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SSL Certificates: Wildcard vs single domain

Article ID: 1981

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In general, there are three types of certificates:

a) single-domain certificate: this certificate can be used only for an individual domain name like mydomain.com. It will also include the ability to apply for www.mydomain.com as well. But consider that a single domain name (mydomain.com/www.mydomain.com). 
 
A single-domain certificate issued for: mydomain.com/www.mydomain.com
 
... would work ONLY for:
mydomain.com
www.mydomain.com
 
It will NOT work for:
z.mydomain.com
a.mydomain.com
b.mydomain.com
ANYTHINGelse.mydomain.com
SomeOtherDomain.com
richard.com
john.com
etc....
 
b) wildcard certificate: this certificate can be used for unlimited number of SUBDOMAINS (or HOSTNAMES) of a SINGLE DOMAIN name... i.e., *.mydomain.com
 
A wildcard certificate issued for *.mydomain.com WOULD work for:
mydomain.com/www.mydomain.com
z.mydomain.com
a.mydomain.com
b.mydomain.com
AnythingElse.mydomain.com
something.mydomain.com
SomethingElse12345.mydomain.com
 
It would NOT work for:
SomeOtherDomain.com
richard.com
john.com
etc....
 
 
c) multi-domain certificate: A multi-domain certificate can work for DIFFERENT DOMAIN NAMES... 
 
For example, a mult-domain certificate issued to mydomain.com, richard.com and john.com, WOULD work for:
mydomain.com/www.mydomain.com
richard.com/www.richard.com
john.com/www.richard.com
 
But WOULD NOT work for:
z.mydomain.com
a.mydomain.com
b.mydomain.com
SomeOtherDomain.com
YetAnotherDomain.com
wheremycar.com
 
Additional notes on multi-domain certificates:
  • multi-domain certificates, the price increases with each domain you want it to apply to. 
  • We do not sell multi-domain certificates, only single-domain and wildcard certificates. 
 
Considerations for you making a purchase decision:
 
Currently, our prices for single-domain and wildcard certificates are:
 
single-domain: $59.95
wildcard: $199.95
 
(please note, our prices may have changed since the publishing of this article, these price points are for illustration purpose only, please see our current price list or contact our billing team for current pricing). 
 
If you only needed to secure 3 mydomain.com subdomains, for example these names:
 
mydomain.com
xyz.mydomain.com
abc.mydomain.com
 
Then the most COST effective approach is:
 
$59.95 single domain cert for mydomain.com/www.mydomain.com
$59.95 single domain cert for xyz.mydomain.com
$59.95 single domain cert for abc.mydomain.com
-----------------
$179.85 Total
 
So purchasing individual single-domain certificates would be a more cost-effective approach, because the $179 would be cheaper than the $199 for a wildcard certificate. 
 
HOWEVER, If you needed to secure 5 mydomain.com subdomains, for example these names:
 
mydomain.com
dude.mydomain.com
abc.mydomain.com
xyz.mydomain.com
123.mydomain.com
 
... and you purchased single-domain certificates for each, the cost would be:
 
$59.95 single domain cert for mydomain.com/www.mydomain.com
$59.95 single domain cert for dude.mydomain.com
$59.95 single domain cert for abc.mydomain.com
$59.95 single domain cert for xyz.mydomain.com
$59.95 single domain cert for 123.mydomain.com
-------------
$299.75 TOTAL
 
vs....
 
$199 for a wildcard cert for *.mydomain.com, which would cover:
 
mydomain.com/www.mydomain.com
dude.mydomain.com
abc.mydomain.com
xyz.mydomain.com
123.mydomain.com
... and ANY OTHER subdomain of mydomain.com. 
 
So in this scenario, the wildcard certificate would be the more cost effective approach. 
 

 

 
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