Extended Validation (EV) SSL Certificates

What is an EV SSL certificate?

An Extended Validation (EV) SSL Certificate is the ultimate confirmation in the mind of online customers that a website is secure and safe to use. It ensures the highest level of trust by offering exclusive, premium features available only to officially registered companies.

As soon as a someone enters your site, the EV SSL certificates together with the SSL padlock send a few important messages to your visitors:

1. An authentic and professional company operates the website.
2. The website in question employs advanced encryption to protect sensitive data.
3. Browsing and shopping is safe

Such transparency and web security measures improve conversions and keep your customers happy.

Besides offering high-end encryption, EV SSL Certificates also protect your business from damaging phishing attacks. A cyber-threat like this, may destroy your hard-earned reputation and bring trouble. In a typical phishing attack, a hacker uses your business credentials to spread malware via email. With an EV certificate, this trick is likely to fail, as customers will recognize the genuine website from the fake one.

How Does EV SSL Work?

Depending on your encryption needs, an EV SSL Certificate can secure one domain (Single Domain EV SSL), multiple domains (Multi-Domain EV SSL), and even software and applications (EV Code Signing SSL). Extended Validation certificates can protect both the bare version of your website (e.g., yoursite.com) and the “www” version of your main domain (e.g., www.yoursite.com).

You will find this feature in most of the EV products, but certain EV certs will secure only the exact name you put in your CSR (Certificate Signing Request). If you include www.yoursite.com, the yoursite.com version will remain unprotected. You’ll need to redirect all the traffic to the HTTPS domain. Make sure you check your certificate’s specs, before submitting the CSR to the CA.

A regular, Single Domain Extended Validation certificate will enable EV across all your pages such as yoursite.com/blog, yoursite.com/store, yoursite.com/checkout, etc. If you want to enable EV to several websites, then opt for a versatile Multi-Domain EV SSL certificate.

Benefits of Extended Validation Certificates

Extended Validation Certificates bring exclusive advantages to your website and help you gain a competitive edge in your niche. Below we’ve listed the all the EV SSL benefits:

The highest possible level of customer trust

As online users become more aware of cyber-threats, the EV SSL is a powerful security indicator that almost everyone knows and trusts. With an EV SSL certificate by your side, no one will ever question your security standards. Moreover, your visitors will browse and shop with confidence.

Premium features at affordable pricing

Cheap EV SSL Certificates are not a myth. The likes of Sectigo pride themselves in offering affordable Extended Validation products for companies of all sizes. Sectigo EV SSL Certificates will bring your website the same advanced encryption and extra features at a friendly price. Unless you want to secure a huge system or a financial institution, a Sectigo EV cert is a perfect addition to your site.

State of the Art encryption

All EV SSL Certificates follow the latest levels of encryption and security protocols irrespective of type, brand and price. The 256-bit certificate encryption and the 2048 key encryption are more than enough to keep even the brightest hackers away from your site. Breaking the SSL encryption is beyond human capabilities.

Great Compatibility

Extended Validation SSL Certificates work on 99.3% of web browsers. Even if your visitors use older browsers versions, the EV SSL cert will display the company info, and secure sensitive information. You can configure them on all the popular server platforms and email clients. EV certificates also run smoothly on Android, Windows, and OS apps and browsers.

Powerful Features to boost credibility

All EV SSL certificates include static or dynamic site seals to further improve customer trust. You can place the seal anywhere on your website and watch as traffic and conversions grow. For your peace of mind, the EV certificates also contain a generous SSL warranty against fraudulent issuance and data breach.

Multi-Domain EV SSL Certificates

Multi-Domain EV SSL Certificates secure multiple domains under a single SSL installation.

A sole multi-domain cert can handle up to 250 websites. You need to install and renew it just once. Imagine how much time and money you can save. Instead of buying separate certificates for each site and spending hours on configuration, you can get a multi-domain EV SSL cert and keep your security workload to a minimum.

Code Signing EV SSL Certificates

Extended Validation Code Signing certificates provide the utmost security to your customers and protect the authenticity and reputation of your digital products. They digitally sign downloadable goods such as scripts, codes, and software, and also stop malicious attackers from altering them.

Just like the regular SSL certificates protect the sensitive data traveling between browsers and websites, Code Signing EV SSL Certificates ensure that your digital content is genuine and safe to use. If you don’t include a Code Signing cert into your software, it will show as “Unknown Publisher” to the user. With such uncertainty, no one will want to use the program.

Why no Wildcard EV SSL?

If you’re wondering why you can’t find an Extended Validation Wildcard SSL certificate in our wide range of EV SSL products, we have the answer. Since Wildcard certs can secure unlimited subdomains, Wildcard EV SSL would require a long and expensive verification process, which the leading CAs can’t afford. But it’s not only about time and money; security-wise, EV Wildcard certificates would be vulnerable to man-in-the-middle attacks, especially if one Wildcard certificate was assigned to hundreds of subdomains.

The EV SSL Certificates excel in their current state. Adding the EV option to Wildcard certificates will devalue EV products, and make the whole SSL industry less secure.