Top 10 Web Hosts With Free SSL Certificates

34,000+ websites are hacked every year according to Sucuri. If you want your customers to trust you, you need to do all you can to make your website secure. Although there are a lot of things you can do to secure your website, using HTTPS is one of the most important. It’s like a foundation for web security.

To use HTTPS on your website, you need an SSL certificate. If you think HTTPS is just a nice-to-have, here’s what you need to know.

Best Web Hosts With A Free SSL Certificate

Here is a list of the best web hosting companies that offer you a free SSL certificate when you sign up for their services.

1. SiteGround

SiteGround is one of the most recommended web hosts on the web. They are trusted by professional bloggers who get thousands of visitors every day. Whether you are just a blogger starting out or a business, Siteground has the solution for you.

• Hosts over 1.8 million domains.
• Offers customized solutions for WordPress and WooCommerce hosting.

Siteground’s pricing is simple and very affordable. All their hosting plans come with a free Let’s Encrypt SSL you can install with just a few clicks. You also get free Cloudflare CDN which you can install with just one click. It makes your site fast and safe from hackers.

They also offer a free site migration on their GrowBig and GoGeek plans. If you have your website currently hosted on another web host, they will migrate your site to Siteground with no downtime.

Siteground is voted time and again as one of the best web hosts in terms of reliability and support. Their support team answers most of your queries within 10 minutes.

When you host your website with Siteground, you get daily backups of your website for free. They offer you a cPanel control panel on every plan, which allows you to easily manage everything related to your website from one page.

Pros:

• Affordable pricing starts at only $3.95 per month.
• Best support in the industry.
• Free Let’s Encrypt SSL Certificate on all web hosting plans.
• Offers free migration service on GoGeek and GrowBig plans.
• Unlimited bandwidth on all plans.
• Free daily backups of your whole website including the database.

Cons:

• They charge a fee for the restoration of daily backups.
• The renewal price is a little higher than sign-up price.

Basic Plan Specs:

• One website
• 10GB Disk Space
• Unlimited Bandwidth
• Unlimited Email Accounts
• Unlimited MySQL Databases
• Cloud CDN

Pricing Starts At $3.95 per month.

2. A2 Hosting

A2 Hosting has been around for a very long time and has data servers around the world. They offer many different solutions for businesses of all types including VPS hosting, shared hosting, and dedicated hosting.

• Data centers around the world.
• One of a kind anytime money-back guarantee.

All their plans offer unlimited storage and data transfer. Their servers are equipped with SSD which makes them faster than normal.

They offer a cPanel control panel to help you manage your website. You can install a free Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate with just one click.

Their support team is available round the clock 365 days to offer you technical support of all types. If your website stops working for any reason, you can reach out to them at any time via email, phone, or support tickets.

Pros:

• Offers data centers around the world to choose from.
• All plans come with an anytime money-back guarantee.
• The support team is available 24/7/365 via phone, email, and support tickets.
• Their servers use SSD which is faster than normal hard drive.
• Unlimited data transfer and disk space.
• Free Let’s Encrypt SSL on all plans you can install without any technical knowledge.

Cons:

• Only offers 5 databases.
• Renewal prices are higher than sign-up prices.

Basic Plan Specs:

• One website
• Unlimited Disk Space
• Unlimited Bandwidth
• 5 MySQL Databases
• cPanel Control Panel

Pricing Starts At $3.92 per month.

3. Bluehost

Bluehost is one of the oldest and most trusted web hosting providers on the web. They are trusted by thousands of professional bloggers.

• Trusted by over 2 million website owners.
• #1 recommended web host by the official WordPress.org site.

They offer unlimited bandwidth and free SSL on all their plans. Their plans also offer free email accounts that you can connect to your domain name. Their support is one of the highest-rated in the industry.

All their plans come with automatic daily, weekly and monthly backups of your content. Their support team is available 24/7 to answer all your queries and to offer you any technical guidance you might need to fix your broken website.

They offer solutions for both small businesses and large enterprises. Their control panel and variety of solutions make it really easy to scale your business online without any downtime.

Pros:

• 24/7 support team you can reach via email, phone, and support tickets. They answer all your questions and offer you technical guidance.
• All their plans offer unlimited bandwidth.
• You get 5 free email accounts on the basic plan.
• Automatic Daily, Weekly, and Monthly backups keep your site secure.
• Free SSL you can install on all your domains.

Cons:

• Only 100MB of inbox storage offered with email accounts.
• Higher renewal prices.

Basic Plan Specs:

• One website
• 50GB SSD Disk Space
• Unlimited Bandwidth
• 5 Email Accounts
• cPanel Control Panel
• 25 Sub Domains
• 5 Parked Domains

Pricing Starts At $3.95 per month.

4. HostGator

No list of web hosts is complete without HostGator and its wide variety of offerings for businesses of all shapes and sizes.

• Offers everything unlimited even on the basic plan.
• One of the cheapest and oldest web host on the web.
• 45-day money-back guarantee.

Hostgator offers unlimited bandwidth, unlimited disk space, and unlimited email accounts even on the basic plan. Their plans come with cPanel that allows you to easily manage your website’s content, domains, databases, and everything technical.

They offer a free SSL certificate for all your domains. They also offer free site migration. When you sign up, you can contact their support team and ask them to migrate your site from any other host on the web to HostGator and they will do it for free.

Pros:

• Unlimited bandwidth, domains, subdomains, FTP accounts, email accounts, and disk space.
• 45-day money back guarantee and a 99.9% uptime guarantee.
• 24/7/365 support available via email, phone and support tickets.
• Easily install over 75 software scripts on your website with just one click.
• Free $100 in Google and Bing advertising credits each.

Cons:

• Only one website allowed on the basic plan.
• Renewal prices higher than sign up prices.

Basic Plan Specs:

• One website
• Unlimited Disk Space
• Unlimited Bandwidth
• Unlimited Email Accounts
• Unlimited MySQL Databases
• cPanel Control Panel

Pricing Starts At $2.75 per month.

5. InMotion Hosting

InMotion Hosting serves over 25000 customers around the world. All their offerings are easily scalable.

• US-based support available 24/7.
• Data centers around the world.
• 90-day money back guarantee.

Their plans offer a generous 90-day money-back guarantee and come with everything you will need to run an online business.

All their plans come with unlimited bandwidth, unlimited email accounts, unlimited email storage, and unlimited disk space. They also offer a free no-downtime site migration service. All their plans offer automatic regular backups of your data including your files and databases.

Unlike other web hosts, InMotion Hosting allows 2 websites even on their basic plan.

Pros:

• Offers 24/7/365 US-Based tech support.
• Unlimited everything including disk space, bandwidth, and email accounts.
• Free no-downtime migration for all your websites.
• Install over 400 software scripts with just one click.
• Free Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate installer.
• All plans come with a generous 90-day money back guarantee.

Cons:

• Renewal price higher than sign up price.

Basic Plan Specs:

• 2 websites
• Unlimited Disk Space
• Unlimited Bandwidth
• Unlimited Email Accounts and Email Storage.
• cPanel Control Panel

Pricing Starts At $3.99 per month.

6. WP Engine

WP Engine hosts some of the biggest WordPress blogs and news sites on the planet. They handle 5% of the web’s traffic every day.

• Trusted by 90,000 customers in over 140 countries.
• They serve billions of experiences every day.
• Solutions available for hobbyists and big bands.

WP Engine is a web host that is trusted by both professional bloggers and big brands like Microsoft and Gartner.

They offer premium Managed WordPress hosting. That means you can simply set up your website once with them and then forget about it. Their services are easily scalable.

All their plans offer Genesis theme framework and over 35+ Genesis Themes which would cost you over a $1000 if bought individually. They also offer free migrations from other web hosts.

All their plans come with a free CDN service and a free SSL certificate for your website.

Pros:

• Free CDN service that boosts the speed of your WordPress site.
• Trusted by brands as big as Microsoft and Gartner.
• Managed service that offers peace of mind.
• All plans come with Genesis Theme Framework and 35+ StudioPress themes.
• Free site migration service available with all plans.

Cons:

• Only 25k visits allowed on the basic plan.

Basic Plan Specs:

• One website
• 25k Visits per month
• 50GB Bandwidth
• Free CDN & SSL
• 35+ StudioPress Themes Come Free

Pricing Starts At $30 per month.

7. Kinsta

Kinsta is trusted by thousands of big brands such as Ubisoft, Intuit, and Drift.

• Trusted by big brands like FreshBooks and GE.
• Offers a free CDN and SSL with every plan.

Kinsta is the platform preferred by bloggers who are serious about business. If you are planning to up your blogging game, Kinsta should be your preferred partner.

Their managed WordPress hosting service comes with dozens of useful features and offers a free site migration. With each plan, you get a free CDN service and free SSL. You also get to choose from over 18 global data centers.

Their plans offer automatic daily backups to keep your data safe.

Pros:

• Free migration from other WordPress Hosting services.
• Free CDN service on all plans.
• 30-day money back guarantee.
• Trusted by big brands like FreshBooks and Ubisoft.
• Over 18 data center locations to choose from.

Cons:

• Only 5 GB disk space on the basic plan.

Basic Plan Specs:

• One website
• 20k Visits per month
• 5GB SSD Disk Space
• 50GB Bandwidth

Pricing Starts At $30 per month.

8. Cloudways

CloudWays makes it possible for a business to use VPS servers offered by services such as DigitalOcean and Amazon Web Services.

• Gain complete control on your website’s server.
• Choose from over 5 highly-scalable VPS service providers.

If you have ever wanted to run your website on a VPS server and gain full control over your website, Cloudways is what you have been waiting for.

They offer 24/7 support and their control panel makes it super easy for you to host your websites on a VPS server.

They don’t offer web hosting on their own servers. Instead, they allow you to use VPS servers offered by Digital Ocean and Vultr for your own websites without the technical knowledge.

Pros:

• Use fast VPS servers for your website and gain complete control of the server.
• 24/7 tech support available via live chat.
• 5 different VPS providers to choose from.
• Free SSL certificate installation.
• Free site migration offered on all plans.

Cons:

• Can be a little technical if you don’t know anything about VPS servers.

Basic Plan Specs:

• Unlimited Websites
• 25GB Disk Space
• 1TB Bandwidth
• 1GB RAM
• 24/7 technical support

Pricing Starts At $10 per month.

9. GreenGeeks

GreenGeeks serves over 30,000+ businesses and uses servers that run on Green Energy.

• The easiest way to make a contribution to green energy.
• Has been in business for 10 years.

If you want to make a contribution to preserving the environment, GreenGeeks offers you the easiest way. All their servers run on Green Energy.

Their plans are very affordable for businesses of all sizes. All their plans come with unlimited SSD disk space, unlimited email accounts, unlimited bandwidth, and unlimited hosted domains.

You also get a free domain name for your business when you sign up. When you sign up, you can ask their team to migrate your website to their servers for free.

Pros:

• Help preserve the environment with servers that use Green Energy.
• Unlimited disk space, email accounts, and bandwidth.
• Free site migration offered on all plans.
• Free domain name when you sign up.

Cons:

• Higher renewal prices.

Basic Plan Specs:

• One website
• Unlimited Disk Space
• Unlimited Bandwidth
• cPanel Control Panel
• Free website transfers

Pricing Starts At $2.95 per month.

10. HostPapa

HostPapa hosts over 500 thousand websites on their servers. They are one of the highest-rated web hosts in America.

• Hosts over 500k websites.
• Offers free website setup and domain name.

Their plans offer unlimited bandwidth and come with a free domain name when you sign up.  Their basic plan offers 100 email accounts and unlimited autoresponders.

All their plans offer free site migration and allow you to install free Let’s Encrypt SSL with just a few clicks. They offer a cPanel control panel to help you easily manage all the technical aspects of your website.

Pros:

• Install 400+ software scripts on your website with just one click.
• Unlimited bandwidth and 100GB Disk space offered on the basic plan.
• Free site migration offered on all plans.
• Get a free domain name when you sign up.
• 24/7 support available via live chat, email, and phone.

Cons:

• Higher renewal prices.

Basic Plan Specs:

• Two websites
• 100GB Disk Space
• Unlimited Bandwidth
• cPanel Control Panel
• Free site migration

Pricing Starts At $3.95 per month.

What is SSL (HTTPS)

SSL is a technology that encrypts data between the user and the server.

This secure data is safe from hackers.

Only your server and the user’s browser can decrypt the data sent back and forth.

Think of SSL like a tunnel between your website’s server and your visitors.

Having an SSL certificate installed on your website’s server displays a padlock in browsers and allows you to use HTTPS:

HTTPS not only makes your website secure but also makes it look more legitimate to your visitors and customers.

Why Security on The Web Is Important

If your website gets hacked, your customers will lose trust in your business.

Most customers will never buy anything from a business that has gotten hacked in the past.

Would you?

The stakes are high.

You need to make your website as secure as possible. And website security starts with using an SSL certificate.

Here are a few reasons why you might want to start using one:

Browsers Warn Users

If your website isn’t using an SSL certificate, browsers will show it as an untrusted website:

This is a turn-off for your website visitors.

It WILL reduce your conversion rate.

SEO

If you want more traffic from Google, you NEED to switch your site from HTTP to HTTPS.

Google wants to offer the best experience to its users.

That means, they only want to display sites that are the best.

Google made having HTTPS on your website a ranking factor a long time ago.

If your website isn’t getting much search engine traffic, not having an SSL certificate installed might be the reason.

Protect Your Users

There’s a type of attack hackers use called Man In The Middle.

Hackers create fake WiFi networks and when users connect to these fake networks, the data they send to websites get stored on the hacker’s computer.

If your website uses an SSL, all the data that your users send to your servers will be encrypted with a secret passcode that only your server and user’s browser will know.

As the hacker doesn’t have the key, he won’t be able to decrypt the data.

Payment Processors Require It

If you are using a payment processor to charge customers for your products or services on your website, you need to have an SSL certificate installed.

Your payment processor might allow you to use their services without an SSL certificate for now but they will ban your website if they find out you aren’t using one.

Why Go With a Web Host That Offers Free SSL

There are many reasons why I recommend going with a web host that provides free SSL. Here are two of the main reasons:

Reason 1: SSL Is Difficult To Install

Even for a developer, it can be very difficult to install an SSL certificate.

There’s a lot that can go wrong.

The more complex your website setup is, the more are the chances of something going wrong.

When you with a web host that offers one-click install for SSL certificates, you reduce the chances of breaking your website in the process of installing an SSL certificate.

Reason 2: SSL Certificates Are Very Expensive

You should either use a free SSL or go with an expensive one.

For anything less than $100 a year, you will only get a shared SSL certificate.

A shared certificate is as good as a free certificate.

There aren’t that many benefits of getting a paid shared SSL certificate.

The good ones that you can buy start from $500+ per year.

If you are just starting out, we recommend that you go with a web host that offers free SSL certificates.

Summary

All the web hosts on this list offer affordable web hosting services for businesses of all shapes and sizes. Whether you are just starting out or serving thousands of customers, all of these web hosts offer the right solutions you need.

Hostinger would have been listed here too if it wasn’t for the fact that Hostinger doesn’t include a free SSL certificate on all of their web hosting plans.

If you are running a WordPress blog that gets a lot of traffic, I recommend WP Engine. They offer a managed service that lets you sleep like a baby knowing that your website won’t go down.

If you are just starting out, go with BlueHost vs SiteGround. They offer the best in class support and their plans are easily affordable.

Now is the time to get free unlimited hosting with free SSL!