StartSSL
Hi all,
I needed to buy a SSL certificate for a website and someone recommended StartSSL to me. I usually buy my certificates from GoDaddy or DigiCert but since they are providing free class 1 certificates, I’ve decided to give it a try… when I tried to add one of my domains, it got approved right away, however, when I tried to add the real domain I wanted to use, I got an error message that said it was blacklisted… weird, heh? I contacted StartCom to see what’s the problem and they told me google has blacklisted it in the last 90 days. That’s semi-true, one of the website’s sub-domains is used as a free web-hosting and someone has uploaded a malicious file to it, however, it was a totally different machine and the uploading account has been suspsended as soon as we got the complaint from google. They weren’t willing to add the domain manually for me unless I pay 49.99$ for verification… I really needed a multiple domain (UCC) SSL certificate for 5 sub-domains and comparing to GoDaddy’s 89.99$/year, 49.99$ for two years didn’t sound too much… in addition to that, they provide unlimited sub-domains so I could add a few more sub-domains we use for the same fee.
I had bad experience with another SSL certificate provider (not godaddy or digicert, they’re fine) but I decided to give them a chance anyway. They asked me to scan two different identification IDs with pictures and my phone bill and they even called me to verify I am really me… after that, they manually verified the domain I wanted the certificate for and I could issue it. Everything was done within a few hours and I’m really happy.
The bottom line is that I recommend StartSSL too, just remember to be prepared with the needed “papers”.
-Kobi.
