1. Commercial SSL Pricing & Specs
In partnership with Sectigo, Netcup delivers accredited commercial SSL certificates covering individual projects, wildcard domains, and vetted corporate portals:
| Certificate Type | Validation Level | Warranty | Domain Scope | Price/Month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sectigo PositiveSSL (DV) | Domain Validation (DNS/Email) | $10,000 USD | Single (domain.com + www) | €1.99/mo |
| Sectigo PositiveSSL WildcardRecommended | Domain Validation | $10,000 USD | Unlimited Subdomains (*.domain.com) | €7.99/mo |
| Sectigo Organization Validation (OV) | Business Legal Verification | $250,000 USD | Single + Dynamic Trust Seal | €5.99/mo |
| Sectigo Wildcard OV Enterprise | Business & DNS Verification | $1,000,000 USD | Unlimited Subdomains + Trust Seal | €19.99/mo |
2. Free Let’s Encrypt vs Commercial SSL
🆓 Let’s Encrypt (Best for Personal & Lightweight Apps)
- Completely Free: Automated issuance and renewal via Certbot / ACME protocols.
- 90-Day Short Lifespan: Requires dependable automated renewal cron jobs; risk of downtime if scripts fail.
- Zero Warranty: No financial compensation or insurance coverage in case of CA key breach.
- Domain Validation Only (DV): Verifies domain control only, not registered corporate identity.
🏢 Sectigo Commercial SSL (Enterprise & E-Commerce)
- Up to $1,000,000 Warranty: Backed by substantial CA insurance against unauthorized certificate issuance.
- Organization Validation (OV): Verified company legal name and DUNS number displayed in certificate details.
- Dynamic Trust Seal: Embed the recognized Sectigo Secured trust mark on checkout funnels to boost conversion.
- 1-Year Stability: Fixed 365-day validity eliminates recurring automated renewal failure points.
3. CSR Generation & Installation Workflow
Generate a 2048-bit RSA or ECC private key and Certificate Signing Request (CSR) locally on your Linux server:
# 1. Generate 2048-bit private key and CSR
openssl req -new -newkey rsa:2048 -nodes -keyout yourdomain.key -out yourdomain.csr
# 2. View generated CSR and paste into Netcup CCP activation form
cat yourdomain.csr
4. Pros, Cons & Ideal Use Cases
- E-commerce storefronts processing direct credit cards or financial transactions.
- Complex microservice infrastructures spanning dozens of subdomains (Wildcard SSL).
- B2B enterprise portals and corporate sites requiring organizational validation.
- Personal blogs, docs, and portfolio sites (free Let’s Encrypt is 100% sufficient).
- Internal development clusters and non-production staging environments.
5. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Q:Why purchase commercial SSL when Let’s Encrypt is completely free?
Commercial certificates provide three decisive advantages: financial warranty payouts against CA compromise ($10k-$1M), Organization Validation (OV) embedding verified corporate legal identities, and 99.9% compatibility with legacy clients and embedded IoT hardware.
Q:Does a Wildcard SSL (*.domain.com) protect nested subdomains like sub.api.domain.com?
No. Standard RFC wildcards secure exactly one level of subdomains (e.g. *.domain.com covers api.domain.com, but not test.api.domain.com). Multi-level subdomains require dedicated wildcards or SAN extensions.
Q:Can I install an SSL certificate purchased at Netcup on external servers (e.g. AWS or Cloudflare)?
Yes. After issuance, you can download the standard CRT, CA-Bundle, and private key components to deploy on any external Nginx, Apache, or cloud load balancer.
Markus S.
Senior Cloud Infrastructure Architect & Linux Sysadmin
Markus focuses on European cloud hosting economics, server performance optimization, and KVM virtualization. All benchmarks, setup guides, and VAT exemption procedures are verified on self-funded Netcup instances hosted in the Nuremberg datacenter (AMD EPYC hardware).
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