Does Hostgator Offer Free SSL Certificate | How To Install It?

Are you curious to know about Does Hostgator offer free SSL or not?

If you’re going to start a blog with Hostgator you must think about whether they provide you a free SSL certificate for your blog or not.

Because SSL is a very important thing to all websites as they build trust between you and your audience.

If you want to rank on Google you just need to add an SSL certificate to your website as it is one of the ranking factors in Google.

So, In this article you will know about Hostgator offer free SSL or not and I will also give you a discount code that gives you 65% off on web hosting plans from Hostgator.

So, without further ado let’s get started.

Does Hostgator Offer Free SSL?

The answer to your question is Yes, Hostgator offer free SSL certificate to all of your domains and subdomains. 

If you have hosted your website on Hostgator, you can get Hostgator SSL for free without any extra charge.

As you can see below, Hostgator free SSL is included in all the hosting packages.

Here are the Hostgator hosting plans that offer an SSL certificate which you can install with a single click:

1. Shared Hosting
2. Managed WordPress Hosting
3. VPS Hosting
4. Dedicated Hosting
5. Reseller Hosting

And so on.

What Is SSL Certificate?

Before going further let’s discuss what is SSL and the benefits of having an SSL certificate on your website.

The SSL means Secure Socket Layer which provides security to your website.

If your hosting package includes a free SSL certificate that provides security for your website domains & subdomains by encrypting communications between the server and visitors to your website.

After installing an SSL certificate on your website, your website starts showing HTTPS instead of HTTP in the address bar.

It uses strong 2048 bit signatures and provides up to 256-bit encryption of customer data along with 99.9% browser recognition.

Benefits of SSL certificate:

• Protect your data from being stolen.
• Improve the security of your website.
• Prevent your website from hacking attempts.
• SSL certificate improves your website performance.
• It’s a Google ranking factor.
• Improve customer trust.

Which Type of SSL Does Hostgator Offer?

There are different types of SSL certificates available with different functionalities and security. 

When you log in to your hosting account you can see different types of SSL options.

Hostgator offers paid SSL certificates also for additional features as well as free SSL certificates.

The free SSL is provided by Let’s Encrypt which is a non-profit authority that has already provided more than 260 million certificates so far.

You can use your free SSL certificate on your website by the below-mentioned steps.

How To Install Free SSL Certificate in Hostgator

Installing a free SSL certificate in Hostgator hosting account is not a tough task. It is an automated process.

This only applies to the new hosting accounts.

If your domain name is not purchased through Hostgator then the first thing you need to do is to point your domain to Hostgator.

You don’t need to do anything If your domain name is already pointed to your hosting account. You may just look at the SSL panel to see if SSL is enabled and active.

Here are the steps to check and Install free SSL to the Hostgator account:

Step 1: First, log in to your hosting portal.

Step 2: After landing on your Hostgator dashboard, click on the hosting option on the left side menu.

Step 3: Here, you will see the complete list of hosting packages you have. Click on the hosting package where you want to manage your Hostgator Free SSL and click on the manage button.

Step 4: You can see all add-ons services there. Click on manage under SSL management.

Step 5: This will lead you to a different page where you can view a list of domain names as well as whether or not the SSL certificate is active. It will inform you what sort of certificate you have and what status it is in.

It signifies your SSL is active if it says Let’s Encrypt certificate and it displays active. If the auto-renew toggle is off, turn it on to enable the let’s Encrypt SSL certificate.

You don’t need to do anything if you added a new domain and it shows a pending option there. It will take 2 days to complete. 

After two days it will show active status, if it still showing pending then you need to contact the support team.

How To Activate SSL Certificate in WordPress?

After the above process if your website still not showing HTTPS then you don’t need to worry about it.

The Free SSL doesn’t automatically force HTTPS onto the domain or subdomain. It needs to be activated manually. This may be done by modifying the .htaccess file to require HTTPS on all pages.

However, if you’re a WordPress user, you can do this by installing a plugin called Really Simple SSL available in the WordPress directory.

Once I was also using this plugin to enable HTTPS for my blog.

This is the most simple way to activate SSL on your WordPress website. Just follow the below mentioned steps:

Step 1: Click on the Plugins>add new button and type Really Simple SSL in the search box.

Step 2: Install and activate the plugin.

Step 3: After activating the plugin, a window popup saying “Activate SSL” just click on it.

Quick Note: Before activating SSL, make sure to take a backup of your website. Sometimes it causes some issues in some rare cases. 

After clicking on ‘activate SSL’ your SSL certificate gets installed properly.

Hostgator Coupon Code

As I mentioned above, I will give you a coupon code that gives you a 65% discount on all your HostGator hosting plans.

Use our promo code ‘NEWATWPBB’ to get a 65% discount on hosting plans + a free domain and SSL certificate for one year.

You can click on this special link to land on the Hostgator official website, after filling in all details jump on the coupon section where one coupon has already been applied.

You can remove that coupon code and enter our coupon code for the maximum discount on Hostgator hosting plans.

I recommend you purchase the hosting for a maximum period to avoid high renewal charges.

Also Read:

• Hostgator Hatching vs Baby Plan Review
• Hostgator Baby vs Business Plan Review
• Does Hostgator Charge Monthly?
• How To Install WordPress in Hostgator?

Final Words on Does Hostgator Offer Free SSL

I hope, I cover every single detail about Does Hostgator offer free SSL or not. You will get lots of benefits with Hostgator hosting such as free domain, free SSL, unlimited bandwidth, and so on.

If you’ve not created a website with Hostgator, Here is my detailed guide on how to start a blog with Hostgator.

So what are your thoughts on our Does Hostgator offer free SSL? Did you find it helpful? Are you going to give it a try? Have any questions? Let us know in the comments.