InstantSSL?

Anybody using InstantSSL, or know of any reasons not to use them?

I've always used Thawte certs in the past, but I was considering Geotrust. Then, I was reading through the Knowledge Base and came across this user comment:

From: https://panel.dreamhost.com/kbase/index.cgi?area=146&keyword=instantssl


-- QUOTE --
Before choosing QuickSSL, you may want to have a look at:
http://www.whichssl.com/faq/compatibility.html
http://www.whichssl.com/faq/contents.html and
http://www.whichssl.com/faq/index.html

InstantSSL comes with a $2500 insurance for a mere $69/year and it does not have the "org not validated" problems of GeoTrust. Check them out at: http://www.instantssl.com/products/ssl.html

Now if you still want to go with GeoTrust, the cheapest place I found for their QuickSSL certificate is through RackShack.net for $49/year. I don't think there's any problem getting it through them to use on DreamHost. http://www.rackshack.net/english/quickssldetails.asp
[snip]
-- END QUOTE --


InstantSSL seems to look a little better on the compatibility chart and is much cheaper.

Well, cheaper unless that $49 Geotrust @ Rack Shack is a real deal. Can that be real? I don't think I've seen them under $139 anywhere else--not that I looked very hard.

So, any reason to use Geotrust over InstantSSL? Thawte over both?

At this point, I think I'm leaning towards InstantSSL, unless I find a reason to avoid it.

Thanks for any input! ;)

You know you're bored when you reply to your own posts. ;)

I ended up going with InstantSSL -- great deal and a big discount for paying for more than one year.

I filled out the app at night and the cert was ready when I woke up in the morning.

At first, I got the trust warning because certs/adjustments had to be made on DH's end, but DH support quickly straightened that out (Thanks Ralph!).

For those that would rather go with Geotrust, that Rackshack $49 deal seems to be the real thing and a popular choice for buying Geotrust certs. Now that I think about it though, that price probably doesn't apply to renewals... so it might only be cheap for one year.

InstantSSL is censored out of the webhostingtalk.com forums, since they apparently had a few spam problems with one of their resellers (and constant bickering with Geotrust employees)... but you still find a lot of recommendations for them and no real complaints about their cert, prices, service, etc...

Plus, I was under the impression that Rackshack (the Geotrust seller) owns those forums, so I guess they'd be more tolerant of Geotrust than the competitors.

In any case, my main reason for going with instantSSL was browser compatibility, but price sure didn't hurt anything either.

For what it's worth, we have a client who uses one of GeoTrust's more expensive products, the TrueSite ID. He gets around 100 orders a day and hasn't mentioned any compatibility issues with his customers. Does anyone know if GeoTrusts QuickSSL has the same browser compatibility as the TrueSite ID? If so, I'd say that offers "enough" compatibility for our purposes and would be a good choice given the ease of setup.

I'm glad the InstantSSL is working for you, though!

It looks like their products are all the same as far as browser compatibility goes.

InstantSSL is listed for IE 5 & up whereas Geotrust is 5.01 & up. Plus InstantSSL also covers Opera 5 - 6.5, but I believe both cover the newest versions.

I believe only Thawte & Verisign cover IE 4 and NS versions older than 4.5.

It's not really a big deal... but there are still a lot of people using the older stuff.

Another plus would be that InstantSSL certs don't have the "Organization not validated" message in them, like Geotrust. That might just be with the Quick SSL--not the more expensive ones.

> For those that would rather go with Geotrust,
> that Rackshack $49 deal seems to be the real
> thing and a popular choice for buying Geotrust
> certs. Now that I think about it though, that
> price probably doesn't apply to renewals... so
> it might only be cheap for one year.

That's right. You don't renew the certificate, you just install another new one at the end of a year.

> Plus, I was under the impression that Rackshack
> (the Geotrust seller) owns those forums, so I
> guess they'd be more tolerant of Geotrust than
> the competitors.

They are actually separate companies, but Robert Marsh is at the head of both companies, so that's a minor quibble.

I don't see any more evidence of a "home court advantage" there than here.

DreamHost allows criticism of DreamHost to appear here, and it works to their advantage. It's sorta like, "Yeah, we're not perfect, but we're trying, and we're good, and we're *honest* with our customers" That's *exactly* what a lot of customers are looking for.

And RackShack pretty much works on the same principle.