Free SSL for your website (AutoSSL)

Every cPanel account on our hosting gets a free SSL certificate through cPanel's AutoSSL. It is issued and renewed automatically; there is nothing to order and nothing to install.

When it is issued

AutoSSL can only issue a certificate for a domain that already resolves to the server, because the certificate authority checks the domain over the internet. So:

1. Point the domain at your hosting (see Point your domain at your hosting).
2. Wait for the nameserver change to spread, usually a few hours.
3. AutoSSL runs on its own schedule on the server. To trigger it sooner, open cPanel (Log in to cPanel), go to SSL/TLS Status, tick your domain and press Run AutoSSL.

The padlock appears once the certificate is in place. Certificates renew by themselves before they expire, as long as the domain keeps pointing at the server.

If the padlock does not appear

• The domain still points elsewhere, or only partly (for example www points at another host). Check both the bare domain and www.
• The site loads images or scripts over plain http://. Browsers then show a warning even with a valid certificate; change those addresses to https:// in your site.
• The domain uses another DNS provider with a proxy in front (for example Cloudflare's orange cloud). AutoSSL may then be unable to validate; use that provider's certificate instead, or switch the proxy off while it validates.

Forcing HTTPS

Once the certificate exists, cPanel's Domains page has a Force HTTPS Redirect switch per domain, so every visitor is sent to the secure address.