There are several options for securing your site with HTTPS, and not all of them are the same. Cloudflare and Let’s Encrypt are both free options available to secure your website with HTTPS.
Cloudflare
Cloudflare is a web performance company. They speed up websites by providing content distribution network services, DDoS minimization, Internet security, and distributed domain name server services. Also, Cloudflare acts as an inverse proxy between your visitors and your website or hosting provider. Thus, they connect your users to the nearest server to the server network geographically distributed from your site.
Cloudflare provides free SSL certificates as a proxy for your website. Users use the Server Name Index (SNI), an extension of the TLS / SSL protocol, to terminate users’ secure connections to your site.
The SNI certificate allows SNI to link to the Browser Protected Website even when it does not match the website’s domain name. Thus, it is significant for cloud flyers, which are maps of multiple websites to the same IP address.
Besides, the great thing about Cloudflare’s SAN certification is that it’s free. As second, you do not have to worry about updating. It’s Cloudflare’s responsibility to update and keep it safe. Third, you get the benefits of the SSL Certified CDN service in Cloudflare.
On the other hand, the downside is that you can not choose the domain names you choose to share the SSL certificate with. Your domain name can share the same SSL as an obscene website that affects your brand. So, sharing an SSL similar to your competitor may be inappropriate.
Letsencrypt
Letsencrypt is a non-profit with Mozilla, Cisco, OVH, Google, Facebook, Internet Club, Akamai. They offer free unlimited SSL certificates to anyone with a domain or hostname, and they even recently added replacement card SSL certificates.
Letsencrypt has several tools for installing and automating certification renewal across multiple operating systems. Many hosts unknowingly associate with you and give you Letsencrypt certificates. If you are going to install the Letsencrypt certificate on a private server, it can be a little tricky. Unlike Cloudflare, you have to be technical. But you don’t need any more to be a specialist in occultism.
As well as, return to Letsencrypt certificates means they expire in 3 months. Primarily, it should be a good thing for safety. So you have to keep updating them. This process can automate, and it is common for automatic update scripts to fail. Regardless of the provider you choose, you will need an SSL Certificate Checker and Monitor.
What Is Cloudflare, And How Does It Work?
Cloudflare is a CDN (Content Distribution Network) but also secures your website with HTTPS for free. Moreover, they say that everything is straightforward to set up. All you need is a DNS change.
Also, there is a big problem. Because your visitor traffic is encrypted only to the point where it reaches Cloudflare’s servers, again, also it is then decoded and sent to your server via plain text. Primarily, your visitors may fool into thinking that their data is safe when it is not. Thus, this false sense of security is more dangerous than encryption. Because at least the browser visually warns you when you visit insecure sites because. Specialty is because you know what you are entering without encryption. So while using this option, you still get a green security lock; your data is not secure.
Cloudflare sees everything (such as your user login information) and sends it openly to your server. Therefore, it will prevent anyone from listening to your visitor’s data. Now, you can use their “full SSL” option instead, but now you lose the ease of use with the “flexible SSL” option because you need to configure your web server for SSL instead of making DNS modifications.
The above is easy enough to prevent things like the plague, but they also used shared SSL certificates. It means that the SSL certificate provided with your domain will serve dozens or hundreds of unrelated sites. So, it depicts that anyone who checks your SSL certificate will see a bunch of domain names that are not affiliating with your site. If you have to use Cloudflare yourself, you can test it by checking the SSL certificate in your browser and using a website like this.
You Can Get a Dedicated SSL Certificate With Cloudflare. It costs $ 5 per month for a domain name. Primarily, it is more expensive than most SSL vendors. Thus, they usually charge $ 10 a year.
What Makes Letsencrypt Better Than Cloudflare?
Cloudflare hijacks your DNS, which means that when someone tries to sort your domain name. So it first attacks their servers, then sends traffic to your server. Further, regardless of the SSL issues, you may experience loading times on your website when using Cloudflare (mainly if you use their free plan). But Let’s Encrypt is not such a thing. When you secure your site with HTTPS using Lets Encrypt, you still have control over your DNS, and you will receive full-end encryption. After that, all you should have to do is configure your web server (Nginx, Apache, etc.) for SSL and configure the Let’s Encrypt issue and renew SSL certificates for you.
Thus, it is not even a service you have registered for it. You verify that you have your domain (which you can do automatically), and it will eventually activate. Unlike Cloudflare, there are no monthly fees or surcharges for SSL certificates. Once you have configured it all, you can sit back and relax and Chron and Let Encrypt will do it all for you. So, it works for life, and it is free. According to these facts, Let’s Encrypt is a great solution.
Conclusion
In this article, we have discussed Cloudflare SSL vs Letsencrypt SSL and their similarities and differences. You can use the services according to your requirements.
1 comment
[…] Cloudflare Origin SSL vs. Let’s encrypt SSL […]