3 Major Types of SSL Certificates for your Business

While there are multiple types of SSL certificates, some are more relevant to business than others. In this write-up, we examine those that are most relevant for companies generally.

Wildcard SSLs

Where a company or organisation owns and maintains multiple web assets, it makes sense to use a wildcard SSL, especially where all the web assets are sub-domains.

As an example, a company called Web4Africa Ltd owning the domain name web4africa.com can deploy a single wildcard SSL for its web assets like mail.web4africa.com (for a mail server), chat.web4aAfrica.com (for a chatting server), sip.web4africa.com (for an internet phone server).

The most significant advantage of Wildcard SSLs is cost-saving, especially where the company maintains many sub-domains. This is because the company would not need to buy an SSL for each sub-domain but can deploy a single wildcard SSL for all the subdomains.

Organisational Validation (OV) SSLs

OV SSLs are ideal for companies or organisations that only want primary verification. 

Also known as Business validation SSL certificates, these have become more popular on the market, allowing end-users to confirm the verified company name, address, and phone number of the website they visit. This helps establish trustful relations and increase e-commerce conversions. In addition, issued OV certificates have significantly higher warranty levels than domain validation certs.

Extended Validation (EV) SSLs

EV SSL certificates are the most respected and valuable types of SSLs as they provide the highest level of security and website protection. The green Site Seal logo is a good security indicator online as it shows a verified company name. Moreover, EV SSLs boost the trust of your end-customers and site visitors and may increase conversions significantly.

The warranty amount is much higher than DV or OV certificates and starts from 1 million US Dollars. Therefore, EV SSL certificates are highly recommended for e-commerce, banks, government, and websites providing online services and receiving payments.

You can buy any of the business SSL certificates from Web4Africa at web4africa.ng