Facebook SSL Certificates

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Starting on October 1st, 2011, Facebook began requiring an SSL certificate for your domain when viewing your Facebook Page Application Tab.  All sites are now required to have an SSL certificate on their Joomla site to create interactive pages like the SourceCoast Facebook Page.

Please Note: An SSL certificate is not required for user authentication on your site, Likes, Comments or other things. It's only used if you want to show your site (or parts of it) inside the Facebook.com domain.

Once your SSL certificate for Facebook is installed on your site, you'll simply need to enter your new secure URL into the "Secure Tab URL". To obtain and install an SSL Certificate, we've partnered with The SSL Store in order to make the process as smooth as possible. SSL Certificates that work with Facebook can be purchased for as little as $11/year (multi-year) or $18 for just one year.

Purchasing a certificate through The SSL Store takes about 10 minutes and they have a 30-day money back guarantee.

Below are instructions on how to purchase a new SSL certificate for your site so that you can use the Facebook Page features without any issue.

Choosing The Right SSL Certificate For Your Site and Facebook

There are tons of different types of SSL Facebook Certificates available, for a huge range of prices starting from $20 or less up to thousands of dollars. It can be confusing determining which is right for your site, so we've put together a few things to consider below which should help you choose the right balance of certificate for your site versus overall cost.

RapidSSL - Cheapest Solution - Suitable for Most

Price: $18 for one year down to $11/ year for a multi-year purchase

The RapidSSL certificate is great for most sites that simply want to enable a secure connection for Facebook, and generally don't need it for site-wide operation. If you run an online store or other type of site the should rely on security, you should look into the GeoTrust or RapidSSL Wildcard certificates (see below). The RapidSSL certificate is great for your site if you:

  • Only need a certificate to enable Facebook Page Tab functionality. If you don't need it for general use of your site, this certificate should be fine.
  • Use the secure connection on your site and you have no sub-domains. The RapidSSL certificate is licensed for just one domain. Any subdomains will need their own certificate.
  • Automatically redirect www to non-www (or non-www to www). Since http://www.site.com and http://site.com are considered different domains, the certificate would only be issued for the main one of your choice. If your site loads with or without www, you may want to consider going with the GeoTrust or RapidSSL certificate

GeoTrust QuickSSL Premium - What SourceCoast Uses

Price: $79 for one year down to $63/year for a mutli-year purchase

The GeoTrust QuickSSL Premium certificate is a step up from the RapidSSL certificate. It's main benefits are that it will secure both the www and non-www version of your site. Additionally, GeoTrust is generally recognized as a 'better' provider of certificates. If you plan to use the SSL certificate on your normal site for navigation, for a few users, the fact that you're using a GeoTrust certificate may make them more comfortable with sending private information or making purchaases. The GeoTrust QuickSSL Premium certificate is for you if in addtion to the requirements for the RapidSSL certificate, you:

  • Need both www and non-www on your site to be able to run in https mode
  • Run a shop or other type of site where assuring security to your customers sensitive information is critical to your business

RapidSSL Wildcard

Price: $149 for one year down to $119/year for a mutli-year purchase

The RapidSSL Wildcard certificate is best for a site that has multiple domains that need to be secured. In addtion to all the above points, you should choose this certificate if you:

  • Need https to be enabled for the following example sites: yourdomain.com, www.yourdomain.com, secure.yourdomain.com, shop.yourdomain.com, etc