GoDaddy offers an SSL Certificate product for $20 called a TurboSSL. I’ve used this certificate on several occasions, but not without difficulties. Before you buy one thinking this is a great deal, remember that there’s a Dark Side to this product, which is why I would recommend staying away from them for your mainline projects.

Typically, a certificate from a trusted source will set you back $120-$250 bones a year. That’s a lot for what is ostensibly a hash of numbers. But this is an industry that is not quite commoditized yet. For one, you want to use a certificate from a trusted source such as Thawte, Verisign, or GeoTrust. These companies have root certificates installed in every shipping browser and the products you buy from them work out of the box, so to speak.

Secondly, the importance of solid customer service shouldn’t be underestimated. This is a concern especially around renewal time or if you change servers.

For these two reasons, I do not recommend TurboSSL from GoDaddy. The product is actually resold and managed by a company by Starfield Tech. Never heard of them? Neither had I until I had to deal with some technical issues. I’ll spare you the details, but their customer service is among the worst I’ve encountered and could be summed up by “you’re on your own, buddy.” I guess you get what you pay for.

The other concern with TurboSSL is that it is not based on a root certificate. It depends, instead, on something called an Intermediate Certificate. This dependency means that in almost every circumstance, installation is going to involve some difficulty. Now, most of the hosting companies I’ve come across will install this intermediate certificate free of charge, but this is a big pain in the ass for all involved and should be something to consider.

[For detailed installation instructions of a GoDaddy TurboSSL certificate, click here].

Are there circumstances in which the TurboSSL cert makes sense? Sure. If you have a low-budget or low-traffic application, it makes sense. The certificate, once installed, is perfectly fine. It’s a 256-bit AES encrypted cert as good as any of the others. It also makes sense if you’re in a prolonged development cycle and want to hold off on an expensive cert. And if you have root access to your own server, this product is relatively easy to install.

But the customer service issues and difficulty in dealing with the intermediate certificate are big ones. Big enough that I recommend that you stay away from the TurboSSL certificate in most circumstances.

[Note: As surprising as this may be, Danica Patrick, to my knowledge, has never visited StringFoo.com, nor does she endorse this site or condone my rantings. Danica, if I'm wrong, please leave a comment below...]

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This entry was posted on Saturday, June 23rd, 2007 at 6:10 am and is filed under Tips & Tricks . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.