If you wish to protect the data that visitors submit on your website, you need an SSL certificate. The abbreviation stands for Secure Sockets Layer and this is a protocol employed to encode any information exchanged between a site and its users as to guarantee that even if an unauthorized person intercepts any data, they shall not be able to read or use it in any way. The present level of encryption makes it practically impossible to decrypt the real content, so if you have a login form of some kind or you offer products and services online and customers submit credit card information, using an SSL certificate shall be an assurance that the data is protected. Typically a dedicated IP address is needed to install an SSL, which will increase the cost to maintain your website. The additional cost may matter if you run a small online store, a non-profit organization or any other entity that does not make a big profit, so to save you the money, our cloud website hosting platform supports installing an SSL certificate on a shared server IP address, not a dedicated one.
Shared SSL IP in Hosting
A shared IP could be used for any SSL certificate, no matter if you get it from us or from a different vendor and regardless of the hosting package which you have on our end. If you acquire the SSL from us, you will come across this option on the certificate order page within your hosting CP where you can also take advantage of the 1-click automatic configuration option we offer you. If the latter is selected in the SSL order wizard, our system will install and set up everything for you via the specially configured server shared IP, therefore once you obtain and approve the SSL, there shall not be anything else to do on your end. You'll be able to save the money that you will otherwise need to pay for a dedicated IP address and the SSL will do the job in the same exact way, so any information that the website visitors submit will be encoded. The sole difference is that if you input the shared IP instead of your domain name in a browser, the site won't show up.
Shared SSL IP in Semi-dedicated Hosting
The shared IP option is available with all Linux semi-dedicated packages and the setup takes merely a couple of clicks in the hosting CP regardless if you order an SSL via our enterprise or via a third-party provider. There will not be any difference with regards to how the certificate operates or encrypts the info that your visitors submit, so your site will be protected without spending the extra cash for a dedicated IP. The one thing that'll be different is that https://the-shared-IP won't open your site, unlike https://the-dedicated-IP, but it's quite unlikely that anyone shall ever try to access your internet site in this way as opposed to entering your domain name. We also offer an auto-configuration option for the SSLs purchased through our company and if you select it and you opt to use a shared IP address instead of a dedicated one, our system will set everything up the minute the SSL is approved and issued with no need for any action on your end.