How to install a free SSL certificate

Installation of a free SSL is available from your control panel.

DirectAdmin

1. Go to your client area to the “Services” section and click the “Login to Direct Admin” button;
2. The Direct Admin panel will be opened. Go to the “Account Manager” section and click the “SSL certificates” button;
3. Choose a domain you want to install an SSL certificate for in the top menu bar;
4. Select the Free & automatic certificate from Let’s Encrypt. It is free and trusted by all modern browsers. Also, it will renew itself automatically every 3 months, so you don’t have to worry about it.
   Common Name – your certificate’s main domain name. It is enough to leave here your domain name;
   Wildcard – this certificate will be installed on your domain and all of its subdomains if this option is enabled;
   Key Size (bits) – the longer the key size, the strongest the protection;
   Certificate Type – the encryption algorithm. SHA1 is an old and insecure algorithm. It is not trusted by browsers since 2014. Pick SHA256;
   Selected entries – select your domain hosts and subdomains you want to install the certificate.
5. Once you click the green “Save” button, your certificate settings will be applied instantly;
6. You can also see the “Force SSL with https redirect” option at the bottom of this page. Hit this checkbox and click “Save” next to it for your site to be instantly redirected to secure https:// protocol.

cPanel

1. To install a free SSL certificate with auto-renewal, you need to first activate free SSL certificates. To activate it, go to your client area to “Services” -> Manage -> SSL-certificate -> AutoSSL -> Install. After clicking “Install”, go to cPanel -> SSL/TLS Status -> Select needed domains -> Run AutoSSL. The certificate will be installed within 1 hour for all domains hosted on the service.

To set the https redirect, you need to add the following code to the .htaccess file:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} =off 
RewriteRule (.*) https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [QSA,L]

ISPmanager

1. Go to your client area to the “Services” section and click the “Login to ISPmanager” button;
2. The ISPmanager panel will be opened. Go to the section “WWW – SSL certificates”;
3. To install a free SSL certificate from Let’s Encrypt with automatic renewal, click the “Let’s Encrypt” button, select a domain from the drop-down list and click the “Ok” button.
4. To activate the certificate, you need to connect it to the WWW-domain. To do this, go to the “WWW domains” section, select the domain and click the “Edit” button. Next, select the added certificate in the “SSL certificate” field;
5. You can also see the “Redirect HTTP-requests to HTTPS” option. Hit this checkbox and click “Ok” next to it for your site to be instantly redirected to secure https:// protocol.