Differences Between Wildcard SSL vs SAN SSL Certificate
Orginally published — https://bit.ly/2JTRspk
Are you still unsure that which Multi use SSL Certificate suited for your website? So here we have come up with the difference between Wildcard SSL vs SAN SSL Certificate in detail which is easy to understand. So find out which multi-domain certificate & wildcard is better for your needs.
Wildcard SSL Certificate
Wildcard SSL is more sophisticated. It is used by businesses to secure the main domain along with multiple subdomains under a single SSL certificate.
Consider the previous example. Suppose you need to add subdomains to www.xyz.com. You can go ahead and add login.xyz.com, mail.xyz.com and any other subdomain to a single wildcard SSL certificate. The difference between a single domain SSL and a wildcard SSL is that the wildcard SSL has a prefix ‘*’ known as the wildcard character which is added to the domain name. So ‘*’ could be ‘mail’ or ‘login’ or ‘ftp’ or anything else. In fact, the number of such subdomains can be unlimited. What is also interesting is that you don’t have to reissue the SSL certificate when adding a new subdomain.
SAN SSL Certificate
SAN (Subject Alternative Name) SSL is another term used for multi-domain SSL. As the name suggests, SAN lets the website owner secure multiple domains as well as subdomains under a single certificate. It is evident that the biggest difference between wildcard and SAN SSL is that SAN can help you protect multiple primary domains while wildcard cannot. SAN is also called UCC (Unified Communications Certificate).
Let’s consider our example again. Suppose there’s a combination of different main domains and subdomains, such as www.xyz.com, mail.xyz.com, mail.xyz.net etc. SAN SSL covers all these in a single certificate.
Unlike wildcard SSL, SAN requires the website owner to define the domains and subdomains when the certificate is being issued. If one wants to add a domain or subdomain at a later time, the certificate needs to be reissued.
Conclusion
In this analogy, we notice that while SAN and wildcard have their differences, they’re also similar in that they make it easier for the owner to install and manage the certificates. They’re both cost-effective and brilliant replacements for traditional SSL certificates. If you own a growing business in need of a cheap wildcard or SAN SSL, head to the coupons we’ve given you right away!
