Free SSL/TLS Certificates at DreamHost with Let’s Encrypt

Let’s Encrypt is at the forefront of an internet sea change. Firefox and Chromium are both proposing the deprecation of unencrypted HTTP, which means that any user of your website will see a warning unless you have a TLS certificate. HTTP/2 supports unencrypted connections, but as of yet, no one has implemented them. Then, of course, there is the looming Nation State Actor that happens to be maintaining surveillance over a large portion of online communication. Naturally, in November of 2014, when I heard about Let’s Encrypt trying to change TLS certificate landscape, I was really excited, and I wanted DreamHost to be a part of this development.

We have a bit of a history here at DreamHost with trying to level the TLS playing field for customers. So an opportunity to bring that cost down to zero and have the certificates renew automagically was completely in line with our values. This isn’t just a technical win for customers, it’s a moral win for the internet at large. We saw not only an opportunity to help customers offer their users a more secure experience, but also an opportunity for DreamHost to help increase TLS adoption on the Internet through a partnership with Let’s Encrypt.

Last year, at DefCon 23, I was embarrassed to see an article in DreamHost’s wiki used as an example of how TLS is still frustratingly difficult to set up. I personally talked to Yan after the talk was over to accelerate collaboration between DreamHost and Let’s Encrypt. After that, we started working on implementing the ACME protocol and tying it all together with our panel to make the process as seamless as possible for customers. Later last year at 32c3, DreamHost was mentioned again at a Let’s Encrypt panel, but this time as one of the partners they were working with, which was a welcome change to say the least. We’d like to thank the Let’s Encrypt team for their assistance in helping us integrate with their services; they’ve been fantastic to work with.

Let’s Encrypt is still in beta, thus our support for them is beta as well, so there may be a snag here or there, but if you find one, just let us know by contacting our support team! You can submit a ticket or request a callback or LiveChat, and our team will be happy to assist you.

With that said, we’re excited to support Let’s Encrypt and by extension support the increased security of the Internet at large. We hope you’re excited too — log into your panel today and get a free TLS certificate.

Let’s Encrypt!