10 Best Free SSL Hosting Providers: Protection Without the Price Tag

SSL certificates are absolutely essential for running a successful website. You know that already – but what exactly do they do that makes them so important?

SSL security sets up a secure link between your website’s server and its browsers, encrypting any data being passed between the two. That’s how logins, transactions, and data transfers are kept safe from hackers or breaches.

Visitors and search engines will stay away from your site if they don’t see “HTTPS”, or the little padlock that appear in the corner of the search bar when a site is secured with SSL security.

You’ll have trouble ranking or gaining trust without it – which is why hosting providers are stepping up and including SSL certificates for free in their hosting plans.

Best Free SSL Hosting Providers: Head-to-Head Comparison

*This shows the standard time period – it can vary depending on which hosting type you choose.

Best Overall Hosting Provider

HostGator Pros and Cons

HostGator is a popular and powerful hosting provider which scored top marks in our research for dedicated hosting, as well as ticking all the boxes to be crowned the best overall hosting provider!

It offers free SSL certificates on all its hosting plans, so no matter which type of hosting you choose, you’ll still benefit. The SSL certificate automatically renews, so your site should never be without security.

Whether you choose the cheapest shared hosting or the most advanced dedicated hosting, you’ll get the same level of SSL security included in your plan. This offers unlimited protection for domains and subdomains, and is recognized by all major browsers.

If you want extra features, or more powerful security, then you do have the option of purchasing a more advanced SSL certificate. You can upgrade to any of these:

• Positive SSL for $19.99 per year
• Multi-Domain SSL for $79.99 per year
• Extended Validation (EV) SSL for $269.99 per year

While these have more advanced features – such as the TrustLogo Site Seal or green address bar – for most sites, the free SSL certificate should be more than fine.

HostGator is the best hosting provider for dedicated hosting – as well as the free SSL certificate, you get 8GB RAM, unmetered bandwidth, 1TB HDD storage, full root access, and more. What’s more, that’s just on the cheapest $119 per month Value Server plan. So while it might not be the cheapest plan around, you really do get what you pay for!

Best for Shared and VPS Hosting

InMotion Pros and Cons

InMotion outshone its competitors in our research when it came to shared hosting and VPS hosting – there isn’t a better provider on the market for these types of hosting!

What really put the icing on InMotion’s cake was the fact it offers free SSL certificates on almost all of its hosting plans. The odd one out is unmanaged cloud VPS hosting, which is really aimed at IT teams and coders.

For all other plans, you simply have to go to your settings and turn on your SSL certificate. Hey presto – your site is encrypted!

There are slightly different rules for SSL security depending which plan you’re on – on the shared plan, for example, you simply get a private SSL included for free. On the managed VPS plan, you get something a bit fancier – you can install AutoSSL for free in your control panel.

AutoSSL makes it easy to manage your site’s security, by automatically renewing your free SSL certificate. It also scans all the websites on your server, and installs SSL certificates for any unprotected active domains.

That’s pretty handy!

Along with this free SSL, InMotion’s VPS plans also include up to 260GB storage, free backups, and up to 6TB bandwidth. Prices range from $27.99 to $64.99 per month across its three VPS plans.

Best for WordPress Hosting

Bluehost Pros and Cons

Bluehost powers over 2 million websites worldwide, and provides a great all-around service. But where it really wows is its WordPress hosting. In fact, it’s the number one recommended hosting provider by WordPress itself!

One of the most important aspects of WordPress hosting is security, so it’s no surprise Bluehost steps up big time in this area. One of the ways it does this is to provide a free SSL certificate across all its hosting plans.

Your free SSL certificate is powered by Let’s Encrypt, an automated certificate authority. Let’s Encrypt should install and activate your certificate on your behalf, so you don’t need to sweat over any techy stuff. More on this later!

For WordPress sites, you simply log into your control panel and click “get started” under WordPress Free SSL, then click install to get going. You can find detailed instructions in Bluehost’s Help Center.

For small and growing businesses, we’d recommend the Plus or Choice Plus plans, both starting at just $5.45/month for new customers. These plans include unmetered storage, a free domain, and automatic WordPress updates alongside your free SSL security.

Best for Cloud Hosting

A2 Hosting Pros and Cons

A2 Hosting has also partnered with Let’s Encrypt to bring its users free, automated SSL certificates. This makes your life easier, as it means you don’t have to do the work of installing or configuring your certificate yourself.

And if you do get a bit stuck managing your SSL security, you’ll be in good hands – A2 Hosting scored impressively in our research for its customer service. So if you ever run into problems, you can count on a speedy and helpful response.

If you want to add extra features, you can buy one of the four solutions A2 Hosting offers in addition to its free Let’s Encrypt certificate. You can choose from:

• Single Site SSL from $49.95 per year – basic protection
• Premium SSL from $99.95 per year – features for business sites
• Wildcard SSL from $149.95 per year – single certificate protects unlimited subdomains
• Advanced SSL from $199 per year – features for ecommerce sites

You buy these through A2 Hosting to keep things simple and secure, but this is totally optional. You can stick with the free certificate included in your plan – your choice will depend on your specific needs.

A2 Hosting promises speed and reliability, even on its most basic shared hosting plan. From $3.92 per month, you get unlimited storage, free site transfer, an anytime money back guarantee, and more!

Best for Reliability

SiteGround Pros and Cons

You can count on SiteGround – it came out as the most reliable hosting provider in our research.

SiteGround provides Let’s Encrypt SSL certificates for free with all its plans, and also offers Premium Wildcard and Premium SSL certificates as optional paid extras. Your free certificate will be automatically applied to your domains and automatically renewed, saving you time.

The Premium Wildcard certificate is designed for medium sized websites, comes with free installation, and costs $90 per year through SiteGround. If you’re a large business site, you might want the Premium SSL, which comes with extended validation and costs $499 per year.

You can issue as many free Let’s Encrypt certificates as you need, no matter which plan you’re on – as long as you have a SiteGround account, you’re all set!

In our research, SiteGround scored most highly for its dedicated hosting. It has three dedicated hosting plans, ranging in price from $269 to $729 per month. These are fully managed and come with an array of features, including 10TB bandwidth.

SiteGround is also officially recommended by WordPress due to its one-click installation and managed updates available for WordPress users.

Best for Extra Features

GoDaddy Pros and Cons

GoDaddy isn’t the most advanced hosting provider out there, but it does have the benefit of offering tons of extra services alongside its hosting. You can manage your domains, marketing, security, email, and more, all from the convenience of one place!

GoDaddy does offer SSL certificates, but it’s not quite as generous as its competitors.

On its shared hosting plans, the two cheapest plans do not provide free SSL security. The Ultimate plan does provide you with a free SSL certificate for your first year, after which it will renew at $79.99 per year.

Only the most expensive Maximum plan includes a free SSL certificate for the full term of your plan.

The WordPress hosting plans work the same way: the two cheapest plans offer no SSL security, the Ultimate plan provides one for your first year, and the most expensive Pro 5+ plan gives you one for as long as you stay on that plan.

On all of GoDaddy’s dedicated and VPS hosting plans, you get a free SSL certificate for the first year. After that, you’ll be paying the full price of the certificate on top of your hosting plan.

Best for Cheap Prices, but at the Expense of Speed

iPage Pros and Cons

iPage can boast some of the cheapest prices on the market. With its “all-in-one” shared hosting plan costing just $1.99 per month, it’s a very pocket-friendly hosting provider!

This shared hosting plan includes a free SSL certificate. This is fairly basic, and won’t protect multiple subdomains like other providers, but it will still do the job. You also have three premium SSL certificates to choose from if you want a higher level of security.

All iPage hosting plans include this basic free SSL certificate, so it’s up to you if you want to pay extra for those more advanced features – either way, you can sleep soundly knowing your site is secure.

Best for Help and Support

WPEngine Pros and Cons

WPEngine provides free Let’s Encrypt SSL certificates on all its plans!

It really is as simple as that – each of its four price plans include automated SSL certificates, and you can easily add more if you need to cover multiple domains.

WPEngine’s hosting plans are designed for WordPress users, and start with the $35 per month Startup plan. The $115 per month Growth plan is the next level up, and the $290 per month Scale plan is the highest price plan.

These three plans give you between 10GB and 30GB storage, and 50GB to 400GB bandwidth per month

There is also a Custom price plan designed for supersized websites.

WPEngine gives you a great range of help and support options, so if you do ever get stuck with your SSL, you’re in good hands.

Best for Storage Space

DreamHost Pros and Cons

DreamHost is a feature packed provider that includes free SSL certificates in its hefty toolbox. It’s also officially recommended by WordPress, so has that extra interest for any WordPress users out there.

All of DreamHost’s hosting plans come with a free Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate, and there are two types of SSL you can add to your domain – the free Let’s Encrypt SSL, or the $15 per year Sectigo verified SSL.

The main difference between them is that the paid option displays a certificate seal of trust, making it as obvious as possible to visitors that your website is safe. Because of this, the paid SSL is mostly recommended for online stores.

DreamHost doesn’t support WildCard SSL like some other providers do, so you need to install separate SSL certificates for each of your domains and subdomains for them to be protected.

So what else does DreamHost offer? For starters, it provides all the main hosting types:

• Shared hosting
• VPS
• Dedicated
• Cloud
• Shared WordPress
• Managed WordPress

For anyone just starting out, its shared hosting plans are the cheapest, starting at $2.95 per month. This plan gives you a free SSL certificate, as well as unlimited traffic, a free domain, and WordPress pre-installed.

If you use WordPress, it’s worth looking at the $16.95 per month DreamPress plan – this not only gives you daily backups and 24/7 WordPress support, but also pre-installs your free SSL certificate for you!

Best for Keeping Things Basic

HostPapa Pros and Cons

HostPapa provides free Let’s Encrypt certificates for all your domains and subdomains. Any SSL provider can be used for your certificate, but HostPapa itself provides Let’s Encrypt and GlobalSign.

All HostPapa plans come pre-installed with a free Let’s Encrypt SSL, and the Business Pro plan actually enables a GlobalSign SSL for you, adding extra security. If you want a GlobalSign SSL but aren’t on the Business Pro plan, you can simply buy one and enable it yourself!

You can either buy a single GlobalSign SSL for $19.99 per year, or a Wildcard one for $69.99 if you need protection for unlimited subdomains.

This means you’re pretty well covered when it comes to your security – but how good is HostPapa’s hosting?

In all honesty, it’s not the best provider on the market, but it’s still one of the best. The main thing to be aware of with HostPapa is that while it joins its competitors in offering great deals for new customers, its renewal prices can come with a sting in their tail.

As long as you sign up to HostPapa fully aware of its long-term costs, then you should find it a decent and satisfactory service. Its shared hosting plans start at $3.95 per month, and include free website transfer and free one-on-one training alongside its free SSL certificate.

We’ve mentioned Let’s Encrypt a number of times throughout this review, so let’s take a quick dive into what makes this initiative tick.

What Is Let’s Encrypt?

Let’s Encrypt is a free, automated certificate authority with the aim of making the web a more secure place. That’s why it gives people free SSL certificates to encrypt their sites with, in a user-friendly way.

You can get your SSL certificate from Let’s Encrypt yourself, so you don’t have to rely on your hosting provider.

There are several types of SSL, but the three main ones are:

• Domain Validation (DV) – standard level of security
• Organization Validation (OV)  – intermediate level of security
• Extended Validation (EV) – advanced level of security

Let’s Encrypt only provides you with DV certificates. These are solid, secure, and basic – but not in a bad way! They will protect your site, and encrypt any data being processed.

However, if you need more advanced security, then Let’s Encrypt is not the best option for you.

Is Let’s Encrypt Right for Me?

If you’re running an online store or are processing very sensitive information, then you will need a private SSL, which Let’s Encrypt cannot provide you with.

As you’ve seen, you can usually buy these advanced SSL certificates straight from your hosting provider, making life much simpler!

Let’s Encrypt gives you the standard level of security your site needs. Many hosting providers provide a free Let’s Encrypt SSL as part of their hosting plans, so you don’t need to worry about sourcing it yourself.

This article has taken you through the very best providers offering free SSL certificates, and shone a light into the dark corners of web security.

SSL certificates are essential for all websites – without them, your visitors’ information won’t be encrypted, your site will not be secure, and any data processed through your site will be vulnerable to hackers. Not to mention you will struggle to rank in Google.

10 Best Free SSL Hosting Providers: Recap

1. HostGator – Best overall hosting provider.
2. InMotion – Best for shared and VPS hosting.
3. Bluehost – Best for WordPress hosting.
4. A2 Hosting – Best for cloud hosting.
5. SiteGround – Best for reliability.
6. GoDaddy Hosting – Best for extra features.
7. iPage – Best for cheap plans, but at the expense of speed.
8. WPEngine – Best for help and support.
9. DreamHost – Best for storage space.
10. HostPapa – Best for keeping things basic.

The best way to choose a provider is to look at your budget, decide which features are most important to you, and look at which providers are best for which type of hosting. If you’re after VPS hosting, for example, start with InMotion.

Our top tip would be not to forget about renewal prices, as they will increase once your promotional period is over!

Also, check what type of SSL is being offered – many providers include Let’s Encrypt SSL, which is a good standard level of security. But if you need even better security, you’ll either need a more advanced hosting plan, or have to choose a different provider if you don’t want to pay out yourself.

Don’t leave your website out in the cold, unprotected and alone – choose one of these hosting providers, and give your site the warm glow of a fresh SSL certificate today!

Are free SSL certificates actually secure enough?

There are unreliable and unofficial SSL certificate providers out there, which you shouldn’t trust to give you a secure SSL. However, as long as you choose an established and reliable provider – like Let’s Encrypt, Cloudflare, or any of the hosting providers from our list – then a free SSL can be trusted to keep your site safe.

What type of SSL is best for my website?

There are three main types of SSL, which provide different levels of security. Domain Validation (DV) certificates are the most basic type, and this is what you get for free. This is fine for most websites, but it’s not recommended for business or ecommerce sites. For that you’ll need an Organization Validation (OV), or for even more advanced security, an Extended Validation (EV) certificate.

How long do SSL certificates last for?

This will depend on the provider you choose. Most SSL certificates are charged yearly, but others like SiteGround renew every three months. Automatic renewal is a great option to make sure your site always stays protected, so you don’t have to worry about doing it manually.