SSL Encryption is crucial for the encrypted internet. We have supported strong encryption and modern ciphers since our startup, and the large majority of sites on Servebolt have been securely encrypted ever since.
Servebolt supports many flavours of SSL certificates and encryption. In addition to selling several flavours of certificates, like multi-domain, wildcard, EV and regular certificates, we also provide free solutions.
Check your certificate with SSL Labs
You can test your SSL configuration using the online tool from SSL Labs. On Servebolt, your setup should deliver A or A+ results, indicating that the setup is modern and secure.
SSL and Performance
Traditionally SSL had a hard impact on page load time. This is largely resolved in HTTP/2, where added connection setup time is countered by multiplexing and faster delivery of all page assets. This means that encrypted websites running modern protocols, accessed from modern devices, run faster than they did un-encrypted on HTTP/1.
On the server side, encryption has an added cost. Encryption takes time, and how expensive the encryption is in terms of CPU resources depends on the bit size of the encryption keys, and the type of algorithm used, for example traditional RSA or modern elliptic curve ECDSA.
Sectigo SSL Certificates
We offer Sectigo SSL certificates with an operational guarantee, 1 year validity and also available as wild-card certificates. These certificates can be ordered with with one click from any site on any Bolt. Navigate to the site. On the next screen, you find the <domains> section where you’ll find an overview of the domains you’ve added to the Site. Click on the SSL Settings option below the <domains> section in the Control Panel.
Free SSL on all testing domains
Every Bolt has its own unique default testing domain name. These domains are delivered out of the box with SSL enabled, totally free of charge.
Free SSL with Servebolt CDN
Servebolt CDN offers – alongside a powerful enterprise-grade global CDN, a web application firewall (WAF) – a free SSL certificate. We recommend Servebolt CDN as the best solution to add a free SSL certificate to your site. Read more in the Servebolt CDN announcement post.
Free Let’s Encrypt Certificates
Our users have been asking for free Let’s Encrypt certificates since it was first launched. Because of our custom tech stack, and for performance reasons, we have had to plan a Free SSL offering so that it does not limit performance, and affect performance and scalability negatively.
Let’s Encrypt is still a Beta feature, and can be installed on request by reaching out to Servebolt Support.
Free Self-signed Certificates
Self-signed certificates can be generated for any domain free of charge. They provide the same level of security as other SSL certificates, but post a browser warning which makes them unusable for public website usage. They are however useful to secure internal and API-endpoints, or if your website is running behind a reverse proxy, for example like a CDN.
SSL on Proxy CDNs
When using services like Cloudflare or Sucuri, the CDN edge is the user facing connection point. It is still important though, to encrypt the connection from the CDN to the origin server. Certificates on the origin server can either be signed certificates, or self-signed certificates. The latter provides the same level of encryption, but the validation of the issuer can be ignored in private setups.
If you have any questions about how you should set up and configure your encrypted solution, we are happy to assist you making the right decisions. Talk to us on the site chat!