“Certificates for Secure Servers”

Yesterday a client asked me to help him pick the right Certificate for his secure server. He believes he needs "128-bit".

VeriSign, the best-known name among the providors of secure server certificates, charges $849 for their Secure Site Pro cert. I told the client that he could do better by working with Thawte, who only charges $300 for essentially the same product.

Well, this morning he called me back to say that he'd found COMODO Group, who only charges -- get this -- $49.

Thawte had two things going for them: they were less expensive, and they weren't VeriSign. We all hate VeriSign as much as we hate NetSol, right (and now they're the same company)? Unfortunately VeriSign bought out Thawte recently, so they get your money either way.

Comodo's certificate is one-sixth the price of Thawte's, for essentially the same product, and their certificate is accepted by virtually every browser out there. Admittedly, VeriSign offers their NetSure insurance plan, which is "an extended warranty program that protects VeriSign Server ID customers against economic loss resulting from the theft, corruption, impersonation, or loss of use of a certificate."

This is a no-brainer.