HTTPS certificates for your website

There are two ways to get HTTPS on a website you host with us.

The free certificate (DNS hosted with us)

A free certificate is issued for your site automatically, usually within a day of it going live, and renews itself after that. It covers your domain and its www. address. There is nothing to buy or install.

It needs your domain's DNS to be hosted by us. We prove you control the domain by adding a record to its DNS. There is no other way of validating it, so if your DNS is kept with your registrar or anyone else, your site does not get a free certificate, now or later.

If that is you, tell us. We will either move your DNS across or help you with a certificate you buy instead.

Buying a certificate

You can buy a certificate from SSL Certificates. DV, OV, EV, wildcard and multi-domain certificates are available, each for one year. DV certificates are usually issued in minutes; OV and EV need a few working days, because the authority checks your organisation.

Ordering

1. Choose a certificate and enter your domain.
2. Paste a certificate signing request (CSR), or generate one in your browser. If you generate it, the private key is downloaded straight to your computer and never sent to us, so we cannot recover it. Keep it safe: you need it to install the certificate.
3. Choose how to prove you control the domain (below).
4. Pay the invoice.

Proving you control the domain

• Email: the authority emails an approval link to one of the addresses it allows for your domain, such as admin@ your domain. You need to be able to receive mail there.
• File: you put a file the order page gives you at /.well-known/pki-validation/ on your site. It must be reachable over plain http://, without a redirect.
• DNS: you add the CNAME record the order page gives you.

We check the file and DNS methods every few minutes, so you do not need to do anything else once it is in place.

Getting the certificate

When it is issued, the certificate's page shows the files to copy or download. Install them, with your private key, on your server or hosting.

Last updated 21 October 2026