Having an SSL certificate helps keep your site secure and improve the trust of your visitors. But to start using SSL, you need to buy one. Only a few services issue certificates for free.

If you want to connect a certificate to yours for free without spending a lot of money on it, here are a few ways to get SSL for free.

ZeroSSL
You can get a free SSL certificate in just a few minutes with ZeroSSL. The certificate is completely free and valid for 90 days, then you can renew again and use it for free.

You can renew the certificate manually. But if you don’t want to do it all the time, you can automate the whole process with a special ACME (ZeroSSL Bot) or use different ACME clients.

ZeroSSL provides up to 3 certificates for free, and if you need more, you will have to choose a plan to get unlimited certificates and other useful features. The service provides wildcards, multi-domain certificates and API access.

Let’s Encrypt
The most popular issuing center for free SSL/TLS certificates is Let’s Encrypt. You can use the certificate for free for 90 days, after which you need to renew it with the API or by using one of the available ACME clients. The most preferred client is Cerbot, which automatically creates and installs certificates without requiring you to stop the server, is easy to use, works on most operating systems, and is well documented.

SSL
SSL.com offers free SSL for 90 days. This is suitable if you want to understand how SSL works, or use it for some short-term projects.

These basic certificate authorities will help you get free SSL for your site and set it up for automatic updates.