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Our regular SSL provider is offering EV certificates for under $US200, and it just so happens that the certificate for our B2B e-commerce site is expiring in a month (which should give us enough time to get validated).

$200 is still pretty reasonable (even if it's 5x the price of a "normal" certificate). Should we do it "Just because"? Are there any downsides to using an EV?

The marketing guys like it because it turns the browser-bar green in IE and it just happens to fit the colour scheme of our site perfectly ;)

We're not a bank, but we do deal in private, legal details (such as wills, transfers of business, terminations, etc).

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  • What is the normal price for the same cert? Sounds like clever marketing to me :)
    – Tim Post
    Commented Aug 13, 2010 at 11:13
  • @Tim - normal cert price we pay is $10, but EV's are usually over $1000 from what I've seen in the past. However - they're claiming that this < $US200 is now their "normal" EV price. That said, as David pointed out, it might change when renewal time comes ;)
    – Mark Henderson
    Commented Aug 13, 2010 at 21:31
  • A few months later, Mark shared that implementing the EV certificate didn't lead to any significant increase in sales. On the other hand, this was back in 2011, before many major hacks and leaks.
    – Dan Dascalescu
    Commented Jul 4, 2015 at 8:49

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The only downside with an EV certificate is the "paperwork" associated with proving you are who you say you are before the certificate will be issued. It doesn't make any difference to the server- or client-side processing aside from the certificate containing extra information, including the flags that browsers use to determine the certificate type.

So if the cost is small enough to be no matter, you don't mind the initial admin (and repeated admin work at renewal time) and the marketing guys want it, I see no reason why not. Just make sure the marketing people fully understand that if they change their scheme to mainly purple it is not in your power to make the green bar turn purple too!

Make sure the price is likely to stay though. If the usual price is much higher then you are going to be paying the higher price (or something more like it) when renewing the certificate in future.

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  • Haha good point re turning the site purple. They're pretty savvy though. Also good catch regarding the renewal price, I bet it goes wayyy up when our 2 years are up.
    – Mark Henderson
    Commented Aug 13, 2010 at 21:32
  • Of course you could always get the EV cert now and drop to a basic cert later when the cost bumps up, or hope that there is a special offer elsewhere near renewal time. If the EV market goes the same way as cheap encrypt-only certs has done then chances are that'll work out (and a few times around that cycle the standard price will have fallen to be close to what is currently the usual special offer price anyway).
    – David Spillett
    Commented Aug 15, 2010 at 12:33

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