{"id":699,"date":"2026-11-04T03:33:23","date_gmt":"2026-11-04T03:33:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gethost.co.zw\/kb\/?post_type=docs&#038;p=699"},"modified":"2026-11-04T03:34:24","modified_gmt":"2026-11-04T03:34:24","password":"","slug":"how-to-activate-free-ssl-on-your-website","status":"publish","type":"docs","link":"https:\/\/gethost.co.zw\/kb\/article\/how-to-activate-free-ssl-on-your-website\/","title":{"rendered":"How to activate free SSL on your website"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Every GetHost hosting plan comes with a free wildcard SSL certificate. It secures your website and all of its subdomains, so visitors see <strong>https:\/\/<\/strong> and a padlock in their browser.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Before you start<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Your domain must use the GetHost nameservers:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>ns1.stackdns.com<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>ns2.stackdns.com<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>ns3.stackdns.com<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>ns4.stackdns.com<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The free certificate is checked and renewed through our DNS. It can&#8217;t be issued while your domain uses other nameservers. If you&#8217;ve just changed your nameservers, give the change time to spread before you activate SSL. This can take up to 48 hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Activate free SSL<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Log in to the GetHost Control Panel at\u00a0<strong>my.gethost.co.za<\/strong>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Go to\u00a0<strong>Manage Hosting<\/strong>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Next to your hosting package, choose\u00a0<strong>Options \u2192 Manage<\/strong>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Under\u00a0<strong>Security<\/strong>, click\u00a0<strong>SSL\/TLS<\/strong>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Find your domain name and click\u00a0<strong>Activate Free SSL<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Your website can take up to <strong>30 minutes<\/strong> to become secure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Always use HTTPS (optional)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To send every visitor to the secure https:\/\/ version of your site, click <strong>Enable<\/strong> at the bottom of the same SSL\/TLS page.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Tip:<\/strong> wait until the padlock shows on your site before you turn this on. Otherwise visitors may see a security warning while the certificate is still being set up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Renewal<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Your free certificate renews automatically. You don&#8217;t need to do anything else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Still showing &#8220;Not secure&#8221;?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If your site still isn&#8217;t secure after 30 minutes, check that your domain uses the nameservers listed above. If it does, open a support ticket and we&#8217;ll take a look.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Every GetHost hosting plan comes with a free wildcard SSL certificate. It secures your website and all of its subdomains, so visitors see https:\/\/ and a padlock in their browser. Before you start Your domain must use the GetHost nameservers: The free certificate is checked and renewed through our DNS. It can&#8217;t be issued while [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"doc_category":[3],"doc_tag":[],"class_list":["post-699","docs","type-docs","status-publish","hentry","doc_category-how-to"],"year_month":"2026-11","word_count":247,"total_views":0,"reactions":{"happy":0,"normal":0,"sad":0},"author_info":{"name":"nashe","author_nicename":"nashe","author_url":"https:\/\/gethost.co.zw\/kb\/author\/nashe\/"},"doc_category_info":[{"term_name":"How To","term_url":"https:\/\/gethost.co.zw\/kb\/topic\/how-to\/"}],"doc_tag_info":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gethost.co.zw\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/docs\/699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gethost.co.zw\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/docs"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gethost.co.zw\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/docs"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gethost.co.zw\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gethost.co.zw\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=699"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gethost.co.zw\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/docs\/699\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":700,"href":"https:\/\/gethost.co.zw\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/docs\/699\/revisions\/700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gethost.co.zw\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"doc_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gethost.co.zw\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/doc_category?post=699"},{"taxonomy":"doc_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gethost.co.zw\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/doc_tag?post=699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}