:26

I'd have to agree with the previous posts. We have been using the Let's Encrypt services for over a year now without any trouble.

Many online services now use them for free certificates too - for example, the free certificates from SquareSpace come from Let's Encrypt.

Amazon also give out free certificates with their services.

I do notice that you mention that you'd like phone support. They will likely mean you'll need to pay a little more. We've used NameCheap and RapidSSLOnline, and they have (US) phone numbers listed. Perhaps give them a call and see how helpful they are?

mattwnz

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#1836545 3-Aug-2017 13:30

Or just buy one from your web host. You hardly need phone support too, you just get the host to install it. If it is shared hosting you may need to lease a dedicated IP as well, plus often there is an install cost too.

mattwnz

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#1836547 3-Aug-2017 13:31

nigelramsay:

Perhaps give them a call and see how helpful they are?

Getting the sense of a bit of sarcasm there :) Many providers from my experience will just have front line staff manning the phones that have little technical knowledge. SO it is often a waste of time even having phone support, that is if you can get through and are not on hold for ages.

nigelramsay

80 posts

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#1836584 3-Aug-2017 14:12

No sarcasm intended.

As I said, just give them a call and see what they're like. International calls these days are so close to free, there's nothing really to be lost.

They always seem dead keen to chat when the certificates are due to be renewed.

freitasm

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#1836598 3-Aug-2017 14:32

Good advice on needing more information. For the sake of brevity though, if you don't need wildcard certificates (this is currently not available on Let's Encrypt but coming early 2018) then SSL2BUY is hard to beat. Or if you're talking about a public domain then you have the option of placing it behind Cloudflare and use their free certificates.

Either way, as mentioned, SSL is only used to encrypt data in transit between the browser and the server. It doesn't guarantee data is safely stored or managed after it arrives on the server.

catchlight

6 posts

Wannabe Geek

#1836738 3-Aug-2017 17:17

Thanks Geekzoners! Some really helpful responses here. I'll investigate all these options further.

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