What is a Wildcard SSL certificate?

This article will explain the difference between a regular and Wildcard SSL certificate.

Wildcard SSL certificates are very similar to regular SSL certificates, in that they both secure your website for visitors to safely browse.

The only difference is that, while regular certificates can only secure one domain, Wildcard certificates can secure the main domain as well as an unlimited number of subdomains, since they allow you to insert an asterisk before the domain name.

For example, a wildcard SSL certificate that has been issued to *yourwebsite.co.uk can also secure subdomains such as www.yourwebsite.co.uk, mail.yourwebsite.co.uk and store.coolexample.com. Similarly, a wildcard SSL certificate that has been issued to *.www.yourwebsite.co.uk can also secure subdomains such as mail.www.yourwebsite.co.uk and info.www.yourwebsite.co.uk.

The benefit of this is that you will save far more time and money than buying a separate SSL certificate for each subdomain.

Please note: Wildcard SSL certificates cannot use extended validation, which is why we do not offer Extended Wildcard SSL certificates on our website.