SSL Certificates

If you want to setup a webserver, you might want to set it up will SSL support. But unfortunately, SSL certificates usually cost a regular fee.

Luckily, there is a service, you can obtain SSL certificates from for free. Although, they must be renewed every 3 months.

Let’s Encrypt

This nice service (https://letsencrypt.org) provides you with free certificates. But there are three important things to know:

1. With the tool certbot you should obtain certificates from your command line. It makes things easier.
2. The URL(s) you’re registering must be reachable from the internet, as Let’s Encrypt wants to verify them (tries to connect to).
3. They must be renewed every three months. But you will get a reminder in advance.

Certbot

Is a tool, you can obtain SSL certificates from Let’s Encrypt with. You can find it here or possibly via your Linux package manager.

It will ask you some questions, and very easily directly install and configure your preferred web server software. I’ve used it very easily with nginx.

It’s very quick and easy to obtain certificates for multiple URLs with one run.