Dev & engineering · free calculator
SSL/TLS certificate cost comparison
Compare SSL certificate options — free (Let's Encrypt, ACM), paid DV ($), OV ($$), EV ($$$) — across N domains over 3 years.
Total cost over horizon
Show the work
- Annual cost$200
- Renewals required3
- Per domain / year$40
SSL/TLS — when free is enough, when it isn't
For 95% of websites, free SSL (Let's Encrypt or AWS Certificate Manager) is the right answer. The 5% that benefits from paid certs are specific:
- E-commerce checkout pages (the green-bar EV cert sometimes lifts conversion ~3-7%)
- Compliance environments (PCI-DSS, HIPAA may require certain CA types)
- Embedded devices (some appliances don't trust newer free CAs)
The free options
- Let's Encrypt: free, 90-day validity, automated renewal via certbot. Trusted by every browser. The default for new web projects.
- AWS ACM: free for use with ELB / CloudFront / API Gateway. Automated renewal. Cannot export private key (so can't use on EC2 directly without CloudFront in front).
When paid certs are worth it
- Higher trust visualization: green address bar (EV cert) on premium e-commerce
- Insurance-backed warranties: $1M-1.75M warranty backing the cert (matters for some compliance frameworks)
- Manual issuance with custom validation: paid CAs validate organization, not just domain
- Wildcard convenience: cover *.example.com with a single cert
What this calc misses
- ACM is free for AWS-fronted services but paid IF you use ACM Private CA ($400/mo per CA)
- Many CDNs (Cloudflare, Vercel) bundle TLS in their plans — no separate cost
- Operational time saved by Let's Encrypt automation vs paid cert renewal pain (often 4-8 hrs/yr per domain)
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