Running and growing a successful website – be it a food blog or an online learning platform – will be challenging enough even if you don’t have to think about security. But putting security second is not usually an option. And the more information you request from your website visitors, the more urgent the security issue becomes.
Over the last few years, adding an SSL certificate to your WordPress website has emerged as one of the most accepted ways to add an extra layer of security to it. And since this is WordPress, you know that there is one or several plugins that allow you to do anything on your website. Adding SSL to your website is no exception.
In this article we will consider:
SSL, short for “secure socket layer”, is a technology that encrypts the connection between your website and website visitors’ browsers. This means that any data transferred over that connection will be difficult for anyone else to see and will be reasonably safe from various attacks.
Websites with SSL add an “s” to HTTP in front of their website. This means that the normal Hypertext Transfer Protocol, the basic communication protocol that we cannot imagine the internet without, has become the Secure Hypertext Transfer Protocol.
When you get an SSL certificate, you get something called TLS – transport layer security. There is some confusion about this because TLS is the successor to SSL, but the term “SSL” is so widely used that people just can’t get away with it even if they talk about TLS. It is also possible to see the abbreviation SSL/TLS. They all refer to the same thing and their role is to keep your website and its visitors safe.
Encryption is an important layer of security for your website, especially if you use it to get some type of information from your website visitors.. If they leave their email address or password, using an SSL certificate makes it difficult for anyone outside of your website and the visitor’s browser to see this information.
The more important the information you ask, the more important it becomes to have SSL, you can imagine. It would be negligent beyond any measure to ask people to provide their credit card numbers when you ask for them, at least without an SSL to protect that information. You are not doing this in this time and age.
Another reason to have SSL is if you don’t, your website could be flagged as not secure even if you don’t want valuable or personal information. Browsers will notify their users when they see a website that is not SSL protected, leaving no doubt that it is not as secure as it could be. At the very least, adding SSL can increase trust, and that’s something you can never have enough of.
There are several different ways to get an SSL certificate. However, you should know that most of the time you will need an SSL certificate before using the actual plugin to add it to your website. There aren’t many plugins that will get the certificate and install it for you.
People usually get their SSL certificates through their hosting provider or directly from Certificate Authorities. Getting this from the host can come with the added benefit of having it installed and configured, though not every time. You can also get one for free from a Certificate Authority such as: Let’s encrypt.
Either way, if you find yourself with a website that needs a certificate and security, it may be up to you to add and set it all up on your website. That’s when these plugins can come in handy.
Really Simple SSL
The most popular SSL plugin on WordPress.org, Really Simple SSL It can have over five million active installs and a five-star rating from over six thousand users. This plugin is lightweight and has few options but as long as you remember to provide the SSL Certificate it will get the job done.
From there, the plugin will take care of most things. It will clear all WordPress messes with SSL, make sure all upcoming requests are forwarded to https, replace siteurl and homeurl, replace http URLs with https.
You can also choose to get the professional version of the plugin, which will allow you to do some additional interesting things. For example, if you need to enable HTTP Strict Transport Security or configure your website for the HSTS preload list, the professional edition might be just what you’re looking for.
SSL Zen
Some plugins will do their work with as little input from you as possible. Others will have you do at least some of the work yourself. SSL Zen it will do both depending on the type of version you get.
In the free version, You will get https redirects, fix site and home page URLs and replace regular URLs with https URLs.. However, you need to provide the Certificate, verify your domain, install the Certificate and make sure you update it.
Upgrading to the premium version of the plugin will automate all this stuff. Everything will start happening at the push of a button and you will have more awesome features to use for your website. You will get spam and brute force protection, blocking various known attack types and much more.
WP Forced SSL and HTTPS Redirect
When it comes to lightweight plugins that keep their options to a minimum and just do the job they were built for, WP Forced SSL and HTTPS Redirect as good as it gets. With only two settings within the plugin, it won’t give you much to do.
Except for getting the certificate and installing it, because it’s not covered by this plugin. After installing your certificate you can trust it to test it, it’s a great and useful feature and it will automatically redirect traffic to your website to https. It also lets you enable HTTP Strict Transport Security.
The addon has no paid plans.
Free SSL Certificate Plugin for WordPress
Here’s a plugin that needs some introduction other than listing its full name: Free SSL Certificate Plugin for WordPress – Auto Install Free SSL, Force HTTPS Redirect. Right off the bat, you know exactly what you’re doing.
The plugin automatically issues an SSL Certificate to your website. He will install it and renew it when the time comes. Once this is done you can use the plugin to force SSL activation.this is just another way of saying that the plugin will take care of anything that needs to be taken care of before saying it is protected by an SSL Certificate.
A deeper dive into the plugin’s features, for example, shows that it doesn’t work with Windows hosting, but rather limited to Linux. It lets you choose how often you want to renew your certificate and also the key length of the SSL Certificate. Moreover, it does all this without paying a single penny.
WP Encryption
Another plugin with a long name, WP Encryption – One Click Free SSL Certificate and SSL/HTTPS Redirect to Fix Insecure Content equally different from the list mate called the descriptor: It offers two different user experiences depending on the version you choose.
In the free version, you have to do many things yourself. Domain verification, Certificate installation and renewal are things you have to do manually with the free version. But forcing HTTPS is done automatically. The mixed content scanner can also come in handy for identifying what content on your website might be making your website appear unsafe.
Professional features take most of the work out of your hands. The pro version provides Wildcard SSL support, multi-site support, CDN access for annual plans, and lots of blocking rules, in addition to automating what you had to do manually before.
Let’s wrap it up!
An SSL Certificate is one of the best ways to add some security to your website, not only because it works, but also because it’s remarkable. There is nothing better than a trust signal that really does its job. For installing an SSL certificate on a WordPress website using a plugin, you’ll notice that the offering is good, but a mixed bag of different services and price points. Your best bet would be to find something that fits your budget, level of expertise, and amount of free time, and then make sure you keep up with these Certification renewals!
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