1

I am familiar with simple DV certificates, but not any of the other fancier stuff - like EV, wildcard and Multi-domain SSL certs.

As the title suggests, I'd like to know what the process is for (and how much extra does it cost) to add an additional domain name to an existing shared hosting server's multi-domain SSL certificate?

Long story short, is that an association I belong to has a website (CMS) thru a vendor and it is not secured by HTTPS. All members' login and data is sent in the clear. I raised the concern about not being secure, and a few days later the manager of the club informed the company/webmaster of the club's site wants to charge us an additional $15/mo. or $180 per year, just for the privilege of having secure communications with their app/website (it's their SaaS). I did some digging and realized the company providing the club's website, has our site on a shared hosting server, along with other domain sites that use the same CMS/SaaS, and that some but not all the domains/sites on that server are in the multi-domain SSL certificate.

Personally, in the age of free/cheap (certbot/letsencrypt) SSL certs, I think this is a scandal, specially considering that I'm sure it doesn't cost much to add our domain to the multi-domain cert they are already using. If it helps any, the SSL they have is with Comodo.

Improve this question

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
2

First you need to know the difference between DV SSL certificate, EV SSL certificate, Wildcard SSL and Multi Domain SSL certificate.

There are mainly three types of SSL certificate such as Domain Validation SSL (DV), Organization Validation SSL (OV) and Extended Validation SSL (EV).

  1. DV SSL certificate is one type of SSL certificate that verifies only domain information before issuing SSL certificate .
  2. EV (Extended Validation) SSL certificate is another type of SSL certificate that verifies domain information and also organization information in depth by checking legal documents.

  3. Wildcard SSL certificate secures primary domain name and its all sub domain names.

    For example: SSL issues on *.mydomain.com secures domain names like below:

    mydomain.com

    www.mydomain.com

    blog.mydomain.com

    login.mydomain.com

  4. Multi Domain SSL certificate secures multiple domain names.

    For example:

    mydomain.com

    www.xyz.net

    mydomain.biz

    login.xyz.com

If talking about multi domain SSL certificate then it is possible to add additional domain name during certificate lifecycle.

For example

If you have purchased multi domain ssl certificate for 2 year and secured domain names such as mydomain.com and abc.xyz at the same time. But after 6 months, if you want to secure another domain name login.xyz.com then you are eligible to add that domain name in the same multi domain ssl certificate. Most SSL provider offers default domains licenses with multiple domain SSL certificate but if your requirement will go beyond the default domains licenses then you will have to pay extra cost for additional domain name.

Improve this answer
2
  • Thanks for your great answer! But can you explain the actuall process and perhaps estimated cost of adding a domain SAN to the multi-domain SSL cert? Is it a standard reissue the CSR, send to CA, and get an updated cert back, and installing?
    – unknownprotocol
    Commented Sep 22, 2017 at 17:36
  • 1
    Estimated cost of adding domain SAN to multi-domain SSL cert remain different from one provider to another. Yes, you have to reissue SSL certificate to add additional SAN.
    – Dana
    Commented Sep 25, 2017 at 7:26

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.