Free SSL is new with Let's Encrypt and is active by default

We have adjusted our FreeSSL offering. An SSL certificate from Let's Encrypt is now automatically generated and installed for each domain and subdomain.

In the future, FreeSSL will include a fully-fledged domain-validated SSL certificate from Let's Encrypt. As a customer, you don't have to do anything about this, as the certificates are automatically generated and installed when setting up a domain or subdomain. However, you should set up forwarding from "http" to "https" in the respective directory (instructions) so that your websites will always be accessed in encrypted form in the future. Of course, you can continue to do without the SSL encryption with FreeSSL or use a standard or PremiumSSL certificate subject to a fee, which we continue to offer. For example, we recommend paid SSL certificates if you run an online shop, as these certificates offer additional advantages, such as insurance coverage. The first web servers have already been converted. It will take until around mid-December for all customers to benefit from the new feature.

Browsers will warn about unsafe websites in the future.

With this innovation, we are ahead of the browser manufacturers, who will, in future, mark unencrypted websites as insecure because Google Chrome will mark web content as unsafe next year if the data transmission is unencrypted. Initially, websites will only process sensitive information such as credit cards or access data. Later, websites without encryption should generally be marked as insecure. It can be assumed that other browser manufacturers will follow suit.

The Let's Encrypt project

Let's Encrypt was created in 2014 by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), Mozilla and the University of Michigan (UM) to make data transmission via websites more secure by making it easier for everyone. Domains and subdomains are issued certificates free of charge so that data transmission between the user and the website can be encrypted.