SSL Certificate Types
Here a brief and basic overview of the main certificates.
Extended Validation Certificates:
EV certificates provide the highest levels of security, trust and customer conversion for online businesses.
EV level certificates are issued after rigorous background checks on the company, according to the guidelines by the Certificate Authority/Browser (CA/B) Forum. This is why the address bar of major browsers turns green.
EV certificates are used by all major online retailers and banks and are highly recommended for businesses that wish to immediately build customer trust in their site.
Company/Organization Validated Certificates
CV or OV certificates include full business and company validation from a certificate authority using their own established and accepted manual vetting processes.
Each of these certificates contain full company name and address details, which means they provide significantly higher levels of assurance to end-users than Domain Validated certificates.
Domain Validated Certificates
DV certificates provide the same high levels of data encryption as the other validation levels but do not provide assurance about the identity of the business behind the website.
DV certs are issued after domain control has been established thru an automated process.
DV certs are a popular choice amongst small-medium sized web sites because of their faster issuance times and lower price points.
Single Domain Certificates
A single domain certificate allows a customer to secure one fully qualified domain name on a single certificate.
For example, www.domain.com or domain.com. Remember the previous 2 are technically 2 different domain names.
A SDC will allow customers to secure any and all pages on www.domain.com. The simpleness of the single domain certificate makes it ideal for small to medium sized businesses managing a single website.
Wildcard SSL Certificate
A Wildcard certificates allows businesses to secure a single domain and unlimited sub-domains of that domain.
For example, gallery.domain.com, payments.domain.com, login.domain.com, support.domain.com etc. A wildcard certificate will automatically secure any sub-domains that a business adds in the future. For growing online businesses, Wildcard certificates provide a flexible, cost effective alternative to multiple single certificate purchases
Multi Domain SSL Certificate (MDC):
A Multi-Domain certificate allows website owners to secure up to 210 domains with one certificate, depending on issuer.
For example, a single MDC can be used to secure companydomain1.com, companydomain2.com, companydomain.org, and so on. Customers can easily add or remove domains at any time, which simplifies SSL management. In addition, MDCs usually represent a cost saving over the price of individual certificates.